Since the state’s shut-down order of March 13, 2020, most public schools remain closed to in-person instruction.  Recently I testified by invitation before the Senate Education Committee in support of SB 5037, a bipartisan bill to safely re-open schools in communities with low levels of infection. I also submitted this Legislative Memo on the bill. 

Thousands of parents expressed support for the bill, mainly because their children have lost nearly a year of schooling and are likely to lose out for the Spring semester as well.  Parents also expressed concern over the social and emotional well-being of children stuck at home for months at a time.

Shortly after the hearing, the committee chair Senator Lisa Wellman (D-Mercer Island) blocked the bill in committee, killing it for the year.

She explained to parents that she would follow union rules against school openings, and that “I am working on this.” While some schools have opened to in person instruction for certain students, most schools remained closed to most students.  

Senator Wellman no doubt believes she is doing the right thing as she sees it.

Killing SB 5037, however, is the position of the powerful WEA union, and it ignores the science that shows schools can safely re-open, as our state’s private schools and other public schools across the country already have.

Further, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control now recommend that schools can safely re-open, and in fact public schools have re-opened in many other states.

To their credit, Governor Inslee and state Superintendent Reykdal have been urging the union to allow public schools to re-open. After all, schools are fully funded, at $17 billion for about one million students, and public employees have received full pay and benefits throughout the shut-down.

The suppression of SB 5037, however, ends the hopes of families that all public schools will re-open.  Some 40,000 students have already left the public system, and the popularity of homeschooling, private schools and independent public charter schools remains at all-time highs.

With union dominance and no movement in the legislature this session, it looks like most Washington public schools will continue to lose “market share” as more families seek learning alternatives.