Just like a teacher in a classroom, Kristina Frey called out the Indiana House Committee on Education for not paying attention three minutes into her testimony.
Frey’s testimony from Tuesday on Senate Bill 334 has been circling around teacher advocacy groups.
SB 334, authored by Sen. Carlin Yoder, R-District 12, and Sen. Dennis Kruse, R-District 14, would extend Indiana’s deadline for private schools to accept students with tax-funded vouchers. The bill passed the Senate 40-9.
When Frey got up to speak, she told the committee she was a citizen, a parent to a second-grader and the president of the Washington Township Parent Council.
“So I am actually one of the few people here who is not here as part of my paying job,” she said.
Frey was addressing her opposition to the bill and said socioeconomic diversity improves test scores and schools and communities benefit from supporting each other.
Another point was education stability, she said.
“This is a really important point that I don’t think anyone else has spoken to,” she said. “Although I see some members of the committee still would prefer to not pay attention to what I’m saying.”
“I’m paying attention,” Sen. Jim Lucas, R-District 69, said.
“I see that, Mr. Lucas. Thank you,” Frey said.
She cleared her throat and continued her speech.
Frey was not available to comment but her testimony video is labeled on Facebook as a sign of disrespect from legislators.
On Wednesday, Executive Director of the Indiana branch of the American Federation of Teachers Sally Sloan witnessed what she called a “miscarriage of democracy” during the Labor and Pensions committee meeting in the Senate.
The committee was meeting to hear testimony and vote on House Bill 1004.
The bill, authored by Rep. Robert Behning, R-District 91, makes changes to the teacher pension program, such as allowing a superintendent to set a salary without input from a teachers union for a position the district believes is hard to fill.
The bill would also allow teachers with out-of-state licenses to transfer with a bachelor’s degree in their subject area. The bill passed the House of Representatives 57-42.
But Sloan said as committee members began to leave the room, Chairman Sen. Philip Boots, R-District 23, ended the testifying early to vote.
Sloan and Gail Zeheralis, the Indiana State Teachers Association member, were the only two people left to testify, Sloan said.
“I was totally baffled by that,” Sloan said. “I think he assumed how the vote was going to go regardless of what we said.”
The bill passed with seven yeses and four noes.
Sloan said she doesn’t think the Frey incident was related or intentional, but these types of scenarios reflect a negative attitude toward educators.
An attitude that started in 2012, she said, when teachers lost all of their collective bargaining ability and performances were tied to an evaluation system.
“Education has money in it,” Sloan said. “People who have friends who make money want to see education go private so they silence the voices of teachers.”
Both AFT-Indiana and the ISTA released statements about the vote, calling the behavior shameful and saying the disposition of this bill was predetermined, respectively.
“It disregards what the working families of this state need and want,” Sloan said. “Teachers are part of that. Teaching children is part of that.”
