And there are some new faces to leadership in the Kentucky General Assembly this upcoming legislative session.

Former lieutenant governor candidate and nearly ten year state senator Max Wise is the incoming Kentucky Senate majority leader.

Wise, a campbellsville Republican, says state lawmakers may look at ways to plug in more Kentuckians into the workforce, especially youth, and address diversity, equity and inclusion or DIY policies at Kentucky's public universities.

Here's part two of Renee Shaw's conversation with Senator Max Wise.

State Senator Max Wise as we go inside Kentucky politics.

You've been a part of economic development committees and education committees, and you've led those committees.

And we know that, you know, economic development is a big issue for Kentucky.

And I've spoken to others about the labor participation rates.

Right.

Where do you see that being kind of molded together in the upcoming legislative session?

We want to continue to get the labor participation rate at a progressive stage that we're seeing positive percentages with that, a lot of things we could probably do, Rene, of reducing some barriers.

But I will say at the end of the day, a lot of this is individual initiative making a culture.

People that woke up this morning that were able bodied just saying, I'm not going to work.

And it could be because government has overextended a lot of programs.

I think we need to change this next generation to show what the value of a paycheck is.

A lot of that starts at home.

I will tell you, with my kids, they learned at an early age you're going to do chores at the same time, you're going to go get a job in the summer.

It may be landscaping or maybe working at a restaurant.

It doesn't matter.

Getting that paycheck is a sense of self esteem and an appreciation of hard work.

We need to get back to that, and I think that's what a lot of people want in this Commonwealth.

They just want to go back to a time.

If we can get back to a time like that, that truly is about accountability, but also is about self-worth and doing things on your own and not having government solve every problem that's out there.

I think I've heard you and others talk about how sometimes even particularly young males, are very interested in the gaming culture.

Absolutely right.

And that's become a distraction from having other life goals, like a job career that perhaps similar generations are looking at, not necessarily our career, but just having a job.

And they're really more concerned with the balance of having more life than work.

Is that something that you can address from a public policy perspective?

You know, there was a book that I had all the members of the task force read, and I hope your viewers who are watching this will take note of this book, Men Without Work by Nick Ever Sold.

And it maybe should have been titled Work Without Men, because the 25 to 54 year old demographic, especially white males, are starting to trickle away from the workforce that we had 30, 50, 70 years ago.

So a host of reasons for that.

We could have a whole nother segment on this, but a lot of it is lack of accountability, but it also is a sense of laziness and the video game culture that you're talking about.

There's many people that are playing video games all throughout the night or there's things like that that there's just some situations.

Now government can once again solve all of this, but at the same time, if there's barriers there that are preventing a 15 or 16 year old from going to work, we can help reduce some of those things.

We heard from the Heart County, their area technology center.

They talked about driver's license issues.

You know, instead of a child right now, because of the legislation that they're traveling from one to sometimes three counties over, can we have driver's license be done at the high school?

Maybe that's a something.

Maybe that's a solution.

Maybe we will reduce the driver's license age to 15.

Other states have got that.

So when we look at what government can maybe do, when I'm looking at that young generation that there's not an excuse, Well, we can't do that because we're not allowed to.

Maybe we can cut through some of those things right there.

So let's talk about one of the big pieces of legislation that we expect to come across in 2025, and that's more A.D. legislation.

And you have been on the record as saying that this will be maybe a front burner issue, given that there have been a few public universities who have taken steps to dismantle all their offices and programs.

What more does the legislature need to do and what do you anticipate legislation even looking like in this upcoming year?

It's a great question.

We just had our Senate caucus retreat.

There was discussions about A.D. legislation.

There's not a bill draft yet that I've seen of what that will look like.

I think we look at big policy issues and we maybe can use the word controversial.

Some may say common sense.

It's really from the spectrum that people look at.

But sometimes big policy doesn't pass the first time.

It may take a session or two or three that finally finds its way into a bill that's it's formidable to become law.

With this, I think a lot of members just they don't want to see, are we changing a nameplate or a building in title?

Are we really getting to the root of an issue?

And so I'm interested to see what that's going to look like.

Now, we know, Renee, that 138 members, everyone can file their own bill.

I don't yet know what that vehicle is going to look like, but will the bill be filed for see it happening?

I don't yet know the priority it would receive in the Senate because we've not yet labeled.

Here's our top ten priorities.

But I would say that there will be a bill that will be filed and we'll see how it goes throughout the session.

And that would that bill come from you or some other member in the caucus?

It will not come from me.

Right.

What I've already told my members is I want to do the best job in this job.

And it's not taking on bills of my own.

I want to be the quarterback.

And I think being a quarterback, you got to be able to distribute the ball.

And it's not always me, me, me.

It's our other members.

And so listen, I've carried a lot of bills and I've seen the time that I've put into those.

My focus is on this position and making sure my first session, you know, I can do an admirable job in there.

So I don't yet know if that bill will be House or Senate, but I will not be the primary bill sponsor.

I will say that.

We'll see.

Part one of Rene's interview with Senator Wise on yesterday's Kentucky edition, which you can find online and on demand at Katie Dawg.