Of all the bills pertaining to education and workforce under consideration in 2023, House Bill 1002 was arguably the most high-profile piece of legislation passed by the General Assembly. A top House Republican priority, HB 1002 was the vehicle for making good on House Speaker Todd Huston’s pronounced goal of “reinventing high school” with a more relevant secondary education that better prepares Hoosier students for the realities and opportunities of today’s workforce.
As introduced, the bill’s centerpiece was the creation of career scholarship accounts (or CSAs), a state-supported fund that would provide high school students with up to $5,000 in flexible spending to shop for a variety of work-based learning experiences, technical coursework and postsecondary credentials based on their career interests and aspirations. The Senate amended the bill to include another new state fund to offer career advising grants aimed at boosting regional capacity to support career coaching and advising services to area high school students. Lawmakers allocated $15 million to the CSAs and $25 million to the career advising grants over the biennium. Other funded elements of HB 1002 include $2 million for a new Teacher Higher Education and Industry Collaboration Grant Program designed to help teachers engage with area employers and postsecondary institutions with the goal of better connecting classroom learning to post-high school career and training opportunities.
One of the most hotly debated provisions of HB 1002 was a proposed requirement that every 11th and 12th grade student meet with a career advisor for at least 30 minutes during school hours and a related requirement that all high schools host at least one career fair annually. Education associations balked at these expectations citing the logistical challenges involved. In response, the Senate initially stripped these provisions from the bill before ultimately agreeing to include that language during conference committee negotiations. Another provision that received far less attention by comparison was a requirement that the State Board of Education review and revise high school diploma requirements to provide more flexibility for students to engage in work-based learning and related career-oriented experiences.
The Chamber was highly supportive of the overall ambition and concepts in HB 1002 and worked closely with lawmakers and other advocates to finetune the language in the bill’s final version. But it’s also fair to say that many of the details related to implementing the full scope and scale of this policy are yet to be worked out, with the Legislature largely delegating these responsibilities to state agencies, including the Governor’s Workforce Cabinet, Department of Education, Commission for Higher Education and State Treasurer’s Office. In the months ahead, the Chamber will be in regular communication with these and other implementation partners at the state and regional levels to make sure HB 1002 delivers on its promise and that the voice and needs of Indiana’s business community are well-represented.
