Education Committee - Senate
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Bills discussed (7)
| Bill | Title | Sponsor | Status |
|---|---|---|---|
|
SB100
Act 69
· 3 mentions in transcript, agenda, chapter
Matched: “I will be representing Senate Bill 100 from here. Thank you so much, Senator. Okay, Senate Bill 10…”
|
TO ENHANCE HIGHER EDUCATION FISCAL ACCOUNTABILITY AND TRANSPARENCY; AND TO AMEND PROVISIONS OF THE ARKANSAS … | Irvin | Notification that SB100 is now Act 69 |
|
SB115
Act 19
· 3 mentions in transcript, agenda, chapter
Matched: “…nd I will also be presenting Senator Clark's bills for him, Senate Bill 115. I do have Shane Broadway that can answer any questions, bu…”
|
TO SUBSTITUTE "ARKANSAS STATE UNIVERSITY THREE RIVERS" FOR "COLLEGE OF THE OUACHITAS" IN THE ARKANSAS … | A. Clark | Notification that SB115 is now Act 19 |
|
SB116
Act 18
· 3 mentions in agenda, transcript, chapter
Matched: “…IVERS" FOR "COLLEGE OF THE OUACHITAS" IN THE ARKANSAS CODE. SB116 A. Clark TO AMEND THE NAME OF THE BOARD OF TRUSTEES OF ARKA…”
|
TO AMEND THE NAME OF THE BOARD OF TRUSTEES OF ARKANSAS STATE UNIVERSITY; TO ABOLISH … | A. Clark | Notification that SB116 is now Act 18 |
|
SB35
Act 76
· 2 mentions in chapter, agenda
Matched: “SB35 J. English TO AMEND THE LAW CONCERNING TUITION BENEFITS FOR…”
|
TO AMEND THE LAW CONCERNING TUITION BENEFITS FOR SOLDIERS AND AIRMEN OF THE ARKANSAS NATIONAL … | J. English | Notification that SB35 is now Act 76 |
|
SB125
Act 79
· 1 mention in transcript
Matched: “…re those higher ed bills okay do you want all four I've got Senate bill 125 126 130 and 131 of higher ed bills okay will you get with m…”
|
TO AMEND PROVISIONS OF THE ARKANSAS CODE CONCERNING HIGHER EDUCATION. | J. Sturch | Notification that SB125 is now Act 79 |
|
SB33
· 1 mention in agenda
Matched: “AGENDA (Revised 1/19/2021 @ 2:07 PM) Deleted SB33 Senate Committee on Education Wednesday, January 20, 2021 2…”
|
TO AMEND PROVISIONS OF THE ARKANSAS CODE CONCERNING THE INTERSTATE COMPACT ON EDUCATIONAL OPPORTUNITY FOR … | J. English | Sine Die adjournment |
|
SB34
Act 75
· 1 mention in agenda
Matched: “…ENDA *Bills in Red added 01-20-2021 Number Sponsor Subtitle SB34 J. English TO AMEND THE LAW CONCERNING COMPENSATION FOR TEA…”
|
TO AMEND THE LAW CONCERNING COMPENSATION FOR TEACHERS IN THE NATIONAL GUARD YOUTH CHALLENGE PROGRAM. | J. English | Notification that SB34 is now Act 75 |
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okay members thank you for being here and I'll call the Senate education committee meeting to order we will get right to business members in an effort just to kind of contain and and help with our staff if you have a bill and you're a member of the committee you can just present your bill from your seat so we're not
getting up and moving around and all of that kind of stuff okay so um in at the event whenever I present my bill today and I'm also going to be presenting Senator Clark's bills Senator English will be chairing the committee from her seat okay all right with that said we will go on to our consent one other thing just as a reminder if you have a bill that you want us to you know want to run you know some of these k-12 bills obviously require a fiscal impact statement and some of
those do have or have been completed which is why we have senator english's bills on the agenda today but those have to wait before they can run and but a higher ed bill can run does not require a fiscal impact statement so if we can try to get those bills moving you know through this committee we can just really start to tackle our work as best as possible so if you have on here a bill and it's ready to go and we're ready to run it please remember to notify me by Thursday at noon
for Monday's meeting, if possible, and Monday at noon for Wednesday's meeting, so that I can go ahead and schedule those, and we can get our business done as effective, efficiently as possible. All right, with that, Senator English, you are recognized to run SB 34. Thank you very much, so I'm going
Senator Jane English
Unverified
1:59
to ask Scott Sanger to come up here, please. You just have a
seat right over there. And basically, this bill, you could introduce yourself.
Speaker 7
2:17
I'm Scott Stanger, Chief of Staff of the Department of the Military.
Senator Jane English
Unverified
2:22
Thank you very much. So basically, what this bill does is it deals with the Arkansas National Guard Youth Challenge Program and their teachers. So I'll let Scott explain
Speaker 9
2:31
this. Yes, we have five teachers that are, the
Speaker 10
2:34
program is 75%, federally funded 25% by the state. and currently they accrue leave like a normal state employee would do. So the maximum leave they could accrue if they had been a long-term state employee were 22 days for the year.
However, state law says that they only work 190 days out of the year, 180 days of instruction and 90 days of professional development. The remaining 70 days of a normal work year, it's their summertime off in between classes. They don't accrue enough state leave to cover those 70 days. So what we've had to do in the past is manipulate the system so they would still have what we would call a normal leave that they accrue, yet cover those remaining days if there is no status for them.
I think originally when that was established back whenever, the state didn't have state employees that were teachers. So when they came on as state employees, they accrued them just like the rest of us. What this bill proposes is for their leave accrual to mirror what happens in a school district. So at the start of every calendar year, they would be granted two days of their personal leave or annual leave and nine days of sick. If they didn't use them through that year, it would roll over to the next. That would allow us to go in there through the HR department and manually until we can get the system fixed, balance their leave.
because right now what it looks like is when they're not working, they're actually still accruing leave. All right. Thank you. Are there any
questions from the members of the committee? Yes, Senator Sturge, you're recognized. I'm sorry. I
Senator James Sturch
Unverified
4:16
just wanted to ask kind of a follow-up question what you said. So then in the summer, then, it would just be kind of like a regular teacher's salary. They would not have leave or need for leave because they'd be off in the summer just like we are. that's exactly what we're trying to do yes okay all right thank you all right yes sir are there
any other questions from members of the committee all right seeing none the pleasure of the committee do pass motion do pass and second all right all those in favor say aye aye and opposed eyes have it the bill passes congratulations senator english you're
recognized yes the next still SB 35.
Senator Jane English
Unverified
4:52
And so I'd like to ask Colonel Jeff Wood, a former state legislator, to join us.
Welcome. Glad to have you join us. Great to see if you will just state your name for the
Speaker 21
5:08
record. You may proceed. Sure. Colonel Jeff Wood,
Senator Jane English
Unverified
5:11
Arkansas National Guard. This basically has to do with tuition waivers and benefits for our National Guard folks when they, before they get to go
Speaker 21
5:20
to training? Yes, and basically this involves our Arkansas National Guard tuition waiver program, which our regulations are promulgated, so there is already legislative oversight on it, but one of the requirements currently is that the soldiers have to go to basic and their individual
training courses before they're eligible. What we've noticed is in rare cases, we'll have soldiers that can't go to that AIT course until the following year, and so they're not, under the program, the way it's written now, they're not allowed to go to college that fall or spring under this program. So what we're going to do is promulgate rules where we can grant a waiver. You know, if we get those rare cases where we have an airman or an army person who cannot get into those courses, those military courses, so they can go ahead and start and get the benefit of getting a college education. Do you happen to answer any questions? And
Senator Jane English
Unverified
6:04
would you find maybe with the pandemic that that's more of a problem than it has been in the
Speaker 21
6:09
past? Yes, ma'am, because a lot of the military schools are requiring a, you know, a 14-day quarantine period, and they're also limiting the number of slots they have because of quarantine, so it's making it a little bit
harder. Yes, ma'am. Are there any questions from the members of the committee? Seeing none, the pleasure of the committee. Do pass. And is there a second? Second. Those in favor say aye. Aye. And opposed? Ayes have it. Congratulations. The bill is passed. Thank you very much. Thank you. All right. Senator English, if you will chair the committee.
I will be representing Senate Bill 100 from here. Thank you so much, Senator. Okay, Senate Bill 100 is enhancing higher education, fiscal accountability, and transparency. If you will look, this amends code section to require links to each state-supported IHE on the Institute of Higher ed on the Arkansas Department of Higher Education website. It requires each institution of higher ed
to include on its website specified information regarding the governing boards and members and their activities. It also amends the language section to eliminate redundant language, add student accounts, receivable disclosure requirements, amends another code of section or section of code to add student accounts receivable and days cash on hand disclosures and then finally amends state code to add days cash on hand certification it does exempt UAMS
from the requirements for this I'm happy to answer any questions or we also have Department of Higher Education Dr. Markham is here to answer any questions you may have as well Are there any questions from the
Senator Jane English
Unverified
8:06
committee? Any questions? I think we're... What is the will of the committee? Is there a second? All in favor? Aye.
All opposed? Thank you. That's your bill. All right. Thank you. And I will also be presenting Senator Clark's bills for him, Senate Bill 115. I do have Shane Broadway that can answer any questions, but I will start with Senate Bill 115-4. On behalf of Senator Clark, the College of the Ouachita's Board of Trustees voted in February of 2019 to join the ASU system,
and in September of 2019 voted to change the name to ASU Three Rivers. Higher Learning Commission reviewed the merger and gave its approval for ASU Three Rivers. to join the ASU system on January 1st of 2020. The legislature was not in regular session in 2020. This bill goes through all of the code and changes any references to College of the Ouachita's and changes it to ASU Three Rivers and it deletes some outdated language dating back to the creation of the two-year colleges
in the 1991 session that are no longer relevant today. I'd be happy to answer any questions. I'll make a motion. Do pass at the proper time.
Aye. Thank you, Senator English. all
right next bill is senate bill 116 on behalf of senator clark again um this bill eliminates the board of trustees of henderson state university and consolidates the duties and responsibilities with the asu board of trustees renames the board of arkansas state university into the arkansas state university system board of trustees currently the asu system board has five members this bill will expand that to seven to be appointed by the governor and the bill is
structured so that one member will be up for reappointment each year. This is the final step for the merger of Henderson State University into the ASU system. Henderson State University's name will not change and they will continue to have their own appropriation bill. Once passed and signed by the governor they will become a campus of the ASU system. On November 5th the Higher Learning Commission approved a change of control application and the continuation of Henderson's accreditation as a future member of the ASU system and a HLC Higher Learning Commission
accredits colleges and universities in the 19 state region of the US including all public health higher education institutions in Arkansas and the bill also cleans up and or delete some very old and irrelevant code sections that are no longer relevant to the institution and that's what the bill does. Happy to answer any questions, or we have ASU here that may want to answer any questions as well. Are there any questions for the committee?
Senator James Sturch
Unverified
11:36
I'm sorry. I just wanted to ask about these references to ASU BB. It looks like they're taking out their service areas and the code
Speaker 16
11:43
and so forth. Is that just the cleanup language, or why is ASU BB,
I guess? That's part of the cleanup language. yeah thank you any other questions I'd like to say also dr. Welch is here we appreciate that you being here as as well as mr. Broadway and from ASU systems
Senator Jane English
Unverified
12:06
what's the will of the committee second all in
favor aye all opposed thank you much all right thank you all
right so record-breaking committee meeting there we go appreciate the work thank you senator English for chairing the committee also are there any before we dismiss a committee are there any bills that the members might have or may know of that you would like to see on Monday's
agenda if we don't have a lot we may not meet on Monday and just meet on Wednesday because I just you know or we can meet and just have short meetings and move on so that'll be to to be determined but I will text you over the weekend to let you know what we decide but does any members have any bills that they would like to run next week okay clean up language do you want to schedule those for next week senator
search are those okay um you have are those higher ed bills okay do you want all four I've got Senate bill 125 126 130 and 131 of higher ed bills okay will you get with me and then we'll put your bills on to the
Speaker 18
13:35
agenda for next week okay perfect okay if you just want to
email them or text them to me then I'll
get them on the agenda for next week that'd be okay all right any other business to come before the committee all right seeing none we're adjourned thank you You
Agenda
CALL TO ORDER
SB35 J. English TO AMEND THE LAW CONCERNING TUITION BENEFITS FOR SOLDIERS AND AIRMEN OF THE ARKANSAS NATIONAL GUARD; AND TO ALLOW A TEMPORARY WAIVER OF THE COMPLETION OF THE INITIAL ACTIVE DUTY TRAINING REQUIREMENT.
SB100 Irvin TO ENHANCE HIGHER EDUCATION FISCAL ACCOUNTABILITY AND TRANSPARENCY; AND TO AMEND PROVISIONS OF THE ARKANSAS CODE CONCERNING STUDENT ACCOUNTS RECEIVABLE POLICIES AND CERTAIN FINANCIAL CONDITION REPORTS.
SB115 A. Clark TO SUBSTITUTE "ARKANSAS STATE UNIVERSITY THREE RIVERS" FOR "COLLEGE OF THE OUACHITAS" IN THE ARKANSAS CODE.
SB116 A. Clark TO AMEND THE NAME OF THE BOARD OF TRUSTEES OF ARKANSAS STATE UNIVERSITY; TO ABOLISH THE BOARD OF TRUSTEES OF HENDERSON STATE UNIVERSITY; TO AMEND THE BOARD OF ARKANSAS STATE UNIVERSITY MEMBERS; AND TO DECLARE AN EMERGENCY.
Documents
| Title | Type | Pages | Source |
|---|---|---|---|
| Agenda — EDUCATION COMMITTEE - SENATE AND HOUSE MEETING JOINTLY WITH ADVANCED COMMUNICATIONS AND INFORMATION, Jan 20, 2021 | Agenda | 1 | Official source ↗ |
Speakers
Senator Missy Irvin Chair
Unverified
Senator Jane English
Unverified
Speaker 7
Speaker 9
Speaker 10
Senator James Sturch
Unverified
Speaker 21
Speaker 16
Speaker 18