Executive Viewpoint

Dr. Mike Hernandez, AAEA Executive Director

I just want to start by saying how much I appreciate you and your staff ’s hard work during the pandemic. You are heroes to the students and patrons of your community. The holiday season is officially over and we are in the beginning stages of a very different legislative session. There are some changes that have been made to the legislative process due to the pandemic. Limitations to attendees in the capitol and other committee locations are in place for protection of the legislature, staff and patrons. A full list of the protocols can be found here. At AAEA we began in September with preparation for the 93rd General Assembly through convening our legislative committees to ensure that we were prepared to hit the ground running during this session.

Our committees are Finance/Facilities, Governance/ Retirement and Curriculum. Each committee has approximately 20 AAEA members on it most of which were nominated by their individual cooperatives. Our meetings started via Zoom back in September, but we have allowed some onsite meetings for each committee based on ADH guidelines. We now meet every Wednesday at 9 a.m. to review legislation and recommend a position they will present to AAEA administrators at our general session. The general session begins each Wednesday at 10:30 a.m. and is open to all AAEA members to express their thoughts on a bill as well as to vote on a position. These meetings include committee members, AAEA Board members, education service cooperatives, and others that request the zoom link. If you would like the zoom link please contact m.smith@theaaea.org. I know that it would be preferable to have people onsite to discuss the issues, but that is not feasible at this time. After the vote is taken at our general session, the recommendation is taken to our AAEA board to take the official position. Our position is posted on our bill tracker, and we then go to work contacting our legislators to address items that need clarification or we need to try to stop from becoming law. As another way to hear the information, we post a recording the next day to our members explaining the bills reviewed by the committees and the position taken on those various bills. You can watch these recordings here. I hope that you are able to engage in this process during the legislative session. I also encourage you to watch some House/Senate Education Committee meetings. It helps to better understand the process and see the positions of our legislature. These legislative committee meetings are open to the public, but are slightly different on how you sign up to speak on a bill. The committee meetings can be viewed on-line and each meeting schedule is posted on the 93rd General Assembly website. A link to view the committee meetings will be provided on each meeting agenda.

We know that as bills get filed, every person will have a different reaction to what is being proposed. I would encourage you to reach out to us at AAEA or your AAEA Legislative Committee members to ask questions or give your opinions on these pieces of legislation to ensure we are on the same page as we approach legislators. We have a very hard working legislature who really want to do right by kids and our schools. Sometime we may vehemently disagree with their methods of doing so, but that is what makes Arkansas a great state to live in. There are many things that go into the decision making process of a legislature like state needs, constituent needs, and budgetary needs. We certainly appreciate their hard work. I hope that you will get involved at the state and local levels to help shape educational policy. AAEA is here to advocate for you in this process and your involvement is crucial. Legislators listen to their constituents, the people who elected them. You can make a difference! Please reach out to us at AAEA if you have questions about any legislation or about the whole process. We are here to help you.