Legislative Update, March 3
03/03/2017
The legislature has reached the halfway point of the session. Bills originating in the House or Senate had to pass this week to stay alive. Bills that have passed will now start the process over again in the opposite chamber.
With the General Assembly wrapping up earlier this week for a long break, here are the top 15 remaining bills we are following. While these bills are considered our primary focus, we are still tracking many others. It's also important to remember that other bills can be elevated in importance as the session progresses.
For daily 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 budget passed in the House 68-29. It is scheduled to be heard in the Senate Appropriations Committee next week.
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 1004 (Rep. Behning, R - Indianapolis) & SB 276 (Rep. Holdman, R - Markle) Pre-K Education
Two competing bills in the House and Senate intend to moderately expand Indiana's five-county pre-K pilot program.
HB 1004 expands access to pre-K education, but would also and unnecessarily create a pipeline of new students into the state's already costly private school voucher program by allowing them to automatically become eligible for a voucher.
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.
Although, the committee's cuts to pre-K funding from $22 million to $16 million is getting a lot of attention, the inclusion of a new in-home, online pre-K program deserves additional scrutiny.
Read more about this new provision on our blog.
Status: HB 1004 passed the House 61-34. It will be heard in the Senate Education Committee next week.
SB 276 passed the Senate 41-9. The bill has been sent to the House for consideration.
HB 1005 (Rep. Bosma, R - Indianapolis) Appointed Superintendent of Public Instruction
HB 1005 is one of two bills this session that would remove 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, SB 179, defeated in the Senate.
Send an email thanking representatives who voted to oppose this bill.
HB 1007 (Rep. Cook, R - Cicero) Education Course Access Program
HB 1007 is an 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 a 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) & SB 198 (Sen. Eckerty, R - Yorktown; Sen. Mishler, R - Bremen) Career and Technical Education
This is the House version that changes career and technical education (CTE). Please compare to the Senate version (SB 198) below.
HB 1008 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.
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 publicly articulated.
Currently $110 million 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 DWD, thereby reducing tuition support to school districts from the school funding formula since CTE funds are included in that distribution currently. ISTA believes this change could reduce funding available to public schools for CTE.
The effective date for the change in funding source is aggressively set in the bill as July 1, 2017.
SB 198 also hands over to DWD approved program control which would remove meaningful input from educators on curriculum decisions from schools.
The formula for distribution of the CTE funds would change, 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.
ISTA recognizes that both DWD and DOE have roles in identifying relevant CTE programs. However, there are too many unanswered questions with regard to the implementation of this bill. The authors of this bill have stated to ISTA an understanding of the problems. However, no amendments were approved on the Senate floor that would have fixed even some of these issues. As a result of these concerns, ISTA opposes the bill as it is currently drafted.
STATUS: HB 1008 passed the House 95-1. It is now in the Senate for consideration.
SB 198 passed the Senate 43-6. It is now in the House for consideration.
HB 1009 (Rep. Cook, R - Cicero) School Financial Management
One goal of the bill is to get more dollars into the classroom, but in some cases, it could end up having the opposite effect. HB 1009 would roll together the various property tax funds (capital projects, transportation, school bus replacement, art association, historical society and playground funds) and create a new operations fund. It would also create an education fund to exclusively cover student instruction and learning expenditures.
The intent of HB 1009 is to provide flexibility in funding, get more money to the classroom and ensure transparency. However, ISTA believes additional safeguards are needed to ensure the intent matches the implementation.
ISTA worked with House members on several amendments to achieve the stated goals of this bill and a floor amendment requiring the school board to sign off on transfers being made between funds was helpful. ISTA will now work with the Senate.
Status: HB 1009 passed the House 92-3. It is now in the Senate for consideration.
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: HB 1383 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 focused on 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 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.
The bill does require that employers and members be educated about the DC options.
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 and elected this particular DC plan could expect to receive just a fraction of the benefit as compared to the DB hybrid plan.
Status: The bill passed the House 68-25. It is now in the Senate for consideration.
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 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.
SB 248, as now amended, includes language that would allow the subunits to retain their school name or attendance areas. It would also setup 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
SB 407 is another attempt to interfere with teachers and their association. Under this bill, the Indiana Education Employment Relations Board (IEERB) would be empowered to compile association membership information, including membership numbers, and publish the data on a website.
IEERB would also be required to post training modules, videos or other instructional material informing school employees of union representation rights. IEERB will be required to contact certain association members to teach them how to change their membership status.
The bill demonstrates confusion between membership and representation of teachers.
This bill failed in committee two weeks ago by a vote of 5-5 and was left for dead by the committee chair. However, the bill was revived last week, likely under pressure from anti-union special interest groups. After a second chance, the bill passed out of committee 6-5. ISTA opposes this bill.
Take Action: Thank senators for opposing SB 407.
Status: SB 407 passed the Senate 32-18. It is now in the House for consideration.
SB 409 (Rep. Houchin, R - Salem) Collective Bargaining
A bill that would push back the formal collective bargaining start date to Sept. 15 of each year has advanced out of committee on to the full Senate. The vote was 10 - 0.
Under SB 409, the parties could informally bargain prior to Sept. 15.
All of the timelines for mediation, fact-finding, impasse, etc. move forward as well to ensure the parties still have 60 days to formally bargain.
ISTA supports SB 409 as it would enable the parties to bargain real numbers associated with student counts and upcoming insurance costs, rather than theoretical numbers or best guesses.
Status: SB 409 passed the Senate 49-0. It is now in the House for consideration.
SB 498 (Sen. Raatz, R - Richmond) Teacher Compensation
SB 498 would change "attainment" of a Master's degree (i.e., the single year in which the degree is received) from "possession" (ongoing) for purposes of calculating compensation. ISTA supports this bill.
Status: SB 498 passed the Senate 50-0. It is now in the House for consideration.
LOOKING AHEAD TO NEXT WEEK
MONDAY
Senate Appropriations
HB 1001 - State biennial budget
Senate Education
HB 1004 - Pre-K education
HB 1024 - Prayer in schools
HB 1079 - School safety
HB 1136 - Latch key programs
HB 1281 - Various higher education matters
HB 1396 - Teacher licensing for military spouses
HB 1430 - Staff training concerning youth suicide
THURSDAY
Senate Appropriations
HB 1001 - State biennial budget