The 88th General Assembly
has convened the 2012 fiscal session

Wednesday, July 15, 2009

Exchange students and hard labor

CNN.com is running an expose that may hit close to home here in Arkansas. Officials are seeking criminal charges after foreign exchange students in Pennsylvania found themselves caught in a nightmare of neglect, malnourishment and abandonment by those supposed to protect them.

Here in Arkansas, Sen. Sue Madison sponsored a bill that became law that is designed to protect students after it was discovered some in northwest Arkansas were forced to do manual labor, live in unfit conditions and even forced to hand over their money to host families. "You make a complaint to the State Department and you basically never hear from them again," Madison said.