Education, health care, guns, and same-sex marriage were the topics of discussion when Donley County’s state legislators held a town hall meeting at the Clarendon College Bairfield Activity Center Tuesday morning, September 8.
Approximately sixty-five people attended the meeting with State Sen. Kel Seliger (R-Amarillo) and State Rep. Ken King (R-Canadian) as the men gave a recap of what happened during the 85th Texas Legislature.
Among the crowd was a large group of Clarendon High School seniors, who were encouraged by Sen. Seliger to register to vote and then to actually participate in the election process.
“We have the government we deserve,” Seliger said, “and that’s based on who you vote for or don’t vote for or whether you vote at all.”
Seliger said much of the Legislature’s time is always focused on education and how policy affects kids in Texas. About $1.3 billion was added to the public education budget, the senator said. One of the highlights of the session was passage of a bill that sets up school committees to review cases where students pass their courses but are being held back from graduating solely because of trouble with the STAAR test.
Rep. King also discussed progress on efforts to move Texas schools closer to offering fully funded, daylong Pre-Kindergarten classes.
“It’s just like training horses,” King said. “If I’m going to train a horse, I start when he’s two. You get more bang for your buck when you start young.”
House Bill 2610 also affected local schools by changing how the state measures the number of days schools are in session. King said the state had a goal of 187 days measured in hours, but the bill broke that measurement into minutes to give schools more flexibility in their calendars.
Seliger said health care expenses continue to rise for the state with relief in sight, and King reported the successful passage of his HB 2813 which requires a CA 125 blood test to be covered by insurance. The test is an early detector of ovarian cancer, which claimed the life of King’s mother about two years ago.
King said it was unusual for good Republicans to work together to pass a health care mandate and have it signed into law by a Republican governor, but that early detection could save lives and save money as well.
“In my Mom’s case, her treatment over two years cost about $2 million,” King said. “They say at MD Anderson, if she had had a CA 125 test, they would have caught it early, possibly cured her or at least put it in remission, and all for about $100,000.”
Seliger and King also touched on the Legislature’s passage of open carry and campus carry laws, which the representative described as “mostly hype.” Seliger said the biggest outcome of the open carry law would be a new measure of “manliness.” King said calls from some segments for unlicensed “constitutional carry” were “off the deep end.”
“Frankly, Kel and I work with some Legislators who shouldn’t have a gun,” King joked.
Seliger took part of the meeting to quiz high school students on the issues of the day, start with same-sex marriage, which the State Constitution prohibits but the US Supreme Court this year has ruled in favor of, making it legal. The students said they felt that should be a state’s rights issue.
Students also said they did not support efforts to legalize the medical use of marijuana in Texas.
Seliger and King also addressed audience concerns about the local DPS troopers being sent to patrol the southern border and the need for better services for autistic children in public schools.
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