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Wednesday At The Statehouse: One Day Left Of 2016 Session

Noah Coffey
/
https://www.flickr.com/photos/noahwesley/

ISTEP  

Legislators are nearing a deal on replacing the ISTEP exam.

Both parties have endorsed swapping ISTEP for something shorter and cheaper – instead, the debate has been over the makeup of a panel to study the alternatives.

House Education Chairman Bob Behning (R-Indianapolis) says he's agreed with Senate counterpart Dennis Kruse (R-Auburn) on a committee of educators, with some additions.

“It’s very similar to the Senate version, only we went ahead and changed it so that the State Board will have a representative that they will select,” Behning says. “We also added a business leader; we also added a parent.”

Behning says the deal also expands the panel's mission, to study not only what the new test should be, but how it should be used in issuing school accountability grades and setting teacher salaries.

“The whole issue the whole time has been on the makeup of the panel,” Behning says. “My version tended to be more inclusive; the Senate version tended to be a little bit more like the A to F panel that was created by MOU. That’s kind of the direction we’ve moved, just tweaked it a little bit.”

The bill rejects state school superintendent Glenda Ritz's call to make her the chair of the panel -- it lets Gov. Pence appoint the chair instead.

Legislators voted early in this year's session to shield schools and teachers from being penalized for score drops on the 2015 ISTEP, after a transition to new state standards produced sharp declines statewide.

If Democrats object to the deal, the Republican supermajority in both houses of the legislature can either return to the drawing board or replace them on the negotiating panel to get the bill done.

COLD METH-ICINE

Negotiators on a bill tightening access to cold medicines containing pseudoephedrine say they're optimistic about passing a bill before the legislative session ends Thursday night.

The latest proposal is similar to a House-passed bill allowing unlimited access to pseudoephedrine at pharmacies where patients already have a prescription.

A final vote was originally scheduled for Monday, but Sen. Randy Head (R-Logansport) says late objections from the pharmaceutical industry delayed that.

Head says his proposal calling on pharmacists to question Sudafed buyers has been shelved in favor of the House approach.

“I think it’s a workable alternative. Of course I like my version better, owner’s pride and all that,” Head says. “The version that I brought has worked so well in Fulton County, but members of the caucus and the House liked Rep. Smaltz’s version better.”

The bill also allows unlimited access to tamper-resistant cold meds -- legislators have added one provision requested by drug companies to seek Drug Enforcement Administration input on what's tamper-resistant.

Head says the tentative draft also addresses one concern raised by pharmaceutical companies.

“There was a concern from Johnson & Johnson about the role of the Board of Pharmacy and we said that the Board of Pharmacy will declare which drugs are meth-resistant and limits that apply to other drugs would not apply to those,” Head says. “They wanted the DEA to also be consulted.”

But Head says other industry lobbying has been misleading, with false charges that you wouldn't be able to buy Sudafed on behalf of a family member.

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