DISCLAIMER: Although I live in Chicago, I'm a proud member of the Indiana State Teachers' Association. I am not, however, acting in any official capacity with this diary here.
I'm going to keep this short and sweet.
Several recent diaries here have justifiably celebrated the defeat of the odious HB 1468, which would have turned the Hoosier State into a Right to Work For Less State. It's understandable that when seeing Democrats at the state level taking political risks to defend working families, and seeing victory, we might get a little over-elated.
But the battle for Indiana is FAR from over.
REALITY CHECK:
The very worst of the bills may have tanked, but I strongly suspect that Daniels's backing off on the very worst of the bill is a feint, and that the next punch is coming soon. It appears to me that many here are falling for it hook, line, and sinker.
There is still a very evil, four-pronged attack going on right now against Indiana unions, and more particularly, against teachers' unions and ultimately public schools as a whole.
STILL ON THE TABLE:
House Bill 1585 outlaws automatic payroll deductions for union dues. This is simply a political ploy to kneecap unions in general. There is no way to sugar coat this clear reality. This bill would make it much more difficult for unions to collect dues, and would force unions to spend much more time and energy going after its members, as opposed to advocating for their members.
STILL ON THE TABLE:
House Bill 1337 severely limits the amount collective bargaining rights for Indiana teachers. This bill would:
* allow annual evaluations to be conducted by other teachers or contracted outside agencies
* eliminate the ability of a local associations to bargain or discuss the evaluation tool
* restrict collective bargaining agreements to wages and wage related benefits
* ban the bargaining of contractual hours or number of days worked.
* eliminate current contractual reduction-in-force processes
* eliminate contractual grievance procedures except in cases related to wages and wage related benefits.
These last two are more specifically related to education in general, but are also attempts to end-run around teachers' unions by taking money from public schools and giving it to private schools, charter schools, or other typically non-union schools.
STILL ON THE TABLE:
HB 1002 encourages the growth of charter schools, even though there is precious little research suggesting that charter schools are more effective at educating today’s students than traditional schools. But guess what? Charter schools are FAR more likely to be non-union!
STILL ON THE TABLE:
This bill, HB 1003 simply diverts public money to private schools . . . for those whose families can afford to pony up the private schools' fees before-hand, and guess what . . . that AIN'T a lot of poor kids from Gary. Oh and guess what? Private schools are ALSO far more likely to be non-union.
At the risk of diary pimping, Hoosiers and other interested parties and can more involved by going here.
For more background specifically related to the GOoPers' attempts to kneecap teachers' unions and public schools in Indiana, go here.
In solidarity.