HB 1410, SB 5444 die in committee

Neither HB 1410 nor SB 5444 made it out of the Education and Finance committee on Cutoff Day, The Olympian reports.

Despite those bills dying, House Speaker Frank Chopp and Haigh, who serves as the chairwoman of the House Education Appropriations Committee, both said they expect a big-picture measure to pass into law this year.

And Senate Majority Leader Lisa Brown, D-Spokane, said she thinks elements of the task force plan will survive — particularly a piece that would pay for a more uniform accounting and financial-tracking system for schools.

It's too bad in a way; HB 1410 might have been amended into something useful. But as it stood, it was biting off a gargantuan morsel of reform steak, and ended up choking on its own ambition.