Alright! Thread time...
Here's my best effort to explain the differences bt amendments 20 & 34 (the majority amendments adopted last week & this):
-curriculum committee (cc from here on out) can review guest speaker content
-cc must give parents who request review a response -DOE collects info on cc's and reports to INGA
-hard parent opt-in for third-party surveys
-adds language to good citizenship instruction about ideals/values in Constitution & political institutions & individual rights, freedoms & political suffrage.

In case you're wondering, Senate education has not started. They're 20 minutes late... IDK why it looks like everyone is here.

First up will be amend & vote on House Bill 1134 (Indiana's CRT-inspired bill).

Here's where it stands:
indystar.com/story/news/edu… Sen. Raatz has been talking with Sen. Dems for a few minutes now.

FWIW, there are 8 more amendments on HB 1134 filed today than there were last week.

House education is getting started with Senate Bill 82, the FAFSA requirement.

It's getting heard but not voted on (so won't move bc deadline is tomorrow).

Behning is stripping the requirement and replacing w/ directive to give parents more info about FAFSA. Sen. Jean Leising has been attempting to get this requirement passed for a couple of years now. Stresses important for rural folks, first-gen college kids, etc.

I wrote about why last year:
indystar.com/story/news/edu…

We’re 15 minutes from the start and we’ve got a full house already. Folks still in line signing up for public comment. This is at the Noblesville meeting! Follow @mjslaby for updates from Westfield.

At the Brownsburg Schools emergency meeting, recommending the district reinstate a mask mandate. We're been going 10 minutes and had two crowd outbursts. Board chair is reading policy around public comment before that portion starts. First speaker was mom supporting mask mandate. Hamilton County has nice things, she says, like schools that prioritize safety of kids. Hope our kids can have nice things too.

Rep Porter again tries to restore the $300 million cut from public education during the recession with amendment #1. It fails. Rep Clere introduces amendment #33 to add more special education funding categories w/ ultimate goal of adding more $$. No new money yet but categories are added unanimously.

SB 358 up now. Sen. Rogers says amendment #3 was to help IPS with their concerns about the bill dealing with surplus school property but she can't call it bc of the fiscal on it. Will keep working with them she says. Rogers says that schools will sometimes use vacant buildings for storage to keep them out of the hands of charter schools or have in the past damaged buildings before the transfer to hinder charter schools.

Sen. Rogers is introducing amendment #4 on SB205 to include an alternative teacher certification program to allow someone who has a college degree and wants to make a career change to teaching w/o going thorough full teacher training program.

The amendment was up but isn't now? It sounds like a strip & insert? Can't tell since the amendment isn't up. The trauma-informed training that was original subject is gone. Rogers said though that since the bill was called "teacher training" she checked to ensure her amendment about training teachers was germane.

Wrapping up yesterday's third reading calendar with three education bills.
1549 just passed. It deals with advanced courses & more flex in On My Way Pre-K (among other things).

Up now is 1553, which eases requirements for next gen Hoosier education scholarships. Porter is questioning Behning. Behning interrupts to answer and Porter stops him.

"You got a bad habit of doing that, man."

The Senate is hearing SB251, which is widely seen as an anti-teachers union bill.

Sen. Melton says the state should be focusing on other things right now, calls it an attack on teachers union.

Not sending the message in terms of education priorities, he says. The bill's sponsor, Sen. Boots, calls the bill a teachers' rights bill.

House and Senate were supposed to be in at 2:30. Senate delayed to 3 p.m. and House to... TBD (ruh roh). I am keeping an eye on:
SB69 school bus stop arms(3rd reading)
HB1367 disannexation (2nd)
HB1005 choice/voucher expansion (3rd)
HB1549 ed matters (sooo many things) (3rd)
HB1553 next gen educator scholarships (3rd)

HB1005, which greatly expands the state's voucher program and creates the ESAs, is on second reading on the House floor.

Rep. DeLaney is trying to delete the ESA portion. DeLaney said ESAs are not grants. They're transfers of state tuition support to parents.

"This is a highly dangerous piece of legislation," he said.