House Education Committee
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Bills discussed (1)
| Bill | Title | Sponsor | Status |
|---|---|---|---|
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HB1076
· 2 mentions in transcript
Matched: “…e you for a motion, sir. Mr. Chairman, I would like to take House Bill 1076 and place it on special order of business on February the 5…”
|
Pre-2017 bill |
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Representative James Ratliff
Unverified
0:00
is going to skip over his bill today. He has another piece of legislation that he has to be involved in in public health, so we're going to hold that over for him until Thursday. So our Thursday agenda looks like it'll be pretty substantial at this point. A few little housekeeping items. This committee and everything that we're going to talk about through the session will be, has been, influenced to some degree by the Lakeview decision.
And I think it would be instructive for the members of the committee, and we have about 14 new members on the committee, if we had a brief overview Thursday morning at 10 to 10.15 to give us just a basic historical context of the Lakeview case. This is not going to be a legal breakdown where you need, you know, some sort of legal dictionary to figure it out, Representative Edwards.
But this will be just a basic overview to let you kind of know the who, what, when, where, where we were before Lakeview, the Lakeview decision, and where we are now as a result of Lakeview. So we're going to talk about that from about 15 minutes at the beginning of the meeting on Thursday, and then throughout the session, we might have some folks come at the beginning of the meeting and maybe talk about various aspects of the Lakeview case, because this is a, the far-reaching implications of this are going to have a factor on every decision
that we make here and every vote that's taken. Jeremy Lasseter, who is a counsel with the Department of Ed, will be here to talk about that, and also Scott Richardson, who's an assistant AG. So we're going to give them about 15 minutes. I told them to kind of, you know, give us the Rotary Club version, okay? You know, we don't need anything complex, but we will be talking about it throughout the session. We are going to do pictures here in about 10 minutes.
And before we do that, we have Ms. Gail Gaines, who's a vice president of state services with the Southern Regional Education Board. This is an organization that Arkansas is involved with. It is a great organization that you have probably received data and information from already. If not, you will. And I just want her to come and just talk us a few minutes about the SCRB, how Arkansas is involved, how we can use it as a resource. So, Ms. Gaines, please, if you go to the end of the table and just give us a briefing, we'd appreciate it very much.
Gail Gaines
Unverified
2:51
And, Ms. Gaines, you are recognized. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. And thank all of you for the work that you're doing for the State of Arkansas. My name is Gail Gaines. I'm the Vice President for State Services with the Southern Regional Education Board that is based in Atlanta. SREB is a compact of 16 southeastern states. We have the traditional 12 that you think of as southern states.
In addition, we have Texas and Oklahoma, and we have Delaware and Maryland that are members. We were formed in 1948, ten years after President Roosevelt's emergency commission called the south the nation's number one economic problem. After ten years of discussion, moving from an agrarian to a more technological industrial society, our state leaders in the South knew that if we did not improve education, we could not compete as a region. And so those leaders came together. The compact was drafted, signed
by the governors in 1948, in February of 1948, and was then ratified by the legislatures in the 16 member states. And so the compact language actually appears in the Arkansas CODA noted, and all of the states adopted the same language, and that's what we operate by. Now, what SREB does is to help our states work together cooperatively to improve education. And basically what we do is try to do together what cannot be done alone
and to help our states progress at a much, much greater level. We try to increase benefits and divide costs. Those are the Chamber of Commerce kind of comments, but what we have, what we started with were a number of programs that shared resources, because our states did not have much. When we were formed, it was a time when the South had two million people contracting malaria every year, and we didn't have adequate doctors or facilities to treat those people.
And so one of the first programs that was instituted was the regional contract program, which Arkansas is very, very involved in. This is a program that helps our states contract with other states for spaces in medical-related programs, veterinary medicine, optometry, podiatry, osteopathic medicine. And Arkansas is a very, very heavy participant in that because you do not have a dental school. And you are sending students, you're contracting for, like, $20,000 to send students, and you send about 90 students out of state because you don't have a dental school.
There's also the academic common market, which helps our state share about 1,800 specialized higher education degree programs. And what this does, basically, it's a win-win for everybody involved. A student in Arkansas can go, say, to LSU, study petroleum engineering because there is not a petroleum engineering program here in Arkansas, pay in-state tuition. And so what happens is Arkansas doesn't have to create petroleum engineering.
LSU fills an empty space, and the student, of course, wins because they get to study what they want to study. And there are students who are coming into Arkansas to study PhD programs in nursing and other types of fields. And so this is a total cooperative venture. Now, we have ongoing programs that have been going on forever for 60-some years. Some of our newer efforts are related to college and career readiness, and these are things, too, that Arkansas is very involved in.
The implementation of the Common Core. We have one project where we are helping states look at their implementation, and we'll be tracking progress on that. We also have another effort that is developing senior year transitional courses for those students who get to their junior or the senior year in high school are deemed not ready for college or career, and these courses are being developed so that the students during their junior and senior year can catch up so that hopefully
when they get to college, they don't have to do developmental education. Arkansas is going to be field testing these courses in the spring semester, and they will go live in the fall. We have a number of other programs. I know you're pressed for time. I would like to take one minute, though, to mention to you that we also track what's going on in state legislatures across the region, both budget and policy. And as you know, the economic situation is slowly improving.
And what we're seeing from governors' proposals across the region, and there are about seven governors that have released their budgets, are some state increases in state funds now of about 3 to 5 percent, with education increases recommended at about 2 to 4 percent. So Arkansas is right in there with the rest of the states. Some of the common policy issues that we're seeing, of course, retirement, revision, reform of retirement programs. There's a renewed interest in early grades and reading.
And some of you may recall that about 15 years ago there was a lot of work done on early grades reading. College and career readiness, college completion, some discussion about outcomes-based funding, And so that's what we're seeing from across the region, and it is early in the legislative sessions. One more thing. We are governed by a board of five members from each state. These are gubernatorial appointees, and we're required to have at least one legislator on
the board and at least one educator. And we also have a legislative advisory council, and Mr. Catlett and Ms. Lampkin both serve on that council as gubernatorial appointees. I want to thank you so much. I hope you'll call on us if we can ever provide you with any information. We do data collection. We do research. And we will answer your specific questions if you have one that comes up. Thank you. Thank you, Ms. Gaines, very much
Representative James Ratliff
Unverified
9:24
for that presentation. Committee, do we have any questions for Ms. Gaines?
Okay. If not, thank you very much, ma'am. And of course, the SREB, if you're interested in that, during your tenure on this committee, You will be receiving information from them since we are a member of the
Speaker 3
9:41
consortium. A couple things we need to do. Representative Ratliff, I need
Chair
Unverified
9:47
to recognize you for a motion, sir. Mr. Chairman, I would like to take House Bill 1076 and place it on special order of business on February the 5th.
Representative James Ratliff
Unverified
9:59
We have a motion to place Representative Ratliff's bill, House Bill 1076, special order of business Thursday. All in favor? Tuesday. I'm sorry, Representative Latter. Tuesday. All in favor? Aye. Any opposed? Motion is adopted. We are going to go ahead and get our pictures made right now, committee. Thursday, Vice Chair Klemmer will be announcing our subcommittee chairs and vice chairs and what subcommittees
you're all going to be on. So we're going to do that on Thursday. We're going to get the picture made, and then we are going to adjourn the meeting. Okay? So however you want to do it. Okay, legislators. I want you to take the nameplates down and put your microphone down. I want to bring you all up here. I'm going to do a group of back. It's close over here on the side.
Speaker 29
11:35
I'm going to get behind you, Sheila. I don't know. I don't know. You get to do that.
Speaker 37
12:11
I mean, I'm surprised. Everybody knows who you are. You don't even need a new name. So I'd
Speaker 32
12:47
it. Uh-oh. Hey, table time. Are we getting the music on? Oh, yeah. Yeah, thank
Speaker 55
13:18
you. Hey, don't you kind of turn a little bit? Like this? Thank you.
Agenda
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Speakers
Representative James Ratliff
Unverified
Gail Gaines
Unverified
Speaker 3
Chair
Unverified
Speaker 17
Speaker 19
Speaker 23
Speaker 29
Speaker 32
Speaker 34
Speaker 37
Speaker 40
Speaker 45
Speaker 55
Speaker 56