Nothing wrong with educational trips

I have just returned from a trip to the three-day annual conference for The American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC). ALEC is America’s largest nonpartisan, voluntary membership organization of state legislators from across the U.S. who are dedicated to the principles of limited government, free markets and federalism (local government). 
Founded in 1973, ALEC has fostered state lawmakers to advance to every level of elective office: five presidential cabinet members, seven state governors, 13 U.S. senators and 90 members of the U.S. House of Representatives. At the annual meeting we worked on proposed model policies and learned from national leaders like Vivek Ramaswamy, Linda McMahon, the secretary of education, and economists Steven Moore and Art Laffer, just to name a few. As always, it was an exciting opportunity to work on model policy and to network with over 1,500 legislators and private sector participants from across the entire country. 
When I came back last Friday, I was discouraged to find an article by a local digital news outlet that noted that less and less legislators are going on educational trips. Is that because they believe by signing up for educational opportunities, they might be opening the door to negative press and the possibility they might receive low marks on various score cards next session?
Unfortunately, the press has failed to recognize the value of education for legislators. The truth is that with education that individual becomes a better legislator. As your legislator, I’m proud to say that I care more about representing you well than I am afraid of a low score on some questionable organization’s scorecard that only scores my votes against their own agendas—not by the substance of the bill. 
When I managed an organization of 160 employees and a budget of $6.3 million, I learned early on that going to a workshop or a seminar where I could learn from people who have gone before me was an important investment of my time, gaining from their experience and knowledge. In Newt Gingrich’s recently released book, “Trump’s Triumph,” he noted that campaigning is not the job. Governing is your job and after you win, you must now work harder and be more strategic if you want to be successful at governing. In my opinion, part of “working harder” includes education. 
Obviously, no one is in this for the money ... it’s for the people! Legislators in South Dakota receive a base salary of $16,348 per year along with the ability to request funding to offset educational opportunities with policy-based organizations, but we must follow the process in place.
Before a travel request is approved, you first must receive approval to attend from the presenting organization, submit a travel request and an estimated budget for travel to the Legislative Exchange Council (LRC), which then forwards it to the speaker of the house for final approval. If the speaker of the house approves the request, you can then make the necessary arrangements and reservations.
Legislators must pay all expenses up front and then be reimbursed upon the processing of the final travel report that summarizes the seminar, outlines what was presented, by who and what was learned that can apply to the betterment of our state as well as your hard copy of receipts. This does not include the legislator’s time to attend the event.
It was hard for me to believe that anyone would oppose legislators taking advantage of the opportunity to become well informed, but it appears that there are some who do. So, I decided to take a survey of some constituents in my district. 
People had no idea that legislative wages were so low and were shocked to learn that after session, the time spent making phone calls, answering emails, researching issues, going to meetings, crackerbarrels and the hundreds of miles driven for meetings, locally and across the state, are not reimbursed. They are paid for by the legislator. I found it fascinating that not one person surveyed spoke out negatively about educational opportunities for their legislators. It was quite the opposite.
Bottom-line? There is no school we can attend to learn how to become a good legislator, write an effective bill and for those without corporate experience, learn to interact professionally, exercising decorum on the floor of the chamber whether they are a Republican, Democrat or Independent. I believe legislators who make the effort to learn and gather knowledge outside the box become much more effective legislators.