When then-President Obama signed the bipartisan "Every Student Succeeds Act" into law in late 2015, it marked a significant change in federal education policy. The previous law, President George W. Bush's "No Child Left Behind," had grown increasingly controversial for what critics on both the left and right called excessive federal overreach into local education policy. Today we're talking with Rick Hess of the American Enterprise Institute about his new book - "The Every Student Succeeds Act: What It Means for Schools, Systems and States" - which gives readers an overview of both the evolution of federal education policy and the new law.

Click here for Rick's book on the Every Student Succeeds Act: https://www.amazon.com/Every-Student-Succeeds-Act-ESSA/dp/1682530124/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1491318996&sr=8-1&keywords=the+every+student+succeeds+act

Click here for Rick's page at AEI: http://www.aei.org/scholar/frederick-m-hess/

In today's episode we discuss Washington state's less-than-stellar system for tax appeals, and how it could be improved. We recently wrote a report on making the state tax-appeals process more fair -- which could include the creation of a state tax court. Bipartisan legislation to do just that has been introduced in the state Legislature this year.

To read our report click here: http://researchcouncil.org/files/docs/2017/02/taxappeals.pdf

To read our blog post on tax court legislation click here: http://researchcouncil.org/2017/03/17/could-washington-get-a-tax-court

We're delighted to welcome state Rep. Drew Stokesbary (R-Auburn) to the podcast. As soon as we saw all the "Arrested Development" gifs populating his Twitter feed we knew he'd be the perfect guest. We sat down at the state Capitol in Olympia to chat about him being a younger member of the Legislature, how he got into politics and government and his approach to working across the aisle. Other random topics of discussion: Kim Jon Un and Dick Cheney. Plus, Drew fits in a reference to "The Office" and we totally miss it.

Check out Rep. Stokesbary's website here: http://drewstokesbary.houserepublicans.wa.gov/

You can find Drew on Twitter here: https://twitter.com/stokesbary

In this episode we discuss our recent Special Report, "Using Tax Policy to Promote Economic Vitality." Too often, adjustments to our state tax system are portrayed simply as "breaks" that give certain industries and/or companies special treatment. But as our report shows, these adjustments play a crucial role in keeping Washington competitive with other states for jobs and economic activity that could very easily go elsewhere.

To read our Special Report, click here: https://researchcouncil.org/files/docs/2017/03/2017_tax_preferences_special_report_final.pdf

We're pleased to welcome state Rep. Brian Blake (D-Aberdeen), who took time out of his busy schedule during the legislative session to join our podcast. Rep. Blake represents the 19th Legislative District on Washington's southwest coast, a district whose counties have traditionally voted Democratic in presidential elections but last year largely went for Donald Trump. Jobs and the economy are hugely important, as is the case for most of Washington's rural residents. We discuss the issues and concerns of Rep. Blake's constituents, what led many of them to vote the way they did, and what might be done to address their concerns and not only improve their well-being, but also make sure state policy takes into account the distinct nature of rural communities.

You can visit Rep. Blake's website here: http://housedemocrats.wa.gov/legislators/brian-blake/

In this episode we offer a brief overview of the four-year balanced budget requirement passed by the Legislature and signed by the governor in 2012.

To read our Policy Brief on the requirement (from May 2012), click here: https://researchcouncil.org/files/docs/2013/08/2012balancedbudget.pdf

To read our blog post (from April 2016) defending the four-year balanced budget requirement, click here: https://researchcouncil.org/2016/04/05/what-good-is-the-four-year-balanced-budget-requirement

The biggest job for the Washington state Legislature this year is public school funding for grades K through 12. Right now there are four major plans before lawmakers, all responding to the state Supreme Court's McCleary ruling, which found that the state is not fully funding basic education. We discuss all four plans in this episode.

To read our Policy Brief offering a side-by-side comparison of the four plans click here: http://researchcouncil.org/files/docs/2017/03/sidebyside.pdf

To read our Policy Brief on Gov. Inslee's and the state House-passed plans, click here: http://researchcouncil.org/files/docs/2017/02/gov1843.pdf

To read our Policy Brief on the state Senate-passed plan, click here: http://researchcouncil.org/files/docs/2017/02/ssb5607.pdf

To read our blog post on another plan in the state Senate, click here: http://researchcouncil.org/2017/02/27/another-education-funding-plan-in-the-mix

Today's guest is Saumil Pandya, Senior Director of Policy & Research at PhRMA, the Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America. We discuss the lengthy process of getting a drug to market; comparing the high prices of some drugs (such as those used to cure Hepatitis C) with the even higher prices of treatment, hospitalization and surgery; how the prescription drug industry interacts with Medicaid; and the price-reducing effects of drugs going off-patent and being available in generic form.

Here are links to some of the studies and reports mentioned in this podcast:

Washington Research Council report on "How Medicaid and Prescription Drug Spending Impact the State Budget:" http://researchcouncil.org/files/docs/2016/11/hca2016.pdf

Tufts study on the average cost to develop and gain marketing approval for a new drug (summary): http://csdd.tufts.edu/news/complete_story/tufts_csdd_rd_cost_study_now_published

Berkeley Research Group study on "The Pharmaceutical Supply Chain:" http://www.thinkbrg.com/assets/htmldocuments/Vandervelde_PhRMA-January-2017_WEB-FINAL.pdf

Health Affairs Study, "Medication Adherence Leads To Lower Health Care Use And Costs Despite Increased Drug Spending:" http://content.healthaffairs.org/content/30/1/91.full.pdf+html

In this episode we briefly discuss basic education, which is at the heart of the state Supreme Court's McCleary ruling. In that ruling the court said the state is not fulfilling its constitutional "paramount duty" to fully provide for basic education in public schools.

In this 90 Seconds episode we briefly discuss the return of Initiative 1351, the voter-approved measure to reduce class sizes in grades K through 12. So far lawmakers have only funded K-3 class-size reductions, citing both budget concerns and research showing smaller class sizes have the most impact in grades K through 3.