ISTA Advocate - Legislative 2021

LEGISLATIV E

2021

A N I N D I A N A S TAT E T E A C H E R S A S S O C I AT I O N P U B L I C AT I O N

We Did It! The newly passed budget invests in public education and teacher compensation.

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PHOTO GALLERY: Local actions from across the state.

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OU R KID S . OUR S C H OOL S. O U R F U T U RE .

LEGISLATIVE 2021: VOL. 4, ISSUE 4 Keith Gambill President Jennifer Smith-Margraf Vice President Doug Taylor Treasurer Dan Holub Executive Director Indiana State Teachers Association Publisher Kim Clements-Johnson Editor Keith Clock Contributor Kara Seward Contributor Katie Beaumont Contributor

EDITORIAL BOARD Ron Curry Delaware Community Classroom Teachers Association

IN THIS ISSUE Your Red For Ed advocacy resulted in an historic investment in K – 12 public education.

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Bennett Gallivan Merrillville Education Support Professional Association Sanae Glendening Vigo County Teachers Association Amy Price Evansville Teachers Association Steve Wynn ISTA UniServ Director

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ISTA President Keith Gambill reflects on our Red For Ed achievements.

Find your colleagues in local Red For Ed actions from across the state.

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Members share how they directly impacted the legislative outcomes this year.

Learn what’s next for Red For Ed.

President’s Letter

Perspectives

150 W. Market St., Ste. 900 Indianapolis, IN 46204

PURPOSE, MISSION AND GOALS PURPOSE To advocate for and advance the interests of Indiana’s students, educators and public schools.

MISSION The Indiana State Teachers Association is a professional association organized to sustain quality public education, improve students’ educational opportunities and advance the professional status of educators.

GOALS • Unify our voices — we are stronger together.

• Provide economic security and professional working conditions for educators.

• Create a premier public education system that serves all kids regardless of ZIP code, culture or ability.

• Fight for racial and social justice.

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LEGISLATIVE 2021

Organizing in Action

Extra Credit

We want to hear from you! Send ISTA your comments about the magazine. If you have story ideas or want to be a contributor, email communications@ista-in.org.

Advocate is the official quarterly publication of the Indiana State Teachers Association, the state level of the United Education Profession. The content of the Association’s publications will be consistent with its mission, strategic objectives and policies.

PRESIDENT’S LETTER

T

hank you for advocating for educators, students and public education

– you made a difference this year! With your help, the funding increases in this budget for public schools are the largest ever and will allow and empower our local associations to meaningfully address increasing teacher pay.

While the two-year budget was ISTA’s priority this year, we also had other important items to fight for this session. ISTA and our local associations now play an important role through the collective bargaining process to ensure these funds will meet the legislature’s goals for teacher pay. Our fight to keep and maintain these funding gains will continue, as well as the need to restore our bargaining rights for working and learning conditions.

Keith Gambill, ISTA President Follow Keith on Twitter @istapresident

Watch our latest video featuring ISTA members advocating for Red For Ed priorities. It’s because of you that we achieved the historic investment in K - 12 public education.

Stay connected and active!

We’re stronger together.

ISTA-IN.ORG

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OUR ADVOCACY

We Did it!

Thanks to the persistent advocacy of educators and advocates of public schools, ISTA accomplished most of its Red For Ed priorities outlined at the beginning of the 2021 legislative session.

Review our achievements.

Improved Teacher Compensation • Provided the funding to implement

Increased and Full Funding for Public Schools

recommendations from the Teacher

• I nvested a record $16 billion in K – 12

Compensation Commission’s report,

funding, including $1.2 billion in new

which will likely enable schools to

funding for traditional public schools

achieve a starting teacher salary of

(HB 1001).

$40,000 and an average teacher salary of $60,000 (HB 1001).

• Ensured all modes of teaching and learning are funded at 100% for the

• Ensured schools are dedicating at least

2020 – 21 school year (SB 2).

45% of their tuition support for full-time teacher salaries (HB 1001).

• Safeguarded career and technical education course funding (HB 1001).

• Freed up pay flexibility beyond reasons solely of academic needs by allowing schools greater flexibility to provide differentiated pay (HB 1549).

• Continued funding of Teacher Appreciation Grants (HB 1001).

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LEGISLATIVE 2021

Addressed the Digital Divide • Helped eliminate the digital divide by providing $250 million for expanding access to broadband internet (HB 1001).

Added Remediation and Student Resources • Assisted students in learning recovery with a $150 million grant program to fund programs aimed at accelerating lost

When we work together for public schools, kids win!

Check out the stats from our legislative actions this session.

learning time for students (HB 1008).

Reduced Reliance on Standardized Testing •H eld schools, students and teachers harmless for test results for the 2020 – 21 school year (HB 1514).

57,000+ emails, tweets and calls to legislators

• Repealed additional state interventions and consequences, including state takeover of public schools for consecutive F grades (HB 1514).

Secured Retirees’ Future •P rovided a 1% cost-of-living adjustment for retired teachers and public employees (HB 1001).

26,000+ pageviews of InvestInEducationIN.org and ISTA’s Advocacy Center

• Maintained and protected Indiana’s defined benefit/annuity hybrid plan for all teachers (HB 1001).

Find the full legislative summary at ista-in.org/2021-leg-review.

346 million readers/viewers reached via media outlets

46,000+ clicks on Red For Ed digital ads

ISTA-IN.ORG

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PERSPECTIVES

Advocacy in Action Local associations and members across the state stepped up their advocacy this year.

In a year when the pandemic changed our lives and how we advocate, you rose to the occasion. You wore red — and even black.

You partnered with school boards to pass resolutions. You hosted socially distanced walk-ins. The outcomes of this year’s legislative session can be attributed to the work you did in your communities to raise awareness of our Red For Ed priorities.

Elementary educators weren’t playing at Daniel Wertz Elementary in Evansville.

Members of the Tell City-Troy Township Classroom Teachers Association participated in #BlackOut4Ed.

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LEGISLATIVE 2021

Hamilton Southeastern Education Association’s members demonstrated solidarity at Hamilton Southeastern High School.

Teachers in Warren Education Association wear black to advocate for public education funding.

Monroe County Education Association members posed in front of Templeton Elementary.

The Noblesville Teachers’ Forum showed solidarity.

The North Miami Education Association started advocating at the beginning of the session with this Red For Ed Wednesday.

The Pioneer Classroom Teachers Association made sure the community knew our Red For Ed priorities.

The #BlackOut4Ed reached across the state to South Adams Classroom Teachers Association.

Educators walked-in at Hamilton Southeastern Intermediate and Junior High School.

The Logansport Education Association hosted a Red For Ed sidewalk rally.

Spread across the gym, educators at Franklin Central High School made a stand.

ISTA-IN.ORG

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ORGANIZING IN ACTION

5 LEGISLATIVE PROCESS WAYS TO GET INVOLVED IN THE Jeanie Mitchell

Emily Maurek

High School French Teacher

Elementary General Music Teacher

Penn Harris Madison Teachers Association

Lake Central Teachers Association

Demonstrate Policy Expertise “I testified in support of what was the original SB 205. Sen. Rogers reached out to me via email, because I had worked with her and Rep. DeVon last year on social and emotional learning for incoming educators.”

SB 205 would have required traumainformed instruction training at the preservice level in teacher preparation programs.

The bill was amended to establish an alternative pathway to teacher licensure. All part of the legislative process!

Middle School Social Studies Teacher

Middle School Social Studies Teacher

Brownsburg Classroom Teachers Association

Build Relationships “Legislators are people, like you and me, treat them as you would want to be treated.

Make connections early and maintain them.

Don’t wait until you need something from them to reach out. Get to know their areas of interest as well as pleading the case for teachers’ interests. Tell your story and how the issue at hand affects you and your students directly.”

Get involved! Learn more about the legislative process and be a legislative influencer. Serve on your L-PAC board, run for an I-PACE board seat or join your Legislative Action Team.

LEGISLATIVE 2021

Greylor Walston

Samantha Mull Pierce

Greater Clark Education Association

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Form Coalitions “Submitting testimony by email also allowed me to wear my parent hat and gather fellow public-school parents to sign on creating a group testimony, which sends a more powerful message. It took a few rounds of back-and-forth to gather parent signatures and to edit the document, but I was pleased with how simple it was to gather a group testimony in a relatively short amount of time.”

Take Every Opportunity to Raise Your Voice “We continue to pay the price for having our voices excluded from important legislative decisions in the past. We, as educators, must always demand our seats at the table!”

Kristi Charbonneau High School College Prep, and Special Education Teacher New Albany-Floyd County Education Association

Be the Squeaky Wheel “Keep trying, be persistent, be respectful to legislative assistants, thank the legislators for any supportive vote they make.”

EXTRA CREDIT

Why the Red For Ed Movement Isn’t Done With significant victories on Red For Ed priorities, you may ask, “Is Red For Ed finished?”

No, we still have work to do. Red For Ed is a movement to improve public education for educators, kids and our schools. It’s also about respect.

Respect means having a voice in classroom decisions. Respect means being recognized as expert practitioners.

Respect means honoring the profession as a discipline. Respect means gaining time to build quality lessons. Respect means ensuring all educators are valued.

Red For Ed will continue to be the vehicle for rallying educators and public education advocates to raise their voices in their communities and at the Statehouse.

As we look to the future of Red For Ed, we can grow the pro-public education coalitions built during this legislative session. Partnering with superintendents and school boards was the first step.

Let’s engage our community ­— starting with parents. Other than educators, no one is more invested in seeing their kids and schools succeed.

Expanding the Red For Ed movement to encompass educators, superintendents, school board members, parents, community leaders, religious leaders and more will only grow our influence and continue to put the needs of our kids and schools first.

Find videos and resources to share with your network at InvestInEducationIN.org. Ask them to join the movement.

Red For Ed will motivate and inspire us into the future.

ISTA-IN.ORG

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WHAT’S NEXT FOR RED FOR ED?

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