Washington Learns rec's pass, as does agency shop fees revision

A flurry of education bills passed on Friday.

"We should be proud of the work we have done tonight. We have really made some hallmark moves to improve education in our schools," said Sen. Rosemary McAuliffe, D-Bothell, chairwoman of the Senate's Early Learning and K-12 Education Committee, on the Senate floor.

(The math bill was included.)

The pre-emptive agency shop fee bill passed as well.

The measure passed Friday night deals with co-mingling of funds, and the measure says that that when labor organizations are making political campaign contributions, the contribution is not considered to be using agency shop fees when the organization's general treasury has enough money to cover the contributions from other revenue sources.

So by clarifying the statute, the unions would be able to spend money on political action and not have to show that it isn't using agency shop fees.

McDermott said that because union dues and "agency fees" from nonmembers are co-mingled, there's no way to see which is agency shop fees and which is union dues, and that the measure just clarifies that the money can only be spent on political action once nonmembers have been refunded the money after their dollars go to collective bargaining.

"Unions have to account for this and refund the difference," he said. "There is no way for the unions to clearly account for how to do that. The legislation before us provides clarity."

My take on this legislation is here.

Now they're all in Gregoire's court.