State GOP Not Waiting for Inslee, Proposes Own Phase 3 Plan

State GOP Senators have unveiled legislation they call the Open Safe Open Now plan, which would greatly expand business and education.

Senate GOP Leader John Braun said Thursday:

“The majority of our state’s K-12 students have been kept out of their classrooms for nearly a year. It’s simply unacceptable that so many of our children have been deprived of so much, not just academically but socially and emotionally. We’re glad to see the governor and the state school superintendent agreeing with us that schools may open safely. The time has come to give our districts clear direction that they need to bring their students back full-time."

No doubt this is in response to the recent data this week showing Washington state is 47th in student in person school returns.

The plan was assembled by 8th District Senator Sharon Brown who noted due to mistakes and errors the South Central Region (Kittitas, Yakima, Benton, Franklin and Columbia Counties) were nearly left out of Phase 2.

The plan would, according to the GOP:

"The Republican “Open Safe, Open Now” plan returns decision-making authority to local officials, ending top-down state mandates. It requires all school districts in Washington to resume in-person instruction and opens all business activity in the state to 50% capacity, with 100% capacity possible within three weeks."

It's a marked contrast to Inslee's Healthy Washington Plan, which doesn't even have a Phase 3 plan in place. A GOP House version of the bill is being offered as well.

The plan returns a lot of the control and decision making to county health officials; which compared to the regional approach, appears would move up a lot more communities.

To read more about the plan, click on the button below.