Perspective: Looking forward to unfinished business

Rudy Veit
Rudy Veit

Consider: The best measurement for the strength of a family or society is how they react in challenging times.

The tornado and flooding are two of those challenges.

I think most people would agree, even if I am a lawyer and a politician, that our community, adjoining communities and people from all over the state and nation have stepped up to lend their economical, physical and moral support. I would like to thank every possible person who has lent aid to our community, but the editor of the paper will only give me so many words for this column.

Thank you to everyone. I am impressed by everyone stepping up in these challenging times, and I am proud of the communities I represent.

My initial thoughts when this legislative term ended was to go over all that we accomplished. However, the newspapers have covered that, and if you go to the Senate or House website, they will proudly announce all that we have accomplished. We did accomplish a lot, however, life is too short to sit around patting yourself on the back for all you have accomplished when there are important issues we did not address.

On the lighter side, outside cremation passed the House and Senate but I am not certain whether the governor has signed it yet. I will be sure to update you so you can plan accordingly, if you so desire.

It is time to look forward to see what remains unfinished; what new problems are arising and how we go about accomplishing some of the things that were not addressed.

As a freshman representative, I am optimistic can change something while I am in office. To do this, we have set up task forces to study some important matters.

A task force on education, which I am on, was established. Our goal is to look at how to improve the efficiency of our education system and allow individuals to graduate from high school with a career path whether it be college, tech school or the workforce.

We are looking for ways to make our public school system more efficient and to allow individuals to graduate with a degree that results in employment and a minimal amount of debt. I know the debt students incur while in college is partially an issue they must address themselves and many students to live more conservatively. But also, we need to look at our system and see what we can change.

Things such as having the ability to obtain college credit while in high school are feasible to reduce some degrees so they can be accomplished in three years. I know a general broad-based education is beneficial, but it is only beneficial if you can afford it while not putting yourself in debt beyond your ability to repay.

Is it feasible to start a program designed for a specific type of work and limit some of the extra courses you’d have to take that are outside of your field of interest?

Does an engineer need a fine arts class, sociology class and history class?

We are not suggesting answers. We are meeting with various principals, superintendents, DESE officials and other educational institutions to see in what manner we can help our students obtain a degree with employment and a pay level that justifies the amount of work that goes into the degree.

We will also be addressing issues such as dropout rate, school absenteeism, and all areas. We are considering all ideas people have or that we receive to generally improve our public school system.

Another task force I am on is looking at our judicial system. This will entail not the areas such as civil liability and criminal liability, but rather it is looking at ways to assist those people who are least able to protect themselves and lobby for their rights. This would include such areas as juvenile law, guardianships, small claims courts, and those related agencies that provide child advocacy groups, victim abuse, rights of the victims of crimes and anything that will try to ease the stress individuals have with our court system and understanding of it. This will ensure those who don’t have lobbyists and are not lobbyists, etc., have a way to voice their complaints and ways to try to improve them.

There also is a group now looking at ways of addressing the infrastructure issues. I am not on that committee, but I am very familiar with the discussions and it is our belief it is time to do something and we cannot continue to kick the ball down the road. We are going to have to make hard decisions, decisions that could cost some of us our jobs in the Legislature. But we feel this is a critical issue and as representatives, it is our job to arrive at a decision that solves the problem even if that incurs the wrath of certain lobbyist groups, etc. We have a very large number in the freshman group that are of the age who we feel if we cannot accomplish something, there is no need to be there. We are just business people from all walks of life who want to use our time and talent trying to improve the state and the Legislature.

I truly want to thank everyone for their vote. I would agree the experience is a little different than I expected, but it was a wonderful experience. I intend to spend my summer and fall visiting various schools, different groups, social events and political events to do of the things expected of a representative.

If you need for me to do something, or if you think there is something I should be at, speak at, listen to, please advise and I gladly will do everything I can to get it onto my schedule.

State Rep. Rudy Veit, R-Jefferson City, represents the 59th District, and shares his perspective on statehouse issues twice a month.