INDIANAPOLIS — Kindergarten teacher Marissa Graham came to the Indiana Statehouse hoping to convince lawmakers to slow down the legislative freight train of change in education.
She left disheartened, after shedding a few tears. Prompting them was frustration over a handful of bills targeting teachers and the unions that represent them.
“Morale is low,” said Graham. “Teachers are feeling beat up. We spend our days trying to be the best teachers we can be. It’s hard to find the time and the energy to fight back.”
The Anderson teacher was one of several dozen K-12 educators who traveled to the Statehouse on Tuesday for a lobbying day organized by the teachers’ unions.
Their message to legislators and the media alike followed a basic theme: The education reform package put forth by Gov. Mitch Daniels unfairly targets teachers for the ills of public education.
Daniels and legislators who support his push for reform disagree, but they do concur that legislation making its way through the Republican-dominated Indiana General Assembly would bring major change.
Among the legislative proposals with direct impact on teachers are bills that would tie teacher pay to student performance; limit teachers’ collective bargaining to salary and related benefits; and scale back teachers’ health insurance coverage so that benefits would be comparable to what state employees currently have.
Daniels and Republican leaders in the House and the Senate have defended the legislation, saying it would give local school boards more flexibility and more money at a time when education funding from the state has been flat-lined.
But Jeff McDaniels, president of the Rush County Federation of Teachers, is skeptical of what he sees as an increasing amount of state control over local school districts.
He touted what he called the “collaborative effort” on education in his rural community. He arrived for the lobbying day at the Statehouse with two school board members from his county and the school superintendent. “Our shared goal is to leave a better school system than what we found it,” McDaniels said.
There are two teachers’ unions in the state, the Indiana Federation of Teachers and the Indiana State Teachers Association, and both were represented at lobbying day.
Among those who came to lobby was Taylor High School senior Kaitlyn Marler, whose father, Dee, is a longtime high school teacher. Kaitlyn approached the governor as he walked into the Statehouse on Tuesday.
When the governor stopped to talk to Kaitlyn for a few minutes, he was surrounded by a small group of unhappy teachers.
State Sen. Tim Skinner, a Democrat from Terre Haute who is also a teacher and a vocal opponent of Daniels’ education reform plan, said those unhappy teachers may be too late to make their voices heard.
Skinner said Daniels’ major education reform proposals, which also include expanding charter schools and vouchers for private schools, have strong backing from Republicans who control the Statehouse.
He said teachers’ unions, who have traditionally supported Democratic candidates in Indiana, are losing their clout. He described the legislation that would scale back collective bargaining for teachers as a “nail in the coffin” for teachers’ unions.
Graham, the kindergarten teacher from Anderson, isn’t ready to give up. “We just have to tell our story,” Graham said. “Hopefully it’s not too late.”
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