Attending a legislative town hall meeting?
Read or download the key points before you attend!
Our Voice: SB 6442 costs more with fewer benefits
TAKE ACTION: Help stop this takeover now.
SB 6442 will cost taxpayers at least $45 MILLION in new costs, according to the state’s own figures!
Listen…
- WEA radio ad against SB 6442
- Or try this version WEA Spot 2 Not Broken
Download…
- SB 6442 fact sheet
- SB 6442 lapel stickers and then wear them!
- SB 6642 Myth vs Reality
- The latest SB 6442 postcard mailed to WEA members
- Our new poster: WARNING: Health care takeover!
- Response from teacher Susan Bauer to Sen. Mike Hewitt
- The state’s own report on the proposed K-12 health care takeover — it shows higher costs, fewer benefits and less competition!
SB 6442, sponsored by Sen. Steve Hobbs, eliminates K-12 school employees’ current health care system and forces everyone into a costly new plan run by the state health care bureaucracy. SB 6442 will cost Washington taxpayers $45 million in new costs! SB 6442 will increase your insurance costs and reduce your health care benefits! SB 6442 hurts everyone, including education support professionals. SB 6442 eliminates employer health care coverage for K-12 employees who work less than half time!
There’s an alternative to this bad bill. Sponsored by Rep. Pat Sullivan, House Bill 2666 will lower health care costs for many families at no cost to the state, and it protects local collective bargaining and decision making.
TAKE ACTION: Help stop this takeover now.
KEY EDUCATION BILLS IN OLYMPIA
These bills appear to be dead. However, most bills can be resurrected, and no bill is completely dead until the session ends March 8.
House Bill 2428, Senate Bill 6202: Charter schools
House Bill 2427, Senate Bill 6203: Basing layoffs on evaluations
House Bill 2165, HB 2334: Changing teacher evaluations
House Bill 2309, Senate Bill 6278: Changing provisional teachers’ rights
Senate Bill 6020, SB: 6050: Waiving 180-day requirement
House Bill 2231: Reducing costs by reducing student assessments
Senate Bill 6314: Delink end-of-course science tests from graduation requirements
House Bill 2543, Senate Bill 6320: Repeal new State Board of Education graduation requirements that contain unfunded mandates
House Bill 2493, Senate Bill 6319: Add WEA-appointed practitioners to the State Board of Education
House Bill 2533, the Republican-backed bill to fund K-12 education before other services.
WEA Members Lobby In Olympia against SB 6442
Our Voice: SB 6442 increases costs and bureaucracy
Senate Bill 6442 takes away your current health benefits and forces all K-12 employees into a new state bureaucracy that costs more, provides fewer benefits and limits our health care choices.
This legislation is costly, complicated and confusing all at the same time. Dozens of WEA members attended a recent legislative hearing to oppose the bill. But you can help defeat this bill without going to Olympia — email your legislators and tell them not to take over our health care! Instead, legislators should support House Bill 2666, which lowers health insurance costs for many school employees at no cost to the state.
Under SB 6442, all K-12 school employees, whether they live in Anacortes or Zillah, will be forced into the same health benefit plan . . . continue reading
Lawmakers push failed charter school legislation
Instead of honoring their oath to uphold the Constitution and fully funding public schools, two legislators are pushing failed legislation that does nothing to help our students get the quality education they deserve.
Listen to a message from Renton teacher Freedom Johnson.
TAKE ACTION: Tell them failed charter school proposals are a distraction from what really matters.
Watch this video update featuring WEA member Angela Grissom, Speech/Language Pathologist, Franklin-Pierce EA.
