Adele Ferguson - A lot of stuff could extend Olympia session

WITH ALMOST a month to go before the 2011 legislative session comes to an end (April 24), there’s a lot of hot stuff kicking around that could toss a monkey wrench into sine die.

U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan came to town at the governor’s invitation to back her plan to get rid of Superintendent of Public Instruction Randy Dorn and make an education secretary one of her cabinet members.

The House passed a bill that would make it legal to pay a surrogate mother to bear a child for wannabe parents who can’t or don’t want to do the job themselves.

A move by Republicans to deny driver’s licenses to illegal immigrants was allowed to die in the Senate when Democrats refused to bring it up for consideration before a deadline for non-budget related bills but no bill is doornail dead until they go home. The Senate passed a bill forbidding use of eminent domain for economic development purposes. The upper chamber also approved a bill ending the practice by which state employees can be paid both their salaries and pension payments by going back to work after retirement.

How many of these will survive? I’d say about half.

Is Gov. Gregoire pushing for a Department of Education under her thumb because she plans to run for a third term? Maybe. Secretary Duncan declared the state’s current education system is illogical and has an organization plan that isn’t a viable business plan. Was he referring to one the House passed creating a 23-member committee to streamline the education system and report back in a year?

THE EDSEC also declared that 80 percent of high school students were stymied by reading and math. Why doesn’t anybody ever mention English? Watch Judge Judy some time and you’ll see people of all ages, genders and jobs from all over the country murder the English language which means educators have failed to do their jobs for many years. Why do we concentrate on force feeding math which won’t be as useful in a student’s future as being able to speak the language? I don’t see Gregoire winning this one.

As for paying surrogate mothers, bum idea. I have long suspected some of these celebrities who achieve children through surrogate mothers do so to avoid the nuisance of nine months of pregnancy which delays their careers when they are at their prime.

I also disapprove of illegal aliens being allowed to get driver licenses. It gives them an identification tool that should be only for citizens. Washington and New Mexico are the only states among the 50 that still let illegal immigrants get driver licenses. We’re so politically correct here I doubt we’ll hurt the feelings of our illegals by denying them licenses.

FORTY-THREE STATES, not including Washington, also have laws that prevent condemnation of private land to give to other private parties. There’s been a lot of publicity about cases where governments have taken land from owners and turned it over to an owner who’ll pay much more in taxes. The people with affluence and influence are the beneficiaries of this and it’s long past time we changed it.

The publicity has been bad also in the case of state employees who retire, then are rehired and collect both their new salary and pension. A passel of school superintendents and a onetime state official have done it.

This one should pass but how come it’s still out there unless some folks in high places are eying a little double dipping themselves?

(Adele Ferguson can be reached at P.O. Box 69, Hansville, Wa., 98340.)