The state legislature convenes today, Jan. 11. This year is a short session, 60 days. It's also a "supplemental" budget year, which means lawmakers make relatively minor changes to the larger two-year budget they approved last session.

Budget-wise, as we noted in an earlier post on Gov. Inslee's proposed supplemental budget, one of the big items will be paying for emergency fire costs stemming from last summer's extensive wildfires.

On the policy front, education takes center stage again. First, legislators and the governor may attempt to approve a plan for achieving full state funding of basic K-12 education, as required by the state Supreme Court's McCleary ruling. The plan would not include funding – that's to be tackled next year when they pass the 2017-19 budget. The state is currently under a $100,000 per-day contempt order from the court, which is less drastic than it sounds since all the money from the fine (whenever it ends) will go to K-12 education, and the Legislature will be spending far more than the total fine amount on public school funding anyway.

Second, there's the issue of public charter schools. Last year the Supreme Court controversially ruled charter schools unconstitutional. So far the most promising legislation to address the court's ruling and allow public charters to continue is from a bipartisan group that includes Republican Sen. Steve Litzow and Democratic Rep. Eric Pettigrew. A hearing on that bill happens tomorrow, Jan. 12, at 1:30 p.m. in the Senate Early Learning & K-12 Education Committee.

As always, we'll keep you updated on all the top legislative issues throughout the session.

To read a previous post on research showing charter schools particularly benefit low-income, minority and English-language learner students in urban areas, click here.

To listen to our past podcast interviews (more are coming) with legislators on McCleary, click below:

• State Rep. Chad Magendanz
• State Rep. Kristine Lytton
• State Sen. Christine Rolfes