State Legislatures Magazine: September 2002

Editor's Note: This article appeared in the September 2002 issue of NCSL's magazine, State Legislatures. To order copies or to subscribe, contact the marketing department at (303) 364-7700

Stateline

A LEVY ON LATTE?
A group of child care advocates in Seattle, Wash., birthplace of Starbuck's, wants to tax espresso drinks to improve the quality of the city's child care, including increasing workers' wages and helping low income families afford good care. The Early Learning and Care Committee, which is made up of parents, teachers and child care directors, has filed an initiative that, if enough signatures are gathered and it is approved in November, would add a 10-cent city tax on each drink sold. It could raise between $7 million and $10 million a year, they say.

UNPREPARED TEACHERS
States have a long way to go to meet the new federal requirement for a "highly qualified teacher" in every classroom, charges U.S. Secretary of Education Rod Paige. In his recent report to Congress on the state of teacher quality, he condemns states for their outdated certification systems, high barriers to the profession and lax standards that leave a staggering number of classrooms filled with unprepared teachers. States are criticized for setting the minimum bar for licensure "shockingly low." California's Basic Educational Skills Test is set at roughly the 10th grade level, as are most states' licensing examinations. Virginia, however, is cited for having the highest reading and math cutoff scores, and Pennsylvania is praised for its aggressive effort to raise teacher standards.

UNFINISHED BUSINESS
Kansans have been debating, discussing and arguing about a statue for the top of their Capitol dome since 1901. That year, the Legislature felt that a statue was too extravagant. Ceres, the Roman goddess of agriculture, was to be the adornment, at a cost of $6,950. Later in the year, opponents argued that Ceres was a loose woman, and the debate was on. There have been other ideas for dome toppers over the years including a buffalo and the state's first governor, Charles Robinson. Lawmakers set aside $32,000 in 1974 to install Ceres, but the governor vetoed the project, calling it "premature." Well, it looks like Kansans may have finally come to a compromise. By early October, the state is expected to have a dedication ceremony for a statue of a Kansa Indian with his bow to the sky, arrow pointed to the North Star.

THE NOSE KNOWS
Getting a fake ID in Colorado will be a whole lot harder after a new facial recognition system begins mapping the faces of everyone with a Colorado driver's license. The new technology will become a central security feature of the state's Division of Motor Vehicles. It will compare the high-tech face prints against 3.9 million photographs now in the database and will prevent the same person from getting more than one license or ID card using someone else's name. An invisible identifier also will be added to licenses so stores and banks can detect whether they're genuine or made on a home computer.

STATE HOUSE BEAUTIFUL
When driving through South Dakota, a stop at the Capitol in Pierre is a must. The building is beautiful, but the grounds are gorgeous! Congratulations go to the lawn keepers of the South Dakota State Capitol. It recently was named one of the top 10 public lawns and landscapes for 2002 by Briggs and Stratton, makers of lawn equipment. Other winners included the Lincoln Tomb State Historic Site in Springfield, Ill., the North Carolina Art Museum in Raleigh, the Missouri Botanical Garden in St. Louis and the Denver Botanic Gardens.

GOING TO SCHOOL AT HOME
This fall, Idaho joins about a dozen states that have "cyber" charter schools, offering on-line instruction. This fall, any kindergartner through fifth grader in Idaho can enroll. He needs only a computer, and the school will even supply that, if necessary. Called Idaho Virtual Academy, it will offer a traditional curriculum via home computers and will include mailings of workbooks, science kits and maps. Parents will provide the bulk of instruction, along with a cadre of regional, state-certified teachers who will grade papers, track student progress and confer with students and parents. Critics of these schools worry that they threaten the financial stability of regular public education (where money follows students). Policymakers around the country must decide how to regulate them and whether these cyber charter schools should be counted and financed as public education.

GOT YOUR GOAT?
Goats, those animals who eat just about anything, are the latest cash crop for farmers seeking to diversify. Farmers have figured out that recent immigrants from Latin America, the Caribbean, Africa and the Middle East are hungry for their traditional source of meat. Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, Mississippi, North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee and Texas lead the states in meeting an increasing demand for goat meat. Kentucky offers cash assistance to farmers who want to try their hand at goat herding. North Carolina has seen its goat sales soar to $6.6 million annually. Texas is the largest goat producer while Tennessee and Georgia battle it out for second place.

ALCOHOLIC LOOK-ALIKES
For the first time, Iowa has removed a product from its list of about 1,300 alcoholic items because of safety concerns. Zippers, 24-proof gelatin shots, will no longer be allowed on Iowa's liquor store shelves. Lynn Walding, executive director of the Iowa Alcoholic Beverages Division, became concerned about how closely alcoholic gelatin shots resembled Jell-O snacks. Alarm over the product's appeal to young children prompted the state to ban the shots. "Everything from the package design to the brightly colored content is designed to appeal to consumers under the legal age," he said.

A GIFT OR A BRIBE?
Vermont has become the first state to take aim at drug companies' practice of showering free gifts-from ballpoint pens to trips-on doctors and nurses. Under the new law, any gift valued at $25 or more, other than free drug samples, must be reported to the state by pharmaceutical companies. The law includes a civil penalty of up to $10,000 per violation, with the first reports due January 2004. Proponents of the law charge that the use of freebies drives up medical costs by encouraging doctors to prescribe new, more expensive brand name drugs. Critics contend that the gifts do not influence doctors and are merely educational tools for new products.

RUNOFF WORSE THAN SPILLS
Petroleum released into U.S. coastal waters comes mostly from people, not spills from oil tankers. The National Research Council recently reported that 29 million gallons of oil enter the oceans around North America each year. Of that, 15.6 million gallons come from street runoff, industrial waste, municipal wastewater and wastewater from refineries. Personal watercraft and outboard engines account for 1.6 million gallons of pollution. Another estimated 6.1 million gallons come from "atmospheric deposition," that is, oil deposited on the ocean surface after emission into the air from cars, power facilities and industrial plants.

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