ICPE urges you to contact members of the House Education Committee before 8:30 a.m. Monday. 

• Ask them to support Senate Bill 319, because it eliminates the requirement that teachers obtain 15 professional growth points (PGPs) through an internship with a business.
• Ask them to vote no on Senate Bill 425.

You can copy and paste these email addresses into your TO field:

h91@iga.in.gov, h32@iga.in.gov, h58@iga.in.gov, h72@iga.in.gov, h5@iga.in.gov, h29@iga.in.gov, h17@iga.in.gov, h69@iga.in.gov, h28@iga.in.gov, h14@iga.in.gov, h86@iga.in.gov, h43@iga.in.gov, h27@iga.in.gov

ICPE also urges you to contact your state Senator before Monday (Feb. 24) afternoon and support these amendments to HB 1222:

• #2 from Sen. Brown
• #8 from Sen. Holdman
• #9 from Sen. Alting

And ask your state Senator to oppose this amendment to HB 1222:

• #10 from Sen. Walker (only 10 districts in Indiana could be affected).

If you don’t know who your state Senator is, click here.

More details are below

Senate Bill 319  – This is the new “home” for what was House Bill 1003. It is a massive K-12 education deregulation bill, and it will be heard in the House Education Committee meeting that begins at 8:30 a.m. Monday (Feb. 24) morning.

ICPE plans to testify in support of the language in this bill that would eliminate the requirement that teachers obtain 15 professional growth points (PGPs) through an internship with a business.  The new language changes the “shall” to a “may,” giving teachers the option to obtain PGPs through an internship, but they would not be required to do so.   

Senate Bill 425 – School district disannexation

According to the Indiana School Boards Association: “This bill circumvents school board authority and sets a dangerous precedent in empowering a township trustee to redraw boundaries for two school corporations (South Bend School Corporation and John Glenn School Corporation). Only residents of Green Township have input in the process and no other residents in the South Bend school community have a say, including the governing body. Finally, the bill author is claiming this is a pilot program, but the disannexation becomes permanent after a two-year study and reporting period (regardless of the findings). This is a bad bill!”

This bill passed in the Senate and will be heard in the House Education Committee Monday morning, Feb. 24.

House Bill 1222 – Proposed new restrictions for referendums

HB 1222, the bill that would eliminate the ability of school corporations to run a referendum in a primary election or a special election, passed out of the Senate Elections Committee last week on a party-line vote. It comes up on second reading before the Senate Monday afternoon. A vast majority of school corporations will be left with only a general election option once every two years. The associations representing school boards, superintendents, school business officials, teachers and retired teachers all oppose this bill.

Eleven amendments to this bill have been filed.

Thank you for your advocacy and support for public education in Indiana!