House Education Bills Span School Prayer To Election Finance

The Indiana House has begun to release its proposed 2017 legislation. Ahead of the Jan. 10 filing deadline, lawmakers have released around 70 bills through Wednesday. Here is a look at some of the proposed education legislation:

Prayer In Schools HB 1024: would provide protections against discrimination of a student and their parents “on the basis of a religious viewpoint or religious expression.” The bill would also mandate traditional public and charter schools to create a policy allowing a student to express religious beliefs at any school event where another student is scheduled to speak.

The U.S. Supreme Court has ruled that state-sponsored, or teacher-led, prayer or religious activities are not allowed in schools.

School Board Candidate Contributions HB 1035: would basically ban candidates for local school board elections from accepting financial contributions from out-of-state donors or from political action committees that also give to non-Indiana candidates. Candidates would be required to return any money received from these two groups.

Out-of-state contributions raised some concerns in the 2012 Indianapolis School Board election. Three winning candidates raised a collective $200,000, in part through large out-of-state contributions.

General Fund Referendum HB 1038: extends the time that voters can approve a a general fund referendum to pay for school facilities to eight years, an addition of one year.

Referendums have become more common after 2008 when the legislature put caps on the amount of property taxes that could be collected to fund schools.

Higher Education Expenses HB 1012: requires public college and universities to provide each student a statement each semester that details how much the student is paying, and how those funds are being spent at the college.

The House Education committee is expected to meet for the first time next week.

Our round-up of major senate education bills can be found here.