S.20.4.1 - Earn While You Learn Act [LAW'D]

[KoopaDaQuick 🇵🇸]

A BILL FOR AN ACT
investing in our region’s community colleges and trade schools

BE IT ENACTED BY THE SOUTHERN CHAMBER RESOLVED.

Section 1, TITLE AND DEFINITIONS.
1. The title of this Act shall be, the "Earn While You Learn Act."
2. For the purposes of this Act, a “trade school” is an institution of post-secondary education within the Southern Region that provides its students a vocational education for a certain trade.
3. Unless stated otherwise, all forms of educational institutions mentioned in this Act shall only apply to public, and not private, institutions.

Section 2, FUNDING.
1. The government of the Southern Region shall allocate five million dollars ($5,000,000.00) from the regional budget per fiscal year that shall be used to fund this section.
2. The funds allocated in §2.1 of this Act shall be evenly dispersed among every community college and trade school in the Southern Region.
3. Funds shall be dispersed on the eleventh (11th) day of August every year to the schools mentioned in §2.2 of this Act.
4. Every year before the eleventh (11th) day of August, the Southern Department of Education shall come up with a list of trade schools in the South that can be funded.
5. Every public community college in the Southern Region shall automatically be included in regional funding. There will be no need to include a public community college on the list mentioned in §2.4 in order to receive funding.

Section 3, ENACTMENT CLAUSE.
1. This bill shall take effect starting in FY2022.

Sponsor: KoopaDaQuick (Peace - Arkansas)

I'll advocate later this morning/early this afternoon when I can squeeze it in.

[KoopaDaQuick 🇵🇸]

I wrote this bill because I think community colleges are a great way for Southerners seeking higher education to do so while lowering the risk of student loans placing a burden on the student's financial future. Many classes that are mandatory in the first few years of a 4-year university are available at a community college for a fraction of the cost.

Seeing as further investment in quality community college is beneficial for the young adults of the Southern Region, this bill seeks to make such institutions better places to learn, as well as making Southern CCs cheaper than those of Lincoln and Frémont without burdening the quality of said campusses.

I yield the floor for questions and comments.

[tmthforu94]

I like the intent of the bill. What made you settle on $5 million? Is this essentially just block grants going to these schools, or will there be parameters in place on how the money is spent?

[KoopaDaQuick 🇵🇸]

I like the intent of the bill. What made you settle on $5 million? Is this essentially just block grants going to these schools, or will there be parameters in place on how the money is spent?

$5mil is a temporary number. I came up with it as I think it's large enough to make sense but small enough to not place a giant burden on our region's budget. If someone (preferably someone who's good at finance) can give me a better number, I encourage you to crunch the numbers.

As for how the money will be spent, my original intent when authoring this was letting the schools decide on how it's spent, but now you mention that, I think I want to require it to be spent on certain things, such as improving the physical campus, paying the teachers' salaries, funding projects to make the quality of education better, just generally making sure that these schools aren't putting their money where their mouths are.

Feel free to go all out with amendments, my main intention when writing this was letting the legislative process smooth out some of these edges here.

[tmthforu94]

Offering an amendment to specify that the funds be used to provide grants and scholarships to students seeking higher education at community colleges and trade schools, making it more affordable.

A BILL FOR AN ACT
investing in our region’s community colleges and trade schools

BE IT ENACTED BY THE SOUTHERN CHAMBER RESOLVED.

Section 1, TITLE AND DEFINITIONS.
1. The title of this Act shall be, the "Earn While You Learn Act."
2. For the purposes of this Act, a “trade school” is an institution of post-secondary education within the Southern Region that provides its students a vocational education for a certain trade.
3. Unless stated otherwise, all forms of educational institutions mentioned in this Act shall only apply to public, and not private, institutions.

Section 2, FUNDING.
1. The government of the Southern Region shall allocate five million dollars ($5,000,000.00) from the regional budget per fiscal year that shall be used to fund this section.
2. The funds allocated in §2.1 of this Act shall be evenly dispersed among every community college and trade school in the Southern Region.
3. Funds shall be dispersed on the eleventh (11th) day of August every year to the schools mentioned in §2.2 of this Act to be used to fund student grant and scholarship programs.
4. Every year before the eleventh (11th) day of August, the Southern Department of Education shall come up with a list of trade schools in the South that can be funded.
5. Every public community college in the Southern Region shall automatically be included in regional funding. There will be no need to include a public community college on the list mentioned in §2.4 in order to receive funding.

Section 3, ENACTMENT CLAUSE.
1. This bill shall take effect starting in FY2022.

[President Punxsutawney Phil]

I like this bill.

[KoopaDaQuick 🇵🇸]

Great amendment.

24 hours to object.

[KoopaDaQuick 🇵🇸]

Amendment = Adopted (sorry for being a little late, busy day)

Any other takes before we move on to a final vote?

[KoopaDaQuick 🇵🇸]

Motioning for a final vote, 24 hours to object.

[Harvey Updyke Jr🌹]

I'm certainly in favor of more spending on our education system.  However, before I lend my support, I would like to make an inquiry:  will these funds be spent on any institutions that include elements of religious dogma in the science classroom? 

[KoopaDaQuick 🇵🇸]

A final vote shall begin. You may vote AYE, NAY, or ABSTAIN.


AYE

[tmthforu94]

Aye

[reagente]

Aye

[Harvey Updyke Jr🌹]

Aye.

[Holy Unifying Centrist]

Aye

[KoopaDaQuick 🇵🇸]

Everyone has voted, you have until tomorrow at 4pm EST to change your vote.

[KoopaDaQuick 🇵🇸]

Earn While You Learn Act
The First Bill of the Twentieth Southern Chamber, Sponsored by Koopa D. Quick (P-AR)

	FED	PAX	D.A.	LAB	TOTAL
Aye	2	1	1	1	5
Nay	0	0	0	0	0
Abstain	0	0	0	0	0
Not Present	0	0	0	0	0

Mr. DTC of Georgia (FED/IND)
Mr. HARVEY LEE UPDYKE III of Alabama (LAB/IND)
Ms. KOOPA D. QUICK of Arkansas (PAX/STR)
Mr. REAGENTE of Missouri (FED/DPP)
Mr. TMTHFORU94 of Kansas (DA/AFP)

Haven't gotten the chance to use this sucker in a long, long time.

A BILL FOR AN ACT
investing in our region’s community colleges and trade schools

BE IT ENACTED BY THE SOUTHERN CHAMBER RESOLVED.

Section 1, TITLE AND DEFINITIONS.
1. The title of this Act shall be, the "Earn While You Learn Act."
2. For the purposes of this Act, a “trade school” is an institution of post-secondary education within the Southern Region that provides its students a vocational education for a certain trade.
3. Unless stated otherwise, all forms of educational institutions mentioned in this Act shall only apply to public, and not private, institutions.

Section 2, FUNDING.
1. The government of the Southern Region shall allocate five million dollars ($5,000,000.00) from the regional budget per fiscal year that shall be used to fund this section.
2. The funds allocated in §2.1 of this Act shall be evenly dispersed among every community college and trade school in the Southern Region.
3. Funds shall be dispersed on the eleventh (11th) day of August every year to the schools mentioned in §2.2 of this Act to be used to fund student grant and scholarship programs.
4. Every year before the eleventh (11th) day of August, the Southern Department of Education shall come up with a list of trade schools in the South that can be funded.
5. Every public community college in the Southern Region shall automatically be included in regional funding. There will be no need to include a public community college on the list mentioned in §2.4 in order to receive funding.

Section 3, ENACTMENT CLAUSE.
1. This bill shall take effect starting in FY2022.

[President Punxsutawney Phil]

[President Punxsutawney Phil]

It's a great day in the South. This is definitely a high mark to begin with, in terms of bills arriving on my desk.