Stand up for yourself and ISTA

ACTION ITEM: Please contact your House Representative immediately to urge their opposition to HB 1334.

This is your chance to stand up for your profession and the Association that stands up for you.

This morning, the House Education Committee heard HB 1334 (Rep. Jeff Thompson, R-Lizton, a teacher himself), allowing the Department of Administration to contract for liability insurance for public and nonpublic teachers. This was the original bill (before an amendment) and basically invites state government to get in the teacher liability insurance business-hardly an example of free market principles generally espoused by members of the Republican caucus-but coincidentally a service that the ISTA provides as part of its membership dues.

Speaking of Association dues, Rep. Thompson then added an amendment to his bill in committee to do a number of things, chief among them, to prohibit a school employer from enabling the automatic deduction of union dues from the school employee's paycheck as voluntarily requested in writing by the employee.

Since this issue was highlighted in the Northwest Indiana Times and the Indianapolis Star beginning in November (after the election) as a legislative goal of the Indiana State Chamber of Commerce, ISTA has systematically contacted many members of the Republican House and Senate caucuses to ascertain the strength of support therein. Time after time, the response ISTA received in these intervening months centered on words and phrases like "unnecessary," "punitive," "retribution," and "does nothing to improve student achievement."

During public testimony on this issue, only one individual registered support specifically for the component of the bill that prohibits dues deduction-Kevin Brinegar, President of the Indiana State Chamber of Commerce.

ISTA testified in strong opposition and is greatly disappointed that, once again, the House Education Committee has chosen to focus on adults rather than programs in classrooms that help children succeed. The effort to take away teachers' own choice to deduct their dues, which is both voluntary and annually renewed, is disrespectful and is yet another attack on teachers-this time their professional Association.

During testimony, Rep. Thompson confirmed that his measure has nothing to do with cost and everything to do with his "philosophy" on the issue. This is not being billed as a fiscal savings measure and is surely not as demonstrated by the continued allowance of every other voluntary deduction one can conceive.

Recently, in other states with Republican-controlled legislatures, this same measure has been enacted-only to be found unconstitutional in court.

Ironically, Rep. Thompson embedded into his anti-teacher amendment the following initiatives:

(1) A $1000 state income tax deduction for certain expenditures made by teachers related to their instruction (this amounts to $34 annually);

(2) Excused from all professional growth requirements for re-licensure teachers deemed "highly effective;"

(3) Excused from 50% of the growth experiences the teacher would otherwise be required to accrue for re-licensure teachers deemed "effective;"

(4) In a blanket move, authorized "high performing schools" to seek waivers of all SBE rules.

The bill passed committee as amended along party lines with a vote of 7-3. Representative Kreg Battles (D-Vincennes) excused himself from the vote until he can seek legal counsel because, as a professional educator and dues-paying member of ISTA, he wants to ensure there are no conflicts of interest.

ACTION ITEM: Please contact your House Representative immediately to urge their opposition to HB 1334. This is your chance to stand up for your profession and the Association that stands up for you.

Contact your legislators

https://keepthepromiseindiana.org/_data/files/Copy_of_House_Senate_emails.pdf

ALERT! Anti-Public Education Bills

ISTA Members: Two anti-public education bills in the Indiana House need your attention and your response TODAY:

www.keepthepromiseindiana.org

PARENT TRIGGER ACCELERATION HB 1358
ATTACK ON TEACHERS' RIGHTS HB 1339

HB 1358:
Tuesday; House Education Committee will hear the accelerated "Parent Trigger" bill to enable a minority of parents to take over community-based public schools and convert them to charter schools run by corporate "lead partners".--HB 1358 (Rep. Todd Huston, R-Fishers).

WHAT HB 1358 DOES:

• Indiana's existing conversion charter school law is repealed (which requires both the school board and parents to agree on a conversion).
• That law is replaced with a model that solely enables 51% of parents in a school that is labeled in the bottom two categories for three (3) consecutive years to:

• take over the school by petitioning the state board of education to assign a "lead partner" to operate the school; and

• place the school under the most draconian of sanctions that currently attach to schools in the bottom two lowest categories for five (5) consecutive years.

• When is 51% not a majority? When parents are given multiple votes based upon the number of children they have in a school. Because parents are given "weighted" voting rights based upon the number of children then have in a school, a minority of parents can fundamentally change the focus, the governance, the scope of teachers' rights, and the framework of a local community-based public school. 

HB 1339:

• Teachers:

• Due Process: Repeals the law concerning the continuing effect of an individual teacher's contract. Without this law, contracts will terminate on their face annually and a teacher, "effective or not," will not be protected from arbitrary termination until a new contract is signed.

• Collective Bargaining: Relative to the pro rata member/nonmember composition on committees-states that all "discussion committees" fall under this pro rata framework. Existing law exempted the bargaining team from having to adhere to the member/nonmember composition because under law, the bargaining team is the EXCLUSIVE representative.

• States that the existence of a voluntary sick bank is bargainable but the terms of the sick bank policy are not. This reneges on the 2011 pledge that wages and benefits are bargainable. A voluntary sick bank is a benefit.

• Removes the provision authorizing the continuing effect of a collective bargaining agreement (CBA) when agreement has not been reached. The whole point of the new collective bargaining law was to get to the point of agreement. There has been only one case in which agreement has not been reached---and that situation was created by allegations of unfair labor practices having occurred. In a case such as this, the party that committed an unfair labor practice should not be "rewarded" by terminating the existing CBA.

• Suspension without pay: Removes from law the requirement that a teacher who is subject to suspension without pay is entitled to a full statement of the reasons for the proposed suspension without pay and to be heard and to present the testimony of witnesses and other evidence. Also repeals the law that enables the school board to appoint an agent or attorney to issue subpoenas for the attendance of witnesses for either party at the hearing to suspend a teacher without pay.

• Teacher Compensation: Requires that each school district must submit its compensation model to the DOE and the DOE, the State Board of Accounts, and the IEERB and these bodies shall report any noncompliance to the State Board of Education -which is then required to take "appropriate action to ensure compliance."

• Virtual Charter Schools:

• Enables a virtual charter school to provide up to 90% of its program "virtually" and still qualify for state funding. Current law says 50% of instruction must be "real." The likely effect is to enable more home-schooled students to be virtually-instructed at the state's expense. There is no funding attached to this. There is no requirement that a student first attend a public school. Also, note in HB 1338, virtually funding was increased from 87.5% of Indiana's per pupil funding to 100% of Indiana's per pupil funding. The funding for these new students will come from existing public school k-12 funding.

• Repeals the law that requires the DOE to report to the state on virtual schools in Indiana.

• Charter Schools:

• As to charter school performance reporting on the DOE website, enables each charter school authorizer to develop its own performance framework in terms of the data reported (existing law says that the annual performance data for charter schools must include the same demographic and performance data required of every other public school).

• Administrators:

• Provides some of the same due process "protections" to administrators that teachers have. However, because most administrators have multi-year contracts, the consequences for cancelling a contract will likely not play out in the same fashion-that being, contracts with out-going administrators generally come with some form of buyout.

Please let your representative and every member of the House Education committee know TODAY you oppose HB 1358 & HB 1339

For additional information on these two bills and to email legislators, visit:
www.keepthepromiseindiana.org

ISTA-Retired Conference

NEA has approved the grant for the ISTA-Retired Conference to be held on March 13, 2013 at the Hilton Indianapolis North, 8181 North Shadeland, Indianapolis, IN 46250. Wrap up and super door prizes will be from 4:05 to 4:30. The conference is free to all retired members. (Non-members pay $65.00 registration).

This promises to be a great conference developed on the theme, "Building Stronger Affiliates." The morning motivational speaker will be Dr. Earl Wiman of the NEA Executive Committee. Break out session leaders will include Joanne Gay from Connecticut, Sandy Swellinger from Georgia, and our own Theresa Meredith, ISTA V. Pres., and Gail Zeheralis, Roni Embry and John O'Neal.

There will be a nice sit down lunch at noon and the afternoon break includes a yummy dessert.

Jim Clauser has worked hard with Sarah Borgman to organize this conference. So let's show them we appreciate their hard work.

Several from Allen County attended the conference last year and had a good time.

If members car pool, we will pay some gas money from the treasury.

The deadline for registering is March 6, 2013. You can find the registration form on line at https://ista-in.org/2013-retired-leadership-conference.

...or you can e-mail Jim Clauser or Fran McIntosh and we will send in your registration.

Let's get a good representation from the Allen County Chapter.

Keep The Promise: Kruse Commends Ritz

Senator Kruse Commends Superintendent Ritz

Last week, Senator Dennis Kruse (R-Auburn) opened his committee hearing (Senate Education and Career Development) with the following statement:

“We’re not going to hear any bills here in the Senate bills that reflect in any way against our new superintendent. She has been doing an excellent job so far and getting along with us very well, and I will continue to work with her the best I can,” Kruse said. [Thanks to Eric Bradner of the Evansville Courier and Press for including this in his blog, Capitol Journal]

Then, Senator Kruse publicly invited ISTA lobbyist Roni Embry to work on SB 330 (having to do with the school accreditation process) with Sen. Earline Rogers (D-Gary), and John Barnes (legislative liaison to the Department of Education) to ensure that the Department of Education is appropriately included in the bill.

All of this is very good news for school employees across the state and reflective of yourwork in sharing with Senators your concerns about bills that have been introduced that appear to seek to diminish the authority of the office of the State Superintendent.

ACTION ITEM: Please follow-up and thank Senator Kruse (s14@in.gov) for his public comments supporting Glenda Ritz and for his open invitation to your ISTA lobbyists to help improve bills in his committee.

2013 Legislature is Now in Session

Stay informed about what's happening in the Indiana Legislature.

ISTA Smart Phone APP

Download from your smart device app store (search for "ISTA Mobile"). This new app delivers the optimum mobile experience for ISTA members putting all things ISTA right into your pocket.

You will need to have your ISTA membership number on hand when you download the ISTA app for the first time.

Keep up-to-date on all the happenings during the 2013 Legislature.

Web Based Daily Updates

ISTA Keep the Promise Web site

Legislative HOTLINE with Links to your Legislators

Bill Watch: 2013 General Assembly Education Bills


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Questionable Questionnaire Question

News Release

Indiana State Teachers Association
150 West Market Street, Suite 900
Indianapolis, Indiana 46204-2875

Office: 317-263-3400, 800-382-4037
FAX: 317-655-3400, 800-777-6128

The following release was sent to the statewide media earlier today.

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE - Some Legislators Open Session with Questionable Survey Question

Monday, January 7, 2013

Contact: Mark Shoup, 317.263.3369 / Kathleen Berry, 317-263.3321

Some Legislators Open Session with
Questionable Questionnaire Question

INDIANAPOLIS - Just as the 2013 session of the General Assembly is set to open today with hopes of bi-partisan cooperation and meaningful debate on important issues facing the state, Hoosier voters in several legislative districts received a taxpayer-funded survey from some Republican caucus members of the House of Representatives that raised eyebrows and simultaneously lowered expectations that policy over partisanship might just prevail in 2013.

The reason for the new-found skepticism?
One of the questions reads (as if some major issue facing the state):

..."Currently, the teachers' union can automatically deduct fees and dues from teachers' paychecks. In many cases, these dues are used to support candidates or political organizations that a teacher may disagree with. Would you support a law that requires the union to receive authorization from a teacher before it can deduct fees and dues from their paycheck."

It's important for Hoosiers to know the facts: Indiana law already requires all of this.
One could argue that legislators who included this question in their survey should have known this, too.

Indiana law already requires prior written authorization from any educator who voluntarily chooses to automatically deduct from his/her paycheck association dues. (see IC 20-29-5-6) In addition, those deductions must be consistent with other laws that govern all other entities and employers/employees relative to wages. (see IC 22-2-6; IC 22-2-7; IC 20-28-9-18) This practice is not out of the ordinary, but is both a routine and rather perfunctory option granted to employees all across the state: Think health insurance premiums, think retirement contributions, think United Way and a myriad of other not-for-profit/charitable contributions, think professional association dues and fees, think garnishments, on and on.

Teacher union dues are not given nor diverted to political candidates or political campaigns (period). VOLUNTARY political action contributions are distributed through a separate political action committee (in the case of ISTA, the political action committee is called I-PACE) and are governed by a different set of laws.

With all of the major issues facing our state and nation - creating jobs, improving the economy, funding our schools, protecting Hoosier children in the state welfare system, etc... legislators should be sensitive to creating false "policy issues" that take up valuable space in a constituent survey ostensibly designed to foster meaningful exchange. At the very least, legislators who disseminated this question should alert their constituents to the fact that the question's entire set of premises is faulty and that the concerns they raised about teachers, teachers unions, and salary deductions are, in fact, non-issues as they have already been covered under existing Indiana law.

"We still hope that this session will be one focused on cooperation and bipartisanship," said Nate Schnellenberger, ISTA President. "We fully intend to reach out to all legislators as the session unfolds on behalf of Indiana's public school students and the school employees-teachers and educational support professionals-who have dedicated their professional lives to them."

January 10 Meeting

Happy New Year!!!!

The ISTA-Retired Allen County meeting will be held January 10, 2013 at noon at the Mastodon Grill located in the Holiday Inn at 4111 Paul Shaffer Drive. It is on the north side of Coliseum Blvd. across from the Coliseum. Turn at the stoplight and you'll be on Paul Shaffer Dr. Then turn left into the Holiday Inn. Walk thru the Lobby toward the back and turn left for the Mastodon Grill.

Our speaker is Kathy Pargmann, Marketing Manager for the Fort Wayne Parks and Recreation and her topic is "History and Future Plans for Fort Wayne Parks." She has been with the Park Board for 25 years.

We will have updates on what is happening with FWEA and the Legislature. We hope to see everyone at the meeting. Come and bring your spouse and/or a friend with you.

Please RSVP by January 7, 2013 by e-mailing Dorthy Epple or call her at 436-2326 and leave a message. Thanks.