House Education Committee
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just going to thus far be addressing one bill, and that is House Bill 1438. There is an amendment to this bill. Representative Shepard will be running this bill. He is right now over in judiciary, but he will be on his way momentarily.
Do we have any other bills on the active agenda that any members want to present today? Mark and I have not been aware of any bills that were going to be run today, but we will be open for business regardless. So if someone does have a scheduling conflict and they need to run a bill, So we will be available. And of course, we encourage all the members to contact Mark or myself so we can accommodate your schedules.
Representative Hobbs, do you have an announcement you wanted to
make? Do we have any other announcements from the committee while we wait for Representative Representative Shepard,
Speaker 1
1:31
if you're prepared to present your bill, sir, we'll try to contact
him if he's not in the route. So members, we're going to take just a few moments to contact Senator Broadway who will be coming to testify on behalf of Representative Shepard's bill. And with that, we will take
Speaker 1
2:08
a brief respite. Members, Senator Broadway appears. Senator,
we appreciate you being here. Representative
Representative Shepard, you have an amendment to House Bill 1438. That is being published right now. And with that, Representative Shepard, you are recognized to present the amendment. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Members,
Representative Matthew J. Shepherd
Unverified
2:35
I apologize for the delay. This amendment merely adds two co-sponsors to the bill, and obviously I'd appreciate a favorable vote. Members, does everybody have
a copy of the amendment?
Okay, we're adding sponsors. With that, Representative Dale, do you have a motion? We have a motion do pass on the
Chair
Unverified
3:07
amendment. All in favor? All opposed? Motion is adopted. Representative Shepard, you are
Representative Matthew J. Shepherd
Unverified
3:14
now recognized to present House Bill 1438 as amended. Thank you, Mr. Chair. Chairman, members, House Bill 1438 simply adds students that are selected as a finalist in the National Hispanic Recognition Program to the, as part of the criteria for the Distinguished
Governor Scholar. I actually had a student who, in my district, who received such a designation. And presently, part of the qualification to be considered as a distinguished Governor Scholar is you have to attain a certain level on the ACT or SAT, and you either have to have either a 3.5 grade point or be a finalist under one of these programs. And Director Broadway is here. He can certainly shed additional light on this.
I contacted Director Broadway at the time that this issue was raised by a constituent, and I believe this only affects one or two students on an annual basis. Of course, most are probably familiar with the National Merit Scholarship Program, and that that's something that is awarded based on performance on the PSAT. These other two programs are likewise awarded based on your performance on the PSAT. The National Achievement Scholarship is administered by the – I believe it's actually through the National Merit Program, and it is awarded, I believe, to African-American students who – based on performance on the PSAT.
The National Hispanic Recognition Program is actually administered by the College Board, which the College Board is the same entity that administers the PSAT and the SAT, I believe. So this is just basically bringing the National Hispanic Recognition Program into the same category as these other two. And Director Broadway can speak to this, but I don't believe there are any other similarly situated achievement or awards programs. This basically, in my mind, it covers up what otherwise was kind of a loophole between these two or three different programs.
Speaker 15
5:22
Senator Broadway, do you have anything to add, sir? Well, Mr. Chairman, I'm going to add that if this deal doesn't work out in the House for Representative Shepard, we've got a spot for him at the Department of Higher Ed. He's pretty good at explaining all of our scholarship programs. I don't think there's anything I could add to it. But it does. It would impact, I think, this year. We've just finished applications. One student last year, it was the first time that it came up. You were actually in fiscal session, so there was no way to address it. but it was the first time that an Arkansas student had achieved the award,
but there was nothing we could do because of the physical session. So this would put them in line. And basically what it does, it allows them to become eligible. It doesn't guarantee anybody a spot because there are 300 slots typically. I'll touch more on that in a second. But 300 slots, for instance, last year we had 413 students qualify for 300 slots. All this does is if they do not achieve the grade point average, but they are recognized through this award, it makes them eligible.
And then we have a ranking process from there that ranks all of the students who are deemed eligible. This year, we're going to have to reduce the number of awards that we have from 300, but that's a different story for a different day. So this would cover all the aspects of Arkansas students and recognize their distinguished awards. Thank you, Senator.
Representative Shepard, do you have anything to add, sir? I
Representative Matthew J. Shepherd
Unverified
6:57
don't believe so. I think that this is something I think I worked on with the Department of Higher Ed.
I think the impact is minimal, but I think it's very significant to those one or two students who otherwise have achieved special recognition but otherwise may not get the consideration that other similarly situated students get. So I'd appreciate the committee's consideration. Thank you very much, Representative Shepard. Do we have
any questions from the committee? If not, do we have
anyone from – Representative Edwards, you have a motion to proper time.
Very good. Do we have any questions from the committee? Representative Biviano.
Representative Mark Biviano
Unverified
7:41
Thank you, Mr. Chairman. This is for Mr. Broadway. Are the requirements for those three finalists similar in nature, the eligibility requirements? Yes, sir. It's my understanding they are. All right. Thank you.
Thank you, Representative Biviano. Do we have any other questions from the committee? If not, do we have anybody in the audience who wishes to speak against the bill?
Anyone who wishes to speak for the bill? If not, Representative Edwards, what is your motion? Do pass as amended. We have a do pass motion as amended. All in favor? All opposed? Motion passes. Thank you very much, Representative Shepard, Senator Broadway. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Thank you, committee. We
are going to recognize Representative Hobbs. She has some special guests from Northwest Arkansas here. You are recognized,
Representative Debra M. Hobbs
Unverified
8:28
ma'am. Thank you, Mr. Chair. We have students in the audience from Northwest Arkansas Community College this morning. If they would please stand.
thank you thank you ma'am also I want to take a point of personal privilege I am not very smart but I never forget a face in 1988 my high school principal Jerry Joe Harrison at Conway High and he is here today and I want to recognize Coach Harrison for being here please Coach Harrison stand up Coach Harrison is a fine
I have such fond memories of Coach Harrison and Conway High School in 1988 and we're very glad that you're here at the House Education Committee Coach thank you for being here with that Representative Hobbs are you going
to run Senate Bill 246 today Representative Hobbs you're recognized Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Representative Debra M. Hobbs
Unverified
9:40
Mr. Hudson just brought this to me, he said he thought it was non-controversial and asked me to run it, so I'd appreciate a good vote. It's
actually, and I hope, yeah, so I was going to say, I hope that Mr. Broadway would come and help me. Senator
Broadway, you have anything to add, sir? Probably a lot. It's about the energy, yeah.
Speaker 15
10:02
Thank you, Mr. Chairman. We worked with Senator Hendren over the last several weeks about this. There are a number of issues facing you as the General Assembly as it relates to energy
over the next several years. There is a state energy plan that the Office of Energy and Economic Development has been working on. And what Senator Hendren wanted to do was utilize the resources we already have here in Arkansas, most of which are at our universities. And so he approached me about it. I suggested that we do what our agency is supposed to do. We're a coordinating agency. And so that we would, at the Department of Higher Ed, coordinate with each of the colleges
and universities who have researchers, other special faculty who are involved in the development of alternative energy or any energy resource, and put all of those in a room collectively from each of the universities and colleges who are working on this energy idea and energy policy for the future and put them together in a room and have them talk about the research that they're doing that is ongoing and its potential impact to the state and then issue a report back to the Joint Committee on Energy.
So basically that's what it will do is we'll put the group together through working with the institutions and then they will put a report together and report back to you in terms of their work. And so we're utilizing our Kansans and our universities in a way we should. Thank you, Senator Broadway. Representative
Hobbs, anything else to add? I just appreciate a good
vote. Thank you very much, ma'am. Do we have any questions from the committee? If not, does anyone in the audience wish to speak against this bill?
Anyone wish to speak for the bill? If not, what's the pleasure of the committee? Representative Deffenbaugh, you have a motion, sir? We have a do pass motion. All in favor say aye. All opposed? Motion passes. Thank you very much, Representative Hobbs. Representative Hobbs. Thank you, Mr. Chair. And committee. Okay, committee, I believe that once again we have done yeoman's work as usual in the House Education Committee. As the session begins to become a little busier in terms of bill filing, if you do have anything
related, please let us know so we can accommodate your schedules. We have several bills on the agenda right now, on the active agenda, and we have quite a few that are pending fiscal impact. So please, we will try to accommodate your schedule. Just let me or Mark know and we'll make sure that we get your bill presented to the committee. With that, Chair will entertain an adjournment motion. Meeting adjourned. We'll see you.
Agenda
HB1438
SB246
Documents
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Speakers
Speaker 1
Representative James McLean Chair
Unverified
Representative Matthew J. Shepherd
Unverified
Chair
Unverified
Speaker 15
Representative Mark Biviano
Unverified
Representative Debra M. Hobbs
Unverified