Recent Statehouse controversy over the power of teacher groups hits home with local educators, students

By Melinda Song
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On Feb. 22, House Democrats departed Indiana in response to proposed legislation within the Statehouse, including Senate Bill 575 and House Bill 1468.

The Democrats’ flight to Urbana, IL sparked increased political debate across the state, and more specifically, among students at this school. Sophomore Danielle Hrachovec, who said she supported the Democrats’ decision, is a case in point.

“Political issues are important to be aware of, especially since we’re in high school, because we’re going to be voting in two years,” Hrachovec said. “So if we don’t start paying attention now to what’s going on, we don’t know what we’re going to be voting for in the next election.”

One issue at hand is Senate Bill 575, which limits teacher unions to bargaining only on wages and wage-related benefits. The bill passed in the Senate on Feb. 23 and has moved to the House.

According to press secretary Lauren Auld, the State Department of Education supports Senate Bill 575 because it reflects the interests of students and frees contracts from restrictions that do not benefit students.

“We want to refocus these collective bargaining contracts on things that would benefit students,” she said. “For example, if you have a teacher that was hired on the exact same day as another teacher, and the administration has to unfortunately get rid of one and they can’t decide, they flip a coin or add up the last four digits of that teacher’s social security number. If one is better than another, that’s certainly not putting the best interests of the student first.”

However, Mark Shoup, spokesperson for the Indiana State Teacher’s Association, said the ISTA disagrees with this bill and many other pieces of proposed education-related legislature due to their “Draconian nature.”

“In the history of the state, we’ve never seen an all-out attack on public schools as we’ve seen during this legislative session. This is the first time in many years that one political party has complete control of the state,” Shoup said. “They have control of the House; they have control of the Senate. They are trying to run all these legislative efforts through with no compromise, with no discussion. And that’s why the Democrats left the state. They have no other option to slow this freight train down.”

House Bill 1468, which would not allow unions to negotiate with companies and businesses for a contract requiring all employees to pay the union fee, passed 8-5 in the Indiana Senate on Feb. 21. According to an Indianapolis Star article, the passage of this specific bill propelled Democratic lawmakers to leave the state in protest. As the Democrats’ walk-out, the longest in this state’s history, reaches one month, House Speaker Brian Bosma said he plans to negotiate in an effort to move forward.

Hrachovec characterized her and her family as “very Democratic” people who feel the bill in its current condition will not pass through the House with the amount of national and even international attention it has garnered. As far as her political views, Hrachovec said repealing the bill would be for the better.

“As it is, we need as much representation from the union as possible,” she said. “I think of the situation as a domino effect because if the unions aren’t made mandatory, then businesses won’t have unions, and people won’t have unions to join.”

The Indiana Department of Education is currently not involved in House Bill 1478, according to Auld. However, Shoup said this “right-to-work” bill and accompanying educational reform bills, if completely passed, will have a strong impact on students and public school education.

“You’ll see fewer teachers. You’ll see poorly paid teachers. You’ll see at least 200 public schools become private high schools run by corporations,” he said. “You’ll see more and more kids coming into Carmel from elsewhere because they can come in with tax dollars no matter where they live. You’ll see public education turned upside down. It won’t look anything like it did in the past 10 years.”

Students like Hrachovec, whose sister works as an intern at the Indiana House of Representatives, have already felt the impact of these bills despite their preliminary nature.

“I mean, it’s a big topic at my house,” Hrachovec said. “With this, it’s been giving us an insight into bills that maybe aren’t getting as much public attention. I think the more I’m learning about what’s going on in the Statehouse, the more Democratic I’m becoming.”