Education Will Be Top Priority For Legislators This Session
Looking down Market Street from the Soldiers & Sailors Monument at the Indiana Statehouse.
Governor Mike Pence said it, and Republican and Democratic leaders said it, so it seems the main focus of this year’s legislative agenda will be education. The 2015 session, which begins Tuesday afternoon, is a budget session that will allocate funds to state agencies for the next few years. Legislators will start filing and writing bills soon, but until then, let’s take a look at what leaders have said are their priorities so far.
Republicans
- Increase funding to all schools.
- The Freedom To Teach program.
- Removing the cap on scholarships in the state’s voucher program.
- Increase funding to pre-k.
- Expand the transformation zone model for failing schools.
Democrats
- State superintendent Glenda Ritz requested an increase to the IDOE budget to pay for the new state assessment.
- Funding student textbooks for every family.
- Separating charter, public and private school money in the state’s budget.
- Increase funding to all schools.
- Expand the pre-k pilot program past the one-year mark.
- Mandating kindergarten attendance.
