The Imperial Dominion of the South's Legislature

[Fmr. Pres. Duke]

aye

[Fmr. Pres. Duke]

Am I up for reelection??

[Fmr. Pres. Duke]

I'll come out and say I know nothing about the slaughtering laws or horse meat, only that lions eat it sometimes in zoos and it's gross. I also like horses a lot, I think they are one of the most elegant creatures on earth, so I don't want to see them getting slaughtered, but I will admit I haven't read most of the arguments because I have not had time to read it over all my other legal readings I do each night. I do hope someone makes a tl;dr version for me before final vote

[Fmr. Pres. Duke]

Duke, the short version is:

Eating horses that have not had the same regulation other meats have is no bueno. So we are debating if we should just have a list of things that cannot go into a horse if it is to be sold as food.

Is it legal to eat horse meat? I have never seen it for sale anywhere, so I thought it was illegal for humans to buy and eat, but if it isn't then we do need regulations in place at the very least.

[Fmr. Pres. Duke]

Aye

[Fmr. Pres. Duke]

I oppose. We don't need JBrase's name enshrined upon our coat of arms. If anything, it should be my name, as the Dirty South was dead before my overlords and I took over, nursed it back to health, left the union and then returned before naming it the Dirty South and making it a region to be reckoned with. If anything, he rode my coattails

But I oppose having any governor's name on our coat of arms really. One man does not represent an entire people. This is the coat of arms for the IDS/DS, not of JBrase's house or family.

[Fmr. Pres. Duke]

I oppose. We don't need JBrase's name enshrined upon our coat of arms. If anything, it should be my name, as the Dirty South was dead before my overlords and I took over, nursed it back to health, left the union and then returned before naming it the Dirty South and making it a region to be reckoned with. If anything, he rode my coattails

But I oppose having any governor's name on our coat of arms really. One man does not represent an entire people. This is the coat of arms for the IDS/DS, not of JBrase's house or family.

By my understanding, the Coat of Arms created is merely that of whichever Imperial House currently controls the seat of the Emperor, and is subject to change with elections, so no one man will ever permanently be on the flag. Currently the House of Jbrase is the only one with a seal, but Sanchez has announced plans for a House of Sanchez, and there are a couple other regional groupings (RPP, Whig). The Voter Rolls haven't been as active as I would have liked, but still.

So we will change it whenever a new governor takes over? I suppose that makes sense, more so than changing the flag over and over. Granted, I am not Scottish or English, never cared for medieval history, and as a Greek, we did not have coat of arms, so I am unfamiliar with how they work for families, let alone regions.

[Fmr. Pres. Duke]

I oppose. We don't need JBrase's name enshrined upon our coat of arms. If anything, it should be my name, as the Dirty South was dead before my overlords and I took over, nursed it back to health, left the union and then returned before naming it the Dirty South and making it a region to be reckoned with. If anything, he rode my coattails

But I oppose having any governor's name on our coat of arms really. One man does not represent an entire people. This is the coat of arms for the IDS/DS, not of JBrase's house or family.

By my understanding, the Coat of Arms created is merely that of whichever Imperial House currently controls the seat of the Emperor, and is subject to change with elections, so no one man will ever permanently be on the flag. Currently the House of Jbrase is the only one with a seal, but Sanchez has announced plans for a House of Sanchez, and there are a couple other regional groupings (RPP, Whig). The Voter Rolls haven't been as active as I would have liked, but still.

So we will change it whenever a new governor takes over? I suppose that makes sense, more so than changing the flag over and over. Granted, I am not Scottish or English, never cared for medieval history, and as a Greek, we did not have coat of arms, so I am unfamiliar with how they work for families, let alone regions.

Yep. Ya know, you could found a House of Duke as well.

What is the point of finding houses though? Like, do we have dinner parties? Form coalitions? Aren't these houses simply your offspring who take over for you when you leave office? I understand that the House of JBrase was his house when he was in office, but who else is in it? If someone he hand picks takes over?

[Fmr. Pres. Duke]

I don't think there are many in this region that line up with me politically

Although I figured Yankee would be in my house as he was around during my terrific reign and we both sort of grew together, but who knows.

[Fmr. Pres. Duke]

What are we voting on now? The imperial flag and the like? If so, aye.

[Fmr. Pres. Duke]

What are we voting on now? The imperial flag and the like? If so, aye.

     It's the imperial standard, my good man.

Sorry for my delinquency. My mind isn't as sharp as it was in my senate days.

[Fmr. Pres. Duke]

AYe

[Fmr. Pres. Duke]

Our next bill needs to deal with the uniforms of our law enforcement.

[Fmr. Pres. Duke]

I'll collaborate with someone if they want to work with me. I have great style but some other people might not approve.

[Fmr. Pres. Duke]

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Okay. Is this even necessary?

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Again, I hate year round schooling. I think private and magnet schools can do whatever they want with their schedule, but making public schools year round is a bit too far.

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Are we sure they will donate their income to education? Seems a bit risky to base an increase in funding on whether people will donate X amount of dollars to a program. And if this tax credit MUST go to education then why have it at all?

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Agreed.

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Agreed.

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Agreed.

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Fine to add, but I don't think there is a shortage of teachers. There is a shortage of GOOD teachers.

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I don't know how realistic that is as I don't know how the teaching profession really works. I have seen teachers aids in grade school but as I moved to high school, a year long intern teacher seems strange. What happens to the students who are taught by them? I'm not sure anyone wants to be a guinnea pig.

I also don't know if parents need to evaluate them. Many of them can be biased and some might not even care, I think leaving the decision up to the school and the people in charge is a better route.

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Shouldn't a teacher be board certified regardless of their degree?

And agreed on the degree subsidization.

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Fine with me, assuming it is affordable.

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Okay I guess. I assume all schools will have a maintenance staff that will be able to make a call on this too.

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Never been a fan of government oversight committees. I like giving the teacher a bit more freedom to choose which textbook they wish to use. Maybe they can recommend books but some teacher's fit a textbook style more than others.

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I would say two years. I don't know if all students in these schools will be able to take three years of something, and it might making graduating much, much harder than it would need to be. I am just being realistic.

[Fmr. Pres. Duke]

OK. Eliminate parent evaluations, as parents are not even attending school so why should they evaluate them....?

Reduce to 2 years for language.

I'm fine with the board ranking textbooks but I don't think we need government dictating which textbooks to use. That would slam the textbook industry, which is already out of control mind you, and put some out of business overnight. It would also be a haven for lobbyists/corruption because getting that exclusive "government approval" would be huge and almost create a regional monopoly. We don't need monopolies forming even if it is just for a few years.

And OK on board certification. I don't know anything about it so I'm probably wrong on that front.

[Fmr. Pres. Duke]

I agree with Duke on the foreign languages, but maybe we should make it more of a focus for the elementary schools to teach foreign language. Given how many hispanics live in the region I think we should encourage more young students learn Spanish.

I started taking a language in the 2nd grade, but I went to private school so I don't know how well that might work in public schools.

The fact of the matter is, learning a new language, especially if you did not grow up speaking it, is difficult for a lot of people who are otherwise more than capable of graduating high school. I was never good at languages, but I was great with numbers. I think learning Spanish is important for the future, yes, and perhaps letting 3rd graders and up learn basic spanish is a good idea. When they get older they can choose which language they wish to take, whether it is continuing with spanish or choosing something else.

The tax structure of this still seems counterintuitive. The donate and we'll give you a tax break still seems risky if we want to have a steady model for funding this program. We don't KNOW how much or who will donate so there's hardly any way to know if these new programs can be funded.

If it works then it's great, but if it fails we are underfunded.

[Fmr. Pres. Duke]

Still skeptical about the tax credit for certainty purposes, as we don't really know how many people will opt into it, and #1 just because it's so vague, but otherwise I'm on board with the rest of it.

[Fmr. Pres. Duke]

I'd favor that. I just feel for comfortable knowing how much money we would have coming in, and these tax credit donations provide no certainty for that. We should give grants to each school district for these after school things. I've never believed we should centralize education. Communities should care about their schools - not government panels.

[Fmr. Pres. Duke]

Yeah, most teachers in the IDS made between $45,000 and $50,000 I think. Don't quote me on that figure though.

[Fmr. Pres. Duke]

Set a $50,000 base salary. Give them a $5,000/year bonus for obtaining their masters and a $15,000/year bonus for obtaining their doctorate. All of these are subject to whether we can afford it, of course.

[Fmr. Pres. Duke]

Obviously, I wouldn't want to see someone with a PhD teaching kindergarden.

But it would be $65,000 max, not $70,000. Maybe just do increments of $5,000 then? Or $2,500? Is a base of $50,000 too much in the IDS?

[Fmr. Pres. Duke]

I went to private school so I don't know how public schools handle it, but I remember my physics teacher in 11th grade telling us he had gone back for his masters in order to take advantage of the pay increase. I don't know how it works at all levels. Maybe we should rework it to specify how the pay increases would work so kindergarden teachers wouldn't be making $70,000, since that seems to be a concern?

I know our kids need the best, but I think someone with a doctorate would be better served teaching older kids

[Fmr. Pres. Duke]

So we are rolling with the tax credit to fund these additional programs? I suppose we can see how it works out...

[Fmr. Pres. Duke]

Well, mean is average, so it means people are making below $40k and some above. I agree though that $35,000 may be a bit low - if we are looking to increase teacher pay, maybe make it $37,500 and everything else will work itself out per district.