Statehouse Express: Season 6, Episode 6

Listen to this legislative update from INPEA's John Elcesser and Chris Brunson after the week of March 10. 

Transcript

Statehouse Express: Season 6, Episode 6

Please note: Audio was transcribed using Microsoft 365 so there may be some grammatical and style errors. 

Hi, I’m John Elcesser, executive director here at INPEA and I'm again joined this week by our associate director, Chris Brunson. Well, we were two weeks into the second half of the 2025 legislative session. As you may remember, any bills that passed out of one chamber start to process all over again in the second chamber. Not much really happened in that first week. A number of bills were heard in education committees, but no bills were voted on. On Wednesday of this Week, 9 education bills were heard across both education committees and only two were voted on. House Bill 1016, which deals with membership on school safety commissions passed out of Ed Committee, 13 to 0 and House Bill 1102, which deals with school corporations being able to partner with religious based pre-K providers, also passed out of Senate Ed. 13 to 0. Now, Chris also heard Senate Bill 146. What were your takeaways from the discussion on that bill?

Yeah, so Senate Bill 146 does not directly apply to non-public schools, but it's still important for us to be aware of it. The minimum teacher salary in traditional public schools from $40,000 a year to $45,000 a year. Most public schools are already at that number. The department presents really good data on how many schools still need to get there. It also moves the required minimum percentage of state tuition support that public schools spend on teacher compensation from 62% up to 65%. So again, this is not directly applied to non-public schools, but it does affect the teacher job market, and we need to be aware of that as we plan strategically. Build our teacher compensation models both short term and long term and as we move to universal vouchers that 65% of tuition support expended on teacher salaries. Is probably a good number to have in mind as we plan our budgets.

Thanks, Chris. House Ed committee also heard Senate Bill 373, which is a various education matters, bill. Not a great deal of the bill impacts our schools. One item dealt with summer school funding, though shifting from a straight percentage to a per student funding model, which may also include differentiated funding based on the course of students enrolled in and the length of time of the summer school program. Dr. Jenner pointed out in her testimony that there were some gross differences in the amount of reimbursement requested by a school for the same course covering the same time frame. In addition to the two bills, five other bills were heard. Those five bills can be amended and will be voted on next week. Three of those bills can impact non-public schools. House Bill 1498, which we have referenced in the past, deals with the reinstitution of school accountability and return to the A to F school grade. Although the responsibility of defining the A to F metric is the responsibility of the Department of Ed and the State Board, HB 1498 does prescribe some measures that must be included in the metric, as well as specifying the timeline for the return of A to F category designation. The metric must be approved by December of 2025 and schools would start receiving grades in December of 2026. Now Chris testified on House Bill 1499, a bill that he's been working on closely with legislators and the Department of Ed. I'm going to ask him to speak to what he heard yesterday on that bill and what he has proposed.

Thanks John. So HB 1499 specifically addresses IREAD, make some tweaks to last year's Senate bill that attempted to really move the state forward in our focus on literacy. 1499 would add 1 summer retest window for second graders and adds a second summer retest window for 3rd graders. That's really great. As we invest in high impact summer interventions that gives us the opportunity to avert retention for some of those third graders who are receiving really great summer school programs to advance their literacy. 1499 also looks to delay the effective date of last year's mandatory retention for English language learner students and majority English language learners’ schools. So while it's clear that the bill's authors and supporters intend this to be a very small window, we're working to ensure that this grace period includes the intended students, regardless of whether they are in a traditional public K-5 building or one of our K-8 or K-12 schools where ELL as a percentage of total enrollment is lower as older students test out of ELL status. If I can just take a minute to give a shout out to all of our teachers in those schools working with those ELL kids, I take this bill as a sign that both the department and the legislature are recognizing the extra lift that it is for you. To incorporate science of reading strategies into the ELL support and other interventions that you have in place for these students. Thank you and keep up the work.

Well said, Chris. And the last bill is House Bill 1634, and it's authored by Representative Teska, who is a graduate of one of our INPEA member schools, Saint Joseph High School up in South Bend. This bill focuses on math improvement. Part of the bill that applies to accredited non pubs and choice schools requires a math screener to be used in K-2, with required interventions for students at risk in grades K-8. We had a conversation with the author about the very prescriptive nature of the required interventions. We certainly do support a focus on math. It's how that occurs that can pose a challenge. Math performance for all schools has been a long concern even before COVID, and the attention to science of reading. In response partially to that, INPEA has planned an entire strand at INPEC 2025 focused on improving map performance. Chris, anything to add on what we heard this week down at the Statehouse, either in chamber or in the hallways?

Actually, what I found interesting is just some of the issues that are getting a whole lot of attention outside of non-public education. There's an attempt to require school board candidates public school board candidates to declare party affiliation. Those have traditionally been nonpartisan elections. There's a lot of talk, a lot of work around, property tax reform ideas, and some homeschool bills that have gotten a lot of attention this session.

Yeah, it's always a busy session during a budget year and it's going to start gearing up very quickly here as we move closer to the finish line. Another important item that we want to make you aware of, is that the House budget, which includes universal choice, will be heard on Monday in the Senate K12 Funding Subcommittee. INPEA has been working with our friends at IQE to recruit folks to come in and testify before that committee. Please be watching for a legislative alert regarding the budget as it enters the process in the Senate. I also want to give a quick shout out to folks who've been showing up at the legislative town halls around the state. Most recently, we had a great turn out down in Evansville. There were yellow scarves everywhere. Go Evansville! 

And finally, I don't usually promote other podcasts here on the Statehouse express, but our friends at IQE My School Options do a podcast called Education Matters. On their recent episode, #31, Betsy Wiley interviewed Speaker of the House Todd Huston about universal choice and to give you just a little taste, here are a few quotes from Speaker Huston on that podcast. But get the full sense of it, I really encourage that you listen to it. He said that with each expansion, it's gotten a little easier. The sky is falling narrative that we've heard early on has not shown to be true. When asked if we would get universal choice this year, he responded, “I feel good about it, although the legislature, we never say anything as a slam-dunk, and he went on to say that universal choice is good for schools. Good for kids and it's good for education in Indiana.” When asked if there are problems in the Senate, how they would respond, he said, “Yes, we'll fight. But with that said, I haven't heard anything to suggest our colleagues in the Senate won't be supported with Governor Brown's leadership. Choice has become the narrative. In achieving universal. It's kind of where people are.” You know folks, it's great to hear that positive message from Speaker Huston. And as he said, there is no such thing as a slam dunk. So, we will still need you to engage and to be advocates and to use his words fight because together we can get universal choice across the finish line. Well, that's it for this edition of the Statehouse Express. Thanks, Chris, for joining me. And as always for Andrea's work behind the scenes. We'll see you back here next week aboard the Statehouse Express.