Legislative Update, Feb. 24
02/24/2017
The legislature is nearing the halfway point of this session. Next week is the deadline for bills to pass in their original chamber. Bills that have passed will now start the process over again in the opposite chamber. Check our bill watch page for up-to-date statuses of bills anytime.
This is a good time to check out our list of back home events to find opportunities where you can connect with your legislators. Speaking personally to legislators is always the best form of communication.
Lastly, we want to say thank you to those who attended the Celebration of Public Education on Monday.
Below are the top education-related bills on our radar this week. For updates from the statehouse, read our posts on Twitter at @ISTAmembers.
HB 1001 (Rep. Timothy Brown, R - Crawfordsville) Biennial Budget and School Funding
The state biennial budget bill and school funding formula (HB 1001), as amended by House Republicans, would strip away the state teacher bonus program and provide weak funding levels for already cash-strapped public schools.
A more complete analysis of the budget can be found on our blog.
The House budget would remove $84 million in teacher performance bonus money over the two-year period ($40 million each year under the bonus program and $2 million each year for bonuses to teachers who would not otherwise receive one due to working in a D or F school).
Make no mistake - ISTA is not a believer that paying teachers by stipend should be the model and the implementation of these bonuses has not been consistent, nor fair. However, the $84 million was set aside specifically to augment teacher compensation, address teacher needs and lessen the teacher shortage. Now the money is removed and the House Republicans have established new non-public school priorities.
Overall statewide funding needs to be higher. For most of the past eight years, public schools have dealt with base funding at or below inflation. This budget calls for just a 1.1 percent statewide average increase in 2018 and the promise of 1.7 percent in 2019. About one-half of the public school districts will receive an actual cut in regular education funding for 2018.
Encourage legislators to oppose HB 1001.
Status: HB 1001 was heard in the House where several amendments by Democrats attempted to cut funding to ISTEP and freeze funding to charter schools and private school vouchers and ensure that no public school district received fewer dollars than was received in 2017. These amendments failed. HB 1001 will receive a final vote on Monday.
HB 1003 (Rep. Behning, R - Indianapolis) Student Assessments
This bill would extend the replacement of ISTEP until June 30, 2018, when a new statewide test will be known as Indiana's Learning Evaluation Assessment Readiness Network (ILEARN).
ISTA raised concerns about the bill, which originated from recommendations from the Panel to Study Alternatives to the ISTEP Program. Specifically, the bill continues to base teacher evaluations and school accountability grades on standardized test scores. The bill also does not go far enough to reduce student testing time or provide a meaningful assessment for teachers to improve instructional practices in the classroom or to tailor instruction.
Status: Passed in the House 67-31 and now in Senate for consideration.
HB 1005 (Rep. Bosma, R - Indianapolis) Appointed Superintendent of Public Instruction
HB 1005 is one of two bills this session that removes the ability of voters to elect the superintendent of public instruction, and make the office appointed by the governor. Beginning in 2021, the governor would appoint a secretary of education.
Status: The bill passed the House 68-29. It remains unclear if the bill will be heard in the Senate due to Senate rules that prevent the hearing of a similar bill defeated in the Senate. See update for SB 179 below.
Send an email thanking representatives who voted to oppose this bill.
HB 1007 (Rep. Cook, R - Cicero) Education Course Access Program
HB 1007 is another American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC) model bill that would create a course-by-course voucher program to enable students to pay for online courses, funded through the allotment of funds attributable to student's public school corporation.
For-profit online, or virtual charter schools, have a disastrous record of failing students and avoiding accountability, not just in Indiana, but around the country. ISTA opposes any further diversions of funds from local community public schools to fund these experiments.
Status: The bill passed the House 69-27 and now in the Senate for consideration.
HB 1008 (Rep. Huston, R - Fishers) Workforce Development
This is the House version that changes career and technical education (CTE). Please compare to the Senate version (SB 198) below.
The bill would repeal Indiana's Works Councils and the Advisory Committee on CTE on July 1, 2018.
It would create something new called the "high value workforce ready credit-bearing grant," administered by the Department of Workforce Development (DWD) that is provided to an applicant who:
- is an Indiana resident
- meets certain schooling requirements
- is enrolled at Ivy Tech or Vincennes at least half-time
- meets various other requirements
The grant is renewable under certain conditions and is valid for the lesser of two years or the number of credit hours needed.
The bill would also create a high value workforce ready noncredit-bearing grant that does not require the applicant to be enrolled in a post-secondary program.
The DWD would work with employers to identify eligible employee recipients and local government and employer groups in specific economic sectors or regions.
The DWD would work with the Commission for Higher Education to determine which noncredit-bearing credentials are eligible for the noncredit-bearing grant.
It would require each state provider of programs, including school corporations, to prepare an annual report on their respective workforce-related programs, which includes an explanation of how the program aligns and coordinates with Indiana's workforce needs.
STATUS: HB 1008 passed out of House Ways and Means 22-1 and will be heard for a final vote on Monday.
HB 1383 (Rep. Behning, R - Indianapolis) Elementary School Teachers
The introduced version of HB 1383 would have required every elementary school teacher initially licensed after 2021 to secure specialization in a specific content area and would have eliminated the elementary generalist license. Testimony against the bill clarified that current course requirements include content areas.
Current licensure requirements call for all candidates to complete a content minor or concentration area. And along the way, all candidates must pass the Indiana CORE Assessment, which covers reading/language arts, math, science, health and physical education and social studies and fine arts.
In the face of this opposition, Rep. Behning (R- Indianapolis), and chair of the House Education Committee, offered an amendment to the bill that takes a step back by directing Indiana's state board of education to establish "one or more elementary school teacher content area licenses that must, at a minimum, include a content area license that includes math and science."
The current licensure system would stay in place.
Status: The bill passed in the House Education Committee 11-0. Rep. V. Smith had a floor amendment to send the issue to summer study, but it failed. The bill passed the House 88-1 and now goes to the Senate for consideration.
HB 1384 (Rep. Behning, R - Indianapolis) High School Graduation/Removal of Accountability for Voucher Schools
This bill originally was about the calculation of graduation rates, but an amendment was added in committee to enable D and F private voucher schools to skirt the existing accountability standards. Under current law, if a private voucher school has two consecutive years as a D or F school, it loses its right to receive vouchers. Under this amendment, the State Board of Education can annually grant a waiver or a delay of that accountability sanction so long as "a majority of students demonstrated academic improvement" from the prior year.
Therefore, the new standard for private schools is not really student test score performance as it is for every other school, but rather a vague and unquantifiable standard of "academic improvement."
ISTA opposes this bill as amended.
Status: The bill passed the House Education Committee 8-4. Attempts by Rep. DeLaney (D - Indianapolis) to amend the bill on the floor to remove the voucher language failed. The bill passed the House 60-32 and now in the Senate for consideration.
HB 1463 (Rep. Carbaugh) Teacher's Defined Contribution Plan
The bill would setup a voluntary Defined Contribution (DC-only) plan for newly-hired teachers. A member who does not elect to participate in the DC-only plan defaults to the current defined benefit/annuity (DB) hybrid plan.
ISTA opposes DC plans due to extensive research which shows members lose significant retirement benefits with these 401(k)-type plans. Doing the math on this proposal bears out the research. A member who spends a career teaching in Indiana who would elect this particular DC plan can expect to receive just a fraction of benefit expected under the DB hybrid plan.
Status: The bill passed out of the Senate Pensions Committee 9-2. An amendment passed on the floor requiring that employers and members be educated about the DC options. ISTA continues to oppose this inferior option. The bill now moves to 3rd reading in the House.
HB 1537 (Rep. Gutwein, R - Francesville) Thirteenth Check
This bill would provide a 13th check in 2017 for certain retired members of the Indiana state teachers' retirement fund and other public employee retirement plans.
ISTA testified in support of this bill, but stressed the real need for a true cost-of-living (COLA) increase. A true COLA, attached to the member's pension, has not passed since 2009.
Status: The bill passed the House 96-0 and now in the Senate for consideration.
SB 179 (Sen. Buck, R - Kokomo) Appointed Superintendent of Public Instruction
SB 179 is one of two bills this session that removes the ability of voters to elect the superintendent of public instruction, and beginning in 2021, the office would be appointed by the governor.
Send an email thanking representatives who voted to oppose this bill.
Status: The bill failed in the Senate 26-23. A similar bill in the House (HB 1005) passed, but it remains unclear if the bill will be heard in the Senate due to Senate rules that prevent the hearing of a similar bill defeated in the Senate. President Pro Tempore David Long (R - Fort Wayne) indicated on Thursday to the media that further movement on this idea is still possible.
SB 198 (Sen. Eckerty, R - Yorktown; Sen. Mishler, R - Bremen) Career and Technical Education
Inserted into what is called a "vehicle" bill, SB 198 is now the Senate's version of the career and technical education (CTE) bill. See House version (HB 1008) above. Major changes in how CTE funds would flow are embedded in this bill and not all of the consequences for these changes have been articulated.
There is currently $110 million that is allocated to school districts and area career centers through the Department of Education and the school funding formula. SB 198 would transfer those funds in their entirety to the Department of Workforce Development (DWD), thereby reducing tuition support to school districts from the school funding formula since CTE funds are included in that distribution currently.
The effective date for the change in funding source is aggressively set in the bill as July 1, 2017.
The formula for distribution of the CTE funds would change as well from the current formula and there is no funding formula run to guide stakeholders on how these changes could be expected to impact current programs. There are many unknowns, including how CTE funds would remain bargainable with regard to salary and wage-related benefits.
Under the new formula, programs would be categorized as high value programs, moderate value programs, and less than moderate value programs. The value is based upon employment demand and wage level associated with the career that is tied to the program.
Additionally, each CTE program is classified as an apprenticeship program, a cooperative education program, a work-based learning program, an introductory program, or a foundational CTE course. Again, DWD would determine all of these parameters.
ISTA recognizes that both DWD and DOE have roles in identifying relevant CTE programs. However, there are many unanswered questions with regard to the implementation of this bill.
Status: The bill passed in Senate Appropriations Committee 10-3. It is eligible for 2nd reading amendment on Monday.
SB 248 (Sen. Raatz - Centerville) Consolidation of School Corporations
SB 248 began as a bill to consolidate administrative functions between school districts and to make clear that debt service levy obligations prior to the consolidation remain with the original subunit district. The bill included specific provisions that limited the consolidation to administrative functions among the joining districts and it stipulated exactly what functions could be consolidated. It defaulted to a promise that the name of a school and its attendance unit would not change for 10 years.
In SB 248, as now amended, includes language allowing the subunits to retain their school name or attendance areas. It also sets up language to permit the consolidation to apply to administrative functions only.
Unlike the original bill, which stipulated what administrative functions would be subject to this consolidation, the amended version allows for a complete consolidation. It also stipulates that debts or obligations paid by a district's debt service levy prior to the consolidation, remain with that subunit of taxpayers. In this version, there appear to be fewer protections against eliminating positions that directly impact student learning.
Status: The bill passed 30-18 and now in the House for consideration.
SB 407 (Rep. Houchin, R - Salem) Education Matters
This bill would impact a variety of issues, including teacher evaluations, ESSA and labor union matters. ISTA opposed the bill, as one of the provisions was anti-union.
Status: After the bill failed in committee last week, the bill reappeared this week, and this time the bill passed out of committee 6-5. The roll call changed from last week in that Senators Bassler and Leising changed their votes (Bassler now voting for and Leising now voting against) and Sen. Freeman, who was absent for the original vote, cast a yes vote. Please thank Sens. Kenley, Leising, Stoops, Mrvan, and Melton, each of whom opposed this bill.
SB 276 (Rep. Holdman, R - Markle) Pre-K Education
SB 276 is the Senate's effort to expand pre-K. Unlike the House version (HB 1004), SB 276 does not expand private school vouchers.
The bill provides that starting this year, the pilot program will include eligible providers in any county in Indiana.
Status: The bill was heard in the Senate Appropriations Committee where it received a major amendment. The funding for the pre-K pilot was cut from $22 million to $16 million - $1 million of that funding would be set aside for a new component added to the bill that would allow in-home online pre-K services to be provided to students and overseen by parents. The bill passed, as amended, 12-1 and will eligible for 2nd reading amendment on Monday.
LOOKING AHEAD TO NEXT WEEK
MONDAY - FRIDAY
No committees are scheduled. Bills will be moving out of their house of origin to be considered by the House or Senate.