Indiana Statehouse: Letter grades and partisan school boards on agenda
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There are six weeks left in the legislative session and just three weeks to get bills passed out of committee.
Why it matters: It's getting close to crunch time, when lawmakers start compromising on, cutting or killing each other's bills.
Yes, and: The budget, property tax relief and health care costs — all priority issues heading into session — are hitting snags that likely won't get worked out this week.
Here's what we're watching instead:
🟢 Partisan school boards nearing finish line
Should it pass the House, which could vote as early as Monday, Senate Bill 287 will have passed both chambers — a first for a bill to make Indiana's school board elections partisan.
Yes, but: The version passed by the Senate is substantially different from what the House is considering, so there's no guarantee lawmakers will come to an agreement.
- The Senate would have school board candidates follow the same nomination process as any other political candidate, while the House version skips primaries and still provides a nonpartisan option.
What's next: If the House passes SB 287, the Senate could accept the new version or go to a conference committee and work out a compromise.
🟢 A-F grades coming back
Schools could soon get graded again if House Bill 1498 passes the Senate.
- It's up for floor amendments as early as today, which means it could get a final vote in that chamber later this week.
How it works: The bill would have the State Board of Education remake Indiana's school accountability system for what feels like the umpteenth time.
- It would go back to an A-to-F system, but taking into account more than just test scores.
- The state currently uses an "accountability dashboard" that displays various performance metrics.
- The bill instructs the board to include "other factors" it considers relevant, which would likely include chronic absenteeism rates and third-grade reading proficiency.
⏳ Rethinking religious education time
Senate Bill 255 would allow high school students to miss more classroom time to attend religious instruction during the school day.
Flashback: Last year, lawmakers passed legislation requiring schools to permit students to leave school for two hours each week for religious instruction.
- Sen. Spencer Deery, R-West Lafayette, said that equates to kids missing class 2.5 days a week.
- "That's not good for the schools, the students, that's not good for anybody," he said.
The latest: SB 255 would give high school students more time, essentially letting them replace one elective course with religious instruction provided outside their school — rather than missing half a class each week.
Yes, but: Rep. Bob Behning, chair of the House Education Committee, did not hold a vote on the bill last week saying the committee needed more time to understand it.
- An agenda for this week's education committee hasn't been released yet.
🚬 Cigarette tax on the table
House Bill 1001 is still sitting with the Senate Appropriations Committee, which took public testimony on the state's two-year spending plan last week.
- Senate President Pro Tempore Rodric Bray, R-Martinsville, told reporters his caucus is more open this year to raising the cigarette tax than it has been in the past.
What he's saying: "Perhaps that's partly because there's some challenges that we have," Bray said. "It's going to be a challenging budget year in the best of circumstances, even assuming that the April forecast doesn't get worse and that's not guaranteed because it looks like it could be problematic."
- If the Senate's budget proposal does include an increase in the cigarette tax, he said, the money would likely be dedicated to public health funding.
