SB 284 is Dead
03/04/2014

 

SB 284—a bill that became a collection of many different ideas (some of which would have hurt the Association) died on the 3rd reading calendar without a vote.

 

Beginning last week, ISTA began warning members about SB 284.  What had started out as a simple bill to address the start date of a teacher contract (which ISTA supported), quickly turned into a bill filled with all kinds of new measures during the last House Education Committee.

Neither the author of SB 284, Sen. Ron Grooms, nor sponsor Rep. Rhonda Rhoads, were afforded the courtesy of knowing that their bill was being amended so dramatically.

 

The two most onerous provisions were the following:

1. Changes to the collective bargaining law to allow non-members to sit on the exclusive representative’s bargaining/discussion team in numbers that were equal to the proportion of members to non-members in the bargaining unit.  Even the Indiana School Boards Association testified against this as being disruptive to the partnership between the administration and the union.
2. Permission for the school board to transfer certain revenue from the school general fund to special funds, thereby removing bargainable monies from the table. The types of revenue contemplated were interest income, rental income, fees, and the like.   The nonpartisan Legislative Services Agency had indicated that the potential reduction in general fund revenues statewide would have been more than $70 million—equal to over 1% of funds in the school funding formula.

There were other provisions dealing with cancelled non-instructional days, IEERB board procedural changes, and an attempt to alter the grandfather clause from 2011 dealing with salary increases based upon additional degrees.

 

The bill was up for a 3rd reading vote in the House.  ISTA members were asked to contact legislators all weekend.  In the end, the weight of SB 284 was too much and Rep. Rhoads elected not to call the bill for a vote.

 

ISTA thanks Rep. Rhoads and has committed to helping Sen. Grooms and Rep. Rhoads find a new home for the original contents of the bill during conference committee.

 

ISTA also thanks members and supporters of public schools for their emails and phone calls to legislators to oppose the bill this became.