On March 16th, WTIA took a team of tech leaders down to Olympia for WTIA Legislative Day. 2017 is a significant year for the Washington State Legislature, because the House and Senate are jointly charged with providing the governor a balanced budget to fund the state for the next two years, with a primary focus on education funding for grades K-1 2.

WTIA is engaged in a number of policy areas directly related to this budget process. One priority we are actively pursuing is creating a public-private scholarship for our tech apprenticeship program, Apprenti. This first-of-its-kind program helps smart, capable, underemployed people in our state gain entry into the tech industry.

We are also advocating for increased computer science funding at the University of Washington, expanded funding for CTE, and expanding MESA into community and technical colleges. All together, the WTIA is working to expand access to jobs in tech for any Washingtonians who are interested in becoming a part of the industry.

Our group visited with Rep. JT Wilcox, Rep. June Robinson, Sen. Kevin Ranker, Rep. Tana Senn, and Rep. Derek Stanford. Many of these legislators are not only active in the budget process, but significant players in other policy areas WTIA is focused on including non-competes, paid family medical leave, equal pay, and the R&D high-tech tax credit. A smaller group also met with Sen. Mark Schoesler, Sen. Hans Zeiger,  Rep. Dan Kristiansen, Rep. Bruce Chandler, Rep. Mark Harmsworth, Rep. Zack Hudgins, and Lieutenant Governor Cyrus Habib.

Aside from WTIA, tech leaders who attended Leg Day included WTIA Board Chair John Suk (GE), WTIA Board Vice Chair Heather Redman (FlyinFish VC), Elissa Fink (Tableau), Carol Rava (Tech Alliance), Irene Plenefisch (Microsoft), Kha Dang (Perkins Coie), Dave Cotter (ReplyYes), Suzanne Dale Estey (EDC-SeaKing), Ed Lazowska (University of Washington CSE), Abi Heller (PeopleConnect), Mark Meyer (CodeSmart), Derrick Morton (Flowplay), and Ben Golden (TUNE).

For more details on WTIA’s public policy work, click here, and check out WTIA’s 2017 Policy Tracker here.