STATE OF NEVADA OFFICE OF THE STATE TREASURER NOTICE OF WORKSHOP Education Savings Account – SB 302 Conducted On July 17, 2015 at 9:00 AM Transcribed By: Always On Time 1 STATE OF NEVADA 2 OFFICE OF THE STATE TREASURER 3 NOTICE OF WORKSHOP – EDUCATION SAVINGS ACCOUNT 4 JULY 19, 2015 5 6 DAN SCHWARTZ: Excuse me, just a quick announcement 7 this morning. If you are intending to speak, please do sign in. 8 If you happen to walk by the sign sheet, take a moment—we have 9 them at either door. So, if you would not mind just popping out 10 and filling in your information, that would be great and we can 11 get started on time. Thank you. [pause] 12 Good morning everybody, my name is Dan Schwartz. I’m the 13 State Treasurer. On the advice of my colleagues, I’m going to 14 wait a couple of minutes for people to sign in, but I just want 15 you to know, the train is right on time at the Treasurer’s 16 Department. [pause] 17 Linda English, in Las Vegas, are you all ready down there? 18 LINDA ENGLISH: Yep, absolutely. 19 DAN SCHWARTZ: Okay, thank you. [pause] Good 20 morning everybody, again, my name is Dan Schwartz, I’m the State 21 Treasurer. We, the State Treasurer, has been given the 22 responsibility and duty to propose regulations for SB302. I 23 think we’ve got some competition here in Reno with one of the— 24 Carson City, with one of the presidential candidates, but I can 25 2 1 see that the room is full and then some in Las Vegas, and I think 2 rightfully so. This bill really has the chance and the ability 3 to change the way we educate our youth and our kids here in the 4 State of Nevada, and by extension, the whole country. 5 First of all, let me thank you all for coming. It shows 6 your—the importance with which you attach to this bill. Let me 7 just introduce some of the people you see staring at you from the 8 [inaudible] here. On my left is Chief of Staff for the State 9 Treasurer’s Office, Grant Hewitt. On my right is the soon to be 10 Chief Deputy Treasurer, Tara Hagan. And then on my right is 11 Dennis Belcourt who is our Attorney. In Las Vegas, I see Linda 12 English who is the Deputy Treasurer in charge of college savings 13 and then, I believe that’s also Senator Scott Hammond who is the 14 Author of the bill. 15 Before we begin, I’m going to ask Chief Deputy Treasurer 16 Hagan to read some of the rules of the road so that everyone 17 understands how we’re going to proceed, so Tara. 18 TARA HAGAN: Thank you Mr. Treasurer. For the 19 record, Tara Hagan. So, I’m just going to—as we open up Agenda 20 Item #1, I just want to remind everyone that that is for General 21 Public Comments only. If you do have comments related to 22 proposed regulations for SB302, those will come under Agenda Item 23 #2 and we’ll talk about those as we get sort of the rules of the 24 road as we get closer to Agenda Item #2. 25 3 1 Please note for the general comments, we will limit that to 2 three minutes per person. Treasurer Schwartz. 3 DAN SCHWARTZ: I inadvertently forgot to call the 4 meeting to order, so the meeting is now officially called to 5 order here. 6 First we will have Public Comments. And, what I would ask 7 in this is that you—if you want to talk about the bill, that you 8 save your comments for the body of the workshop today. But, for 9 anything that is not related to effective SB302, now is the time 10 to speak. So, officially, is there any Public Comment on items 11 not related to Agenda? Sure, could you tell us who you are 12 please? 13 TARA HAGAN: And, just as a reminder, if you could 14 please state your name prior to testimony, thank you. 15 RONALD LYNCH: Ronald Lynch and I’m a citizen of 16 Douglas County for the last 48 years. I’d like a clarification. 17 Is this a question and answer, like if I ask you a question will 18 you answer or is it just like I’m a Trustee for Indian Hills and 19 with comment, since I’m not on the Agenda, there is no back and 20 forth conversation—I’d like you to clarify that please? 21 DENNIS BELCOURT: Sir, Dennis Belcourt, Deputy Attorney 22 General. This is a workshop for the Agency to get input. So, it 23 won’t be a back and forth, it will be people who would like to 24 provide input to give it and the Agency will take that input back 25 4 1 and—and, you know, work with that and you know, in preparing 2 regulations and/or further modifying them as—as the system goes 3 forward. 4 RONALD LYNCH: I’m a little bit confused on when we— 5 you know, like I have questions that I would like answered and 6 evidently, that’s not going to be the case but you will take them 7 back and talk about them. My problem is, it’s a little 8 confusing. Do I do that at comment time, the first part, or do I 9 do it at the second part? 10 DAN SCHWARTZ: Can I just—you know, I’m happy if you 11 want to set up a meeting with you—you live in Douglas County so 12 you’re close by—if you had some questions or other concerns, the 13 State Treasurer is happy to have you come by the office and we 14 can try to answer some of those. Is that satisfactory? 15 The purpose of this hearing is for us to listen, okay. 16 And, you can make—you can ask your questions. We can come back 17 to you however you want to work that, but this is not a Q&A 18 session. 19 RONALD LYNCH: Okay. So then, I can state my 20 concerns but do I do that at the—at number one or number two part 21 of it. 22 GRANT HEWITT: Grant Hewitt, for the record. If they 23 are in relation to SB302— 24 RONALD LYNCH: Yes. 25 5 1 GRANT HEWITT: You would do it during the second 2 agenda item. 3 RONALD LYNCH: I’m sorry? 4 The second item on the Agenda. 5 RONALD LYNCH: Okay. It’d be the second item, okay. 6 Thank you for your clarification. 7 Thank you sir. 8 DAN SCHWARTZ: Any other Public Comment here in 9 Carson City? Hearing none. Is there any Public Comment in Las 10 Vegas. Hearing none. We will go on to the main reason for our 11 being here today which is Item #2, Public Input on Regulations 12 Relating to Educational Grants to Non-Public Students pursuant to 13 Senate Bill 302. Do we have any specific rules here or other 14 sort of guideposts? 15 TARA HAGAN: Tara Hagan, for the record. So, for 16 Agenda Item #2, we will take certain groups first and we’re going 17 to limit these groups’ comments to 10 minutes. Following the 18 groups, we will then just take a short five minute recess and 19 then before we begin with the remaining comments. 20 Also, just please note, we may have clarifying questions 21 for you, and so if we do, we will interrupt you but that will not 22 count against your time. So, we’ll stop your time and you’ll get 23 your full allotted minutes depending on—we’re going to do three 24 minutes for individuals, five minutes for schools and as I 25 6 1 mentioned, 10 minutes for groups. 2 DAN SCHWARTZ: Again, Dan Schwartz here—we’re going 3 to be pretty strict on the time regulations. So, also—we sent 4 out a list of questions that were of particular interest to us— 5 so, I guess, let’s start right off. We’ll start in Carson City 6 here with the groups and they have 10 minutes each. So, if you 7 would—we’ve got four seats here with mics, so if there are any 8 groups that would like to comment or leave us with some 9 questions, now is your chance. [pause] 10 And, I’ve been informed by staff here that if need be, we 11 will be here all day, I hope we won’t be, but everyone will have 12 a chance to comment and give their input. And, again, as I said 13 earlier, we really appreciate your coming here. I’m looking at 14 the camera on Las Vegas, there’s a lot of people there, so 15 hopefully you will all have a chance to comment if you’d like. 16 LESLIE HINER: Hello, my name is Leslie Hiner, I’m 17 with the Friedman Foundation for Educational Choice. The 18 Friedman Foundation, it was our Founder who back in 1955 first 19 came up with an idea and a way to fund education so that parents 20 would be empowered to make their own decisions about where and 21 how to educate their children and they would have the funding to 22 be able to make those decisions.