Ed Committee hearing, 30 April. Light day.
We heard just one bill, HB 631, establishing a deaf child’s bill of
rights. It had a lot of supporters. The
language is vague and wimpy. Twelve
clauses begin with “Deaf or hard of hearing children have a right to” this that
and the other, all vague nice sounding ideas.
No sentences with words like “The school committee shall” of “The dept
of Education shall”. I asked about this,
and was told that the language was copied from a bill in some other state and
the “no state mandates on cities and towns” law prevented stronger language. Far as I can see all this bill does is give
parents the right to sue, at their own expense, should they come to believe
that their deaf child is not getting a fair shake. We had a lot of witnesses testify in sign
language. In executive session we did a
lightweight amendment and voted it Ought To Pass. This bill, with or without amendments is reasonably harmless to my way of
thinking.
Then I attended the
hearing in the Transportation Committee on HB 591, the anti off road vehicle
(ATV) bill. If passed it would close
most roads to ATV’s even crossing them, let alone going into town to buy
dinner, and make it difficult to establish more ATV trails. I testified that ATV users are bringing real
money to the North Country and should be encouraged. We
need their money. And that I would vote
against this bill when it gets to the Senate floor.
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