US /ˈlɛdʒɪˌsletɚ/
・UK /ˈledʒɪsleɪtə(r)/
Well, I'm joined now from Wyoming by Amy Edmunds, a Republican former state legislator.
Amy Edmonds joining us from Wyoming. Thank you very much for talking to us, a former state legislator.
And in a recent legislative debate, an opposition Kuomintang legislator said the results were less than ideal.
in a recent legislative debate, an opposition Guomindang legislator said the results were less than ideal.
And Jinmen's legislator, Chen Yujian, she's also part of this delegation.
And Kinmen's legislator, Chen Yujian, she's also part of this delegation.
And it's also the place that now I work in, because I'm already the assistant of legislator Nathan Law.
and because I'm already the assistant of legislator, Nathan Law.
This is a bill that is passed by a legislator.
When I was in the legislature, an old state legislator once told me we were having a discussion about fees and taxes, and he said they're both three letter words to take money out of your pocket.
Now, as a former legislator myself, I've followed your role in the new Parliament with interest and admiration.
Now, as a former legislator myself, I followed your role in the new Parliament with interest
But the elections in January that put the DPP in power also saw the success of a third political party, the NPP, founded by several well-known activists in Taiwan, including Taiwanese heavy metal music star and now legislator Freddie Lim.
Including Taiwanese heavy metal music star and now legislator,
Well, what else might we mean? We might mean animals don't do that. There was a legislator
With this one piece of one sentence removed, Joe was proposing a universal program. But to catch that, you'd need to read the bill closely. And Joe didn't say, this is the bill that creates universal pre-k, even though that's exactly what it was. What he said was, this is the bill that keeps four-year-olds out of kindergarten, and it's voluntary for everybody, and I sat down. The bill also said school districts could use their funding to contract with existing early child care providers. They could get state funding to start a four-year-old program and use it to hire early childhood education programs already in place. It, of course, would have to meet the standards, and I did not explain to them that it was going to be Head Start. But since the bill didn't seem to threaten private child care's four-year-old clientele, and very few others fully understood it anyway, no one who actually understood the bill told lawmakers to vote no. If a lobbyist does not come into your office and explain this law and why you should vote no on it, the legislator doesn't have any help except me. It passed the House 99-0. Once the word got out about free, high-quality pre-k, Oklahoma parents jumped at the opportunity to enroll their four-year-olds in their local elementary school. It got to where they started lining up in the early, early hours of the morning so that they could be in their neighborhood school. Part of it was they needed child care. Andy and Jana McKenzie taught in early childhood education in Tulsa public schools for 40 years. That's Jana conducting kindergarten assessments in that video back before Oklahoma had free pre-k. These two were instrumental in setting up the existing pre-k program, including in forging the close partnership between Head Start and public schools still in place today. And I think parents very quickly realized that it was a great place for their child to be. Offering pre-k in Oklahoma school districts was and still is voluntary. But 27 years later, free high-quality education for four-year-olds is offered in public schools in every school district in Oklahoma. Because even though red states like Oklahoma don't generally support big social policies, there's nothing really controversial about it at this point.