SB 5475 to help migrant children graduate from high school may not get public hearing by Friday’s deadline
Senator Lisa Wellman (D-Mercer Island) has sponsored SB 5475 to help migrant children graduate from high school. The bill has bipartisan support. Yet Senator Wellman, Chair of the Senate Education Committee, has not scheduled SB 5475 for a hearing by this week’s Friday deadline. Unless Senator Wellman acts to hear this bill, it will die.
A little background is helpful.
Last year the Senate Education Committee held a Work Session about Washington’s Migrant Education Program (MEP), a supplemental education program for migrant students.
Migrant students must often travel with their families as parents seek employment. Their parents lack school choice, and often feel powerless and intimidated by school officials.
The federal MEP program was created in 1966, more than 60 years ago, yet migrant students still lag in academic achievement, and only 68 percent of Washington’s migrant students earned a high school diploma in 2016-17.
Terry Garrett, Director, Migrant and Bilingual Education, Office of Superintendent of Public Instruction (OSPI), told the Senate Committee that Washington receives $24.6 million in federal MEP funding for about 30,000 migrant students. She said $14 million of these funds, or only 60 percent, are provided to the local school districts.
The remaining 40 percent is taken by OSPI and four Education Service Districts (ESDs) for administration.
At the Work Session, Senator Hans Zeiger pointedly asked “what kind of oversight do we have to make sure that this money is following the students?” (At 1:05:26)
The problem of funding being diverted to support deep-state bureaucracies, and away from students, remains a big problem.
Lawmakers from both parties have now proposed SB 5475 as a partial solution to this problem. The bill would require districts offering high school credit retrieval courses to migrant students to include at least one program with bilingual instruction.
A better solution would be to give families of migrant students an Education Savings Account with $800, the amount the federal government provides for each student, so families can use the money to pay for private tutors, online courses and other learning options. These accounts are fully portable, so they are ideal for families who must move frequently in search of work.
Yet a hearing on SB 5475 would be a step forward. The public needs to know how the public schools underserve this population of students, and where funding for Washington’s Migrant Education Program actually goes.