Vic’s Statehouse Notes #351 – The death knell of accountability
Dear Friends,
The House Education Committee last Wednesday passed House Bill 1005, taking Indiana in a radical and controversial direction.
Let there be no confusion. This is new.
Education Savings Accounts, now called Education Scholarship Accounts in House Bill 1005 and Personalized Education Grants in Senate Bill 412, are new.
We have seen this ESA proposal in Indiana since 2015, but it has never passed a committee vote.
Passing House Bill 1005 by a party line vote of 8-4 on Wednesday signaled that Republican House members are ready to introduce a new era in Indiana education, one we have never seen before, one without accountability and standards.
The Death Knell of Accountability
It’s a brave new world, and it marks the end of Indiana’s enormous effort begun 22 years ago in 1999 to raise accountability and standards.
It’s a new world where parents are trusted to receive and spend the money online that until now has gone from the state budget to audited and supervised schools. HB 1005 begins a plan to move education money directly to parents without supervision or accountability through a $5 million online portal run by the Indiana Treasurer. All parents must do to get approximately $7000 is to agree online to “use part of the money” for the study of “reading, grammar, mathematics, science or social studies” or for the student’s “individualized education plan.”
Stop and think about the enormity of this change. Read the previous paragraph one more time.
On Wednesday, the committee discussed how a parent using an ESA might choose various vendors in a cafeteria approach to educating their child. Rep. Vernon Smith, the ranking Democrat on the committee, asked “Where is the accountability built in here if somebody wants to use that cafeteria approach?” Representative Behning the bill sponsor responded, “Primarily with the parent.”
There it is.
The parents can get the money, and they can supervise themselves. No state tests, no standards, no state supervision, and no interest by the state in how it all turned out after giving out the ESA money.
Can you imagine the uproar if schools were told they could get money and can supervise themselves?
That is what is new that passed 8-4 on a party line vote in the House Education Committee on February 3, 2021. Mark that date as the date of the death knell of accountability in Indiana.
It’s Time to Fight Back. Will You Help?
The concept of Education Scholarship Accounts is over the top and stands to undermine public education and all that it has done for over 180 years in Indiana.
The Senate is calling them Personalized Education Grants in Senate Bill 412.
Send your opposition to House Bill 1005 to members of the House Ways and Means Committee listed below, who will consider amendments and then vote on the bill on Tuesday Feb. 9 upon adjournment of the House in the afternoon. Send messages to House members tonight or tomorrow morning.
Then email Senators listed below to oppose Senate Bills 412 and 413. SB 412 is similar to HB 1005 in that it creates “Personalized Education Grants”, which are the same as Educational Scholarship Accounts.
Senate Bill 413 gives extra money to those already using private school vouchers, making all 50% and 70% vouchers worth 90% vouchers, at a cost to taxpayers of $38 million over the next two years.
Both SB 412 and SB 413 are on the Senate Education agenda for “amend and vote” on Wednesday Feb. 10 at 1:45 pm.
Use these two action boxes below (click + on the right) to find talking points and links to email the committee members.
HB 1005 - Take Action NOW
Talking points for House Ways and Means committee members:
- Even after a major reduction, HB 1005 will still cost $66 million over two years according to LSA.
- There is no oversight of schooling under ESA’s. Extremists could take advantage of having public money available to teach extremist ideology to young students.
- There is no accountability under ESA’s. No testing is required, and no standards or outcomes are reviewed. Florida’s ESA scandals were reviewed in a 2017 report by the Orlando Sentinel entitled “Schools without Rules.”
- The participating entities and approved vendors on the portal are not required to serve all students, as are public schools. Students and their surprised parents could be denied services at any time.
- Taxpayers foot the bill for Educational Scholarship Accounts, but they lose all say in policies and expenditures. With ESA’s, there is no school board or state board for taxpayer input or complaints. Parent policies and decisions are completely up to that parent. Taxpayers are disenfranchised.
Click here to email the entire House Ways & Means Committee at once.
Click here to see who’s on the committee. There are 24 members.
(800) 382-9842 – House Democrats
(800) 382-9841 – House Republicans
SB 412 & SB 413 - Take Action NOW
Talking points for Senate Education committee members:
- Senate Bill 412 will cost $112 million over two years, according to LSA.
- Senate Bill 413 will cost $38 million over two years, according to LSA.
- There is no oversight of schooling under Personalized Education Grants. Extremists could take advantage of having public money available to teach extremist ideology to young students.
- There is no accountability under Personalized Education Grants. No testing is required, and no standards or outcomes are reviewed. Florida’s scandals with similar grants were reviewed in a 2017 report by the Orlando Sentinel entitled “Schools without Rules.”
- The participating entities and approved vendors on the portal are not required to serve all students, as are public schools. Students and their surprised parents could be denied services at any time.
- Taxpayers foot the bill for Personalized Education Grants, but they lose all say in policies and expenditures. With these grants, there is no school board or state board for taxpayer input or complaints. Parent policies and decisions are completely up to that parent. Taxpayers are disenfranchised.
Click here to email the entire Senate Education and Career Development Committee at once
Click here to see who’s on the committee.
(317) 232-9400
(800) 382-9467
Thank you for your active support of public education in Indiana!
Best wishes,
Vic Smith vic790@aol.com
“Vic’s Statehouse Notes” and ICPE received one of three Excellence in Media Awards presented by Delta Kappa Gamma Society International, an organization of over 85,000 women educators in seventeen countries. The award was presented on July 30, 2014 during the Delta Kappa Gamma International Convention held in Indianapolis. Thank you Delta Kappa Gamma!
ICPE has worked since 2011 to promote public education in the Statehouse and oppose the privatization of schools. We need your membership to help support ICPE lobbying efforts. As of July 1st, the start of our new membership year, it is time for all ICPE members to renew their membership.
Our lobbyist Joel Hand is representing ICPE extremely well in the extraordinary 2021 budget session. We need your memberships and your support to continue his work. We welcome additional members and additional donations. We need your help and the help of your colleagues who support public education! Please pass the word!
Go to www.indianacoalitionforpubliced.org for membership and renewal information and for full information on ICPE efforts on behalf of public education. Thanks!
Some readers have asked about my background in Indiana public schools. Thanks for asking! Here is a brief bio:
I am a lifelong Hoosier and began teaching in 1969. I served as a social studies teacher, curriculum developer, state research and evaluation consultant, state social studies consultant, district social studies supervisor, assistant principal, principal, educational association staff member, and adjunct university professor. I worked for Garrett-Keyser-Butler Schools, the Indiana University Social Studies Development Center, the Indiana Department of Education, the Indianapolis Public Schools, IUPUI, and the Indiana Urban Schools Association, from which I retired as Associate Director in 2009. I hold three degrees: B.A. in Ed., Ball State University, 1969; M.S. in Ed., Indiana University, 1972; and Ed.D., Indiana University, 1977, along with a Teacher’s Life License and a Superintendent’s License, 1998. In 2013 I was honored to receive a Distinguished Alumni Award from the IU School of Education, and in 2014 I was honored to be named to the Teacher Education Hall of Fame by the Association for Teacher Education – Indiana. In April of 2018, I was honored to receive the 2018 Friend of Education Award from the Indiana State Teachers Association.