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Capitol Insider

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Capitol Insider

April 18, 2025

 

“Don’t focus too much on things that make you sad!

There are so many things to make you happy!”

Charlie Brown (Peanuts)

 

Concur – Dissent -- Conference Committees

Legislators have until April 29 to adjourn – sine die.  It is said they’re hoping to be finished by April 24.  Judging by the speed they do conference committees and the major bills moving right along, it looks like that could happen. Take a look at the Conference Committee Grid for more details.

So here’s a brief update on some of the bills we’ve been tracking and working on.

 

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AFT-Indiana College Credit Partnership with Trine University and VESI

 

 

Online Continuing Education Courses for Educators 

Enroll Today! 

AFT Indiana has partnered with Trine University and VESi to offer members a yearly subscription to online graduate courses for $275 per year. You can enroll in one course per term or two courses during the summer (if you skip fall or spring), for a total of 3 courses per year. 

https://www.virtualeduc.com/direct_accounts/index.php?uid=75 

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Membership-At-Large

Any person who works in Indiana and is not within the jurisdiction of any AFT local is eligible for membership-at-large through AFT-Indiana.

Benefits of membership include $1,000,000 professional liability insurance, $5000 regardless of the outcome/ $35,000 complete exoneration legal reimbursement through the legal action trust, as well as $25,000 accidental death & dismemberment insurance.  Members-at-large can use the AFT PLUS Benefits Program for certain discounted offers.

Print the membership-at-large form below

https://in.aft.org/sites/default/files/media/documents/2024/Membership-at-Large%202024.2025%20final_0.pdf

Please provide a personal email and mail the form with dues to:

AFT Indiana

429 N Pennsylvania #407

Indianapolis, IN 46204

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What unions do

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In AFT President Randi Weingarten’s latest New York Times  column, she describes what it is exactly that unions do. Though unions are the most popular they have been in decades, anti-union sentiment still thrives in red states and across the nation. “Several years ago, The Atlantic ran a story whose headline made even me, a labor leader, scratch my head: ‘Union Membership: Very Sexy,’” Weingarten writes in the column. “The gist was that higher wages, health benefits and job security—all associated with union membership—boost one’s chances of getting married. Belonging to a union doesn’t actually guarantee happily ever after, but it does help working people have a better life in the here and now.” Click through to read the full column.

In defense of public education

Randi Weingarten and NYC teacher Tamara Simpson

Attacks on public education in America by extremists and culture-war peddling politicians have reached new heights (“lows” may be more apt), but they are not new. The difference today is that the attacks are intended not just to undermine public education but to destroy it.

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