Statehouse Express: Season 6, Episode 7

Hear INPEA Executive Director John Elcesser's update from the week of March 17 at the Indiana Statehouse. 

Transcript

Statehouse Express: Season 6, Episode  7

Well we’re back for another episode of the Statehouse Express! I’m John Elcesser, Executive Director here at INPEA. We’re so glad you are joining us today.

It’s been a busy week! On Monday, the Senate Subcommittee on K-12 Funding met for over four hours hearing testimony on the education budget. As you would expect, there was pretty colorful testimony and questioning from the committee members. INPEA worked with IQE to bring a number of parents and school administrators to speak in support of universal vouchers, as well as increased funding for CSAs and ESAs. A shout out to Cardinal Ritter High School, who had a number of students testify about the impact of the new CSA program. A number of parents spoke to the challenges with the current financial eligibility process. Some related the challenges associated with the inclusion of household income when household structure changes. They spoke about families having to move back in with their parents or the opposite, parents having to move back in with their children. Both of these impacting their financial eligibility. Other families spoke about the insecurity of not knowing if they were going to be eligible from one year to the next because of their fluctuating income. A special shout out to Christa Wynk from Bishop Chatard and Jenni Crain from St. Adalbert who both shared great testimony in both the House and the Senate!

After the committee hearing, IQE hosted a reception for choice advocates and legislators. There was a great turnout with about 40 legislators attending, including Speaker of the House, Todd Huston. Thanks to all who attended. It made for a long day but it was a good day!

The momentum is building and I can feel it, but as I shared last week, quoting Speaker Huston, there is no such thing as a slam dunk. So let’s all stay engaged and keep the pressure on!

OK now for a quick recap of this week’s legislation. Wednesday is education committee at the Statehouse, with the House Ed meeting in the morning and Senate Ed meeting in the afternoon. As we started the day, there 17 bills scheduled. The House Ed only ended up hearing 3 of the 6 bills listed, one directly involved non-pubs. SB 146 which is a teacher compensation bill, setting the base salary for a public school teacher at $45,000 amended back into the bill a provision for maternity and paternity family leave. It passed out of committee 13-0. There was significant discussion on SB 255, which allows religious instruction release time for students in public schools. It passed out of committee along party lines 8-4.

There was a much heftier agenda on the Senate side, where 7 bills were slated only for amend and vote and another 4 bills were heard for the first time with testimony taken. I’ll highlight just a few that pertain to our schools.

HB 1498, the school accountability bill, precipitated a good bit of discussion, with Democrats pushing not to use the A-F designations but they were unsuccessful. The bill did end up passing out of committee 13-0. Our own Chris Brunson has been working hard on some language change on HB 1499, which provided a two year reprieve for some English language learners. The original language didn’t take into consideration the different grade structures in non-pubs which would have limited access to this flexibility in many of our schools. Chris worked with both legislators and the department for a language change that will now not disadvantage K-8 or K-12 schools. That bill passed out of committee 13-0. HB 1515, which has 4 non-public school pieces, including choice eligibility appeals and the ability to have a police force, passed out of committee 8-4 but was recommitted to the Appropriations Committee where it will no doubt face some challenges. HB 1326 the SGO bill authored by Representative Heine was presented and testimony was heard. Surprisingly there did not seem to be any pushback in committee. It will be voted on next week. If passed, it too will be recommitted to Appropriations. HB 1634 the math bill also passed out committee 12-0. As you can see, things are moving quickly and there are lots of moving pieces.

I think that’s it for this week and trust me that’s enough! We’ll see you back here next week for the next episode of the Statehouse Express!