My Day at the Capital

On May 16, 2007 I awoke with trepidation about the events that would unfold around me on this day. I had decided to take a monumental step today. I, an ordinary lady, who has an ordinary job as a school based speech language pathologist, had committed to spending the day with my peers meeting and greeting those individuals who we only read about in the papers, our State Senators and Representatives. Our mission was to meet with our legislators to ask for the funding in House Bill 1 (Budget for the State of Louisiana) for the salary supplement established in ACT 892 of the 2003 Regular Session of the Louisiana Legislature. This amount would add an additional $5000 to the salary of all ASHA certified speech-language pathologists and audiologists employed in the public school system. As I walked into the Rotunda of the State Capital building, I thought to myself, “What have I gotten into. What am I going to say to these people, and why should they even take the time to talk to me”. Thankfully we were greeted by two of the most legislatively suave individuals around. Mimi and Christy, audiologists, were there, as part of LSHA’s legislative committee to help us promote our cause. These two ladies were lifesavers. Without their pep talks, I can tell you I would have turned around and ran for home within the first 10 minutes. There were approximately 15 Speech-Language Pathologist from around the state in attendance. Mimi and Christy started us off with by answering my most burning question. “Why would a Representative or Senator be interested in meeting with me?” Their answer, “Because you are their constituent and they work for you. They depend on you to tell them how legislation affects you and the people you serve. They do not know of problems in specific professions or how to improve things until people like you tell them about it. Armed with this thought, I was ready to march into battle. My first encounter was with Senator Michot. He was very attentive while we explained our plight. Afterwards, he offered to co-author any bill that would get us the funding needed to give SLPs a salary supplement for maintaining national certification. The group left Senator Michot floating on a cloud. Our next battle was with the representatives. We had the opportunity to speak several representatives from around the state. All were very supportive and promised to vote in our favor once we made it on the agenda. Following an empowering day of meetings, I left the Louisiana State Legislative body feeling confident that I had done what I could to raise awareness of who we are and what we do as Speech Language Pathologist in Louisiana schools, and literally road off into the sunset towards home. All in all, it was a terrific day with a lot of good experiences. I am already looking forward to my next opportunity to meet with our state legislators to share our opinions. I also hope more speech pathologist will join us next year, it was a wonderful experience and I feel one that everyone should experience at least once.