We’ve reached cutoff day in Olympia!

Most of the bills I’m tracking for the League of Education Voters have passed the floor of the Senate or House.

These include legislation to help students not on track to meet state graduation standards (SB 6673 [1]), require the Basic Education Finance Task Force to report back by Dec. 1, 2008 (SB 6879 [2]), and expand a program that provides accessible and affordable child care options for students attending our state's public colleges and universities (HB 2582). [3]

Last night, I tuned in to TVW to view floor action in the Senate and House.  Lawmakers were working well past sundown in a rush to approve bills by today’s 5 p.m. deadline.

Despite all those extra hours at work, legislators left two important early learning bills to the last minute — HB 3168 [4], creating the new Washington Head Start program, and HB 2449 [5], authorizing collective bargaining authority for child care center directors and workers.

However, at 1:30 p.m. today, I caught Sen. McAuliffe speaking to the good merits of HB 3168.  Her colleagues agreed and voted unanimously to approve the bill to set the stage for the creation of the new Washington Head Start Program.

I’m still watching the Senate for action on HB 2449, but I’m discouraged that it hasn’t made it onto the floor calendar [6] as of 2 p.m.

For play-by-play action, watch TVW’s live television feed [7].