If you familiarized yourself with House Bill 1134 — a controversial education bill that would require teachers to publish their curriculum and allow parents to opt their children out of social emotional lessons — you might not recognize it in its current form, which passed through the Senate Education and Career Development Committee on Feb. 23.
Sen. Linda Rogers, R-District 11, proposed a series of amendments to the bill to appease the myriad teachers, parents and high school students who spoke out against this bill. On Feb. 16, over 200 members of the public signed up to speak before the Senate Education and Career Development Committee. Despite the changes from Rogers’ amendments — which removed verbiage that would allow parents to opt children out of certain lessons and sue school districts for potential violations — many teachers still called on members of the committee to nullify the bill.
Christiana Beebe, an elementary school teacher in Brownsburg, testified before the General Assembly earlier in the session about Senate Bill 167 — a bill similar to HB 1134 that never made it out of committee — said she appreciated the amendments Roger made, but still could not support the bill.
“When teachers spend hours reviewing curriculum materials … we don’t only look at materials through an academic lens,” Beebe said in her testimony. “Teachers are members of the communities in which we work. We live, we work, we worship, we raise our own children in those communities, and we ensure the materials we approve are representative of the community’s interests.”
Further, while the amended version of the bill removes language that would potentially prohibit teachers discussing issues such as racial violence and slavery, Beebe is concerned the mere presence of this law would keep teachers from discussing “hard truths” in their classrooms, worried about getting a complaint from a parent.
Authored by Rep. Anthony Cook, R-District 32, the original bill would have prohibited schools from teaching certain concepts about race and ethnicity and would have discouraged teachers from discussing topics that could make students feel “discomfort or guilt.” Cook, a former principal at Noblesville High School and former superintendent of Hamilton Heights School Corporation, said he wanted to ensure parents have a say in what their children learn.
One speaker, Dr. Gwen Kelly, said the bill is unnecessary due to rights that parents already have. Kelly is the vice chair of the Children’s Policy and Law Initiative of Indiana and works with the local chapter of the NAACP and the Indianapolis Alliance of Black School Educators, among other groups, though she represented herself only when she spoke Feb. 16.
“The African American community does not understand this bill and does not want to see it pass,” said Kelly, who is Black. “I remain puzzled by the need for House Bill 1134. As a 50-year veteran educator, I know that parents already have the right to be on committees and meet with teachers in schools … and there are procedures in place for grievances.”
Kelly called the bill “complicated and chaotic,” and said as an independent educational research consultant, she’s concerned about how the bill could impact African American students, who statistically see less educational achievement compared to their white peers in Indiana.
Despite around 200 members of the public signing up to testify on the bill last week, only a few dozen people got the chance to speak, and the public comments section on HB1134 closed the final two hours of the committee hearing, where multiple bills were discussed. Sen. Jeff Raatz, chair of the committee, said he randomly selected people to speak but said he made sure both sides of the debate were represented. More than 90% of the people signed up to speak, he said, opposed the bill.
The Senate Education and Career Development Committee will passed the amended bill by a vote of 8-5. It will now be heard before the entire Senate.
Contact staff writer Breanna Cooper at 317-762-7848. Follow her on Twitter @BreannaNCooper.
