Dennis R. RyersonEditor and Vice President

dennis.ryerson@indystar.com(317) 444-6169

EUGENE C. PULLIAM 1889-1975, Publisher 1944-1975EUGENE S. PULLIAM 1914-1999, Publisher 1975-1999

THE INDIANAPOLIS STARA G A N N E T T N EWS PA P E R

Barbara A. HenryPresident and Publisher

barbara.henry@indystar.com(317) 444-8131

Tim SwarensEditor of the Editorial Pagestim.swarens@indystar.com

(317) 444-6176

Pamela B. FineManaging Editor

pam.fine@indystar.com(317) 444-6168

E2 SUNDAY, FEBRUARY 27, 2005 3 R D THE INDIANAPOLIS STAR ∼ WWW.INDYSTAR.COM

LEGISLATION FLYING

UNDER THE RADAR

R ecent headlines have beendominated by the debateover gay marriage in Indi-ana.

It’s not surprising given that a stateconstitutional amendment was ap-proved last week by a 42-8 vote in thestate Senate and is likely to pass inthe House of Representatives.

Yet, state Sen. Dennis Kruse hasbeen talking about marriage of a dif-ferent sort — covenant marriage, anupfront agreement between a couplethat would make dissolving theirunion more difficult.

Although it’s been low on the listof priorities in the General Assembly,Kruse plans to keep the subject be-fore the legislature because strongerfamilies ultimately will build astronger state economy.

Kruse hoped that the Republicanvictory last fall might open the doorto a healthy debate on covenant mar-riage. His proposal would set up atwo-tiered system for marriage li-censes. One license would allow astronger commitment, making di-vorce harder to obtain legally. Or, twopeople could still opt for the state’straditional license, which makes di-vorce much easier.

Though the covenant licensewould be optional, it would point tothe seriousness of commitment inmarriage. If one person wants a cove-nant license, but the other wants theeasier divorce option, the couplewould have a warning signal that theproposed marriage could be headedfor trouble.

Similar laws have been approved inArkansas, Louisiana and Arizona. Al-though participation has been low,Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee gave aboost to use of the law in his state onValentine’s Day when he and his wifeconverted to a covenant marriage li-cense.

Kruse thinks his proposal couldhave a greater impact than might beobvious at first glance.

“Many of the problems of thecriminal justice system are related tobroken families,” he says. “The lack ofa father in the home is a factor in themultiple crimes committed by thosechildren who grow up in thosehomes. Then you have the younggirls getting pregnant because the fa-ther is not in the home. She wants theaffection of a man in her life.”

Coming from a family of divorcedparents, Kruse wants to see the lawlean toward the preservation of thetwo-parent family instead of makingdivorce easy. “A child has fewer prob-lems in his life when he comes from ahome with a stable mother and fa-ther,” he said. “It helps the childrenfeel more secure, and they’re morestable, better adjusted. They becomebetter citizens when they get olderand cause less problems.”

Though stymied from getting ahearing in a Republican year, Krusehopes to keep bringing the proposalback. “I don’t think people takeenough time to think about it. Theperception is that it’s unnecessaryand we don’t need to make divorceharder. But it is voluntary legislation.It’s only the people who wouldchoose to do this.”

Kruse is one of the more conserva-tive members of the General Assem-bly. He favored the constitutionalamendment to ban same-sex mar-riages. But he doesn’t see the cove-nant marriage issue in ideologicalterms. “It’s more of a common-senseapproach to an issue. It’s not really aconservative or liberal issue.”

Several Democrats, especially Sen.Evan Bayh and Mayor Bart Peterson,have their own initiatives forstrengthening fatherhood and thefamily.

So far the Republican takeover ofstate government does not appear tohave favored Kruse’s initiative. But heisn’t giving up. On this subject, he is avoice crying in the wilderness andeventually will get a well-deservedhearing.■ Pulliam is associate editor of The Star.Contact him at (317) 444-6001 or via e-mail atrussell.pulliam@indystar.com.

Russ Pulliam

A plan tostrengthenmarriage

“I’m unhappy that one of the childrenhad to die, but I am happy that thingsare going to change in Marion County,and hopefully for the betterment of allthe case managers and all the families.’’

Denise Moore,former state caseworker, after receiving 18 months’probation for actions that led to a 4-year-old child’sdeath.

Overheard

Opinion

They are bills of significance, legislation that would affect everyone from adoptive parents to highschool dropouts. But they’ve gained little attention while quietly moving through the General As-

sembly. As the 2005 legislative session nears the halfway mark, The Star Editorial Board examinessix lesser-known bills that warrant watching.

HB 1530: Raising the highschool dropout age

Growing up as the son of a single mother inthe southeast Indiana town of Greensburg, LukeMesser saw many of his peers drop out of highschool. Today, “they’re struggling” to pay theirbills, especially as Southern Indiana transitionsfrom a manufacturing-oriented economy.

Messer’s mother made sure he stayed inschool — and ultimately finished college andlaw school. But the hardship suffered by hischildhood friends is one reason why the staterepresentative from Shelbyville is pushing tokeep more teens in school.

House Bill 1530 would raise the dropout agefrom 16 to 18. Students and their parents alsowould have to stipulate — in writing — thatthey understand that dropping out could con-demn them to poverty, prison or both.

The legislation also would allow state agen-cies to deny dropouts driver’s licenses or workpermits. Such a “tough love” approach couldboomerang, leading dropouts into crime or ontowelfare rolls. But Messer argues that the firmstand also may appeal to a teen’s desire to drivea car and have spending cash in hand.

While the legislation would force a highschool student to think hard about the conse-quences of leaving school early, it needs tweak-ing as it moves through the Statehouse. Messerhimself may amend the bill to help studentsfrom poor families by allowing them to workand attend school part time.

Yet, with studies indicating that about 30 per-cent of students in Indiana are not graduatingfrom high school, Messer’s move to slow theflow of dropouts is welcome.

SB 638: Townshipmergers

Economically downtrodden Blackford Countyhas four township governments, all of whichhave advisory boards and conduct such expen-sive back-office activities as tidying up theirbooks for inspection by the state Board of Ac-counts.

Yet only one, Hartford City’s Licking Town-ship, actually resembles anything close to aworking government. Besides having a $130,000

poor relief budget, the town-ship manages equipment forHartford City’s fire depart-ment.

The other three townshipgovernments barely function.Washington Township, for in-stance, didn’t ladle a singledollar into poor relief last year.

Many of Indiana’s 1,004other townships are eitherpoorly run, ill-equipped orstaffed with under- trained

trustees. Almost half are located in unincorpo-rated parts of the state, according to state Sen.David Ford, meaning residents can’t count onsuch basics as trash pickup.

Ford, R-Hartford City, suggests that mergingsmaller townships into one could save moneyand reduce waste. That’s why he co-authoredSB 638, passed 45-3 last week in the Senate, toallow township trustees to initiate mergers. Thebill would protect local representation by allow-ing each former township to name a member toan advisory board.

With Marion County’s townships excluded,SB 638 is flawed. Yet the savings to taxpayerselsewhere in the state could be huge. One indi-cation: Townships on average spend 90 cents inadministrative costs for every dollar distributedin poor relief.

David Ford

4SB 8: Arbitrations infamily law cases

Marital breakups are torturous, especiallywhen private details have to be worked out in apublic courtroom. The cramped courtrooms,even the harried pace of proceedings conductedby a judge with scores of other cases to con-sider, can deepen the pain.

Now imagine divorce proceedings handled inmore comfortable settings, a law office, a livingroom even. Best of all, the matter can be workedout in less time than the usual 18 months it takesfor a traditional divorce.

Such could be the possibility with the passageof Senate Bill 8, which would make Indiana oneof the smattering of states offering binding ar-bitration as an alternative to traditional divorceproceedings. Already approved by the Senate bya vote of 41-1, it now awaits House considera-tion.

As envisioned under SB 8, spouses couldeither choose their own arbitrator or select onefrom the court’s list. Once selected, the arbitercan rule on such disputes as custody of childrenor terms of child support. Unlike the traditionalform of civil arbitration, it’s tailored to theunique procedures of family law and the rulingscan be appealed.

While family arbitration wouldn’t work in es-pecially difficult circumstances, it could helpspeed up more typical cases while reducing ani-mosity. Indianapolis family lawyer Bruce Pen-namped, who helped craft SB 8 as a member ofthe General Assembly’s Child Support and Cus-tody study committee, hopes the method will al-low “people to do this without lawyers.”

The bill would in no way encourage divorcebut could help alleviate some of the pain oncethe decision to separate has been made.

HB 1174: Expanding rollsof potential jurors

One wouldn’t think veterinarians, dentistsand IPS board members have anything in com-mon. But they do. Along with state legislators,mayors and members of Congress, they are ex-empt from jury duty.

Isn’t jury duty, along with voting, one of themost important responsibilities Hoosiers haveto their government and to their fellow citizens?Absolutely. Yet the state considers some citizensmore equal than others by allowing them toevade jury duty. Which in turn, hurts the abilityof courts to field juries that better representtheir communities.

Supreme Court Chief Justice Randall Shepardhas called for an end to giving “certain classesof citizens the right not to do what all the restof us have to.” Indianapolis state Rep. CaroleneMays responded by proposing HB 1174. Vets,dentists and IPS commissioners would nolonger be exempt simply because of their pro-fessions.

To make serving on a jury less drudgery, thelegislation would let prospective jurors skip outon future appearances during the week theywere called, if they weren’t selected for servicethe day they appeared.

To expand the rolls further, HB 1174 would al-low courts to cull jurors from the state’s driver’slicense registries and tax schedules. While thestate high court allows use of databases for thatpurpose, state law doesn’t.

HB 1174 still needs work. State legislators, forinstance, would continue to be exempt fromjury duty. That’s shameful. But the bill is a stepin the right direction.

SB 422: Clarifying lawconcerning adoptions

It was Iowa native Cara Clausen’s decision tomisidentify the father — and the sudden appear-ance of the true father and a subsequent lawsuit— that led to the “Baby Jessica” court battle thatcomplicated adoptions around the country.

With the fracas fresh in their minds in 1994,legislators in Indiana enacted a pioneering set oflaws to stem such disputes, including the crea-tion of a “putative father registry” that allowedbirth fathers to challenge a possible adoption.

But the state Supreme Court raised freshquestions last year when it interpreted one ofthe laws as allowing parents to give up their

child for adoption before birth.The problem: A mother maynot have truly dealt with theemotional pain of giving upher parental rights before actu-ally experiencing the birthprocess. It could lead, as stateSen. J. Murray Clark, R-Indian-apolis, puts it, to a form of“buyer’s remorse.”

To deal with that issue,Clark authored Senate Bill 422,which would fix the loophole

by explicitly barring mothers from signing awaytheir parental rights before they go into labor.Birth fathers would still have the option to relin-quish rights before the child is born.

Clark admits the move is controversial. Afterall, why create a double standard in the law? ButClark argues that giving up a child for adoptionis more painful for the mother, who carried thechild to term, than for a father who may “nevergo hold the child.” Fathers also can be difficultto track down, which means there’s value in re-ceiving permission as early as possible.

The legislation is needed because it ulti-mately could make adoptions a more acceptableroad for unwed mothers to choose instead ofabortion. Says Clark: “I think most of us want tosee less abortions. And this is a wonderful wayto work toward that goal.” Exactly.

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Murray Clark

Star file photo

Prospective jurors: A plan to widen pool.

3HB 1484: Capital fundsfor charter schools

There’s no shortage of high-profile bills at-tempting to expand school choice in Indiana.House Bill 1009 is the much-discussed schoolvoucher plan. Then there is Sen. Teresa Lub-bers’ Senate Bill 598, which would ease restric-tions on the number of charter schools allowedto open statewide.

Yet HB 1484 has escaped notice. What’s HB1484? It would ease one of the key obstacles informing charters: the dearth of startup money.

Because these nontraditional public schoolsdon’t receive state funding until five months af-ter they have opened, they must depend on do-nations to pay for startup costs such as buyingsupplies and acquiring buildings. They mayeven have to turn to the state’s Common SchoolFund for money, but at a cost: The loans mustbe repaid in 20 years at 4 percent interest.

Some of the pain could have been alleviatedlast year if Indiana charters could have obtainedat least $6 million in startup grants from the fed-eral government. But new schools couldn’t ob-tain that money because the state doesn’t offermatching grants.

That would change under HB 1484, which hasalready been approved by the House EducationCommittee and is being vetted by Ways andMeans. As envisioned by Rep. Robert Behning,R-Indianapolis, the state would be authorized touse the $14 million generated in interest fromthe state’s Common School Fund as a match forfederal grants.

Imagine the opportunities: More charterschools. And more important, greater educa-tional opportunities for parents and their chil-dren. Keep in mind that charters don’t receivenearly the same level of funding enjoyed by tra-ditional schools. Giving them a stronger footingas they are created would help even the field.

Bill McCleery / The Star

Starting up: New Irvington Community School.

1Amanda Reynolds For The Star

Stay in school: Plan discourages quitting.

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KudosRiley Hospital will provide a lifesaving operation to 1-year-old Afghani boy

Qudrat Ullah, who suffers from a heart defect. Best of all, the Clarian HealthPartners hospital is providing the $50,000 operation for free.

OutrageHouse Democratic leader Pat Bauer angrily complained on Thursday that

HB 1002, creating the post of an inspector general with prosecutorial powers,would “demean” the state’s 90 or so county prosecutors. So how come MarionCounty Prosecutor Carl Brizzi and the state prosecutors association have en-dorsed it? Perhaps Bauer is truly worried about maintaining the state’s “balanceof power,” but one must wonder if he’s more concerned about striking a blowagainst a Republican governor than against wasteful government.

OPINION&COMMENTARY