ICPE Five Things
February 2025
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ICPE 2025 Legislative Priorities
The hits from the legislature keep coming at public schools this session, and we need you. Our kids and their future depend on this fight. Please take action in any of the following ways, especially under #2 below!
- Save the dates and show up!
- ICPE Statehouse Day of Action will be held on Presidents Day, February 17, 2025 at 2pm at the Statehouse in the South Atrium, right across from the Governor’s office. It’s a great opportunity to schedule a visit with elected officials to discuss public education, hear our engaging speakers, and show your support for public schools alongside advocates from around the state. Find all the event details here.
- Legislative session low-down - Mid Session Check in - February 27, 2024, 7:00 pm. Join us and our lobbyist Joel Hand to review the bills progressing through the session. Meeting is on Zoom. Register here. Please share the event on Facebook with your friends. If you missed our first session, you can find notes here.
- Grassroots check in. If you are looking to get more involved, bring a friend and your questions or concerns to our Grassroots Check-ins on Sunday evenings at 7pm. Connecting with one another helps us energize. Email us to get the link. [email protected]
- Network for Public Education conference is April 5–6, 2025 in Columbus, Ohio. Come connect with other public education advocates and get inspired. Keynote speakers are already announced and early bird discounts are available. All are welcome to attend! You can register on their website. And reserve hotel rooms at a hotel offering conference discounts.
- Legislative session key dates:
- 1/9 – Bill filing deadline in the Senate
- 1/14 – Bill filing deadline in the House
- 2/19 - Committee Report Deadline
- 2/19 - Second Reading Deadline
- 2/20 - Third Reading Deadline
- To view the complete 2025 session calendar by month for each Chamber, go to: House Calendar; Senate Calendar
2. State bills to take action on. You can find our calls to action on our website. MOST PRESSING TODAY is making your voice heard on SB 287. Please reach out to the Senate Elections Committee to urge them to vote “NO” on SB 287. Adding a primary election and making school board races a lengthy and costly process will further narrow the pool of qualified candidates for an office that is minimally paid (maximum of $2,000 annually).
Senate Elections Committee emails:
[email protected]
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One of the best ways to take action and reach your local legislators is to attend a Third House meeting. We have details on how to do it here. And, of course, that is just one way to take action. More ways can be found on our Take Action page.
3. Contact your other elected officials.
- Ask your local school board…
- if it is or plans to be a safe haven school district. Public school is supposed to be a safe place for children to learn. Public schools serve all children. Due to Plyer v. Doe (1982), all children living in the U.S., regardless of their immigration status, have the right to equal education. Recent efforts by the Trump administration are threatening this. (We even have a bill at the statehouse that threatens to turn schools into ICE agencies.)
- if it will issue a resolution standing up against HB 1136 and HB 1501 like Michigan City Area Schools and New Prairie United School Corporation. These bills will take away local control of schools and, as a result, disband the public school board and turn those school districts into charter schools. People who do not live in our communities will be in charge of running our schools. We will lose our voice. At this time, these bills would affect five school districts within Indiana: Tri-Township Consolidated Schools, Gary Community Schools, Indianapolis Public Schools, Union Schools, and Cannelton Schools. Public schools belong to the public.
- Ask your Congressperson…
- Please sign on to the CHARTER Act. The CHARTER Act would ensure that every charter school is in full compliance with the Elementary and Secondary Act of 1965 (ESEA) and the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) by denying federal funds to any charter school that enters into a contract with a for-profit entity to operate, oversee or manage the school. When passed, this Act will close the loophole that profiteers have exploited.
- Do NOT support federal level vouchers in any way. We have mentioned the Educational Choice for Children Act (ECCA) in the past and asked you to sign a petition. ECCA efforts have been renewed following Trump’s executive order to use federal money to support vouchers. ECCA is primarily a money-making, tax-evading scheme for the wealthy. It is a pre-tax voucher in which donors to a scholarship fund can get a tax credit for 100% of their donation. There are ads currently running in Washington DC urging that this bill be passed.
Phone numbers:
Sen Todd Young (202) 224-5623
Sen Jim Banks (202) 224-4814
Rep Frank Mrvan (202) 225-2461
Rep Rudy Yakym (202) 225-3915
Rep Marlin Stutzman (202) 225-4436
Rep Jim Baird (202) 225-5037
Rep Victoria Spartz (202) 225-2276
Rep Jefferson Shreve (202) 225-3021
Rep Andre Carson (202) 225-4011
Rep Mark Messmer (202) 225-4636
Rep Erin Houchin (202) 225-5315
4. New ICPE Board members
We are thrilled to welcome two extraordinary public education advocates to our ICPE state Board. Gayle Cosby was recently elected to the IPS school board for her second term. She is also an assistant professor and program chair of education at Ivy Tech Community College Indianapolis. Gayle refused to accept campaign contributions from “school choice” organizations and has been an outspoken critic of outside influence and money in school board elections. She is a fierce champion for public schools and the communities they serve.. Jim May, also known as the blogger “Carmel Schools Dad” got involved in the fight for our public schools when extremists with a political agenda came for his children's school board. Attempting to combat misinformation and vitriol, Jim started fact checking and delving into data in order to inform his community. Jim is an incredible asset to ICPE and we are grateful for his energy as well.
5. ICPE in the News -
- ICPE was hosted by the AAUW and LWV of Muncie and spoke about pressing bills at the Statehouse. Hand did note that HB1136 could have the potential to turn all public schools into charter schools, but added that such efforts go against Indiana’s Constitution, which says:“Knowledge and learning, generally diffused throughout a community, being essential to the preservation of a free government; it shall be the duty of the General Assembly to encourage, by all suitable means, moral, intellectual, scientific, and agricultural improvement; and to provide, by law, for a general and uniform system of Common Schools, wherein tuition shall be without charge, and equally open to all.” “Without charge” and “equally open to all” are key phrases that support a mandate for Indiana to have a public education system, Hand said.
- Our lobbyist Joel Hand spoke on HB1348, a bill that would give more weight to a homeschool diploma. He emphasized that, “while we recognize there are many homeschool parents and many non-accredited schools that do provide a quality education, there is nothing in the law now that requires that education to have any rigor or standards.”
- ICPE does not support increasing the amount of time students are allowed to leave school for religious instruction. “Although there‘s a directive in the law that requires the religious institution and the school to collaborate, because the law also mandates that the principal to release the child, we’re hearing from the field that there are situations where elementary school students are missing parts of or all of a reading block on certain days so the student can attend religious instruction,” Hand said.
- Per HB1002, ICPE has issues with some elements and asked for amendments. “Having someone lead the state Department of Education without a background in K-12 education is tantamount to the governor appointing a superintendent of State Police who has no prior law enforcement background,” said Joel Hand.
- A-F grades are coming back to Indiana. We take issue with this. “I think our big concerns, really, are making sure that we are reflecting scores that are accurate, not just based upon socioeconomic status,” Hand said. “What we see time and again when we’re labeling schools as “D” schools or “F” schools … those children typically have not had sufficient access to quality pre-kindergarten programs. They have not had access to the types of learning environments and opportunities that children from more affluent homes might receive. We would like for there to be multiple different standards by which students are going to be judged.”
- Read more state news from the Northeast Friends of Public Education (NEIFPE).
- How to find good news. If you are on Facebook, try following your local public schools. The good news will flow. Our local public schools are filled with amazing people, amazing events and activities.
If you like what you read, please share with friends and ask them to join us!
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