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The proposed bill would limit what teachers unions can discuss with administrators during the collective bargaining process.
More than a thousand Indiana teachers and parents attended a rally yesterday at the Statehouse to voice their concerns about a number of proposed educational reforms.
The reform movement includes a measure passed by the House that would use public tax dollars to fund charter schools. Glen Dilman, a public school teacher for 42 years, says the legislation would hurt public education.
“The things that seem to be going through this bill,” he says, “are they really going to help students? A lot of these things aren’t helping students, what they are doing is attacking the profession to save money.”
Representatives from the Indiana State Teacher’s Association say other reforms would allow school districts to change teacher salary schedules, suspend a teacher for any reason at any time and prohibit a dismissed teacher from arguing his or her case in arbitration.
Governor Mitch Daniels and Superintendent of Public Instruction Tony Bennett are backing the legislation, saying reforms is needed to put limits on teachers unions, which they say already have too much power written into their contracts.
