Senator Dan Brown’s Legislative Column for the Week of Sept. 3, 2018
Starting Monday, Sept. 10, Missouri lawmakers will return to the State Capitol in Jefferson City for the First Extra Session of the Second Regular Session of the 99th General Assembly and for the annual veto session.
The governor called the extraordinary session to address numerous issues facing our state. The extraordinary session will focus on legislation encouraging high school students to take computer science courses and legislation aiming to expand the state’s drug treatment courts.
Veto session will begin on Wednesday, Sept. 12. During this time, lawmakers will address legislation vetoed by the governor. Following the legislative session, the governor vetoed legislation promoting computer science education, as well as a bill intend to expand the state’s drug treatment courts. The governor said he supports the overall intent of both pieces of legislation and that the extraordinary session is aimed at replacing problematic language in both bills.
One of these bills would have allowed high school computer science courses to count toward math, science or practical art credits required for graduation. The other is a wide-ranging bill dealing with drug treatment courts, judicial retirement plans and language allowing for abandoned property to be cleaned up.
Senate Bill 894 would have established new computer science standards that include coding and programming along with guidelines designed for K-12 schools. This will encourage more Missouri students to study computer science by allowing these courses to count toward high school graduation. Computer science skills are in demand across our state and country. This program will provide our youth with the skills necessary for the 21st century job market. The bill also created a certification program for computer science teachers as well as established an online program that showcases STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Math) careers and their impact on today’s economy. In a letter to legislators, the governor noted he objected to a section in the bill, which created an online career awareness program for STEM professions because the detailed criteria for bidders appeared to be too narrow. Statistics indicate that most Missouri parents want their children to be taught the computer science skills they need in order to prepare them for the 21st century job market.
The governor also vetoed House Bill 2562, a wide-ranging bill dealing with drug treatment courts, judicial retirement plans and efforts to clean up abandoned property. In a letter to lawmakers, the governor said the bill began as a measure to expand drug treatment courts, but ultimately contained 13 different subjects, which did not appear to relate to the title of the legislation.
This measure began as a bill intended to expand Missouri’s drug treatment courts; however, the final version of the bill included language affecting the salaries of Kansas City police officers, provisions relating to court personnel and procedures, language relating to judicial retirement options and numerous other measures.
As always, I encourage my constituents to contact me throughout the year with comments, questions or suggestions by calling my office at (573) 751-5713. Thank you for reading this and for your participation in state government.