Sen. Lindsey Tichenor (R-6) doesn’t want citizens to call their legislators if they disagree with her. She haughtily told us to not bother calling about HB 1 (the federal school voucher/tax credit program). Then she Repub-splained to us that since they have a supermajority, it’s no use expressing our viewpoints since they can do whatever they darn well please. How does that sit with you?
I loved watching Rep Lisa Willner (D-35) rise on the House floor on Wednesday to explain a point to the rest of the “honorable body” about HB 497, the bill to make it harder for senior citizens to attend college classes on a tuition waiver.
Willner drove home the point that senior citizens know how to participate in civic engagement by contacting their legislators. She recounted many stories of how she had been contacted about the bill, and why and how senior learners have been attending college courses on a tuition waiver. She put a face on many of these seniors as she explained what the opportunity had meant to so many people, and how it had been mutually beneficial for senior learners to build relationships and share experiences with younger learners.
House Speaker David Osborne tried to shut Rep. Willner down by telling her she couldn’t read direct messages from outside sources – so she pivoted and began paraphrasing. I loved her cool, calm, polite, but in-your-face determination to get her point across!
The goal of HB 497 seems to be to corral all of the higher education tuition waivers under one roof with a common set of processes. That makes a lot of sense, right? It does, but it is also a reminder that very few situations can be neatly packaged into a one-size-fits-all box. There are a LOT of tuition waiver circumstances, such as survivors of first responders, veterans, and foster children, all of whom receive these waivers.
However, one group, the Donovan Scholars, has a little bit different demographic. These are people over the age of 65 who have been attending our colleges under a tuition waiver for over 50 years! Now, HB 497 wants seniors to fill out a FAFSA form that wants a whole lot of information specifically for senior learner (retirement income, social security income, etc.). And, seniors may have some difficulty filing out the forms, as well as concerns about data privacy regarding sensitive information. It is also very unlikely that seniors would qualify for student financial aid anyway, so the form just becomes a barrier.
It would be easy to carve out the senior learners from the requirement to fill out the FAFSA form, but because of the way the committee substitute and floor amendments were fashioned, Rep Willner’s floor amendment was boxed out.
So now, it is up to US. Now WE have the opportunity to call on the Senators who will take this bill up in committee and on the floor to FIX this.
Rep Willner is challenging us to ALL call and raise our voices. Let’s prove Sen Tichenor wrong. It DOES matter if you call.
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