PRESS RELEASES from Gov. Mitch Daniels

For immediate release:
Apr 30, 2011
Contact: Jane Jankowski

Daniels reviews landmark 2011 legislative successes

INDIANAPOLIS (April 30, 2011) - The results are in and the most comprehensive education reforms in the country and a structurally balanced budget with an automatic taxpayer refund top a long list of legislative achievements for Governor Mitch Daniels during the 2011 Indiana Generally Assembly session that concluded Friday.

 

"This is an agenda for Indiana's future. There have been other sessions where we've done huge things, but long term this may be the most meaningful set of changes of all, and I hope it will prove that way," said Daniels.

 

The governor's 2011 successes include a K-12 education agenda that puts students first, including dramatically expanding charter schools, providing parents with more school choice, revising teacher evaluations and expanding full-day kindergarten funding; a structurally balanced budget that met the governor's parameters; broadened public-private partnerships; a solution to the imbalance in the state's unemployment insurance trust fund, and confirmation of state employee collective bargaining practices into state law.

 

Audio of today's news conference may be found here in two parts:

·         Bill signing, with remarks from State Superintendent Tony Bennett, House Speaker Brian Bosma, Senate President Pro Tempore David Long, and Governor Daniels: http://www.in.gov/gov/files/Press/043011sb1signing.mp3

  ·         Media question and answer session: http://www.in.gov/gov/files/Press/043011mediaquestions.mp3

Below is the complete list of results of Governor Daniels' 2011 legislative priorities, which can also be downloaded in PDF form here:

http://www.in.gov/gov/files/Press/043011AgendaReport.pdf

 

RESULTS: Governor Daniels' 2011 Legislative Priorities

 

State budget

  • Pass a structurally balanced budget without a general tax increase. ACHIEVED, HEA 1001

ü  Structural balance in the first year

ü  Reserves in excess of $1 billion at the end of the biennium

ü  No gimmicks

ü  No tax increases

 

  • Enact a straightforward state government spending cap in the form of an automatic taxpayer refund. ACHIEVED, HEA 1001

ü  When the state's reserves exceed 10 percent of operating funds, Hoosier taxpayers will get a refund through a tax credit. Half of the excess will automatically fund teacher pensions and half will be returned to taxpayers.

 

K-12 education:  Put students first and strengthen local flexibility

  • Evaluate teachers on student learning so we can pay our best teachers more. ACHIEVED, SEA 1

ü  Requires locally developed, rigorous annual teacher evaluations that include student achievement and growth in student learning

ü  School corporations may develop systems that reward great teachers with more pay

ü  Performance is now a factor to determine hiring, promotion, salary and dismissal decisions. Seniority and academic degrees may count for one-third of the consideration used for pay increases 

ü  No student may be taught by a teacher who has been rated ineffective two years straight without parent approval

ü  The Department of Education will partner with businesses and organizations to help schools increase operational efficiency

ü  Schools may pursue action against parents whose children are habitually absent and will now be required to report the children to juvenile court or the Department of Child Services

 

  • Hold schools accountable for student learning while giving them the flexibility to deliver better results under local control. ACHIEVED, SEA 575

ü  Focuses contract negotiations between school corporations and teachers' unions on salaries and wage-related benefits. Other issues, such as textbook selection and class size, must be discussed to ensure teacher input is considered.

ü  Contracts may be no more than 2 years and may not extend beyond December 31 of the second year of the state's budget, which ends June 30

ü  Provides for a collective bargaining process, including steps when a contract cannot be resolved easily

 

  • Give school corporations more incentive to purchase health insurance cooperatively or join the state's health care plan. ACHIEVED, SEA 1260

ü  Provides that if a school's share of health care costs are 12 percent greater than the state's cost, a corrective action plan must be initiated.  If the corrective action plan is not successful, provides that the school must join the state health care plan.

ü  Requires disclosure of fees, commissions and bonuses paid to insurance providers to enable greater transparency to taxpayers

ü  Establishes best practices for school health insurance plans, including offering health savings accounts, creating purchasing consortiums and joining the state health plan

 

  • Provide more quality options so parents can make informed decisions. ACHIEVED, HEA 1002, HEA 1003

o   Expand charter school opportunities, HEA 1002

ü  Creates more opportunity for high quality charter schools by expanding authorizers

ü  Creates new statewide body that can issue charters

ü  Requires all charters to be open to any student who lives in Indiana; random drawings must be held at a public meeting if there are more applicants than slots

ü  Charters held to rigorous accountability standards, as are traditional public schools

ü  Ends the virtual pilot program and gives these schools more flexibility to function like other public charter schools for funding, authorization, accountability

ü  Gives charters more flexibility to hire non-traditional educators and part-time teachers

ü  Gives charters more access to unused facilities owned by traditional public schools

ü  Allows for conversion of an existing public school to a charter school under certain conditions

 

o   Give parents more school choice, HEA 1003

ü  Choice scholarships to private schools available to families who meet income guidelines. Families below free and reduced lunch ($40,000 for family of four) eligible for 90 percent of state tuition support; families below 150 percent of free and reduced lunch ($60,000 for family of four) eligible for 50 percent of state tuition support.

ü  Maximum scholarship amount is $4,500 for grades 1-8; no limit on high school

ü  Number of scholarships capped at 7,500 for 2011-12 and 15,000 for 2012-13. No limit thereafter.

ü  Expands the current tuition tax credit to provide more students scholarships to attend private schools

 

  • Address chronically poor-performing schools, ACHIEVED, HEA 1001

ü  Clear authority for state to intervene when schools are failing

ü  Authorizes the state to convert a persistently failing school into a Turnaround Academy

ü  Turnaround Academies are run by special management teams selected by the Indiana State Board of Education

 

  • Early graduation year scholarship, ACHIEVED, HEA 1001

ü  Provides $4,000 postsecondary scholarship to students who graduate after their junior year

ü  Available for any postsecondary option

  • $150 million more for K-12 education in next biennium, ACHIEVED, HEA 1001

ü  Expands full-day kindergarten funding to all students, provides additional funds to pay outstanding teachers and start-up funds for new charter schools

 

Reward and protect our best state employees

  • Prohibit state employee collective bargaining (ISP not included) and protect the paycheck of every state employee by prohibiting mandatory dues payments
  • Require annual state employee performance reviews so we can identify the best performers

·         Update and streamline the state employee classification system so we can pay our best performers more

·         Simplify the grievance procedure and use employee advocates to help employees better understand the complaint process

ALL ACHIEVED, HEA 1001

 

Improve transparency and efficiency of local government

  • Eliminate nepotism and conflict of interest in local government, FAILED

·         Abolish township boards and other outdated layers of government, FAILED

·         School board elections moved from May to November, ACHIEVED, HEA 1074

 

Economic development

  • Broaden public-private partnerships (P3) for public infrastructure, ACHIEVED, SEA 473

ü  State government may enlist the private sector as a partner in building new roads, bridges, and other infrastructure

 

  • Corporate income tax reduction. ACHIEVED, HEA 1004

ü  Corporate income tax reduced to 6.5 percent, phased in over 4 years. Funded by ending special tax preferences.

ü  Corporate rate will go from 39th lowest to 21st lowest among states, an improvement of 18 places

 

Develop a fair redistricting plan

  • Redraw Indiana's political districts on the basis of logical geographic and community boundaries, ACHIEVED HEA 1601, HEA 1602

 

Tackle the imbalance in the unemployment insurance trust fund

·         Pass a bill that brings premiums and benefits in balance. ACHIEVED, HEA 1450

ü  Indiana's unemployment insurance trust fund will be brought back into structural balance in two years and the approximate $2 billion balance owed on the federal government trust fund advances will be repaid by 2019

 

Address issues in Indiana's sentencing laws

  • Develop a comprehensive sentencing reform package that incarcerates all dangerous criminals while managing non-dangerous offenders in more cost-effective ways. FAILED

X       The results of the 2010 Pew/Council on State Governments study will be merged with the ongoing work of the criminal code evaluation commission to better ascertain policy and fiscal impacts.

X       Comprehensive plan will be re-introduced next year. Without action, Indiana will need to build at least one prison in the next biennium, at a projected cost of $1.2 billion.

 

Other

·         Merger of PERF/TRF, ACHIEVED, SEA 549

ü  Merges two separate legal entities and boards of directors into the Indiana Public Employees Retirement System.  Enables sizeable administrative cost savings and lower investment management fees.

·         Additional protections for taxpayers on property tax referendums, ACHIEVED, HEA 1238

ü  Allows the Department of Local Government Finance to ensure ballot questions are accurate and not biased

ü  Restricts use of public funds and school resources to advocate in favor of an operating referendum, mirroring provisions for referendums on capital projects

ü  Prevents projects from being artificially split into multiple projects to avoid a referendum





For immediate release: Apr 30, 2011
Contact: Jane Jankowski


Governor signs teacher quality bill, part of sweeping education reforms


INDIANAPOLIS (April 30, 2011) - Governor Mitch Daniels today signed Senate Enrolled Act 1, a key measure in his comprehensive education reform package that changes the way teachers are evaluated and paid.  For the first time in Indiana, teacher effectiveness will be part of decisions for hiring, salary and promotions.

 

"Among all the things we can do to make more successful the children of this state, nothing comes close to a better teacher. We are so glad that Indiana has leaped to the forefront by saying to people of all backgrounds and all walks of life, 'come and teach,'" Daniels said, surrounded by Hoosier teachers from such organizations as Stand for Children, Students First and Teach for America. 


Sen. Dennis Kruse, R-Auburn, was the author of the bill; Rep. Robert Behning, R-Indianapolis was the sponsor.

 

Among provisions, the measure:

  • Requires locally developed, rigorous annual teacher evaluations that include student achievement and growth in student learning.
  • Permits school corporations to develop systems that reward great teachers with more pay.
  • Performance is now a factor to determine hiring, promotion, salary and dismissal decisions. Seniority and academic degrees may count for one-third of the consideration used for pay increases. 
  • Does not allow a student to be taught by a teacher rated ineffective two years straight without parent approval.
  • Requires the Department of Education to partner with businesses and organizations to help schools increase operational efficiency
  • Permits schools to pursue action against parents whose children are habitually absent and requires them to report the children to juvenile court or the Department of Child Services.

"This is no ordinary moment; this is no ordinary General Assembly. This General Assembly, this governor, has opened the door for Indiana to honor the truly inspiring and inspired teachers in no way that we've done before," said Indiana Superintendent of Public Instruction Tony Bennett. "None of this is possible without the courage, the vision, and the leadership of America's best governor. I am honored to serve with him and be a small part of that."

In the coming days, Daniels will sign the remaining pieces of his sweeping education reforms, including a bill that will expand charter school opportunities, one that provides parents with more school choice, and a measure that provides postsecondary scholarships to Hoosier seniors who graduate from high school early. Daniels has already signed SEA 575, which focuses teacher collective bargaining on wages and wage-related benefits. The General Assembly approved also the governor's recommendation for directing $150 million more on K-12 education in the next two years, including funds to expand full-day kindergarten to all students in the state.


another view: Indiana Democratic Party