State of the State

Let me start by apologizing for my lack of a blog post yesterday. I got back to Greencastle very late for the State of the State address and I fell into bed because I needed to be back in Indy very early this morning in order to start attending committee hearings. There is one on education and one on transportation, both that look interesting.
But, back to the State of the State address for a minute. It was… not what I expected. There was a lot of content about the economy, which I was expecting. I even expected the emphasis on education sine it seems that the marker for a “successful” budget this year will be if education spending can stay the same for FY2009 as it was in FY2008. The tangent about more discipline in schools absolutely threw me. I understand that it is important, at the same time is that really the best reason that Mitch Daniels can come up with for the low test scores in Indiana? Is there really no better explanation for it? For instance, could it be at all that students are tested so many times in Indiana that the teachers curriculums are almost completely dictated by making sure their students know how to test, not necessarily making sure that the student actually understand the content. What about the huge racial and socio-economic disparities between inner-city schools versus suburban and rural schools? Kids are bored because instead of learning about Hemmingway and Newton, they are learning the strategy for how to answer multiple choice questions and how to best right and ISTEP essay, and kids are frustrated because they see and hear constantly about what other students have and their “public” schools that these kids can’t even dream of. Why are their schools with astro-turf on their football fields while other students are still trying to use almost archaic computers in the classroom and are only have four or five AP classes offered at all. The boredom and the injustice wears on kids. While these can cause discipline problems, until these causes are addressed instead of kids just being told to “sit down and hush up”, there is going to be very little change in this area.
I was also somewhat surprised that Governor Daniels was so openly critical of states like Ohio, Illinois and California. If he is really making a run for the presidency in 2012 as it has been rumored, he will need to make friends out of these big swing states, But then again, that may rightly not be a big priority right now, which is just as acceptable. I was surprised to hear it in a State of the State though. It said a lot to me about what Mitch Daniels really thinks of Hoosiers that he put these comparisons in the State of the State. Putting down other states in order to make Hoosiers feel better about a financial crisis that Mitch’s own party got us into makes Hoosiers state wide seem very shallow. It is times like these that Americans should be coming together, not drawing even harsher state lines of separation.
Mitch, it is going to be an interesting year and you have a few months to help pass some of the most progressive environmental legislation that the U.S. has ever seen that will save tax payers huge amounts of money potentially and save the state tons of money. This is your opportunity… will you take it?

Long Day

Today was a long but good day at the legislature. It started early at 8:00 a.m. and I spent the morning tacking down a few Senators and Representatives, such as GiaQuinta and Reske , that are important to bills I am interested in. Then, it was onto a joint session of the House and the Senate to ratify the election results. Then was the inauguration of the Governor, Lieutenant Governor, the Attorney General, and the Superintendent of Public Instruction. All gave sort of the run of the mill Indiana-is-great-and-can-do-even-better speeches specific to their areas. Then there were receptions where I met Governor Daniels. I got to talk to him for a few minutes about what U was hoping to get accomplished while I was in Indy and he seemed open to many of the ideas. I spent the afternoon (after a quick lunch) talking to a few more Senators and Representatives and finished the day with a chance encounter with Governor Daniels again as he was on his way out. Also, I spoke to Win Moses and it looks as though he may have a committee hearing in time for me to testify at it. Tomorrow is the State of the State address, so it is going to be a long day. It should be an exciting but exhausting day! 

Meeting and Greeting

There was a lot og meeting a greeting going on and the legislature yesterday. I met Senator Arrington, Senator Yoder, Senator Kruse, and Senator Dillon. Senator Kruse seemed somewhat confused about the separate issues I wanted to talk about and I do not believe he will be a significant ally in out environmental persutes. Dillon and Arrington on the other hand did seem open to our ideas and were enthusiastic about any information I could continue to provide. Yoder is a rookie and seems to still be trying to figure out the ropes. This could work to an advantage and become an ally with Yoder early in his career. This weekend will be spent further examing some of the interesting bills, trying to understand the complexities of them before taking some of the issues head on on Monday. This next week is going to be very long...

Good Day

So it was my first say at the capitol building and it seemed to go very well. I got to sit in on both the Senate and the House for a short period of time. I also got to talk to Representative Nancy Michael from Greencastle's district and Win Moses from my home district in Fort Wayne. I am actually going to call Win's office tomorrow to schedule a lunch meeting with him to talk about a potential Feed-in Tariff policy and geothermal. It should be an interesting meeting. I hope to sit in on more of the sessions tomorrow and possibly track down any committee hearings I would be interested in. Also, I think I may follow up on this Campus Police bill. Since I did a report on them last year, I may be able to offer some insight. We will see. 

Not much

There is not too much to report today. I looked over a lot of the proposed legislation for Indiana so far. There are some interesting ones including expanding the power of campus police and establishing an RES policy. I head to Indy tomorrow to start talking to legislators. We will see how it goes.

Getting Started

Not too much to report yet. I have started looking at the proposed policy for the upcoming session in Indy. There is some interesting stuff from animal fighting to creating a new environmental board. It will be more research tomorrow since all that is going on in Indy tomorrow in the swearing in which means little to no legislative action. On Wednesday though, State House here I come...

Explanation

Ok,

so for a little more explanation. Last year I was notified that I had received the opportunity to go to D.C. for the inauguration this year. I knew I wanted to go and it is during DePauw's Winter Term so I knew timing wasn't going to be an issue. So, I decided to build it into an independent study project for the entire winter term. I am going to spend the majority of January commuting from Greencastle to Indianapolis to work with legislators and testify before the legislature regarding environmental issues that I have spent the semester researching. Then. on January 17th, I will be headed to D.C. While there we (the rest of the group) are going to be visit the museums and meet Al Gore, Lance Armstrong, Colin Powell, John Edwards, and a few other notable people. We will also go to the inauguration and then to one of the balls. I am so so so so so so excited! As part of the Independent Study I am keeping this blog and then writing a paper to cap it all off. I will probably post the final paper on the blog as a wrap-up to anyone who has been following the blog at all. Again, thank you so much for taking an interest in this. I am so excited about the whole month. It is cool to think that as a 20 year old young woman I am going to get to see so much and have the potential to have an impact on legislation here within the state. Watch for more posts. Starting on January 5th, there will be a post at least once a day. Talk to you all soon!