Indiana partisan school board bill passes House

Chicago Tribune

01-04-2025

The Indiana House passed a bill Monday that would make school board races partisan, but it will be sent back to the Senate for consideration because it was amended in the House.
Senate Bill 287, authored by Sen. Gary Byrne, R-Byrneville, Sen. Chris Garten, R-Charlestown, and Sen. Blake Doriot, R-Goshen, would change the school board election process to that of other elections, which would include a primary and general election. The school board candidates would have to declare a party.
In the House Elections and Apportionment committee last week, the bill was amended to reflect House Bill 1230, authored by Rep. J.D. Prescott, R-Union City. Prescott's amendment removed the primary process from the bill and stated that in the general election a school board candidate can choose to be listed as a Republican, Democrat, independent or nonpartisan.
Prescott, who serves on the House Elections and Apportionment committee, said the amended bill outlines the process for addressing a school board vacancy. If the board member who leaves the board was a Republican or Democrat, then a caucus should be held to replace that member, but Independent or nonpartisan candidates can be replaced by the sitting school board members, he said.
Prescott's amendment maintained the original bill's requirement that school board members be paid up to 10% of the lowest starting salary of a teacher employed in the district, which would shift the current $2,000 payment.
When the House initially heard the bill, Prescott amended the bill further to state that if a school board candidate chooses to be nonpartisan, there will be a blank space next to their name where party affiliation would be listed.
School board members oversee the district's budget, hire personnel, and approve curriculum, Prescott said.
'By disclosing to the voters the party affiliation of school board candidates, this information will help voters decide which candidate best aligns with their values,' Prescott said. 'This change would also help drive up voter turnout on school board elections.'
State Rep. Chuck Moseley, D-Portage, said he previously served 9 years on a school board, and during that time he and the other members kept politics out of governing the district.
'We had a responsibility to the parents of those kids that we wouldn't interject our political thoughts and ideology into school board decision(s) because, quite frankly, it didn't matter whether mom and dad was a Republican or whether mom and dad was a Democrat, we were supposed to be there to make the best decisions for the tax dollars that they invested in their kids' education,' Moseley said.
Moseley said infusing politics into schools 'is simply foolish.'
'This bill directly inserts politics into our education system. In no way, shape or form should it matter if someone's a Democrat or Republican, or anything in between, when it comes to the integrity of educating our students of our state. School board members should be elected on merit, expertise and their commitment to our students — not their allegiance to a political party,' Moseley said.
State Rep. Vernon Smith, D-Gary, said research on partisan school boards has found that school districts see an increase in teacher turnover, less experienced teachers, and a negative impact on non-white school board candidates.
'Partisan school boards insert more division into our community. Voters will be encouraged to choose a candidate based on a letter next to their name instead of their platform. I want my local school board to be focused on our children, not on a party agenda,' Smith said.
State Rep. Tonya Pfaff, D-Terre Haute, said the bill would go against the federal Hatch Act, which prohibits federal government, as well as some state and local government employees from running in a partisan election.
'Our school boards should be focused on student success, not party politics,' Pfaff said.
State Rep. Kyle Miller, D-Fort Wayne, said the bill will create 'lazy voters' and 'lazy candidates.' Prescott said the school board candidate's political affiliation should be 'the starting point not the ending point' and voters should continue to do their research on candidates.
State Rep. Sheila Klinker, D-Lafayette, said she was a teacher for nearly 35 years, and she never knew the political leanings of the school board members in her district. Since the bill was proposed, Klinker said she's heard from her constituents and determined that it 'is not popular.'
'I think we are making a big mistake. It may be discouraging people who do not want their politics to be known. We are discouraging some of our folks from running for office on a school board,' Klinker said.
State Rep. Kyle Pierce, R-Anderson, said Prescott 'has done a great job to find a middle ground' because the bill allows a candidate to declare with a major party or as an Independent or nonpartisan.
The bill would align school board elections closer to elections for coroner or surveyor, who have to declare a party, Pierce said.
'Politics shouldn't be this dirty word,' Pierce said. 'The reality is it is just moving the school boards into position with everything else.
State Rep. Hunter Smith, R-Zionsville, said he supports the bill and 'Indiana's parents.' Smith said he's heard from school officials that they 'can find no curricula void of slanted cultural endorsements and ideologies.'
'Over the past decade, Hoosiers have stepped out of the reductive illusion that our political viewpoints are adjacent to but not reflective of our values. If we are honest, we must recognize that our political convictions are reflective of our values,' Smith said.
Rep. Jim Lucas, R-Seymour, said K-12 education receives about 50% of the state's budget and addresses 'serious issues.' Lucas then began listing inaccurate characterizations of the Democratic party but was stopped for speaking out of order.
'This should be probably the easiest vote we take this year, by far,' Lucas said. 'I think it's important that we know who is running for our school boards, making decisions for our children that have been extremely controversial and brought to the forefront.'
The House voted 54-40, with 14 Republicans joining all present 26 Democrats to vote against the bill.
State Representatives Julie Olthoff, R-Crown Point and Hal Slager, R-Schererville, voted against the bill. House Speaker Todd Huston, R-Fishers, who rarely casts a vote on legislation, voted in favor of the bill.
After the vote, Indiana School Boards Association Executive Director Terry Spradlin said in a statement that the organization has fought against the state moving forward with partisan school board elections.
With the legislature's approval, Spradlin said the organization 'will encourage school board members to leave politics at the board room door by working collaboratively' to address the needs of students.
'School board members should also conduct themselves in a manner that models effective board governance practices regardless of party affiliation,' Spradlin said.
Indiana Democratic Party Chairwoman Karen Tallian, a former State Senator from Ogden Dunes, said in a statement that legislators received many calls and heard hours of testimony against the bill, but the Republican supermajority 'pushed through this bad bill anyway.'
'Hoosier school board members include community servants and local leaders. They do not wish to be involved in the same partisan politics that consume Washington and Indianapolis,' Tallian said.
'There were no Democratic votes for this dangerous proposal. Even many Republicans voted against this bill in both the House and Senate. Hoosier Democrats understand that our school boards should be focused on improving education and opportunity for our Hoosier kids — not national politics,' Tallian said.