On Thursday, the House of Representatives discussed House Bill 1002, which covers various education matters. Bill author Rep. Bob Behning, R-Indianapolis, said the bill is 129 pages long. It was ordered to engrossment at the end of discussion and heads to a third reading in the chamber.

Amendment 3, which would require any governor-appointed secretary of education to have two years of administrative educational experience, failed 28-63.

Rep. Ed Delaney D-Indianapolis, authored the amendment. He said the previous set of requirements to become the secretary of education were over-elaborate, but he does not believe the position should have zero requirements. Delaney said the two years of administrative educational experience is the most limited requirement he could think of.

Delaney said an individual appointed secretary of education does not have to have any experience in the education field.

“The system of administering schools is remarkably complex,” Delaney said. “I thought that for somebody to walk in off the street who may have some wonderful credentials but may have no familiarity with the Indiana system of educating and administering, I thought that would not be a good idea.”

Rep. Bob Behning, R-Indianapolis, opposed Delaney’s amendment. He said it limits Gov. Mike Braun’s ability to have total flexibility when choosing a secretary of education that he thinks will best fulfill the role.

“We elect a governor who makes an appointment, and the governor is held accountable,” Behning said. “It’s not gonna be something that’s not taken very seriously. … I don’t think we need to tie their hands.”

Rep, Vernon Smith, D-Gary, said he was offended that without amendment 3, the legislature was implying that anyone can oversee education in the state.

Smith mentioned tests, degrees, training, interpersonal skills and other hoops that teachers, principles, superintendents and other types of educators have to jump through to prove they are able to do their job. He said the same types of requirements should apply to Indiana’s secretary of education.

“You must have the knowledge base, and we require that for every career that we license. You must have the technical skills,” he said. “And for you to be effective, you have got to have interpersonal skills. You must know how to work with people … because a good leader is a change agent.”

House Bill 1005, which passed during the 2019 session, replaced the superintendent of public instruction, an elected position, with the secretary of education, a governor-appointed position.

“Just because we made that political decision to change it from the superintendent of public instruction to the secretary of education did not have to have those skills, that knowledge,” Smith said.

Smith, who has a background in education, said that it would be unreasonable to appoint a judge who did not pass the bar, appoint a medical commissioner who knows nothing about medicine, appoint a superintendent of state troopers who had no law enforcement experience or have a secretary of education with no administrative education experience.

“I think that some common sense ought to enter into this situation,” he said. “I’m just floored that we continue to pick away at education in this state, in these United States. We’re going to wake up one day, and we’re going to smell the coffee, and we’re going to say, what did we do to this great nation?”

On Wednesday, the Indiana Department of Education announced that fourth graders now rank sixth in the nation on national reading assessments. Smith said he believes this is due to the current Secretary of Education Katie Jenner’s knowledge of the state education system and her technical skills as a leader.

“That person (secretary of education) ought to have some experience, some knowledge base, regardless of how limited. They ought to have it,” Smith said.