Lawmakers discussed that steep price as they considered SB145, a bill to create the Battle Born Opportunity Grant. The program would fill a gap in the state’s financial aid offerings, which currently include the merit-based Millennium Scholarship and two need-based programs geared primarily toward community college students.

The benefit of a citizen legislature, at least in theory, is that lawmakers bring a variety of career and life experiences to the lawmaking process; unlike career politicians, they must live with the laws they create when they return. The reality is more complicated.