Statehouse Express: Season 5 Episode 4
Welcome to the Statehouse Express! I’m John Elcesser, Executive Director at INPEA, and this is our 4th stop on a very fast 2024 Legislative Session. Last time, we talked about cross over, or half time of the legislative session; and this week we are already talking about having only one more committee hearing in this second half of the session. And we think the Indy 500 is fast!
Last week, both the House and Senate Education committees met for the first time in the second half of the session. In 2024, we have been more focused on bills coming out of the Senate, primarily because they had a tendency to include additional regulations on non-public schools. Now those bills have moved to the House side.
The big one is SB 1, the reading skills bill. As we have shared before, the author of the bill told me that because reading is so important that she felt it should apply to all types of schools. Unfortunately, she didn’t understand some of the basic differences with non-public schools to see how these requirements would play out in the non-pub world. This bill includes things like required literacy training, required summer school for some students, required reading programs that are based in the science of reading, using a required universal screener for students in K-2, and the biggest concern, required retention for students not passing IREAD-3. The bill passed out of committee on party lines 9-4. Most of the push back has been focused on the retention requirement. The bill now heads to the Ways and Means Committee and then to the full House for second and third readings.
Senate Education heard 6 bills last week. HB 1233 which expands the definition of a participating school to include nonpublic schools accredited by a state board approved third party passed out of committee 11-0. HB 1380, which among many other things, has the alignment of the October 1 birthdate eligibility across all 3 choice programs was held until this week for further amendments.
These next few weeks will be fast and furious. Many bills that passed out of one chamber will probably not get a committee hearing in the second chamber because of lack of time. We’ll need to watch second amendments closely as legislators will attempt to get parts of their bills not heard in the second chamber amended into other pieces of legislation.
At the beginning of the session, we were tracking 64 bills. After crossover that was narrowed down to 24. After this week that number will become even smaller.
Last week, I had the pleasure of attending a dinner with all of the Catholic legislators and the Catholic Bishops. It is always nice to get a chance to chat with legislators away from the Statehouse where conversations can be more personal, less hurried and more relationship building. Last week, I was able to schedule a meeting with Senator Jean Leising and Dr. Brian Disney, Superintendent of the Archdiocesan Catholic Schools, joined for the meeting. Another opportunity for relationship building.
If you ever want to make a trip to the Statehouse, we would be happy to schedule meetings with your legislators. There is nothing like a little face time in the advocacy world.
And with that said, buckle your seat belt and stay tuned for the fast furious. And we’ll see you back here next week for the next edition of the Statehouse express.
Stay well and God bless!
