By Patricia Scheyer
NKyTribune reporter
Ninth grade students from Ignite Institute had a chance to interview state representatives and senators as well as a member of the Boone County School board Thursday morning as part of the Political Forum. The program involves social studies classes under teachers Eddie Reeb and Gannen Cogswell.
“This is the seventh year we have done this forum,” said Cogswell. “We give it to our freshmen because it is part of their curriculum. The students will go through debriefing activities usually today and tomorrow, and then they will do an essay on the entire chapter, not just the interviews today.”
The students seemed excited about a chance to talk with politicians, and discussed what they hoped to learn in the session.
“I am just really interested in why people go into politics,” said 14-year-old Matthew Rainey. “We are learning about politics and government and I would like to know what makes people go into politics.”
He said he didn’t have any one person that he was interested in, he was open to talking to any of the participants and hearing what they have to say.
Valen Birchall, 15, was similarly intrigued.
“I would like to find out about the operations of civic government, what that entails, and whether that would be something I would be interested in,” he said. “I am not looking to find out about any one person, just about what it’s like to be in politics.”
Once in the larger room, Senator Steve Rawlings from the 11th district, Representative Stephanie Dietz from the 65th district, Representative Matthew Lehman from the 67th district, and Carolyn Hankins Wolfe, who serves on the Boone County school board, were all set up at tables. They surrounded by students, some in white lab coats, some in scrubs, but all with a printed paper that had the questions they had for the candidates and pencils for scribbling the answers.
Stephanie Dietz answered questions about what she does in her job, what inspires her, what is the easiest and hardest part of her job, and what she does that directly affects the students.
“We just finished our budget, and we were able to find some funding for our roads and bridges,” said Dietz. “We have the Brent Spence bridge, and the Fourth Street bridge, we are redoing that bridge, both of which affect you and your families, I’m sure. We were able to get some money for the court systems. Also, we do a bill for one-time spending, and in that one-time spending we were able to bring back money for a lot of non-profits that help people locally, like St Vincent de Paul, Diocesan Catholic Children’s Home, Family Nurturing Center, so I think we are able to help you all. You will be able to feel this more than those at the federal level.”
A student asked her to describe what she does in her job, and what are her primary responsibilities.
“Once we’re elected, we are assigned committees, so that’s a big responsibility. I sit on five different committees,” explained Dietz. “I chair the budget for judiciary, public safety infractions, jails, state police, and court systems. I think the other responsibilities that we don’t get as much attention for is what we do when we’re not in session, things like this today, outreach. I think engaging with my constituents is the most important thing I do, besides being in Frankfort and working on my committees.”
She told the students the most difficult thing she does is try to balance her family and work, and since she is also a lawyer as well as a representative, she has to find time for that job, as well as spending time with her family.
Moving to Senator Rawlings, a student asked him how technology is changing how he does his job.
“I’ll give you one updated news story, there is a Kentucky Supreme Court decision concerning the open records act,” he said. “The open records act is a good thing for transparency and openness, and people know what’s going on in government, but the Kentucky Supreme Court just ruled that your personal device, if you do public business on your personal phone, people can’t have access to it. I think that was a terrible decision for open records and transparency. Now people can get away, like legislators can get away with their personal messages and doing business on their personal phone, and the court said a citizen can’t have access to that. So I think that was a really awful decision. It just came out a few days ago, but it is an example of how technology has changed how business works.”
He also said that with AI it is hard to know what to do with it because it is changing daily.
A student asked about changes that affect the local community in the next ten years.
“Well, I’ve talked about property taxes, I would love something to be done about property taxes when people own their own property, they shouldn’t have to pay taxes on it every year,” he said. “One of the things we’re doing, when we lowered the state income tax, there is a shift to consumption based taxes. So that means when they buy something they know they will be taxed on it, so if they buy a refrigerator, they pay sales tax. So I think the shift should be toward consumption based taxes, and that’s where it is going.”
In answer to one student asking what was the hardest thing he has to deal with, Rawlings said it is so hard to get a bill passed. He likes to write bills, but it is very difficult to get them passed.
“I worked on more than a dozen bills, in the Senate I got four of those passed, but then they went to the House, and the House would only pass two of them,” he said. “So you have 20 to 30 meetings on a bill and do all this work, and in the very end they don’t call your bill. So it is exciting to write the bill and get it passed but you put in all this work, and you know it is a good bill but it is so disappointing when it doesn’t get passed.”
Fourteen-year-old Jaxon Roark went from table to table, jotting down his notes and listening intently to what the people had to say.
“I’ve learned that there are a bunch of different issues that people are arguing about that I didn’t even consider,” he said. “Issues like how we should push forward with AI, if we should remodel the will system, income tax, and inheritance tax. There’s a lot of things I never even considered to be a debate that makes you think.”
When asked if it made him think about going into politics, he hesitated.
“My plan is if this didn’t work out, I would consider going into law,” he stated. “I find the law and things related to it very fascinating, but my first goal is to be a paramedic. If I can’t do that I will go into law.”
Sophia Marovitch, 15, was enjoying finding out about the people in politics.
“I think it has been really great to interact with people, because I see politicians on line and to actually meet them, like Stephanie, she lives like ten minutes from my house,” she said. “I just think about elections, and being able to pass bills and stuff. I don’t think I would like to go into that field, but I think it is a good thing to learn about. I think I want to go into the health field, like pediatrics.”
Carolyn Wolfe advised the students to get out and get involved with the community. When asked what the most important thing in her job on school board, she had an answer.
“The outcome of the student is the most rewarding, that’s the most rewarding reason why we do it,” she said. “The most difficult thing is the state statutes, trying to make those work, when they’re mandated, and we try to make it work, and we get blamed for it.”
She related that when she was young her dad ran for office and she remembers putting up signs for him.
She said she was homeless for a while, and she never thought she would run for office, but she feels that public education protected her and encouraged her, and she wanted to make sure she would support public education.
Matt Lehman had good advice for the students on being engaged and being a good representative.
“I think being present, being engaged, being outgoing and charismatic, and I think the most important thing is character,” he said. “I think voters notice that, everyone notices character.”
When asked what change he would like to see in the community in the next ten years, he said he would like to see a healthier relationship with social media and new technologies. He would like to be in control of those things and not be controlled by them.