Legislative Report
December 27th, 2012 by Sheilla LampkinThis will be my last legislative report from District 10 because redistricting placed me further south into District 9. Although I campaigned hard and won the District 9 seat, I want to share with all those folks in District 10 that I really hate to lose you! I wish I could keep both groups! I will miss all the great constituents I met in Lincoln and Cleveland counties (and many of my Drew County people too), but we will forever be friends. I just wanted you to know that I truly will miss those of you who were taken from my district. God bless you and, if I can ever help, call.
All of the legislative activities during the past two weeks have dealt with cleaning up old matters on the agenda and/or preparations for the 89th General Assembly that will begin January 14th.
Of course, health care and the expansion of Medicare will be high on the list of hot topics. At first, there seemed to be little room for agreement or compromise on Medicaid expansion, but I feel both sides are now at least listening to the other occasionally. Interestingly, UAMS is supporting the expansion as the highest priority for UAMS in tackling their rising costs, debt burden and efficiency. The expansion also has the support of the Arkansas Hospital Association, Arkansas Medical Society and other healthcare groups. Keep your eyes, ears and minds open on this one!
Education issues will also be a top priority. Adequacy funding will be important as well as accountability, particularly for some districts that have been given extra funding targeted toward helping children in poverty get a better education, but have not been having much success in boosting scores or improving learning. These funds come through the National School Lunch Act (NSLA) and were designated to provide extra services such as before and after-school programs and remediation programs. In reality the money has gone to a variety of projects and its purpose seems to have been diluted to a wide range of “however we want to spend it” in many cases. Many legislators feel some schools have taken too much leeway in their spending of these funds and a “tightening – up” may be in order.
The third most debated topic for the 89th General Assembly will likely be gun control. This is an issue that requires thoughtful reactions. We would not be wise to go off “half-cocked” like those disturbed people who have brought us to this low point in the first place. Yet security for our children should be a top priority. We just have to react calmly and intelligently. We certainly don’t want to have to deal with “friendly fire” too.
The fourth biggest issue will likely be voter fraud and the ballot petition process. All of those ineligible/incomplete petitions for the voter initiatives that contained pages and pages of signatures signed by the same individual or faulty in other ways was ridiculous, ludicrous and cost the state a great deal of money. There may have to be penalties set at some point of misrepresentation to curb these actions taken by some groups.
The 89th General Assembly will be sworn in and get to the nitty-gritty (I hope) starting January 14th. In January of 2011 when the 88th Assembly took office there was a whale of a snowstorm. Let’s hope this Christmas “blizzard” was the worst this winter has to offer!
I wish you all a safe, prosperous New Year! Thank you for the opportunity to serve and represent you.
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If practical the following for legislation in the upcoming General Assembly for Arkansas Public Schools.
I foresee arming classroom teachers with guns can be a very dangerous issue, due to the fact the readiness issue for a teacher who has to be holstered in order to react to immediate emergency situation like at Conn. Second and foremost the teacher is in direct inter action with students and the overpowering issue from a student or multiple students is a factor. Why is this extreme and most dangerous initiative under consideration for our Secondary, Middle, Elementary Public and Private Schools when all we have to do is what Our College/University, Vocation Schools do and all of our colleges, universities, vocational institutions have trained certified campus security officers and facilities with regular parole and presence at all functions and staffed after hours. Those security teams are funded all or in part by the institution or the institutions network. The public, private schools can do the same by increase Taxable Mileage for Public Schools and Tuition cost factor for private schools; of course the cost will be expensive in the public school systems but it is not an alternative. Again Surveillance Cameras in all interior/exterior arenas of the Public/Private School and Certified Security Team contracted in place is the only alternative solution that will not place our teachers, administrators and students in harms way. Armoring the teacher is a dangerous scenario again in light of the fact he/she are in direct and close association with students and issues of anger, confrontation, bitterness are persistent issues in a competitive learning environment; in addition the Teacher, Student, Parent disenchantment Issues. Lets do the simple thing ask Congress and the President to pass and sign into law an initiative I just proposed for Public/Private Schools in the United States of America, we should with sanity support tax increase to support the health and safety of our children and the people contracted to administer teach our children.