Governor Pence has been counting his chickens well before hatching this session and his plans to use his GOP supermajority to continue dismantling PUBLIC Education seem to have unraveled just a bit over the past two weeks. First the Senate killed HB1004, then SB10 found its death in the House. Now it appears the two legislative bodies are once again at odds over SB334. SB334 is the controversial "Voucher Expansion" bill that seems to surface and pass every session under the current administration. However, SB334 returned to the Senate this week after passing the House with amendments. Instead of conferring with the House version, there was a dissent filed and Senate President Pro Tempore David Long appointed Senate conferees for a conference committee.
it is presumed that the conference committee will meet tomorrow, Tuesday, March 8. Below are the conferees and advisors for this committee from both the Senate and the House. The Chair is original SB334 author Carlin Yoder.
Please contact both Senate and House members and tell them that you are following their every move and any action with this bill. Tell them that you oppose ANY expansion to vouchers. Vouchers are draining PUBLIC schools of needed funding in order to help pad the wallets of campaign contributors along with the charter and private school buddies of the Governor and the GOP majority.
After the committee approves a final version of the bill, both the full House and full Senate must vote on the final bill. Our voices have been heard throughout this session. The legislators are listening. They understand this is an election year and they see the opposition rising to stop them at every possible turn. We have one more chance to put and end to this extensive expansion of vouchers and once again halt another bill aimed at PUBLIC Education destruction.
Let members of the Senate and House hear your opposition to this voucher expansion bill because it does not focus on the original stated intent of the original authors, Senator Yoder and Senator Kruse. The stated purpose of this bill was to aid in drop out recovery; however, the bill never focused on anything but the continued dumping of PUBLIC funding into private and charter schools using drop out recovery as an excuse. The length of your message does not matter. The number of messages received in opposition to this widespread expansion will be reason for these legislators to understand the our voices must be heard and heeded. Take time to call, email, tweet, post, and SPEAK OUT to oppose this bill and stand up for our PUBLIC Education system once more.
#RespectOurVoice #INpublicED #NoVouchers #NoSB334