Legislative Update, Jan. 26
01/26/2018
With next week being the last full week to hear bills in their house of origin, committees were busy this week as they try to complete their work.
Citing its popularity, ISTA has created a store for advocates of public education to purchase their own #ProtectPublicEd shirt. To order your shirt, visit ista-in.org/shirt.
Join ISTA for our Day of Action at the Statehouse on Jan. 30. Learn more about current legislation that affects your work, your students and your retirement. The briefing will be followed by an opportunity to connect with legislators at the Statehouse or over lunch at ISTA.
BILL UPDATE
HB 1315 (Rep. Tim Brown - Crawfordsville)
Loss of Teacher Rights
Overview
HB 1315 passed out the House Ways and Means Committee this week and heads to the full House for consideration.
The bill would hand control of Muncie Community Schools over to Ball State University (BSU). BSU would be empowered to appoint a new school board for Muncie Schools. To summarily remove a locally elected school board is drastic action. The bill would also specifically punish Muncie teachers by stripping their bargaining rights.
Muncie teachers have been willing to address the financial issues that Muncie schools faced. The teachers were whistleblowers, in effect, helping to uncover the true financial picture and malfeasance that existed in this school system. And once uncovered, made multiple concessions to help make corrections. Instead of being thanked, HB 1315 would disrespect and punish the teachers by stripping them of their collective voice.
If this is allowed, who will be next?
For everyone else, the bill would hold classroom teachers responsible for the state of a districts' finances by specifically calling for up to 5 percent of the teacher force to be terminated by the end of a fall semester if a district is designated as being in fiscal distress.
These actions would no doubt impact student learning and increase class sizes right in the middle of a school year. In effect, the state becomes unwilling to honor a teacher's one-year contract.
Why you should care
Muncie teachers, who earned the right to a collective voice and a seat at the table, are being disrespected. This drastic and unfair action may not stop at Muncie.
There appears to be an anti-teacher agenda attached to this bill that is wholly unrelated to a district's fiscal distress issues.
What you can do
Tell your legislators that teachers who serve our kids deserve better than this bill offers. Specifically, the Muncie teachers are being blamed when in fact they helped uncover the extent of Muncie's problems and then proactively made multiple concessions to help turn things around.
Tell them you oppose HB 1315 so long as Muncie teachers and classroom teachers in general are being disrespected.
HB 1426 (Rep. Robert Behning - Indianapolis)
Education Matters
Overview
HB 1426 passed out of the House Education Committee on Tuesday 10 - 1. It now heads to the House Ways and Means Committee for consideration.
Among other things, this bill would create one diploma for high school graduates. The single Indiana Diploma would have distinctions for Core 40, Honors, CTE and others.
Why you should care
Changes in federal law now require calculation of state graduation rate averages based on the diploma received by a majority of students in the state, which in Indiana is the Core 40 diploma. This means the General Diploma - a diploma option currently offered mostly to students with disabilities - may no longer count toward graduation rates in the state report to the U.S. Department of Education. The result will likely be a significant and artificial reduction in graduation rates reported in Indiana, as well as an artificial spike in D and F schools following the transition.
What you can do
Advocates should continue to follow this bill. ISTA will provide an update in next week's newsletter should further action need to be taken.
SB 303 (Sen. Jeff Raatz - Richmond)
Various Education Matters
Overview
SB 303 was heard in the Senate Education Committee on Wednesday and passed 10 - 1 after being amended.
This bill would implement a variety of unrelated education policies, but one element within the bill would have required bargained teacher contracts to contain a minimum number of hours per day the teacher is expected to work, as opposed to a set number of hours.
This provision of the bill prompted ISTA to issue an action alert to advocates. Your voices were heard, and the bill was amended to remove this minimum hours language.
Why you should care
There is additional language in the bill concerning teacher evaluations that is still concerning. ISTA is working with the bill's author to address these concerns in an amendment.
What you can do
Advocates should continue to follow this bill. ISTA will provide an update in next week's update should further action need to be taken.