OBSERVER CORPS TRAINING ON ZOOM
Monday, February 17, 7-9 pm ET
Register HERE
Democracy lives in the light.
Our government exists for our benefit and is accountable to us, its citizens—“of the people, by the people, for the people” (Lincoln, Gettysburg Address).
Not until 1966 with passage of the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA), however, were our rights in terms of access to government information and decision making codified. State and local governments enacted similar laws following the Sunshine Act of 1976, declaring that all records and meetings are open unless certain specified exemptions apply.
It is our responsibility to hold our government—our elected officials—accountable. Shedding sunshine is a League priority! In the absence of many local newspapers, that task is even more important.
Join us to learn how to activate or expand your League’s Observer Corps.
Linda Hanson
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All our Advocates are now doing ACTION ALERTS that make it easy for you to contact your legislators about 2025 bills. Just clickto go to a page that lets you put in your contact information then takes you to our pre-written letter supporting or opposing a bill. You can add your own text or you can just send what is already written.
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EDUCATION
SB 143 Parental rights. Oppose. Assigned to House Education.
SB 235 DEI prohibitions.Oppose. ACTION ALERT
SB 257 Civics education.Oppose. Prohibits teaching certain concepts.
SB 287Partisan school boards. Oppose. Candidates must be nominated by party like any other political candidate. ACTION ALERT
SB 403 Charter Requirements. Support. Holds Charters accountable.https://indianacoalitionforpubliced.org/blog/.
SB 442 Instruction Concerning Human Sexuality.Oppose. Scheduled for 2ndreading in the Senate, 2/10.
SB 448 Higher Education and Workforce.Oppose. Legislators would exert control over university curriculum/courses.
SB 523 School Chaplains.Oppose. https://indianacoalitionforpubliced.org/blog/.
HB 1002 Expansive omni-bill. Oppose.reduces charter schools accountability. Removes most of the requirements for the secretary of education. Assigned to Senate Education. ACTION ALERT
HB 1136 School corporation reorganization. Oppose. ACTION ALERT
HB 1230 Partisan School board elections.Oppose. ACTION ALERT
HB 1231 Display of the Ten Commandments. Oppose.
HB 1348 Nonaccredited nonpublic school. Oppose.Recognizes a diploma issued by a nonaccredited nonpublic school as equal to a public school accreditation. Assigned to Senate Education. ACTION ALERT
HB 1501 Facilities and Transportation Pilot Program.Oppose.Strips public schools of their largest taxpayer/community-funded assets – buildings and buses – and forces them to provide transportation to charter and private schools. https://indianacoalitionforpubliced.org/blog/
Federal Actions
- Call US Senators to oppose nomination of Linda McMahon to be Secretary of Education.
- Call US Representative to oppose taxing college endowments, proposed in GOP budget.
- Call US lawmakers to oppose the closing of the Department of Education. This would mean the loss of Title1 funding to support the education of the underserved; the loss of Title IX which protects the civil rights of children with disabilities; and the lossof civil rights protections for LGBTQ+.
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ELECTION BILLS
SENATE
SB 10 Voter registration. Oppose. Assigned House. ACTION ALERT Invalidates university student IDs for voting; Removes voters from rolls if they have not voted in the two consecutive general elections.
SB 137 Voter registration. Oppose. Senate, 2/17. BMV required to notify Indiana Election Division (IED) if anyone uses temporary credentials.
SB 199 Conduct of primary elections. Watch. Assigned House. Lowers the bar for appointing election watchers during Primaries.
SB 201 Closed primary elections.Oppose. Senate, 2/13. ACTION ALERT Requires voters to be affiliated with one of the major political parties either when registering to vote or to register their affiliation with a party at the county voter office at least 119 days before the Primary.
SB 284 Early voting. Oppose. Senate, 2/13. ACTION ALERT Early voting reduced from 28 to 14 days.
SB 287 PartisanSchool board. Oppose. Senate, 2/17. ACTION ALERT Candidate for school board must be nominated in the same manner as other candidates.
SB 355 Municipal elections. Oppose. Senate, 2/12. ACTION ALERT Moves elections of small city and town officers to even-numbered years.
SB 450 Article V convention. Oppose. Assigned House. SB 450 outlines Indiana’s self-imposed rules for an Article V Convention.
HOUSE
HB 1029 Closed primaries.Oppose. ACTION ALERT
HB 1230 PartisanSchool board elections. Oppose. ACTION ALERTSchool board candidates must declare a party on the ballot.
HB 1644 Student ID. Oppose.
HB 1680 Election Security. Oppose. 3rdreading, 2/11. Expands rights of partisan poll watchers.
HB 1681 Local public questions.Oppose. House, 2/13. Restricts local public question or referendum to general election.
U.S House of Representatives--SAVE Act: Requires citizens to present documentary proof of their citizenship to register or re-register federal elections. ACTION ALERT
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ENVIRONMENT
Small Modular Nuclear Reactors (SMRs): OPPOSE SB 423, SB424, and HB 1007
Send an ACTION ALERT to urge your legislators to oppose these inter-related bills,They would require electric utility customers to pay for the engineering, planning and permitting costs before a utility even seeks final approval to build SMRs. SMRs are a yet unproven technology, for which ratepayers should not have to pay. HB 1007 also includes language that may slow coal plant closures.
Publishing a Registry of PFAS Discharges: SUPPORT HB 1286
Send an ACTION ALERT ourge your legislators to support HB 1286.This bill would require the Indiana Department of Environmental Management to publish a registry of those known to have discharged PFAS—the harmful Forever Chemicals-- into Indiana waters. PFAS are used in a broad range of manufactured products in Indiana, are present in water throughout the state, and have been shown to pose health risks.
Energy Production Zones: SUPPORT SB 425
Send an ACTION ALERT to support SB 425. While maintaining environmental safeguards, this bill would facilitate the approval of new energy projects by the IURC, thus enhancing Indiana’s transition to clean energy sources.
LWVIN NR Co-Chairs Kristina Lindborg, Cheryl Chapman, Liz Solberg
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WOMEN’S HEALTH
Our Women’s Health advocates have branched into following a wide range of related bills, including DEI, LGBTQ+ rights, and Medical Education/Practice.
SB 171: Abortion Matters OPPOSED– Prohibits medication drugs from being sent from outside Indiana.Still no committee hearing; might be dead.
SB 235: Limitations on Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion OPPOSED-This bill was withdrawn on February 12.SB 289, a similar bill that covers state agencies, state educational institutions, and health profession licensing boards,has passed the Senate and is on its way to the House. We will oppose SB 289.
SB 2: Medicaid Matters OPPOSED.This bill would eliminate health insurance for over 750,000 people and increase program expenses. A hearing is scheduled for Feb. 13 in the Appropriations Committee.
SB 497: Tax Credit for Newborn Children. SUPPORT. Provides that the amount of the credit is $500 per newborn child, or $250 per eligible newborn child in the case of a married individual filing a separate return. This bill passed the Tax and Fiscal Committee unanimously. Now goes to the Senate floor.
HB 1413: Rape Kits SUPPORT. It establishes the rape kit backlog fund to provide funding for assisting law enforcement agencies and testing labs in eliminating the backlog of untested rape kits.This bill passed in the House and is on the way to the Senate.
HB 1148: Confidentiality of of birth and stillbirth records SUPPORT. Passed the House and is now in the Senate.
Pam Locker, Bri Glidden, Joanne Evers, Amy Mickschl, and Betsy Kachmar
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Susie King Taylor, circa 1902. This portrait and signature appeared in the frontispiece of her book, “Reminiscences of my Life in Camp.”
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FORGOTTEN FOREMOTHERS
Profiles of lesser-known heroines in the fight for women's rights
SUSIE KING BAKER
The first battles of the Civil War drew blood when Susie Baker was just months from turning 13. Stories of the “Yankees” in the north trickled to the enslaved people in the south, especially those who could read the newspapers. “I wanted to see these wonderful ‘Yankees’ so much, as I heard my parents say the Yankee was going to set the slaves free,” Susie said. “Oh, how those people prayed for freedom!”
Southern slavers insisted that the Yankees offered no freedom, but instead even worse bondage. White people only “told them these things to frighten them,” Susie’s grandmother assured her. Frighten them they did. The crackdown on pro-Union sentiment was intense and personal. Decades later, Susie still remembered well the night her grandmother went to a church in the suburbs for a meeting. Together, the churchgoers sang an old hymn: “Yes, we all shall be free/When the Lord shall appear.”
“The police came in and arrested all who were there, saying that they were planning freedom, and sang ‘the Lord,’ in place of ‘Yankee’ to blind any one who might be listening.” This experience frightened Susie’s grandmother so much she never traveled outside the city limits again.
In April of 1862, the war came to Fort Pulaski in Savannah. Thirteen-year-old Susie “was sent out in the country to my mother. I remember what a roar and din the guns made. They jarred the earth for miles.” Union forces took the fort. Susie and her family “landed under the protection of the Union fleet” and she finally met a Yankee.
You can read this entire article HERE.
Kathryn S Gardiner
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Pam Locker, Editor, LWVIN Voter
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