Bill would support career help for at-risk high school students

A bill sponsored by state Rep. Tim Probst, D-Vancouver, that would link high school students at risk of dropping out with high-demand careers passed the House of Representatives last week by a 65-32 vote.

House Bill 1355 would create the Opportunity Internship Program to offer internships, a year of financial aid and other opportunities to low-income students who explore careers in high-demand fields. Local groups that help place students in internships would receive a $2,000 incentive.

The bill is modeled on a program that has successfully placed 144 students in paid internships. It’s part of Probst’s legislative “middle-class action plan,” which also includes bills to provide middle-class tax relief, regulatory relief for small businesses, and help to make Washington a competitive market for development of renewable energy.

State Sen. Don Benton, R-Vancouver, failed last week to amend a sex-offender bill to add language that would make first-degree rape of a child punishable by a mandatory 25-year prison sentence and lifetime supervision. The amendment also would have made murder committed by a sexually violent predator an “aggravated” crime subject to the death penalty.

On the Senate floor, Benton invoked Alycia Nipp, 13, who was found stabbed to death in a Hazel Dell field last month. Darrin Sanford, a Level 3 sex offender who was under electronic supervision at the time of the crime, is charged with aggravated murder in the case.

“Clark County is up in arms about this,” Benton said. “All of us representing Clark County are receiving e-mails asking what can be done.”

Benton’s amendment was ruled beyond the scope of an underlying bill. He introduced his own sex offender bill, Senate Bill 6115, on March 4, seven days after the deadline for bills to pass out of their committees of origin, and said he would work for its passage anyway.

Students at Clark College and Washington State University Vancouver who relocate from Oregon “border counties” to Clark County would continue to get the tuition break they enjoyed under a bill sponsored by Rep. Ed Orcutt, R-Kalama, that passed the House unanimously last week.

Residents of 13 Oregon border counties are eligible for in-state tuition at WSU Vancouver, WSU Tri-Cities and five Washington community colleges. The measure would let them pay in-state tuition after they move to Washington until they qualify as Washington residents.

Currently, a student must live in Washington for at least one year prior to the first day of an academic year in order to pay in-state tuition for that year.