1.24.16

Suggested lead:   With an announced priority of fixing Washington's schools, the state House will begin voting on key education bills this week. Dan Frizzell has that story.

Wrap (:60 total):  Two weeks into their short eight-week session, lawmakers are moving into the legislative version of football's hurry-up offense Monday morning.  In rapid fire, they plan to debate and likely pass at least five bills education bills, including two specifically designed to help beat the 2018 deadline for meeting what the constitution calls the state's paremount duty:  fully funding basic education. House Majority Leader Pat Sullivan, a Covington Democrat and member of the bipartisan task force that's worked on the issue for months, is beginning the week on an upbeat note.

SULLIVAN:  "We're making progress.  We'll be taking some floor action, we're going to start with some education bills.  The 60-day sessions go really fast.  The cutoffs for passing bills come really quickly.  Things are moving forward pretty well." [:12]. 

Sullivan said before the day's out he expects the House to OK bills designed to help school districts plan their budgets better, put more teachers in classrooms, cut back on cumberson test requirements, narrow the opportunity gap, and map out those final giant steps toward the 2018 deadline.  In Olympia, I’m Dan Frizzell.