Senate Passes Two Ed Bills, Tabling Controversial Third
Teacher Mentoring Program Bill Passes
The Senate passed a bill Tuesday that creates financial incentives for teachers rated effective and for those who mentor other teachers through an official mentoring program. The bill will now go back to the House for final approval before heading to the governor’s desk.
HB 1005 allows districts to create what the bill calls “career pathway programs,” which will be approved and managed by the State Board of Education. These programs aim to give teachers professional development and leadership opportunities, which may lead to improved instruction in schools.
Teachers enrolled in these programs will be eligible for bonuses, but these pay bumps cannot be included in collective bargaining, which many teacher unions in the state oppose.
The bill passed the Senate 38-11
ISTEP Re Score Is Off The Table
The Senate today also passed the bill that address various concerns around the ISTEP+. One of the major provisions of HB 1395 creates a panel to study alternatives to the ISTEP+. The bill outlines goals for the panel, which include looking at other testing options, reducing test time and reducing the cost of the test, among others.
More notable, the Senate removed the provision in the bill that allows for the State Board of Education to call for a rescore of the 2015 test. But rescoring the tests would be very costly and the Senate Education committee removed it.
The bill now goes back to the House, where its author Rep. Bob Behning, R-Indianapolis, must give these changes approval before sending it to the governor.
On The Horizon, Collective Bargaining Rights
One of the more controversial education bills still moving through the legislature will likely get its third reading in the Senate later this week or next.
House Bill 1004 addresses teacher pension plans and hiring practices, and throughout this session it’s raised controversy with many representatives and senators crossing party lines during votes.
One of the larger pieces of the bill takes away some collective bargaining tasks from teachers unions and give school districts the authority to give a teacher being hired in a “hard to fill” position, like STEM subjects or special education.
Currently, teachers unions bargain the salaries for all of the teachers in a district or school, and say if this bill passes it will create division among teachers who are getting a higher pay than others.
Teresa Meredith, President of the Indiana State Teachers Association, says current collective bargaining practices creates salary ranges for teachers, giving schools the authority to give a teacher a higher salary for high need areas. She says this bill is unnecessary, and if it passes it could open the door to unequal pay practices.
“You’re going to see women, who make up the majority of the workforce of teaching, making less,” Meredith says. “Your’e going to find specific areas and I would say even some positions like if you want to get a special coach from some other community, then you have to pay them more as a teacher in order to get them to want to come. I think you’ll definitely see women experiencing pay cuts.”
This bill is waiting for its third reading in the Senate before going back to the House.