Day 36 was a day of single focus for legislators more specifically the House Education Policy Subcommittee. SB 233 the voucher bill consists of a $6000 per student per year Scholarship that has very little accountability, level of transparency, assessments, limited audit requirement, and no non-discriminatory adherence. The hearing lasted nearly two hours yet there were some of us who did not have the the privilege to testify even though we followed the process to have that opportunity. There were many differing opinions on the pros and cons of the bill with those opposed out weighing the supporters. Somehow this made no difference to the subcommittee members and it was voted out of the subcommittee 7-5. Here is how members voted:
Yes No
Scott Hilton -Chair/no vote cast Miriam Paris
Jan Jones Lydia Glaize
Brent Cox Becky Evans
Bethany Ballard Rick Townsend
Will Wade David Wilkerson
Todd Jones
Rick Jasperse
Chuck Effstration
Thank you to those of you who reached out to your local representatives. Several representatives mentioned the many emails they received from constituents. My appreciation to each of you. We are engaged in recommending language changes so we will see how much of the changes are included in the next version.
Tomorrow is day 37 and House Education Committee will meet again at 8am. Senate Education and Youth also meets at 8am and again at 2pm. The meeting activity pace is speeding up. We expect the literacy bill HB 538 to be heard tomorrow in Senate Ed. Have good night!
Leave a Reply