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Education Committee - Senate

January 25, 2021 ·2:00 PM or Upon Adjournment Whichever is Later ·OSC (Public Comment Holding Room: 272) ·9:36
Video Transcript 1 document

Bills discussed (8)
Bill Title Sponsor Status
SB125 Act 79 · 4 mentions in agenda, transcript
Matched: “…ENDA *Bills in Red added 01-25-2021 Number Sponsor Subtitle SB125 J. Sturch TO AMEND PROVISIONS OF THE ARKANSAS CODE CONCERNI…”
 TO AMEND PROVISIONS OF THE ARKANSAS CODE CONCERNING HIGHER EDUCATION. J. Sturch Notification that SB125 is now Act 79
SB130 Act 81 · 4 mentions in chapter, transcript, agenda
Matched: “SB130 J. Sturch TO REPEAL THE ARKANSAS ACADEMIC CHALLENGE SCHOLAR…”
 TO REPEAL THE ARKANSAS ACADEMIC CHALLENGE SCHOLARSHIP PROGRAM - PART 1. J. Sturch Notification that SB130 is now Act 81
SB126 Act 80 · 3 mentions in chapter, transcript, agenda
Matched: “SB126 J. Sturch TO AMEND PROVISIONS OF THE ARKANSAS CODE CONCERNI…”
 TO AMEND PROVISIONS OF THE ARKANSAS CODE CONCERNING THE APPLICABILITY AND ADDITIONAL ELIGIBILITY REQUIREMENTS OF … J. Sturch Notification that SB126 is now Act 80
SB131 Act 82 · 3 mentions in chapter, transcript, agenda
Matched: “SB131 J. Sturch TO AMEND PROVISIONS OF THE ARKANSAS CODE CONCERNI…”
 TO AMEND PROVISIONS OF THE ARKANSAS CODE CONCERNING ELIGIBILITY FOR THE ARKANSAS CONCURRENT CHALLENGE SCHOLARSHIP … J. Sturch Notification that SB131 is now Act 82
SB113 · 1 mention in transcript
Matched: “…I have it the bill passes all right so for Wednesday I have Senate bill 113 Senator Eads Senate bill 66 Senator English Senate bill 129…”
 TO AMEND PROVISIONS OF THE ARKANSAS CODE CONCERNING THE ARKANSAS WORKFORCE CHALLENGE SCHOLARSHIP PROGRAM; AND … L. Eads Sine Die adjournment
SB120 Act 650 · 1 mention in transcript
Matched: “…bill 66 Senator English Senate bill 129 Senator English and Senate bill 120 Senator Davis I'm not sure if those are going to be consent…”
 CONCERNING RULEMAKING AUTHORITY UNDER THE SCHOOL COUNSELING IMPROVEMENT ACT OF 2019. B. Davis Notification that SB120 is now Act 650
SB129 Act 252 · 1 mention in transcript
Matched: “…Senate bill 113 Senator Eads Senate bill 66 Senator English Senate bill 129 Senator English and Senate bill 120 Senator Davis I'm not s…”
 TO AMEND PROVISIONS OF THE ARKANSAS CODE CONCERNING PRIVATE RESIDENT AND CORRESPONDENCE SCHOOLS. J. English Notification that SB129 is now Act 252
SB66 Act 133 · 1 mention in transcript
Matched: “…right so for Wednesday I have Senate bill 113 Senator Eads Senate bill 66 Senator English Senate bill 129 Senator English and Senate…”
 TO ALLOW THE TUITION-FREE BENEFIT FOR SOLDIERS AND AIRMEN OF THE ARKANSAS NATIONAL GUARD TO … J. English Notification that SB66 is now Act 133

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Senator Missy Irvin Chair Unverified 0:00
started. It's two o'clock, so calling this education committee meeting to order. I'm calling this committee meeting to order, sorry. All right, today we have the Sturge show. So we will start with Senate Bill 125. Senator Sturge, you recognize to present your bill from your
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Senator James Sturch Unverified 0:34
seat. Thank you, Madam Chair, and thank you, committee members. Senate Bill 125 and Senate Bill 130 kind of go together, but I'll do 125 first. What we're trying to do is clean up some language that persists with the original Academic Challenge Scholarship. If you recall, when the lottery came into being, we created a new scholarship funded by lottery, yet we named it the same as the old name. So in law, we have one set of laws for the first one and one set of laws for the next one. This 125 and 130 are going to be trying to clean up the old language from the first scholarship. The graduating class of 2009 is the last one that actually was eligible for that, and so all those of us who were in that class have graduated and from college I'm proud to say 20 years late so we we don't need that language anymore so that's what 125 does specifically BLR asked us to break it up into two bills 125 deals with the reporting a part of that and then 130 will deal with the actual scholarship itself and I'll be proud to take any questions okay are there any questions on
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Senator Missy Irvin Chair Unverified 1:33
senate bill 125 all right seeing none what's the pleasure of the committee motion do pass second there's a second all those in favor say aye aye and opposed I have it the bill passes congratulations let's go to Senate bill 130 since you reference okay thank
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Senator James Sturch Unverified 1:53
you ma'am next Senate bill 130 as I said all you'll see is stricken language it is the original academic challenge scholarship that is not needed anymore all students served under this section have completed their eligibility so the
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Senator Missy Irvin Chair Unverified 2:05
program no longer needs to exist all right are there any questions all right Seeing none, pleasure of the committee, motion do pass and second. Those in favor say aye. Aye. And opposed? Ayes have it.
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Senator James Sturch Unverified 2:19
Bill passes. Senate Bill 126. Okay. Senate Bill 126 is our academic challenge scholarship and the governor's scholarship. This is needed to kind of clarify some stacking language where you can get both the governor's distinguished scholarship and the lottery scholarship. It does not increase the student awards, does not change any of that, but it does clarify some language to make it consistent in code. It does eliminate some reporting requirements for ADHE, which is already residing in other parts of the code, and it removes that old reference to GPA. If you'll recall, several years back, Senator Elliott was very passionate about trying to get it down to just an ACT requirement and not a GPA requirement as well. So ACT is what's now in law. We're removing that GPA requirement and then clarifying that stacking language. All
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Senator Missy Irvin Chair Unverified 3:03
right. Are there any questions? I have one, please. Senator Elliott, you're recognized.
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Senator Joyce Elliott Unverified 3:07
I want to back up to what you said about the GPA and the ACT. So we'd already taken out the GPA, which, by the way, I wanted to remain in the bill, but right now we're just down to the 19 on the ACT. I want to be sure I have that clarified. but in other words what we've done is kind of repurposed this whole structure by getting rid of the old language awards are not any the amount total amounts are not any different from what they were before same awards because it says in this bill that you know you cannot do more than I forgot not what the language said okay all right that's that's what I wanted as far as you know like
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Senator James Sturch Unverified 4:00
we said the you know GPA requirements along there but the ACT requirement is still there it's still there a place or taste is still there okay
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Speaker 21 4:08
all right thank you all right any
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Senator Missy Irvin Chair Unverified 4:12
other questions all right seeing none pleasure of the committee motion do pass and there's a second. Second. All those in favor say aye. Aye. And opposed? Ayes have it. Bill passes. Senate Bill 131. Okay. Senators, thank you, Madam Chair.
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Senator James Sturch Unverified 4:29
If you recall, two years ago, we created the concurrent challenge scholarship. This was my bill. We had originally put in the bill that it would be required to have a C in each of those classes that they would take in order for them to remain eligible. ADHE has requested that we change that because nobody does letter grades in law anymore. It's actually based on a number, a GPA number, as far as concurrent or concurrent as well as current eligibility for the scholarship, academic challenge scholarship. So we're just asking to change the C to a 2.5 in that first part. The next part, we had some language in there that we wanted to make sure that if they had failed a course, that it wasn't just the end-all catch-all and you couldn't never do it again. What we're asking for is clarification then that they, the next time that they want to enroll, that they would only take one course. We don't want to set any students up for failure, and so we don't want to overload them, but we do want them to continue eligibility where they could take one course. If they make a passing grade in that one course, then they could go back up to two courses a semester for just that concurrent credit challenge scholarship. So those are the only two changes in this bill. 2.5 instead of a C in the language, and then clarifying that language on enrollment in one course following the semester in which they failed a course. All right,
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Senator Joyce Elliott Unverified 5:44
are there any questions? Yeah, I have one. Senator Elliott? Would you remind me what the amount is in this one? What the amount is in this one?
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Senator James Sturch Unverified 5:51
So if you recall, what we did was any student then who wanted to take concurrent credit courses while they were still in high school, they'd be given 125 per class. Okay. And now in order to participate then, the higher ed institution has to discount that tuition 50%. And so 125 was the number we found that would cover most classes everywhere in
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Senator Joyce Elliott Unverified 6:14
every institution for those students. And since generally speaking, C is a 2.0, how did we get to 2.50?
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Senator James Sturch Unverified 6:20
2.5 then is, like I said, what they asked for in the regular academic challenge, because we're using academic challenge money. That's what they require to remain eligible for when they're in college. So they're wanting us to make the same requirement then here. Oh, it's
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Senator Joyce Elliott Unverified 6:33
what we ask as in past tense, 2.50. And in the regular scholarship right now, you can have, in order to get a scholarship, So you have 19. Right. There's no option for
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Senator James Sturch Unverified 6:46
2.50. But once you enroll in courses then at a college, then you're a sophomore, junior, senior year. You have to maintain a 2.5. So they're asking me to use that same requirement here instead of a C. Say you have to have at least a
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Senator Joyce Elliott Unverified 7:00
2.5 across your concurrent courses. Although if they're in high school, though, in concurrent, they can be in high school, right? Correct. And this 2.5 maintenance, they're in college. Correct. Right? but the concurrent courses are
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Senator James Sturch Unverified 7:09
college courses and so they're asking for the same requirement if it's going to be the same pot of money they ask for the same requirement. Okay all right thank
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Senator Missy Irvin Chair Unverified 7:18
you. Are there any other questions? I don't necessarily have a I don't have a problem with
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Senator Joyce Elliott Unverified 7:25
that I just want the 2.5 that's it seems like such a good number that when we hear it again we ought to remember that we
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Senator Missy Irvin Chair Unverified 7:35
really like 2.5. Thank you. Thank you ma'am. Are there any other questions all right members usually we would have people that I would ask is there anyone here to speak for or against the bill but these are on the consent agenda and I I know that if somebody wants to speak for against the bill it's their responsibility to come and sign up and let us know that so all right with that just just what's the pleasure of the committee motion do pass and second all right those in favor say aye and opposed I have it the bill passes all right so for Wednesday I have Senate bill 113 Senator Eads Senate bill 66 Senator English Senate bill 129 Senator English and Senate bill 120 Senator Davis I'm not sure if those are going to be consent agenda items or just regular agenda items but I'll visit with each of the sponsors to let everybody know about that does anybody else have a bill that you want heard on Wednesday that's a member of this committee okay I would just remind you that if you're talking to your colleagues just to let them know that they need to contact me if they want their bill run or scheduled to run so we can get through our calendar my intention is to work as effectively and efficiently as possible so having these meetings and to get our calendar just eat it away as as we go I think is the better option so is there anything else that needs to come before this committee all right seeing none we're adjourned Johnny you're right on time You
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Agenda

CALL TO ORDER

0:05
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SB126 J. Sturch TO AMEND PROVISIONS OF THE ARKANSAS CODE CONCERNING THE APPLICABILITY AND ADDITIONAL ELIGIBILITY REQUIREMENTS OF THE ARKANSAS ACADEMIC CHALLENGE SCHOLARSHIP PROGRAM - PART 2.

2:20
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SB130 J. Sturch TO REPEAL THE ARKANSAS ACADEMIC CHALLENGE SCHOLARSHIP PROGRAM - PART 1.

1:52
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SB131 J. Sturch TO AMEND PROVISIONS OF THE ARKANSAS CODE CONCERNING ELIGIBILITY FOR THE ARKANSAS CONCURRENT CHALLENGE SCHOLARSHIP PROGRAM.

4:27
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Speakers

Senator Missy Irvin Chair Unverified
12 segments
Senator James Sturch Unverified
22 segments
Senator Joyce Elliott Unverified
9 segments
Speaker 21
1 segment