Capitol Comments

To advocates of greater transparency in government, the phrase “gut and go” is a legislative nightmare that happens when one chamber takes a bill already passed by the other, strips and replaces the language with an unrelated measure, and then advances it with little or no debate.

Late in 2017, Michigan lawmakers ended their legislative year seeking a fix to another problem with drinking water in the state. It wasn’t lead contamination this time, but rather the discovery of 28 sites in the state with known levels of PFAS, or per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances. The Legislature allocated $23.2 million for various response and mitigation measures.

In early 2018, the Minnesota attorney general finalized an $850 million settlement with 3M over groundwater contamination in the east metropolitan area of the Twin Cities. The cause: The company’s disposal, over decades, of PFAS chemicals used for products such as Scotchgard, stain removers and fire retardants.Though these chemicals were used for decades, and many of them have been phased out of production, they are considered an “emerging contaminant” — because environmental and health officials have only recently begun to test for the presence of PFAS chemicals in drinking water, detect them, and understand their potential impact on human health.

The new funding in Michigan will be used to purchase new lab equipment, expand testing of drinking water, and purchase filtration systems for affected residents. A longer-term fix is likely to be more problematic and costly, whether it’s pumping out all the groundwater and removing the chemicals or hooking up the owners of private wells (this has been the group most affected in Michigan) to a municipal system.

One year ago at this time, in a discussion started by a member of the Indiana State Board of Education, Sen. Jeff Raatz began thinking about a policy response to one of the biggest concerns raised about students graduating from the state’s K-12 school system. “How do we help them get the employability skills they need?” Raatz asked.

One of the answers was this year’s passage of SB 297, a measure that will have every public school in the state incorporate those types of skills (also sometimes referred to as “soft skills”) into their K-12 curriculum. 
At the elementary level, for example, it might mean students are expected to greet their teacher with a firm handshake and appropriate eye contact. In other classrooms, a greater emphasis could be placed on problem-solving and adaptability, teamwork and social skills, or punctuality and self-management.

Most states in the region have statutes addressing school safety or emergency preparedness — some more prescriptive than others. Illinois, Indiana, Minnesota, Ohio and Wisconsin, for example, require schools or school districts to have a comprehensive school safety or emergency plan.