HOUSE BILL: The HELIOS Act (At Final Vote)

[Sestak]

I have a suggestion for an Amendment to the Bill once Pericles' is adapted into this one.

I would suggest adding a minimum GPA Requirement so that Students who actually work hard in school are given the ability to be eligible for Free College, rather than just giving it to everyone.  I'd suggest a minimum requirement of a 3.0 Weighted GPA, a B Average overall.

I don't have the time to amend at the moment, but I'd suggest a 3.0 or 3.5 unweighted, so that schools don't weight their GPAs at something ridiculous like 10 so that everyone can get free college. Also, 3.0 or 3.5 on a 4.0 scale so that students have the incentive to work harder. A B average is just that -- average. We need to set a higher goal so that students will have the incentive to succeed.

The issue with using unweighted GPA, as I mentioned on Discord, would be that it discourages students from taking hard classes because they'll feel a need to keep their GPA up - GPA is a flawed metric for exactly this reason.

Weighted GPA attempts to mitigate this, but no matter what weighting standard we choose (and it would have to be uniform), it would force people to gravitate towards the easiest classes which are weighted and away from the hardest classes that are unweighted. The logic will be "well, if this harder class is unweighted, then I can just take this easier class." It's the same thing in weighted: if two weighted classes are semi-substitutes for each other (see AB and BC calc), people will gravitate to the easier one in order to maximize their GPA.

These are my reservations re: GPA reqs.

[Sestak]

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[Sestak]

Yeah. Introduced now.

[Sestak]

Never,

This does not lower the overall cap, but it does set the standard lower for students under that bar, as well as students from non-college families (who I believe should be a focus of this program).

The reason I didn't base it solely off GPA is that I'm afraid that it will incentivize "GPA hacking", where students forgo tougher classes in order to keep their GPA higher. Not all difficult, challenging, or useful classes are AP or IB. The idea behind this was to give some leeway to students who are able to get better test scores to allow them to take more risks in their course selections. I understand your gripes with standardized testing; trust me, I don't like them either. But I can't think of a better way to do this. I was loosely basing it off of the CSU eligibility index.

I don't think including extracurriculars is a good idea. As you probably know, college extracurricular requirements have led parents to sign kids up for "check box" extracurriculars at a young age, leading to a sort of monotony where every student plays one sport, one instrument, etc., and I don't like the idea of encouraging this. Many also try to game the system through things like church-organized trips to "bulid houses" in some underdeveloped country that don't really generate much of a positive impact and are pretty much designed for a resume check mark. It takes colleges time to adapt, so the parents with the most economic resources are always able to stay ahead. And this is with universities. Imagine how much worse it would be when it's the federal government.

Also, one more note: The one thing I'm most apprehensive about with the amendment is that we're putting the keys to federal funding in the hands on independent educational organizations, one of whom is foreign. But I'm not sure how else to do it.

[Sestak]

I'll sponsor.

[Sestak]

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Who is suppose to do the "inserting in sub clause b"?

I'm shelving this amendment anyway.

[Sestak]

With the most recent edits to the post, the amendment is friendly, of course.

[Sestak]

Can we suspend debate on this until we get an analysis by Thumb21?

Is this an objection to the amendment?

Personally, I'd support just getting the amendment passed, then waiting for Thumb before we decide to either further amend or pass this.

[Sestak]

Alright if dfw doesn't show up in another few hours I say we declare no objections. It's been over two days since I asked clarification.

[Sestak]

I offer the following amendment.

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[Sestak]

Also, given that this amendment is just standardization and should be uncontroversial, I'm going to motion for a final vote at the same time. 24 hours to object to either; if there are none, a final vote will open on the amended version.


Note: There is a slight conundrum here because I forgot about something: HSR, which formally creates CAF-12, needs to go through Senate debate, while this will just go for an up-or-down vote. I don't want to clog up a Senate-passed bills slot while there are so many more waiting, so would it be possible for PiT to hold off on Senate introduction or fhtagn to delay her signature until HSR is enacted?

[Sestak]

Ok wait a second.  So if the next budget isn't funded this wouldn't go into effect?  That's what the amendment is?

Not the next budget. Just this specific fund, which also funds the High-Speed Rail and School Defense & Mental Health Reform bills (both of which contain the same clause). The funding from this bill, however, covers all three programs, meaning that if this bill is passed, the clause doesn't really do anything. It's mostly just to ensure we're not violating paygo by pushing funding for three bills to one.

[Sestak]

Alright, I move for a final vote on this. 24 hours to object.

[Sestak]

With Yankee's objection having been nullified by the Senator's most recent statement, it has now been 24 hours since the call for a final vote, so...

A final vote is now open; the question is on passage of HB 1131. Members, please vote Aye, Nay, or Abstain.

[Sestak]

Aye.

[Sestak]

A simple majority being required, enough affirmative votes have been cast for passage. Members have 24 hours to vote or change their vote.

[Sestak]

A simple majority being required, enough affirmative votes have been cast for passage. Members have 24 hours to vote or change their vote.

I believe it's been 24 Hours

Yeah, but only Yankee can close votes.