Vic’s Statehouse Notes #298 – May 5, 2017

Dear Friends,

The General Assembly has given Indiana’s public schools a new unfunded mandate.

Action in the General Assembly has made it imperative that public schools establish quality pre-kindergarten programs. Without them, enrollment in public schools will wither.

Why, you say?

The 2017 Session of the General Assembly, reversing a key policy set in law in the 2014 General Assembly, has made pre-K students who get a state grant to attend a private pre-school eligible to enroll in that school’s K-12 program with a taxpayer-funded voucher .

The pre-kindergarten law passed in 2014 carried language ensuring no link between pre-kindergarten grants and K-12 vouchers: “The receipt of a grant under the pilot program does not qualify, nor have an effect on the qualification or eligibility, of a child for a Choice Scholarship.”

In the recently concluded 2017 session, the House passed a pre-K bill (HB 1004) to reverse this language and make pre-K grants a pipeline to K-12 vouchers. The Senate later deleted the House language on this point and again removed pre-K grants as a pathway to expanding K-12 vouchers.

In the Conference Committee to reconcile the different House and Senate versions, the House won. Pre-K grants are now the latest pathway to K-12 vouchers, the eighth pathway.

This result has tremendous implications for Indiana’s public schools. If public schools want to enroll kindergarten students, they must now make immediate plans to establish pre-K programs to compete with private pre-K programs which now plan to lift their market share of K-12 students one pre-K student at a time.

As the pre-K program expands, all state-funded pre-K students could end up in private K-12 schools using a voucher unless quality public school options are available for pre-K as well.

If public schools decide to leave pre-K programs to private schools, HB 1004 will lead to the enrollment of most of the pre-K students on state grants into private school kindergartens, and into private school first grades the year after that.

Through House Bill 1004, private school advocates can now set plans to recruit every pre-K student to private pre-schools, taking away future public school students and filling up current private K-12 schools as well as national franchise private schools coming in the future.

For survival in the next decade, it is now clear that public schools must begin or expand quality pre-kindergarten programs.

The Conference Committee on House Bill 1004

The Conference Committee had to reconcile several differences between the House and Senate pre-K bills, but the issue with the most K-12 impact was the provision to give vouchers to those with pre-K grants in private K-12 schools that accept vouchers.

The language of the Conference Committee was trimmed from the original bill. Eligibility was secured for each pre-K student that “continues to attend the eligible school at which the individual attended a prekindergarten program.” The language left is plenty to force an unfunded mandate on public schools that want to compete for kindergarten students.

House conferees won one more expansion of voucher eligibility. Now as pre-K students with state grants move to kindergarten, they are eligible for a voucher. Projecting growth in pre-K over many years, voucher advocates no doubt were determined to secure this pathway to K-12 vouchers because it obviously could result in nearly universal vouchers as the goal of universal pre-K is reached.

Senator Melton, who worked hard to break the link between pre-K grants and K-12 vouchers, refused to sign the conference committee report and was replaced at the last minute by Senator Raatz.

The Fiscal Cost of Expanded K-12 Vouchers in HB 1004

In addition to the new funding for pre-K expansion, extra fiscal costs will be required to pay for the K-12 voucher commitments this new law makes to pre-K students who stay in voucher schools for kindergarten. In estimating those extra costs, the non-partisan Legislative Services Agency found that “in FY 2017, there were 171 children attending preschool at Choice Scholarship schools” in the current programs. Then as a foreshadow of additional costs in future years, the LSA stated “As more students participate in the Pilot Programs, more Choice Scholarships would be awarded if participants choose to apply for Choice Scholarships and capacity is available in participating Choice Scholarship schools.”

You get the picture. There is enormous potential for growth and extra voucher costs.

As for now, basing potential costs on the 171 students now in the program, LSA stated “if all children enroll in Choice programs, and they would not have attended public school otherwise, there would be an increase in expenditures of $738,378 in FY2018 and $748,638 in FY2019.”

Paying for students to go to private school when they always planned to go to private school carries a significant fiscal cost.

Final Votes

In the final votes on the Conference Committee Report, support for pre-K expansion carried the day. The House approved the bill 82-16 and the Senate approved the bill 31-19.

The fight to stop K-12 voucher expansion through pre-K programs was lost in the closed door discussions of the Conference Committee.

Now public school leaders need to respond to this unfunded mandate to expand quality pre-K programs.

Thanks to all who sent messages to legislators to break the link between pre-K and K-12 voucher expansion.

Thank you for your active support of public education in Indiana!

Best wishes,

Vic Smith

“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 again representing ICPE in the new budget session which began on January 3, 2017. 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.icpe2011.com 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.

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Vic’s Statehouse Notes #295 – April 19, 2017

Dear Friends,

Thanks to all who came to Tuesday’s rally for better K-12 funding!

The letter delivery and contacts with legislators afterward brought excellent conversations such as mine with Senator Ruckelshaus. Joel Hand and Indiana PTA leader Deb Fox were both interviewed on Channel 59 to get the message out that we need to do better for our K-12 students in the budget.

House Bill 1004 - PreKindergarten

This afternoon (Wed., April 19) the Conference Committee Report on the prekindergarten bill (HB 1004) was released. The final bill will be voted on tomorrow.

The final version, while it narrowed the problem, did not break the link between getting a pre-K grant and getting a K-12 voucher. The final version thus creates a new eighth pathway to K-12 vouchers. Those who get a pre-K grant will be eligible for a K-12 voucher in many cases.

This is a provision that has nothing to do with the pre-K experience but will help private and religious schools build their voucher program.

The final version of the 1004 also reverses a ban on using pre-K grants funds to expand capital facilities. This reversal would allow private or public preschools to use the grant funds for facility expansion. This would of course be especially helpful to expand private facilities that serve K-12 voucher students.

If you oppose the K-12 voucher expansion in the pre-K bill, please contact your Senator or any Senator tonight or tomorrow morning to let them know you oppose the final version of HB 1004 and ask them to vote against it.

• Remind them that the Senate version passed with no language to expand K-12 vouchers and that’s the way it should be. The path to universal vouchers should not go through the pre-K program.

• Remind them that the pre-K pilot program has been running just fine with no provision to give pre-K students a lifetime K-12 voucher.

• Remind them if pre-K students go to private schools that want them to stay for K-12 enrollment, they can get a School Scholarship from the vastly expanded tax credit program run by Scholarship Granting Organizations. The new budget is going to give $3 million additional dollars each year (a 31% increase) to the tax credit School Scholarship program, bringing the annual total available to $12.5 million. This should adequately cover any tuition need for pre-K students to enroll in private K-12 schools.

Thank you for any contacts you can make with Senators tonight or tomorrow and for your active support of public education in Indiana!

Best wishes,

Vic Smith

“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 again representing ICPE in the new budget session which began on January 3, 2017. 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.icpe2011.com 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.

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Vic’s Statehouse Notes #286 – March 15, 2017

Dear Friends,

Your advocacy to separate pre-kindergarten expansion from K-12 voucher expansion paid dividends today!

The Senate Education Committee unanimously passed Amendment 20 to House Bill 1004, an amendment that restores the bill to read like Senate Bill 276 with only a few changes. Senate Bill 276 was the Senate’s version of expanding pre-kindergarten which did not link pre-K grants to K-12 vouchers in any way.

Then the committee passed the amended bill by a vote of 8-1, with Senator Crane the lone no vote. HB 1004 now goes to the Senate Appropriations Committee.

The Senators in the committee today by a vote of 9-0 endorsed the concept that pre-kindergarten expansion should go forward without being entwined with a major expansion of K-12 voucher eligibility.

It is time to thank the Senators on the Education Committee for their vote today to separate pre-K and K-12 vouchers. The members are:

Republican Senators Kruse, Raatz, Bassler, Crane, Freeman, Kenley, Leising and Zay

Democratic Senators Melton, Mrvan and Stoops

The Process is Just Beginning: Stay in Touch with Senators and House Members

While the vote today was encouraging, the debate about linking pre-K and K-12 vouchers is far from over. When Senate Bill 276 gets to the House Education Committee, it is quite possible that the tables will be turned and that the language of House Bill 1004 will be inserted into SB 276.

If both bills pass their respective houses with opposite positions on expanding K-12 vouchers, then both bills will go to conference committees in the last two week of April. Stay alert!

Keep writing Senators to maintain their position that pre-K should not be a road to K-12 voucher expansion.

Then write members of the House asking them to take the Senate’s position to debate pre-kindergarten on its own merits with no link to K-12 voucher eligibility.

Your enthusiasm to support public education in this debate is making a difference. Keep up the good work!

Thank you for actively supporting public education in Indiana!


Best wishes,

Vic Smith

“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 again representing ICPE in the new budget session which began on January 3, 2017. 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.icpe2011.com 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.

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Vic’s Statehouse Notes #284 – March 10, 2017

Dear Friends,

House Bill 1004, the pre-kindergarten expansion bill, would create yet another pathway for students to receive a K-12 private school voucher. HB 1004 would be the biggest expansion of K-12 vouchers since 2013.

The hearing on HB 1004 was held last Wednesday March 8th, and the committee vote on the bill will be on Wednesday March 15th. Please contact members of the Senate Education Committee before March 15th to say you oppose HB 1004 unless the expansion K-12 vouchers is removed from the bill.

The members of the Senate Education Committee to contact are:

Republican Senators Kruse, Raatz, Bassler, Crane, Freeman, Kenley, Leising and Zay

Democratic Senators Melton, Mrvan and Stoops

From Seven Pathways to Eight: Yet Another Pathway for K-12 Vouchers Would Be Created by HB 1004

Indiana currently has seven pathways to K-12 vouchers, and HB 1004 would create number eight.

Under this bill and this new pathway, any student who gets a pre-K grant “at any time” will get a K-12 voucher as long as their family income meets a generous cap: $89,900 for a family of four.

This is a higher income cap than for any other pathway except for that of disabled students. Most pathways are capped at $67,400 for a family of four (150% of reduced lunch income).

Here are the other seven pathways and the number of vouchers they created in 2016-17, numbers found in the latest (Feb., 2017) report on vouchers recently released by the Indiana Department of Education:

Continuing Choice 25,020
Previous Choice 610
Previous SGO 2,330
Two-Semesters 2,828
Special Education 1,140
F School 178
Sibling 2,193

Total 34,299

The report says that the voucher total (34,299) has gone up by only 1600 since the previous year (32,686). This is the smallest increase in the voucher program’s 6-year history (since 2011). Yet the reported cost of the program went up by about $12 million, jumping from $134 million up to $146 million. Despite the added costs to taxpayers, the number of private school students in Indiana actually went down by 316 students this year (2016-17) compared to last year (2015-16).

One would think that if taxpayers paid an additional $12 million this year for vouchers that the total enrollment in private schools would go up, but it did not go up. Enrollment dropped by over 300 students.

How could this be? How could private school voucher numbers and costs go up when fewer students are attending private schools?

The answer is that more students who have always gone to private schools are finding ways in the rules to get a voucher. The new report provides data showing that 54.6% of all voucher students have never before attended a public school, up from 52.4% last year (2015-16).
It is not about making a new choice. It is about getting taxpayers to subsidize the private school tuition for a choice already made.

This is how our public education system in Indiana, a heritage of 180 years of work by those who came before us, is being privatized.

Now HB 1004 is trying to expand K-12 vouchers once again in a new way. Rep. Behning’s bill would add “Pre-K Grant” as the eighth pathway that students could use to claim a voucher without ever trying a public school. Governor Daniels when he established our voucher system said it should be set up to “try public schools first”, but Governor Pence threw his predecessor’s advice under the bus in 2013.

The eighth pathway would be an expensive addition to the pathways, perhaps as much as $10 million for new vouchers in the first year alone, according to the Legislative Services Agency.

Ask the Senators to save taxpayer money by deleting the K-12 voucher expansion in HB 1004.

The Committee Hearing on HB 1004 – March 8, 2017

Last Wednesday, of 25 speakers who testified on HB 1004 during the two and a half hour hearing:

• 11 focused solely on the importance of expanding pre-K

• 10 spoke against linking pre-K grants with an expansion of K-12 vouchers

• 4 spoke in favor of linking pre-K grants with K-12 vouchers.

As you see, the position that we should break the link between pre-K grants and guaranteed K-12 vouchers was well represented. There was great testimony given by parents from the community on this point.

The testimony made it clear how the Senators could refocus the bill solely to expand pre-kindergarten programs:

• amend HB 1004 to delete Sections 21 and 22 that guarantee voucher eligibility for any student who ever received a pre-K grant “at any time” up to an income of $89,900 for a family of four. These sections are only about K-12 voucher eligibility and are not needed to expand pre-K.

• amend HB 1004 to undelete Section 18, language in current law that says: “The receipt of a grant under the pilot program does not qualify, nor have an effect on the qualification or eligibility, of a child for a Choice Scholarship.” Senator Kenley put this language in his 2014 bill that got pre-K started in Indiana. Senator Kenley is a member of this Senate Education Committee. His language should be preserved to focus HB 1004 on pre-K expansion rather than turning it into an argument about the privatization of our public schools.

Tell the Senators that with these changes, HB 1004 would become a good bill to expand pre-K. Without these changes, HB 1004 should be defeated and pre-K expansion should be handled through Senate Bill 276 which the Senate has already passed and carries no link between expanding pre-K and expanding K-12 vouchers.

I urge you to contact your Senator and the Senators on the Senate Education Committee listed above this weekend or at least before the committee votes on Wednesday March 15th at 1:30pm.

We must not entwine a highly controversial expansion of the K-12 private school voucher program with the much needed pre-K program.

We must not make this important step for pre-school part of the march to privatize public education in Indiana.
Thank you for actively supporting public education in Indiana!

Best wishes,

Vic Smith

“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 again representing ICPE in the new budget session which began on January 3, 2017. 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.icpe2011.com 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.

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Vic’s Statehouse Notes #283 – March 6, 2017

Dear Friends,

A major expansion of K-12 vouchers is included in the pre-kindergarten expansion bill, House Bill 1004.

The Senate Education Committee will hold a hearing on House Bill 1004 in their next meeting on Wednesday, March 8 at 1:30pm in the Senate Chamber.

If you can’t come to testify against the bill, I urge you to contact members of the committee before the Wednesday afternoon meeting to ask them to:

• break the link between pre-K grants and K-12 vouchers, just as the Senators did in their own pre-K bill, Senate Bill 276.

• amend HB 1004 to delete Sections 21 and 22 that guarantee lifetime voucher eligibility for any student who ever received a pre-K grant “at any time”. These sections are not needed to expand pre-K.

• amend HB 1004 to undelete Section 18, language in current law that says: “The receipt of a grant under the pilot program does not qualify, nor have an effect on the qualification or eligibility, of a child for a Choice Scholarship.” Senator Kenley put this language in his 2014 bill that got pre-K started in Indiana. There is no reason this language should be repealed to plunge the debate into an argument about the privatization of our public schools.

The members of the Senate Education Committee to contact are:

Republican Senators Kruse, Raatz, Bassler, Crane, Freeman, Kenley, Leising and Zay

Democratic Senators Melton, Mrvan and Stoops

We must not entwine a highly controversial expansion of the K-12 private school voucher program with the much needed pre-K program.

Expanding K-12 Vouchers is Nearly as Expensive to Taxpayers as the Pre-K Expansion

House Bill 1004 makes every student that gets a pre-kindergarten grant eligible for a K-12 voucher for the rest of their 13 years of K-12 schooling. Some 2300 pre-K students would become eligible now based on the pre-K grants they have already received.

Eventually as the pre-K program grows to nearly universal levels, the expense of a K-12 voucher for nearly all students would fall on taxpayers as well.

The latest Legislative Services Agency fiscal note (Feb. 7) lists scenarios where pre-K students use a voucher to go on to kindergarten when they would “not attend public school otherwise” as costing the state between $5.9 million and $10.5 million, depending on whether family income would give them a 50% voucher or a 90% voucher. If all pre-K students “would have attended public school otherwise” but took a voucher instead, LSA says the state could save up to $4 million.

If the projected cost to taxpayers of $10 million turns out to be accurate, that means that the cost in HB 1004 for expanding K-12 vouchers is as high as the additional $10 million for pre-K expansion in the House budget.

Adding a K-12 voucher component to the pre-K bill doesn’t make sense in the budget.

I opposed HB 1004 in the House hearing because of this expensive and inappropriate link between pre-K and K-12 vouchers. This link does not currently exist in the pre-K pilot program, and it should not start now.

Continuity Is Not Mentioned in the Bill Language

Representative Behning, the bill sponsor, claimed that the reason for giving lifetime voucher eligibility to all students receiving pre-K grants is to allow continuity from private and religious pre-school programs to the private and religious kindergarten programs in the same school.

His language in the bill, however, says nothing about continuity. It says a voucher will go to any student who has received a pre-K grant “at any time” if they meet the family income guideline ($89,900). Thus, students attending public pre-K programs would also be eligible for a taxpayer-funded voucher. This provision, as cited above, could cost millions.

That is far more than a continuity rule. That is a pipeline to universal K-12 vouchers.

This bill would lock in eligibility for every child who receives a pre-school grant either from state funds or from private matching grant funds to receive a private school voucher for the next 13 years through high school.

Expanding to Higher Income Families

House Bill 1004 not only provides a lifetime private school voucher to every student receiving a pre-school grant, but it provides the voucher to wealthier families. HB 1004 expands eligibility for a school voucher to a family of four making $89,900, far more generous than the $67,432 income limit applied to most current applicants for a K-12 voucher. Only disabled students are currently allowed a voucher with the expanded $89,900 income cap.

All this makes HB 1004 the biggest K-12 voucher expansion since the 2013 session!

We must not make this important step for pre-school part of the march to privatize public education in Indiana.


I urge you to contact members of the Senate Education Committee before Wednesday (March 8) at 1:30pm to ask them to amend House Bill 1004 to delete Sections 21 and 22 and to restore Section 18 which is our current law quoted above separating pre-K grants and K-12 vouchers.

Ask them to amend House Bill 1004 to read like the Senate’s bill (SB 276) in expanding preschool without expanding K-12 private school vouchers.

We need to expand pre-K programs but it should not be done with a major increase in the K-12 voucher program.

Thank you for actively supporting public education in Indiana!

Best wishes,

Vic Smith

“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 again representing ICPE in the new budget session which began on January 3, 2017. 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.icpe2011.com 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.

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Vic’s Statehouse Notes #277 – February 17, 2017

Dear Friends,

Five updates on public education in the Statehouse:

UPDATE #1: Join us in the Statehouse this Monday on Presidents’ Day (Feb. 20th) for “A Celebration of Public Education”! We need your voice and the voices of your family and friends on issues updated below!

Lunch (if pre-registered) at 12:30. Choirs at 1:30. Speakers at 2:00 in the North Atrium.

The League of Women Voters has joined the list of sponsoring organizations:

AFT Indiana

American Association of University Women

Concerned Clergy

Indiana Coalition for Public Education

Indiana Parent Teacher Association

Indiana Small & Rural Schools Association

Indiana State Teachers Association (lunch & display sponsor)

Indiana Urban Schools Association

League of Women Voters

Northeast Indiana Friends of Public Education

Speakers at 2:00 pm in the North Atrium are being coordinated by the Indiana Coalition for Public Education, and Joel Hand will serve as MC.

Displays on the 3rd and 4th floor will highlight a sampling of great things happening in public schools.

Bring new and gently used classroom supplies for ISTA ReSupply and book donations to celebrate Read Across America.

I hope to see you as we celebrate public education!

UPDATE #2: Senator Kruse announced Wednesday before the hearing that SB 534 (Education Savings Accounts for Special Education) would not advance. It is dead for this session. Senator Kruse deserves your thanks for stopping this bill!

He went ahead with the hearing on the bill after announcing its fate. An expert from the Foundation for Excellence in Education in Florida, funded by Jeb Bush and the Gates Foundation, extolled the virtues of Education Savings Accounts, which as I have written would undermine the entire concept of public education. No doubt we will fight this fight again in the future.

UPDATE #3: The Senate bill to expand pre-kindergarten programs (SB 276) passed the Senate Education Committee on Wednesday with no link to a lifetime K-12 voucher such as that passed in House Bill 1004. SB 276 now goes to the Appropriations Committee. In its present form, it deserves the full support of public school advocates!

UPDATE #4: Both bills to make the State Superintendent of Public Instruction into a secretary of education appointed by the Governor are ready for a final vote on as early as Monday. If you oppose taking power from the voters to select our State Superintendent, this is your last weekend to appeal to your Senator or House member to oppose Senate Bill 179 and House Bill 1005. Both bills require no experience in Indiana and, unbelievably, no experience in education! Since they are identical, they could be signed into law very soon.

UPDATE #5: It appears that the Indiana House is sending a message to our K-12 students that they can’t give them adequate support this year because our roads are bad!

The House budget released Wednesday gives even less for tuition support than did the Governor’s meager budget released in January.

• The Governor asked for $70 million the first year (1.0% increase) and $210 in the second year (2.0% increase above the first year) or a total of $280 million new dollars.

• The new House budget invests $77 million in the first year (1.1% increase) and $196 million in the second year (1.7% increase above the first year) or a total of $273 million new dollars.

• In 2015, the final budget invested $157 million in the first year (2.3% increase) and $317 million in the second year (2.3% increase above the first year) or a total of $474 million new dollars. 

Is Indiana so poor this year that the support for public education must slip this much compared to 2015? The latest Consumer Price Index from the federal government showed the annual inflation rate in January 2017 to be 2.5%. Our school programs can’t even keep up with inflation next year when the increase is only 1.1%.

Legislators have not made increased funding for public schools a priority this year. The supermajority is trying to set an expectation that this is all that schools will get, but this is totally inadequate. They need to hear more from public school advocates!

In addition, the House budget would raise the amount for tax credits for private school scholarships from $9.5 million to $12.5 million each year. For the two-year budget, that means an increase of $6 million for private school tuition scholarships. This is the first point that public school advocates should press legislators on, so that at least $6 million could be shifted to shore up the clearly inadequate K-12 funding. If you talk with your legislator in the Statehouse when you come on Monday, this is an important point to make to stop the expansion of taxpayer money going to private schools!


Thanks for your advocacy for public education! I hope you can get to the “Celebration of Public Education” in the Statehouse on Monday!

Best wishes,

Vic Smith

“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 again representing ICPE in the new budget session which began on January 3, 2017. 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.icpe2011.com 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.

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Vic’s Statehouse Notes #276 – February 13, 2017

Dear Friends,

Yet another attack on public education is coming at you.

This is in addition to (1) ending the power of voters to select the State Superintendent of Public Instruction and (2) using the pre-K program as a cover to vastly expand K-12 vouchers.

This new bill would start the process to end public education itself.

The Senate Education Committee will hold a hearing Wednesday afternoon (Feb. 15th) on SB 534 which puts in place Milton Friedman’s blueprint to end public education by giving public money directly to parents on a debit card.

This bill was first filed last year using the deceiving name “Educational Savings Accounts.” This year SB 534 is using the name “Special Education Scholarship Accounts”. It would fund a huge expansion of private school vouchers Indiana for special education and Section 504 students. It would advance the privatization of our educational system in line with the plans of voucher-inventor Milton Friedman, who supported the abolishment of public education.

It is a direct attack on public education. It pushes forward a radical new private school voucher plan. It would be the biggest voucher expansion since Governor Pence’s voucher expansion was enacted in 2013. In the fiscal note on SB 534, the non-partisan Legislative Services Agency has concluded that “the estimated increase in expenditures based on the current formula will be between $144 million and $206 million annually.”

This bill and this concept should be denounced by all public school advocates to any and all legislators, most immediately to the members of the Senate Education Committee before their meeting on Wednesday at 1:30pm in the Senate Chamber.

If you are offended enough by this bill to come speak against the bill yourself, please do so!

The members of the Senate Education Committee to contact are:

Republican Senators Kruse, Raatz, Bassler, Crane, Freeman, Kenley, Leising and Zay

Democratic Senators Melton, Mrvan and Stoops

SB 534 is a Voucher Experiment for Special Education Students

SB 534 is a radical experiment to give public money directly to parents as Milton Friedman wanted.

Using the same concept, HB 1591 has been filed in the House as an experiment for all students and all parents, carrying a fiscal price tag of $344 million to $366 million according to LSA.

These new experiments with our school children would undermine funding and support for the public schools of Indiana, which after five years of school choice have still been chosen by 92.5% of all students and need the support of legislators, not another attack.

Similar damaging bills have been passed in some form in Arizona, Florida, Nevada, Mississippi and Tennessee, all states that perform below Indiana on the National Assessment of Educational Progress, the respected national measure known as “the nation’s report card.”

Senate Bill 534 and House Bill 1591 are right out of Milton Friedman’s plan to take public schools out of our society and leave education to a marketplace of private schools, all funded by the taxpayers but without government oversight.

Both bills give money directly to parents in the amount that the average child gets in their school district. Parents can then pay for private schools or “approved educational services providers” including tutors or other private vendors.

The program is to be run by the Indiana Treasurer, not the Indiana Department of Education. SB 534 even provides for the Treasurer to outsource the program to be run by a bank. Unbelievably, this means they want to privatize management of the privatized voucher program!

It’s simply unacceptable and demoralizing to our hard-working public school teachers and administrators.

Not all Republicans in Indiana agree with the Republican leaders bringing these radical bills forward to further privatize our schools. These bills should not advance. Only grassroots citizens talking to their legislators can stop these bills and the death spiral for public education. It is time to speak up! The loss of funding and instability this would bring to public schools would obviously disrupt their ability to provide long-term quality programs for over one million Hoosier students.

Senate Bill 534 – Special Education Scholarship Account Program

SB 534 is sponsored by Senator Raatz, a first term Senator who formerly served as the principal of a Christian school. Students can already get vouchers to go to Christian schools. This bill would hurt enrollment at public schools and voucher schools alike by allowing the entire amount of public money for a special education student or a Section 504 student to be spent for “an approved educational services provider” which includes “a nonpublic school and a private tutor” with no standards stated for receiving IDOE approval and weak standards for provider fraud.

The bill specifies that approved providers will not be regulated. Thus, the bill wants to give out government money to private providers with absolutely no government control.

The bill would also:

• reduce accountability. Approximately $6000 in public money will be given to parents of special education and Section 504 students with no requirement for annual testing or evaluation or accountability for student progress.

• expand taxpayer-funded vouchers to high income families. SB 534 removes all income limits. Remember how Indiana’s voucher law was pitched and passed in 2011 as a program to help low income families? That rationale has disappeared. Currently, families of disabled students with incomes up to $89,900 are eligible for vouchers. This expansion contributes to the projected fiscal cost of $144 million to $206 million.

• narrow and weaken the curriculum. Education is reduced to “reading, grammar, mathematics, social studies and science” for special education students. It is unacceptable to allow students to be educated under this program with no art, no music, no health, and no physical education. This reduction of the educational curriculum is hard to fathom.

• pay textbook and computer fees for private schools while public school parents get no help with textbooks. SB 534 makes textbooks for private schools or private programs a taxpayer expense.

• allow parents to divert money intended for K-12 education to their 529 college fund. This is an incentive for parents who can afford to pay for their current private school to enroll in the program, take the money intended for K-12 education and put it in a 529 college account instead.

• allow the money to go to parents without strong fraud protection. No penalties are listed when parents commit fraud with their child’s money. After audits of a random sample of accounts, authorities are only given power to suspend or close an account. The bill says nothing about repaying taxpayer money that has been misspent or about fraud. This bill is a recipe for fraud and would require an expensive Educational Bureau of Investigations to root out problems.

• allow parents to sign up for the money without criminal background checks. Teachers are under increased scrutiny for criminal background checks. If parents have a criminal record or a record of abuse or neglect, they should not be given $6000 on a debit card to educate their child. SB 534 does not address this crucial issue.

Troubling Questions

The fact that SB 534 is being given consideration by Republican leaders in the General Assembly raises troubling questions which you should ask your legislators:

1) Does this mean that those advancing SB 534 no longer support public education?

2) Does this new way of giving out vouchers mean they have given up on the current voucher program?

3) With Indiana schools in a crisis over ISTEP testing and assessment, do we really need to stop everything and take time for a battle over more vouchers with less accountability?

Let them know that plunging Indiana into another all-out battle over privatizing our public schools would be damaging to all schools, including the private voucher schools that could well lose students to “providers” in the radical remake of our system envisioned by SB 534 and HB 1591.

SB 534 and HB 1591 should disappear from consideration while all efforts are focused on solving the complexities of Indiana’s assessment problems and the teacher shortage.

Milton Friedman, the inventor of private school vouchers, in a speech to state lawmakers at the American Legislative Exchange Council in 2006 answered his own question of “How do we get from where we are to where we want to be?” by saying “the ideal way would be to abolish the public school system and eliminate all the taxes that pay for it.” SB 534 would help his plan to abolish public schools.

I urge you to contact Senators listed above on the Senate Education Committee by Wednesday afternoon (Feb. 15th) to tell them you strongly oppose Senate Bill 534.

Thanks for speaking up about this radical bill, and thanks for your advocacy for public education!


Best wishes,

Vic Smith

“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 again representing ICPE in the new budget session which began on January 3, 2017. 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.icpe2011.com 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.

###

Vic’s Statehouse Notes #273 – February 6, 2017

Dear Friends,

In its meeting last Tuesday (Jan. 31), the House Education Committee passed the biggest K-12 voucher expansion since the 2013 session.

This voucher expansion is in a high profile bill to expand pre-kindergarten, House Bill 1004.

Senate Bill 276 also expands pre-kindergarten but without expanding vouchers. SB 276 deserves your active support while HB 1004 deserves your active opposition.

I urge all public school advocates to contact members of the Senate Education Committee before they vote on Wednesday February 8th (1:30pm) to support Senate Bill 276 as it stands with no link to K-12 vouchers.

The members of the Senate Education Committee are:

Republican Senators Kruse, Raatz, Bassler, Crane, Freeman, Kenley, Leising and Zay

Democratic Senators Melton, Mrvan and Stoops

Lifetime Vouchers for Pre-K ($6 M to $10.5 M): Approaching Half the Annual Funding for Pre-K Itself

House Bill 1004 gives a lifetime K-12 voucher to any student that gets a pre-kindergarten grant. The bill sets the income cap for this voucher expansion at a high level: $89,900 for a family of four. This is 200% of the reduced lunch income level and higher than most pathways to vouchers which are capped at 150% of the reduce lunch level.

The bill also doubles the number of families that can apply for a pre-K grant and thereby qualify for a lifetime voucher by raising the pre-K income cap from $31,000 to $67,000 (for a family of four).

This expensive voucher guarantee would eventually lead to voucher eligibility for all students.

Universal vouchers have long been the Holy Grail for voucher advocates like Representative Behning. Obviously if they can hitch vouchers to pre-K, they can ride the pre-K escalator up as it eventually expands to reach the goal of universal vouchers.

The expense of the voucher provision hurts the funding available for pre-K students. The non-partisan Legislative Services Agency estimated that giving vouchers to all pre-K students could cost the state between $6 and $10.5 million annually. The pre-K plan itself will cost the state $20 million annually. Clearly the money to be spent on vouchers would be better spent on raising the funding to help more pre-K students.

Senate Bill 276 expands the pre-K program without the expensive baggage of expanding the K-12 voucher program. Let Senators know that you support their approach and oppose using the pre-K bill as a cover to further expand K-12 vouchers.

It Could Have Been Worse

The original language of HB 1004 as presented by Representative Behning would have changed the income caps for all 50% vouchers to include all families of four up to $89,900, significantly lifting the current cap of $67,000 which has been in place since the fundamental compromise struck in 2011 to pass the historic voucher bill.

Before voting 9-4 to pass HB 1004, the committee approved Amendment 5 offered by Representative Ed DeLaney, who had detected this huge voucher expansion in the original language. Fortunately, Representative DeLaney’s amendment was approved, keeping the rest of the voucher program under current rules while the debate about voucher eligibility for pre-K students proceeds. Representative DeLaney should be thanked for his excellent work on this point.

Continuity Is Not Mentioned in the Bill Language

Representative Behning, the bill sponsor, claimed that the reason for giving lifetime voucher eligibility to all students receiving pre-K grants is to allow continuity from private and religious pre-school programs to the private and religious kindergarten programs in the same school. His language in the bill, however, does not say that. It says nothing about continuity. It says a voucher will go to any student who has received a pre-K grant “at any time” if they meet the income guideline ($89,900).

That is far more than a continuity rule. That is a pipeline to universal K-12 vouchers.

The program has been running effectively and with the strong support of parents for the past two years without any link to a lifetime voucher. The current language says: “The receipt of a grant under the pilot program does not qualify, nor have an effect on the qualification or eligibility, of a child for a Choice Scholarship.”

Senator Kenley put this language in his 2014 bill that got Pre-K started in Indiana. There is no reason this language should be repealed to plunge the debate into an argument about the privatization of our public schools. We are already well behind other states in providing pre-K to young children. Representative Behning supports the Governor in asking for only a $10 million increase while asking for an attached K-12 voucher program that would cost $6 million to $10 million.

Adding K-12 vouchers to pre-K doesn’t make sense in the budget.

Contact Senators on the Education Committee by Wednesday February 8th, 1:30pm

It is time to tell members Senate Education Committee listed above that you support SB 276 in its current language with no link to K-12 voucher expansion!

• Let them know that it would be wrong to entwine a highly controversial and expensive expansion of the K-12 private school voucher program with the much needed pre-K program.

• Let them know that you oppose the House pre-K bill (HB 1004) which makes expansion of pre-school part of the march to privatize public education in Indiana.

• Let them know that you support Senate Bill 276 and that you would strongly oppose any attempt to add amendments to link it to K-12 Choice Scholarships.

Public schools, in spite of their dire financial conditions, would have no choice but to make cuts in other areas to establish preschools to compete in the marketplace that now exists in Indiana. Under policies established by Sections 20 and 21 in HB 1004, public schools would need to be prominent in the pre-K arena in order to get their share of incoming kindergarteners, or their future enrollment would be seriously eroded with all the funding consequences that would bring.

Thank you for your dedicated support of public education!

Best wishes,

Vic Smith

“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 again representing ICPE in the new budget session which began on January 3, 2017. 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.icpe2011.com 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.

###

Vic’s Statehouse Notes #272 – January 29, 2017

Dear Friends,

Public school advocates need to go to work on this one:

The House bill to expand pre-school (HB 1004) tries to use the popularity of the pre-K movement to add a major expansion of K-12 private school vouchers.

The Senate bill to expand pre-school (SB 276) does not.

I urge you to ask Senators and House members to support the Senate pre-school bill but to oppose the House pre-school bill. We must not entwine a highly controversial and expensive ($5 to $10 million) expansion of the K-12 voucher program with the much needed and worthy efforts to expand the pre-school pilot program.

Please contact members of the House Education Committee before their next meeting on Tuesday, Jan. 31 at 8:30am to let them know you strongly oppose tacking on a K-12 voucher expansion to the pre-school bill. Ask them to delete Sections 20 and 21 of HB 1004. Ask them to follow the Senate bill’s lead in expanding preschool without expanding K-12 private school vouchers.

The Private School Voucher Expansion Plan in House Bill 1004

The Indiana General Assembly is facing a tale of two bills to expand pre-school in Indiana, an expansion broadly supported by the Governor and by many dedicated pre-school advocates.

The Senate bill (SB 276) would expand the program in its current structure to serve 10 counties instead of five, maintaining the current income guideline to serve families of four earning $31,000 or less. Senate Bill 276 was given a hearing last Wednesday (Jan. 25th) and will be voted on in the Senate Education Committee on Wednesday Feb. 8th.

The House bill (HB 1004) would also allow an expansion to 10 counties but would significantly expand eligibility to wealthier families with income up to $67,432 for a family of four (instead of $31,000) and would use the popular program to expand eligibility for private school vouchers, a poison pill that was attempted but then removed when the program first passed the General Assembly in 2014.

Current law says that receiving a pre-school grant does not have an effect on the eligibility for a K-12 Choice Scholarship (voucher). The Senate bill would keep this provision, but the House bill would repeal it.

What does the House bill have in it that the Senate bill does not have?

• Income eligibility for a preschool grant would balloon for a family of four from the current $31,000 up to $67,432. This is 150% of the free or reduced lunch guideline. This changes the focus away from a low-income program.

• Four pages (sections 20 and 21) of the 13 page House bill are not a change to the law governing the pre-school program but are instead a change to the voucher law to make more students eligible for a K-12 voucher if they received a pre-school grant “at any time.”

• This provision would make the pre-school program a feeder system for K-12 vouchers. It would lock in eligibility for every child who receives a pre-school grant either from state funds or from private matching grant funds to receive a private school voucher for the next 13 years through high school.

• When this provision was attempted in the 2014 preschool bill, the Legislative Services Agency estimated at that time that the cost to taxpayers of the voucher provision alone would be $1.9 million to provide Choice Scholarships to students who get pre-school grants. The link to vouchers was not approved in the 2014 law.

• There is a fiscal cost to Choice Scholarships. The most recent state report said that the net fiscal cost of Choice Scholarships in 2015-16 was $53 million. According to the non-partisan Legislative Services Agency in a new fiscal note dated January 27, 2017, the annual fiscal cost of K-12 Choice Scholarships in HB 1004 is estimated to be $5.9 million if the currently enrolled preschool students get a 50% voucher and $10.5 million if the currently enrolled preschool students get a 90% voucher. $5.9 million to $10.5 million is a major add on that should be deleted! The voucher cost is approaching the pre-school cost.

• The House bill not only provides a lifetime private school voucher to every student receiving a pre-school grant, but it provides the voucher to wealthier families. The House bill expands eligibility for a school voucher to a family of four making $89,900, far more generous than the $67,432 income limit applied to most current applicants for a K-12 voucher. Only disabled students are currently allowed a voucher with the expanded $89,900 income cap.

We Need Your Help to Turn This Around

It is time to tell members of the House and Senate how you feel about turning preschool expansion into K-12 voucher expansion!

• Let them know that it is wrong to entwine a highly controversial and expensive expansion of the K-12 private school voucher program with the much needed pre-K program.

• Let them know that you oppose making this important step for pre-school part of the march to privatize public education in Indiana.

• Let members of the House know that Sections 20 and 21 should be deleted.

• Let members of the Senate know that you support Senate Bill 276 and that you would strongly oppose any attempt to add amendments to link it to K-12 Choice Scholarships.

Three Things You Can Do

1) If you strongly support pre-school expansion but strongly oppose linking it to voucher expansion, you may want to show up on Tuesday January 31st to speak at the hearing in the House Chamber to oppose House Bill 1004 until they delete the voucher expansion. They deleted it in 2014, and the program has been running fine. The hearing begins at 8:30am but there are several bills on the agenda, so no there could be a lengthy wait before testimony is taken on HB 1004.

2) You can email or call the members of the House Education committee to oppose HB 1004 in its present form until Sections 20 and 21 are removed. The members of the House Education Committee are:

Republican Representatives Behning, Cook, Burton, Clere, DeVon, Jordan, Lucas, Thompson and Wesco

Democratic Representatives V. Smith, DeLaney, Errington and Klinker.

3) You can email or call the members of the Senate Education committee to support Senate Bill 276 in its present form because they did it right. They are expanding the pre-school program without expanding K-12 vouchers at the same time. They could amend the bill to read like the House bill at any time, so they need to hear from you on this issue. The members of the Senate Education Committee are:

Republican Senators Kruse, Raatz, Bassler, Crane, Freeman, Kenley, Leising and Zay

Democratic Senators Melton, Mrvan and Stoops

We must not entwine a highly controversial expansion of the K-12 private school voucher program with the much needed pre-K program.

We must not make this important step for pre-school part of the march to privatize public education in Indiana.

Thank you for your dedicated support of public education!


Best wishes,

Vic Smith

“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 again representing ICPE in the new budget session which began on January 3, 2017. 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.icpe2011.com 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.

###

Vic’s Statehouse Notes #178 – March 13, 2014

[*NOTE: Thanks to Vic Smith for all his (and ICPE's) work on behalf of public education during this year's legislative session.]

Dear Friends,

Good news on the last day of the session: the preschool bill House Bill 1004 was passed today by both the House and the Senate creating a 5-county pilot program without any link to K-12 vouchers. Sections 10 and 11 which many of you have written about have disappeared. To public school advocates who contacted legislators about keeping K-12 vouchers out of the preschool bill, I say thank you!

This key bill represents both a new day for preschool in Indiana and a rare moment of success for public school advocates. Thanks to all who participated!

Details of House Bill 1004

A silence lasting several days on the preschool bill was broken when a Conference Committee on 1004 was held at 9:00 am this morning. Representative Behning reviewed the key features of the Conference Committee report:

• A pilot program will be established in five counties selected by FSSA.

• The Family and Social Services Administration will supervise the program.

• Families making 127% of poverty will qualify for grants of $2500 up to $6800.

• It will be funded by unspent money reverted to FSSA and by CCDF block grant money.

• At least 10% of the funds are to be from private donations or from federal funding.

• The receipt of a grant has no impact on eligibility for a K-12 choice scholarship.

• A longitudinal study will follow 4 year olds in the program through their assessment results in Grade 3.

• Expenditures are limited to $10 million in the first year, with a limit of an additional $1 million for the longitudinal study.

• Providers may include public or private preschools that meet Level 3 or 4 standards in the “paths to Quality program.”

• A prekindergarten and early learning study commission will study ten key topics to develop Indiana’s program.

All members of the Conference Committee should be thanked for advancing this proposal: Representatives Behning, VanDenburgh, Thompson, Sullivan and Vernon Smith and Senators Pete Miller, Rogers, Kenley, Broden, Kruse and Yoder. Senator Kenley played a crucial role in bringing the House and Senate versions together.

Floor Votes on HB 1004

The House voted first this afternoon on HB 1004, passing the bill 92-8. All Democrats voted for the bill along with most Republicans, except for Representative Baird, Culver, Harman, Ober, Rhoads, Thompson, Turner and Wesco.

I was able to hear the floor debate in the Senate. Senator Pete Miller introduced and supported the bill as the sponsor. Senator Schneider then rose to oppose the bill, calling it a “budget buster” and a “camel’s nose under the tent” for a “catastrophic fiscal impact on the state of Indiana.” Senator Holdman supported the bill, especially the longitudinal study and the “paths to Quality” standards. Senator Head rose to support the bill, saying it is run on reverted funds and that the sunset provisions “won’t let the camel get too far.” Senator Becker supported the bill, saying that Evansville business leaders have already told her they will help support the matching dollars. Senator Rogers then rose to support the bill, saying that if we can expend revenue for breaks to business as they just did for Senate Bill 1, they can fund a small preschool pilot program. She called it a matter of priorities. Senator Leising supported the bill, urging the early learning commission to coordinate several early childhood programs already funded by federal and special education dollars.

Then came the vote. The Senate passed the bill 40-8, with Senators Crider, Delph, Kruse, Schneider, Smith, Tomes, Yoder, and Michael Young voting no.

Senate Bill 1 easily passed both houses today allowing local options to reduce the business property tax and putting approximately $2 million in school property tax funding at risk two years from now, as I described in Statehouse Notes #177 last Tuesday.

The House adjourned sine die about 10:00 pm this evening and the Senate did the same at 10:40. The short session is over. It is a rare treat and a great pleasure to be able to report a success for public education on the last day of the session.

Your messages throughout the session on behalf of public education made a big difference. Thanks for participating!

Please keep up your steadfast support of public schools!

Best wishes,

Vic Smith

ICPE has worked since 2011 to promote public education in the Statehouse and oppose the privatization of schools. The 2014 session of the General Assembly is now over. Joel Hand did an excellent job representing ICPE throughout the session. We need your membership to help pay the bills for ICPE lobbying efforts. Many have renewed their memberships already, and we thank you! If you have not done so since July 1, the start of our new membership year, we urge you to renew by going to our website.

Although ICPE entered this session of the General Assembly in better financial shape than in any previous session, we still need additional support to fund the commitments our board has made for our lobbying efforts. We are counting on your financial help during the session.

We have raised the needed money in past sessions, and we must do so again. We need 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.icpe2011.com 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.

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Vic’s Statehouse Notes #173 – February 20, 2014

Dear Friends,

On this coming Monday February 24th, an amendment will be offered on second reading in the House to Senate Bill 282 to require private schools getting vouchers for disabled students to comply with the Americans with Disabilities Act. It is only fair that if private schools are getting state money for educating disabled students, they should have facilities that comply with ADA.

In 2011, the House voted 94-1 to add ADA compliance for voucher schools. Then the Senate took it out.

Please send messages to members of the House this weekend urging their strong support of the ADA amendment to SB 282. Currently, SB 282 simply restates rules already in use about vouchers for disabled students.

Meanwhile, in Wednesday’s Senate Education Committee (Feb. 19th), the Governor’s preschool bill HB 1004 was given a major overhaul. Senator Kenley offered Amendment 12 to the committee which substituted language creating a summer study on preschool which would address ten key policy topics. The amended bill passed the committee by a vote of 9-0.

The Senate version and the House version are now vastly different. If the Senate version prevails, public school advocates need to participate in the summer discussions to keep the proposals focused on helping preschoolers rather than on creating a pipeline to K-12 private school vouchers.

Thank you for all the messages sent to Senators opposing the linkage between preschool scholarships and K-12 vouchers. Your voice has been heard.

Will the General Assembly Open the Budget in a Non-Budget Year?

Since the beginning of the session, Senator Kenley has expressed reluctance to commit funding to bills when the budget won’t be reviewed until next year. Several bills brought by the Governor asked for approval now and funding next year. On HB 1004, it appears that Senator Kenley and Senate leaders are following their preferred policy of considering all funding programs simultaneously in the long session next year.

The fiscal cost for HB 1004 has been confusing from the start. Governor Pence in December called for a program that would fund a quality preschool for 40,000 low-income students, at a cost cited by Senator Kenley on Wednesday to be $270 million. The first LSA fiscal estimate said the preschool scholarships would cost $24 million and the resulting K-12 vouchers would add $1.6 million. Then the revised LSA fiscal estimate said the preschool scholarships would cost up to $30 million with the attached K-12 vouchers adding up to $1.9 million. Then the Governor’s Center for Education weighed in with a lengthy report and cost estimate saying HB 1004 would cost $10 million, but not until 2015-16, while at the same time citing immediate costs in 2014-15 totaling $650,000.

It is no wonder that Senator Kenley wanted a more thorough evaluation of the costs before approving the program.

Preschool Policy Topics to Be Studied

The revised bill would have the Education Commission, which is comprised of the members of the Education Committees of both Houses, study ten topics. While a copy of the amendment was not available to the public at the meeting, Senator Kenley listed several of them in his comments:

• Waivers to use for preschool the $115 million in federal funds given to Head Start, which he called “notably unsuccessful.”

• Waivers to use for preschool the $180 million in federal Child Care Development Grants.

• Partnerships with corporations and charitable organizations.

• Economic benefits of preschool programs.

• Accountability standards for preschools used in other states such as Florida.

• Parental involvement in early childhood education.

• Placement of preschool standards with IDOE and the State Board as with K-12 standards, instead of with FSSA, which he said was already “busy.”

• Setting the appropriate family income standard for preschool assistance, currently set in the bill as 185% of the federal poverty level, which he said translates to $270 million for 40,000 preschoolers.

• Partnerships with investment groups as Utah has done, issuing Goldman Sachs bonds funding preschools with the intent of repaying the bonds with savings in special education services.

Nothing was said in the committee discussion about the bill’s linkage to K-12 vouchers. This link would potentially fuel a major expansion of the Choice Scholarship program for 40,000 incoming kindergarten students. This would drastically impact public school marketing for kindergarten enrollment.

Vigilant pubic school advocates should follow the development of preschool policies to keep preschool separate from the controversial K-12 voucher program that proponents are using to privatize the public schools of Indiana. There is no reason to bog down progress on preschool with the controversial K-12 voucher program.

Send Messages to House Members about Senate Bill 282

SB 282 clarifies the 2013 voucher expansion language regarding vouchers for students in need of special education services. It restates what is already in current practice according to rules adopted last summer by the State Board.

ICPE lobbyist Joel Hand has learned that a second reading amendment to SB 282 will be offered as early as Monday (Feb. 24th) to require private schools getting vouchers for disabled students to comply with the facility standards of the Americans with Disabilities Act, as all public schools already must do. It is only fair that disabled students attending private voucher schools have these facility accommodations, yet they are not required now.

The recent IDOE Annual Report on Choice Scholarships reported that 1088 students needing special education services received vouchers costing Indiana taxpayers $4.4 million. Of these 1088, 311 students had never before attended an Indiana public school, creating a new fiscal expense to taxpayers of $1.3 million.

The proposed second reading amendment would bring ADA compliance for these 1088 students. Requiring ADA compliance was passed by the House in the original debate on the voucher bill in March of 2011. The 2011 amendment adding ADA compliance passed the House 94-1 in a strong bipartisan vote. One House member told me later that requiring ADA compliance was one reason he voted for the controversial bill. Then the Senate took the provision out. The House now has a chance to resurrect their previous commitment to fairness to disabled students in voucher schools.

The executive director of the Indiana Private School Association said in testimony recently that the reason why private schools should not be subject to ADA standards is that churches are exempted from the federal ADA regulations. It is interesting that he equates private schools getting tax money for disabled students with churches.

Let members of the House know via email or in Third House sessions this weekend that you think private voucher schools should comply with ADA facility standards if they are going to take tax money to educate disabled students. Students in private schools need accommodations just like students in public schools do.

Thanks for contacting your legislators and for your active support of public education!

Best wishes,

Vic Smith

ICPE has worked since 2011 to promote public education in the Statehouse and oppose the privatization of schools. The 2014 session of the General Assembly is now half way in its deliberations. We need your membership to help support our hard working lobbyist Joel Hand. Many have renewed their memberships already, and we thank you! If you have not done so since July 1, the start of our new membership year, we urge you to renew by going to our website.

Although ICPE entered this session of the General Assembly in better financial shape than in any previous session, we still need additional support to fund the commitments our board has made for our lobbying efforts. We are counting on your financial help during the session.

We have raised the needed money in past sessions, and we must do so again. We need 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.icpe2011.com 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.

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Vic’s Statehouse Notes #171 – February 10, 2014

Dear Friends,

The “second half” of the General Assembly session begins today. Bills passed by one house now go to the other house for consideration.

The Senate Education Committee will hear the Governor’s preschool bill HB 1004 this Wednesday February 12th beginning at 1:30pm in the Senate Chamber. Before the meeting, public school advocates should send messages to the Senators on the committee and indeed to all Senators asking them to “strike Sections 10 & 11", the sections that award a lifetime private school K-12 voucher to any preschooler that gets at least $500 for a preschool scholarship.

If you have a strong interest in preschool, you may wish to attend the hearing yourself to ask Senators to support preschool without turning the bill into an expansion of K-12 vouchers.

Last week, Senate Bill 322 died when Senator Schneider decided not to call it for a third reading vote. Also, House Bill 1320 died when Representative Behning did not call it for a third reading vote. The messages you sent opposing these two bills had a strong impact.

House Bill 1004: Preschool

The Governor’s preschool bill flew through the House in record setting time. The committee hearing was on January 9th at 8:00am, after public notice for the hearing was posted in the frigid afternoon of January 8th. HB 1004 passed second reading amendments on January 13th and then passed a final vote in the House on January 16th.

The biggest point for public school advocates against this bill is the expansion of eligibility for K-12 private school vouchers written into the bill. Known as “Choice Scholarships”, a K-12 voucher would be automatic for every preschooler that gets at least $500 for a preschool scholarship, as written in Section 10. Then Section 11 follows saying that if family income levels go up later which would normally disqualify the student from a voucher, they could still keep the K-12 voucher all the way through high school.

This leads to the message to Senators: Strike Sections 10 and 11. While preschool scholarships are needed, making them a controversial expansion to the private school voucher program is totally unnecessary and harmful to public education.

Another key point in the upcoming Senate debate is that the bill never went to House Ways and Means for a fiscal review of the costs. There is great confusion on the fiscal costs. The LSA estimated the original bill would fund 4600 scholarships at a cost of $24 million plus an additional $1.6 million for the K-12 lifetime vouchers that preschoolers would be eligible for. Then Speaker Bosma announced in the first week of the session that the bill would only fund 1000 scholarships. Then the Governor’s Center for Education and Career Innovation issued a detailed fiscal estimate dated “February 2014” which says the 5-county pilot program would fund 1500 scholarships at a cost of $10 million and lowballs the cost for lifetime K-12 vouchers at $109,000 per year. After HB 1004 passed the House, LSA issued a revised fiscal note saying preschool scholarships would cost between $7.5 and $30 million plus an additional $480,000 to $1.9 million for K-12 private school vouchers guaranteed to the preschoolers as part of this bill.

Confused about the cost to taxpayers? Apparently the Governor and the leadership believe that confusion over the costs will help them pass the bill, but it is not clear that Senators will agree.

Many Senators agree with Senator Kenley who recently articulated his belief during a committee discussion that all programs should compete equally for dollars during the budget debate next year. He expressed reluctance to commit to new programs now which would need to be funded by the next General Assembly.

Will the Governor get favored treatment on a commitment now to spend dollars in the next budget? Senators may not want to go along with that idea.

It is time to contact your Senator and indeed all Senators on HB 1004, asking them to strike Sections 10 and 11 and make clear to the public how much this will cost.

Senate Bill 322: Voucher Schools

The short life of SB 322, an unbelievable attempt to allow voucher schools to ignore ISTEP accountability and allow them to use a nationally norm-referenced test of their choice instead, will always be remembered. The bill’s lasting claim to fame will always be as the bill that the committee voted on before the testimony was given.

Just when I thought I had seen about everything.

Given that history and the fact that the “voucher schools can ignore ISTEP” clause was deleted in committee even before the historic vote, it is very appropriate that Senator Schneider the sponsor never called the bill on third reading, letting the bill die on February 4th.

Public education advocates should be alert to efforts to insert the concept of the bill into other bills later in the session.

House Bill 1320: Student Records

HB 1320 started out as a $3.7 million initiative to equip the Governor’s new State Board of Education staff with the computer capacity to make student records available to parents online and to handle all student data. As the hearing on the bill began, Rep. Behning the sponsor announced he didn’t really mean to give this program to the State Board but instead he meant that the Indiana Department of Education would expand access to student records. He amended the bill to delete all “State Board” references and replace them with “IDOE.”

This welcome but totally unexpected development removed the bill as a leading wedge in the conflict between Governor Pence and State Superintendent Ritz. After it was amended, the IDOE was never sure that the money needed to implement the new plan for student records would be forthcoming. Apparently Rep. Behning didn’t find support for his plan and he never called HB 1320 for a third reading vote, giving it a quiet death.

Next Steps

Your messages on SB 322 and on HB 1320 made a huge difference. Now I urge you to go to work on messages to Senators regarding HB 1004, asking them to strike Sections 10 and 11.

If you are moved to testify on the preschool bill, please come to the Senate Chamber at 1:30 on Wednesday to deliver your message personally: strike Sections 10 and 11.

Thanks for your active support of public education!

Best wishes,

Vic Smith

ICPE has worked since 2011 to promote public education in the Statehouse and oppose the privatization of schools. The 2014 session of the General Assembly is now half way in its deliberations. We need your membership to help support our hard working lobbyist Joel Hand. Many have renewed their memberships already, and we thank you! If you have not done so since July 1, the start of our new membership year, we urge you to renew by going to our website.

Although ICPE entered this session of the General Assembly in better financial shape than in any previous session, we still need additional support to fund the commitments our board has made for our lobbying efforts. We are counting on your financial help during the session.

We have raised the needed money in past sessions, and we must do so again. We need 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.icpe2011.com 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.