On Thurs., April 23rd, the House heard debate on the bill that had been on everyone’s minds, SB 101 or “open enrollment.” This was a terrible Republican Free Stater bill that would have allowed parents to enroll their child(ren) in any public school anywhere in the state.
First, the potential bad results:
~Taxpayers would be responsible for the majority of costs to “receiving” schools
~Hurts poor, smaller districts
~More chipping away of local control (is there any still left?)
~Increases problems for accessibility, athletics, district budgeting, funding, special education, student capacity, and transportation
Now the potential good results:
Online testimony registered 2,174 people who opposed this latest attempt to destroy public schools, with only 75 in support. An amendment by Republican Free Staters Reps. Kristin Noble and Katy Peternel “directs the governing body of each school district to establish an open enrollment policy to allow pupils to transfer among schools within the district and from another district in the state. Each school would be required to provide notice of its capacity to accept open enrollment pupils and would require selection by lottery in the event applications exceed capacity. The bill also establishes a funding formula for payments by the department of education from the education trust fund for open enrollment pupils.”
The amendment passed by roll call vote, 182Y-172N. Ten votes! (Never think your singular vote doesn’t matter much. Every. Vote Counts!)
The next amendment sponsored by Democrats sought to establish a commission to study public school open enrollment. Rep. Peter Petrigno spoke of how his town, Milford and about 100 other towns recently voted to put limits on “open enrollment”. He worried that passing this bill would override the will of the people. Rep. Hope Damon concurred that yes, this is the way the bill is written up, to mandate the towns to accept open enrollment, overriding local control. Naturally, that second amendment failed, 184N-169Y.
When the bill finally came up for a vote, it failed, by 16 votes! 184N-168Y. Despite thousands of people registering their online opposition to this bill and about 100 towns basically voting to not be a part of this, Republican Free Staters thought they could ram it down the state’s throat anyway. To see how your representative voted on this terrible but important bill, click here.
Almost immediately Republican Free Stater Rep. Joe Sweeney made a motion to table the bill, which did pass, 320Y-32N. So, it could still rear its ugly head and make another appearance. Stay vigilant!
SB 482 was the bill to protect consumers from being scammed through crypto kiosks. An amendment, added by Republican Free Stater Rep. Keith Ammon, would weaken those consumer protections and thus failed, 220N-135Y. The House then went to a roll call for the original bill, which passed, 214Y-140N. There will now be some fraud protections for consumers. To see how your representative voted on this important bill, click here.To listen to some of the floor speeches, click here. Scroll to the 24:18 mark for a few of the floor speeches.
But it now seems as if SB 482 might be revived. Rep. Jennifer Rhodes, R-Winchester, (scores B+ with Liberty Alliance) has “served notice of reconsideration” for this bill. The House will vote on this at the next Session, May 7th, as the majority party probably wants to overturn it. Again, let’s stay vigilant.
At least the public schools will now have trauma kits placed in them. The bipartisan SB 429 passed by a voice vote!