Rep. Alex Ybarra appointed lead Republican on education committee

OLYMPIA — Washington State House Republicans recently announced their ranking member and House committee assignments for the 2021 legislative session, which begins Jan. 11.

Rep. Alex Ybarra, R-Quincy, was appointed as the lead Republican on the House Education committee, and will serve as a member on the Civil Rights and Judiciary, and Health Care and Wellness committees.

His roles will span a variety of issues, including K-12 education, constitutional law, privacy, anti-discrimination, firearms and mental, physical and behavioral health.

Needless to say, obstacles of COVID-19 have touched nearly all of Ybarra’s domain.

“There’s so many things that COVID’s touched, from education to the laws, to our businesses to everything, so there’s so many avenues we have to go through and try to fix and try to get better in the near future,” Ybarra said.

His main concern on the Education Committee is the amount of learning lost this year, he said. He wants to review the data closely, follow the guidelines, but ultimately get all students back in the classroom as soon as possible.

“There’s not a lot of education happening right now. I think everybody sees it, so it’s a matter of how do we get these kids back to school as soon as we can?”

The House Civil Rights and Judiciary Committee is a bit different this year, Ybarra said, so he will review some of the bills that previously went through the Consumer Protection & Business Committee because of some restructuring. He doesn’t know exactly what will come of that, but he anticipates some bills regarding incarceration.

With H-2A temporary agricultural workers returning at the beginning of 2021, one of the first things Ybarra will do is work with orchardists, farmers, farmworkers and the governor’s office to make sure the workers get tested right away, and to serve as a safeguard against new regulation that doesn’t “make sense” for them.

Ybarra’s number one concern right now, however, remains with families.

“I want to get all the small businesses back working, having dinner, having lunch, having breakfast, because not only do we need the businesses, we need everybody back to work.”

Sam Fletcher can be reached at [email protected].