Another legislative session in Cheyenne closed last week, giving Green River’s two representatives from the Wyoming House a chance to reflect on the 2015 session.
Rep. John Freeman, D-Green River, said the session was a mixed bag for him. For him, some of the successes coming out of Cheyenne included bills killing the state writing assessment, delaying teacher accountability and allowing students to apply for Hathaway scholarships after they’ve graduated early or received a GED.
With delaying teacher accountability, Freeman believes the additional time will allow law makers to finalize how teachers and schools will be evaluated, believing if the bill, Senate File 8, was defeated, school districts would have had a very difficult time implementing standards by July. Regarding the writing assessment, Freeman said schools were spending a lot of time teaching towards the requirements of the test. He said students going into the test not knowing what the assessment measured wouldn’t perform well.
Freeman worked on a number of bills regarding the Hathaway scholarship program, something he sees as a wonderful asset with a few warts on it.
“I spent a lot of time on the Hathaway, but only one bill went through,” he said.
The bill, which was supported by Mark Baker, R-Rock Springs, allows students a chance to apply for Hathaway funds immediately after graduating or completing a GED. Bills that didn’t fare as well with the legislature would have required students to maintain at least 15 credit hours to be eligible for the Hathaway scholarship. The bills would have also created career and technical education scholarships, as well as would allow students maintaining 3.2 GPA to move into a higher level of Hathaway scholarship funding. Freeman said students currently have to maintain 2.5 GPA to receive Hathaway funding.
“I think it was a mixed bag,” Freeman said about the education bills.
Other bills he worked on included removing a footnote regarding Next Generation Science Standards, which now calls for the Wyoming Department of Education to provide standards that promote excellence and created the newest state park, the Quebec No.1 Missile Alert Facility north of Cheyenne. Freeman said the facility is not only important to Wyoming and military history, but will help promote nuclear tourism in Wyoming.
While Rep. Stan Blake originally called the session frustrating as a result of failures in adopting Medicaid expansion and an anti-discrimination bill protecting residents on the basis of their gender identification and sexual orientation, he was happy a few measures that did make it through. One bill he helped pass allows residents owning vehicles designed with only a rear mount for their license plates to only display their plate on that mount. Blake said he received a bit of pushback from the Wyoming Highway Patrol, but argued it wouldn’t be difficult for a trooper to determine the plate number from behind a vehicle.
He also cosponsored a food freedom bill allowing people to sell fruits and vegetables grown on their own property as well as granting the right to sell raw milk.
Blake said he did have an issue with the raw milk portion of the bill, but admits there are several people who can drink raw milk, but can’t tolerate the mass-produced, pasteurized product.
Meat is still required to be processed at a state-inspected facility and Blake does warn that buying produce and dairy is a buyer beware situation, urging residents to purchase from people they know or reputable vendors.
“I hope it helps the farmers markets,” he said.
Reader Comments(0)