TAKE ACTION: Parent Trigger Bill

“TAKE ACTION”

Email your legislators to urge opposition to HB 1219 as currently drafted. HB 1219 would allow for the conversion of a public school into a charter school upon the petition of 51% of the students' parents OR a simple majority of the school board.

When a public school converts to charter school status, teachers' collective bargaining rights are eliminated because the school board is no longer the employer. Prior law required at least 60% of the teachers to agree to the conversion, as well as parental input. In 2011, the General Assembly removed the teacher input from these decisions. ISTA asks that a "teacher trigger" be reinstated into the process.

Click on the Take Action link: http://keepthepromiseindiana.org/take-action_1

Don’t hesitate to call if that works best. HOUSE SWITCHBOARD: 800-382-9842 or 317-232-9600.

Talking Points:

1. Teachers want to be a part of the partnership in these issues where their experience, knowledge of learning, and professional understanding of children is valued and embedded in the process.
2. Under existing law and under this proposal, if a conversion occurs, bargaining rights go away as the employer is a different entity. HB 1219, absent some assurances in this regard, becomes an anti-teacher/bargaining bill.
3. Prior law (prior to last year), bargaining was preserved in school conversions and teachers were a partner in the conversion. There is a simple fix if there is a willingness. Inasmuch as bargaining rights are currently limited to salary and wage-related benefits, instilling some threshold of teacher participation in developing a conversion should not be an issue anymore. Teacher buy-in and meaningful partnering, instead, should be an integral part of what would make any conversion workable.
4. There is no provision in law (existing or proposed) to “reverse” a conversion.
5. Because this would apply to any public school in the state, the potential for ongoing, chronic community upheaval in terms of “bureaucracies” and “who runs this/that” grows. School communities should be assured that the main discussions center on instructional/programmatic review and direct student learning issues and not these “who’s in control” issues that deflect from job 1.
6. The existing law is just a few months’ old. There is little reason to make such a substantive and extreme change during a hurried short session when there was so much discussion last session.

www.keepthepromiseindiana.org

xposted at EAEA