Major initiatives in areas such as education, housing, and health care are nearing the finish line this week as key committee votes take shape. Most notably, the Senate Education Committee advanced the education reform bill in a key vote on Friday. While there is much work left to do, the Senate version (so far) seems better than the House's and the vote keeps the effort on track to kick off the reform process this year.

Close your eyes. Imagine: What do you think education will look like in five years? How about in ten years?

For most of us, education, while having undergone incremental changes, has mostly stayed the same. We picture students sitting at desks with a teacher at the front of a classroom in a brick and mortar school. Students are grouped into grades largely by age. They may take yellow school buses to and from their homes. Minus the laptops, smart phones, and a few other tech gadgets, the environment would not be totally alien to someone from many decades past. We have an opportunity to change all of that and afford students an individualized learning experience that meets them where they are, regardless of age or grade level. And we can do it for little to no cost (maybe even with some cost savings).

The bill aims to regulate the use of synthetic media (deepfakes) in elections by requiring clear labeling of realistic, deceptive AI-generated content in the 90 days before an election and giving prosecutors and candidates new tools to respond to harmful deepfakes.