Sec. 1. The general assembly declares the following:

(1) The citizens of Indiana have a fundamental interest in the development of harmonious and cooperative relationships between school corporations and their certificated employees.

(2) Recognition by school employers of the right of school employees to organize and acceptance of the principle and procedure of collective bargaining between school employers and school employee organizations can alleviate various forms of strife and unrest.

(3) The state has a basic obligation to protect the public by attempting to prevent any material interference with the normal public school educational process.

(4) The relationship between school corporation employers and certificated school employees is not comparable to the relationship between private employers and employees for the following reasons:

(A) A public school corporation is not operated for profit but to ensure the citizens of Indiana rights guaranteed them by the Constitution of the State of Indiana.

(B) The obligation to educate children and the methods by which the education is effected will change rapidly with:

(i) increasing technology;

(ii) the needs of an advancing civilization; and

(iii) requirements for substantial educational innovation.

(C) The general assembly has delegated the discretion to carry out this changing and innovative educational function to the governing bodies of school corporations, composed of citizens elected or appointed under applicable law, a delegation that these bodies may not and should not bargain away.

(D) Public school corporations have different obligations concerning certificated school employees under constitutional and statutory requirements than private employers have to their employees.

[Pre-2005 Elementary and Secondary Education Recodification Citation: 20-7.5-1-1.]

As added by P.L.1-2005, SEC.13.