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The 2014 LEGISLATIVE EVENT, while not quite as exciting as in a legislative year, was still very good. This was my first year to work on the planning team, and I can tell you: Texas has some energetic, creative, generous, intelligent women. In other words, Texas has some powerful Christian women!
Our theme was A Thousand Voices: Telling the Story of Texas. Total attendance was
around 180; the conference hall was full on Monday! We did sing “The Women Must
Be Gathering” to start the busy first full day. Our speakers included a
director of the Texas Interfaith Center for Public Policy; director of the
Texas Water Foundation, and other leaders in . Keynote for Sunday was Froswa Booker-Drew, national
director of WorldVision, who focused on the importance of everybody’s story in
building a loving society..
The agenda that came from our studies
and through consensus deal with the same topics that we see year after year.
The players have been pretty much the same for the past 12 years, with some new
faces coming in after last election. However, these elements form the fabric of
our society and will always need our steadfast attention: Health Care;
Education; Criminal Justice and Mental Health; Water; Predatory Lending.
Trivia: Do you know Texas’s largest
school district? It’s the Windham School District, which is comprised of people
incarcerated in our jails and penitentiaries. It was
established by the Texas Legislature as an entity separate and distinct from
the Texas Department of Criminal Justice (TDCJ), with the Texas Board of
Criminal Justice (TBCJ) serving as the Board of Trustees for the WSD. It is the
policy of the Board that the WSD shall provide academic, as well as career and
technology education, to eligible offenders incarcerated within the TDCJ.
Certainly this education is a step toward rehabilitation, but how sad that the
prisons contain our largest school
population.
The following
document spells out the 2014 agenda developed by the UMW at the Legislative
Event.
Medicaid
The Legislature should extend Medicaid
to adults under 138 percent of the Federal Poverty Level. We encourage
legislators to recognize the financial benefits that would accrue to local
governments, medical providers, the Texas economy and Texas taxpayers.
Education
The Legislature should affirm its
constitutional obligation to provide high quality public education for the
benefit of all of its residents. Critical legislative actions include restoring
cuts, funding enrollment growth, and increasing teacher compensation to
competitive levels. We strongly reaffirm our historic opposition to any
movement toward allowing the flow of public money to private schools.
Criminal Justice and Mental Health
We call on legislators to guarantee
humane treatment for all Texans subject to the state’s criminal justice system,
especially the most vulnerable, including women, children and youth. We
strongly urge the Legislature to increase access to mental health services,
substance abuse treatment, rehabilitation, educational opportunities and
re-entry programs. We believe sentences should be fair for all regardless of
race, gender or ability to pay. We believe legislators have a special duty to
prevent wrongful convictions and to protect those in the criminal justice
system with mental health concerns and individuals facing execution.
Water
We support lawmakers as they
continue to address Texas’ long-term water needs. We urge lawmakers to create
structures that ensure all stakeholders are included in discussions around the
primary principle of fair access to clean water for all Texans. We acknowledge
the interaction between water and energy resources and encourage lawmakers to
plan comprehensively for our water and energy future.
Predatory Lending
The Legislature should build on the
foundation of sensible regulation of payday and auto-title lending established
in 2011, and eliminate the cycle of debt through strategies such as limiting
rollovers, regulating fees and allowing partial payments.
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