Statehouse Express: Season 6, Episode 9

It was a busy week at the Statehouse as the 2025 legislative session is winding down. Catch up on what happened in this latest episode! 

Transcript

Statehouse Express: Season 6, Episode 9

Hi I’m John Elcesser and welcome to the Statehouse Express. We are now getting down to the nitty gritty of the legislative session. Two significant events that we are anxiously anticipating: First, the state’s next revenue projection which will be released on April 16th.  Second, we also anticipate the release the Senate’s version of the budget on April 10th.

When looking at some of our key legislative priorities, they are pieces of a larger budget puzzle. Once we know the revenue projections, have a sense where property tax credit legislation lands as well as how the General Assembly addresses the significant growth in Medicaid expenses, then we may have an idea of where K-12 funding fits into the puzzle. And where universal choice fits into K-12 funding.

I really don’t know if we’ll have a clear picture of where we end up until Sine Die, the earliest that may be is April 24th and the latest is April 29th.

The House Education Committee met without their chairman on Wednesday due to illness so not all bills scheduled were addressed. None of the bills addressed have a direct impact on non-public schools. The House education committee will meet for the last time for the 2025 session next Wednesday.

The Senate Ed. Committee met for the final time this session this past Wednesday. HB 1064, which changed athletic transfer rules, was amended to remove another part of the bill that required a cash payment option for athletic events. It passed out of committee narrowly 7-6.

HB 1326, which included an SGO expansion, had those parts basically stripped out of the bill by amendment. The provisions that were removed dealt with allowing PreK 3-year-olds access to the SGO program as well as removing the financial eligibility requirement. Senator Deery, the author of the amendment, also added a requirement that SGOs include on their annual report to the state the amount of any unexpended funds in schools’ accounts. He explained he would like more data before considering expansions to the program. We have doubts that this bill will make it through the session, and in its current form, we really hope it doesn’t.

We do still hope to address making SGO universal in the budget process. The amended version of HB 1326 passed out of committee 9-4.

The Senate Appropriations Committee met on Thursday and heard a number of bills. Two bills have potential impact on non-public schools. HB 1002 which is a Title 20 clean-up bill passed out of committee 10-3. HB 1515 which included 4 non-public school components, and some charter zoning language brought extensive discussion regarding the charter school zoning language but then the discussion shifted to the nonpublic school police force part of the bill. A number of senators had concerns about does this opens the door to other entities wanting to establish a police force. Senator Buchanan, the Senate sponsor, said he would accept a second reading amendment to remove the police force part of the bill. With that said, the bill passed out of committee 9-4. Those voting against were democrats who had issue with the charter zoning part of the bill. We are not sure at this point if the police force part of the bill is viable or not. It seems doubtful.

On Wednesday, Governor Braun and Secretary Jenner held a press conference to share the next phase of the new diploma rollout which I call “diploma currency”. In their announcement, they shared the currency that’s been committed for each of the 3 honors plus seals. The enrollment honors plus seals guarantees automatic acceptance into any Indiana public higher ed institutions. The employment honors plus seal will ensure access to career support and interviewing access connected to a number of major Indiana employers. And the enlistment honors seal will ensure that those graduates are uniquely qualified to join the Indiana National Guard. I’m sure we’ll be hearing much more about the “diploma currency” in the coming months.

So, this week ended up being pretty eventful...some good and some bad. With that in mind, PLEASE stay engaged, watch for our alerts and be ready to raise up our non-public voice. That’s it for now. We’ll see back here next week for the Statehouse Express!