Statehouse Express: Season 3, Episode 4

Happy Valentine's Day and #LoveTeachingWeek! In this latest episode, INPEA Executive Director John Elcesser reviews what happened in the Indiana General Assembly last week and what we are anticipating this week. 

Transcript

Statehouse Express: S3, E4

Hi! I’m John Elcesser, Executive Director of INPEA, and welcome to the 4th stop on the Statehouse Express for the 2022 General Assembly session. We’re recording this episode of our podcast on Valentine’s Day, so Happy Valentine’s Day. We are also recording this on the day after the Super Bowl, so congratulations to all you Rams fans and condolences to you Bengal fans. You still had a great season! And remember, there is always next year!

As we move quickly into the second half of the legislative session, it’s important to point out that each of the education committees will only have two more opportunities to meet before the committee report deadlines so the number of bills making it through to the full House and Senate will be very limited. And to tell you the truth, that’s not all bad.

Last week the Senate Ed Committee heard the controversial HB1041 which deals with sports participation and gender identity. Similar to when the House Education Committee heard the bill, testimony went on for quite a few hours. We assume this bill be voted on next Wednesday. As you’ve probably seen in the media, HB1041 has generated quite a bit of pushback. The bill does apply to nonpubs and our concern has been that it puts full implementation responsibility at the local school level, including the creation of a grievance procedure.

The House education committee heard SB2 which deals with funding of virtual students. The committee amended the enrichment grant program that was originally in HB1252 into this bill as well. It did pass out of committee 12-1 and now goes to the Ways and Means Committee.

We have not seen the bills slated for this week as we prepared this podcast, but we know that bills heard last week should be up for amend and vote. We also know that SB 331 the ESA fix up bill will be heard in House Ed. on Wednesday. It is our hope that we can get some of the fixes that were removed in Senate Appropriations put back in on the House side. It’s somewhat of a tedious process because any changes made on the House side have to be approved back in the Senate. Again, the fixes we are lobbying for, deal with the transfer of APC dollars to the nonpub if they are providing a student’s special education services. And second, making sure tuition and fees are paid before a family can purchase additional services and finally the removal of the $50,000 surety bond requirement. Again, I want to emphasize the importance of school leaders becoming familiar with the new ESA program since rollout efforts are underway and schools will need to know if they are going to participate in the program.

On a different note, the State Board met last week and they received an update on the State’s new GPS dashboard system. You can find that PowerPoint with the email that included this podcast link. This is another item that is important for school leaders to stay on top of.

And now a quick commercial, make sure that you have marked your calendars for INPAC 2022 which will be held on September 22 & 23 at the Renaissance Hotel in Carmel. Registration information will be available soon.

In case you didn’t know this week is #LoveTeachingWeek. Not only is it a good to celebrate the gift of teaching and teachers, but it also a good time encourage teachers to engage in the advocacy and support of the profession. With a number of bills in this session impacting teachers (even if some don’t directly impacting nonpublic school teachers) it is still a teachable moment. Let’s make sure our teachers are informed about what is happening legislatively. We would strongly encourage you to share this podcast with your teachers, as well as our legislative alerts and our monthly updates. Informed teachers can pay a variety of dividends. With that said, we hope you find ways this week to say thanks and to promote the worthwhile profession of teaching.

 Well, we hope to see you back here next time for the next edition of the Statehouse express.