Victory! Breakfast After The Bell just sailed out of the Washington State Senate

Help is on the way for young Wash­ing­to­ni­ans who aren’t get­ting enough to eat before the start of their school day. 2ESHB 1508, which would direct high-needs schools to offer Break­fast After The Bell pro­grams to stu­dents, has just sailed out of the Wash­ing­ton State Sen­ate with over­whelm­ing support.

The bill now returns to the House of Rep­re­sen­ta­tives, since changes were made to the bill since it passed the House a few weeks ago. If the House con­curs in the changes, the bill will be dis­patched to Gov­er­nor Inslee’s desk.

“Near­ly 300,000 kids in Wash­ing­ton state live in food–insecure homes and almost half of Washington’s 1.1 mil­lion pub­lic school stu­dents qual­i­fy for free and reduced price meals at school,” the House Demo­c­ra­t­ic cau­cus not­ed in its press release cel­e­brat­ing pas­sage of the leg­is­la­tion in the House of Rep­re­sen­ta­tives.

“Break­fast After The Bell offers nutri­tious meals to stu­dents with­out inter­rupt­ing instruc­tion­al time,” the release explains. “Break­fast pro­grams for low-income chil­dren are reim­bursed in part or full by the fed­er­al gov­ern­ment, and cur­rent­ly have low uti­liza­tion rates. Break­fast After The Bell is expect­ed to increase par­tic­i­pa­tion in those exist­ing pro­grams. By mov­ing break­fast after the bell, instead of before, stu­dents will receive a healthy meal with­out hav­ing to stand in line and miss instruc­tion­al opportunities.”

Spon­sored by Rep­re­sen­ta­tive Mon­i­ca Jura­do Stonier (D‑49th Dis­trict), Break­fast After The Bell is noble leg­is­la­tion that has repeat­ed­ly fall­en vic­tim to the Sen­ate Repub­li­cans’ grave­yard of progress over the last few years. Now that the Sen­ate is under Demo­c­ra­t­ic man­age­ment, it has final­ly received a vote there.

And look how much sup­port it got now that it has been freed from that grave­yard of progress! This is the rather impres­sive roll call for 2ESHB 1508.

2ESHB 1508
Stu­dent meals & nutrition
Sen­ate vote on Final Pas­sage as Amend­ed by the Senate
1/31/2018

Yeas: 43; Nays: 5; Excused: 1

Vot­ing Yea: Sen­a­tors Angel, Bai­ley, Baum­gart­ner, Beck­er, Bil­lig, Braun, Brown, Car­lyle, Chase, Cleve­land, Con­way, Darneille, Dhin­gra, Fain, For­tu­na­to, Frockt, Hasegawa, Hawkins, Hobbs, Hunt, Keis­er, King, Kud­er­er, Liias, McCoy, Milos­cia, Mul­let, Nel­son, O’Ban, Palum­bo, Ped­er­sen, Ranker, Rivers, Rolfes, Sal­daña, Shel­don, Takko, Van De Wege, Wag­oner, War­nick, Well­man, Wil­son, Zeiger

Vot­ing Nay: Sen­a­tors Erick­sen, Hon­ey­ford, Pad­den, Schoesler, Short

Excused: Sen­a­tor Walsh

Sad­ly, the bill did not receive unan­i­mous sup­port. Five heart­less Repub­li­can sen­a­tors vot­ed against pro­vid­ing meals to hun­gry kids, includ­ing Doug Erick­sen, who is being chal­lenged by Belling­ham City Coun­cilmem­ber Pinky Var­gas in the 42nd Dis­trict. Top Sen­ate Repub­li­can Mark Schoesler was also a nay, along with Mike Pad­den, one of the most extreme mem­bers of the Sen­ate Repub­li­can caucus.

But at least most of the Repub­li­cans vot­ed aye, mak­ing this bill a big bipar­ti­san suc­cess. We look for­ward to see­ing it leave the Leg­is­la­ture and go to Gov­er­nor Inslee so it can be added to the Revised Code of Wash­ing­ton. Progress!