INDIANAPOLIS, Ind. (WOWO): A House committee has taken the first step in what could be a major shift of education authority in Indiana.
The House Education Committee voted 9-to-4 along political party lines to shift several duties of the Department of Education to the State Board of Education. The Department is led by State Superintendent Glenda Ritz, the only Democrat holding statewide office. The board, though split between Republicans and Democrats, has been entirely appointed by Republican governors. House Bill 1486 would take authority of teacher evaluation, standardized testing and student data – among other duties – currently held by Ritz‘s department and shift them to the Board, allowing the Board to appoint an executive director and create its own staff.
“The State Board of Education in statute has a separate mandate from the Legislature than the Department of Education. One is a policy making body, one is an implementing body,” said James Betley, who testified for the bill as acting technical director for the State Board. Betley and other supporters say this would not be a shift in power, that the bill was needed to clarify the roles of the Board and Ritz.
Disagreements over those roles have led to near constant conflict between Ritz and other board members since Ritz upset Republican Tony Bennett in the November 2012 election. The roles largely did not come up for discussion while Bennett was superintendent, and Democrats on the committee believe the bill was motivated by politics.
“(It) is a bit of, I‘m just going to say a hatchet job (on Ritz) because her performance or cooperation with the group she‘s supposed to work with has been just a tad maligned,” said Rep. Terri Austin (D, Anderson). Austin also disputed Betley‘s argument that the board needed to be staffed by someone independent of the Department of Education. “I have served on many boards, and I have never served on a board where the governing body has its own staff.”
Betley used to be the attorney for the Center for Education and Career Innovation (CECI), the now dissolved agency initially created by Governor Pence to provide staff and counsel for the State Board. Ritz saw CECI as an agency competing for power with her department, and opponents of HB 1486 characterized as an attempt to bring back CECI minus the name.
“My research doesn‘t show any state coming up with the boilerplate used in the framework (of this bill) that you are advocating,” said Rep. Vernon Smith (D, Gary). “We can say we are superior (in Indiana), but I doubt it.” Smith went on to offer an amendment to the bill to abolish the State Board, saying the bill in his opinion essentially abolished the state superintendent.
The amendment was voted down, also on party lines. Ritz opposed the measure, with her chief lobbyist John Barnes calling it a “shameless power grab,” however Ritz herself did not testify against it. She is planning to testify against a separate bill that would remove her as chair of the State Board. That bill would have the board elect its own chair, rather than have the elected superintendent automatically be the chair.
