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Thursday, March 14, 2007

Good reasons exist for using committees to determine which bills the full Legislature gets to vote on in Frankfort.

After all, political infighting and chatting with lobbyists leaves precious little time during a session. And the lawmakers need a little time to consider very important bills that impact the greatest number of people, right?

Right.

But that’s not what happened last week during the final Kentucky House Education Committee meeting of the 2007 General Assembly.

Committee chairman Rep. Frank Rasche refused to allow the committee to even hear House Bill 30 – prefiled in September – creating scholarships for the state’s 109,000 special-needs students, allowing parents to choose the best school for their children. These scholarships would come from money already set aside for special-needs education and services.

Yet Rasche, who largely determines which bills the committee hears, showed total disinterest in the plight of nearly one-sixth of Kentucky’s public-school population.

Apparently, parents don’t matter as much as labor-union representatives. Labor thinks “classified” employees – including bus drivers and janitors – should serve on a school’s important Site-Based Decision-Making council (SBDM).

During the committee meeting, Rasche indicated that he already turned down several past requests from groups who wanted to add representatives to SBDM councils. Nevertheless, the committee spent valuable time discussing yet another effort to further dilute the influence of parents on the SBDM councils. Meanwhile, HB 30 never got a sniff.

The committee also spent time depicting parents as inept when it comes to the health of children.

For example, Rep. Addia K. Wuchner gave a torturously long committee presentation suggesting kids need more exercise. The solution offered by Wuchner during her “exercise” in frustration? More government planning – of recess! Dropping a set of barbells on your big toe is less painful than enduring this kind of logic.

These lawmakers claim to represent parents and special-needs children. But they ignored them, and HB 30.

What could be more tragic? If Kentucky parents of special-needs children do not rise up in righteous indignation and demand their voices be heard … and their will be done.

Contact the Bluegrass Institute, Kentucky's free-market think tank, at (270) 782-2140. Read past Shine the Light articles at www.bipps.org.

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