Avani Shah-Lipman
Six years ago, approaching the representative of Jeanne McNeill, representing the 133th district of Pennsylvania, with a problem. Her son with special needs was refused to develop a public school.
The mother spent time living in both houses of her parents in Whitehall and Allentown. Her son was thrown out of school in Whitehall, because the school claimed that the family did not have a legal residence there. So she went to Allentown to ask if her son could sign up. They said no, so her son sat at home for five weeks.
McNeill, a democrat with Whitehall, was inspired to take action to prevent the deprivation of education of children of other voters.
So she developed the bill.
“He says that no school can reject the student because of his stay until he is determined where the student actually lives,” said McNeill.
Six years later, after many things and difficult work, the law was signed.
“I didn’t give up. All we can do is try it, “said McNeill.
It is shocking that one problem, which ultimately had a unanimous consent, can take so much time and effort to fix. Although this six -year story has a content ending, many other bills with similarly wide support face the less promising fate.
In 2023, only 86 of 2634 accounts introduced to the state legislator Pennsylvania have been adopted. This is 3.26% success indicator – the fourth worst in the country. The bills have countless points during travel, where they can kick a bucket.
After entering bills in both chambers, they are sent to the Committee to improve or approve. If the chairman of the committee (appointed by the majority leader) does not support the act, he will never plan him to vote in the committee. If it arrives through the commission, the chamber speaker or the President of the Pro tempore Senate may never plan time to vote on the act.
Even with bilateral support, responsible people must act quickly, because at the end of each two -year legislative session, each law dies and will have to be re -introduced at the beginning of the next session, just like McNeill three times.
Many of the seemingly “common sense” of bills, such as adding carbon monoxide detectors to kindergarten (submitted in the home committee after passing in the Senate), die in one of these ways.
There is a solution to this problem – priority bills. Each representative could choose an invoice to be guaranteed voting at every stage of the journey, as long as it passes in the previous step. Representatives would be encouraged to cooperate with committees and/or members of both parties at each stage to change the account and enhance his chance of passing.
In fact, a representative of the state of Melissa Shusterman, a democrat of Schuylkill Township, introduced a resolution in 2021 to enable members to set priority accounts. Ironically, her act died in the committee. Shusterman is still in favor of this idea, said Jennifer Pyc, director of the District Office of Shusterman.
A handful of other states like California AND NebragaApply a similar system in which representatives have a built -in way of paying attention to the problems they depend.
Both rep. John Lawrence, a Republican from Chester, as well as a Republican, a Republican with Manheim, said they were not sure how this idea would be, but they were ready to try. They both emphasized the importance of the legislative process, although they admitted that it could be burdensome.
“The price of democracy is that it is prudent and requires time to change things,” said Lawrence.
However, Rep. Mike Schlossberg, a democrat from the Allentown area, said that he thinks that the solution to priority accounts is not profitable and that the current process is the best way to check if the bills are worth full voting in the Chamber.
“This seems to be an artificial way to enter a vote in a case that could not generate support,” wrote We -Mail.
The extreme division at the General Assembly of Pennsylvania is the main reason why the bills do not pass, so the priority account method can lend a hand exceed the accounts of all ideologies, while our representatives (hopefully) learn cooperation.
It should be uncomplicated because representatives of both parties said that the fight for their voters is their highest priority.
Avani Shah-Lipman is a senior at Baldwin School in Bryn Mawr.
