State Teachers’ Association Announces Its Legislative Agenda

The Indiana State Teachers Association, the largest teachers union in the state, laid out its plans Thursday for the 2015 legislation session, in addition to questioning some of the proposals Governor Mike Pence announced earlier in the day.

The largest teachers’ union in the state offered its own 2015 legislative agenda. (Photo Credit: elementalPaul/Flickr)

ISTA President Teresa Meredith wants Indiana lawmakers to make education funding a priority in the next two-year budget by increasing it 3 percent in each of the next two years. That would be about $545 million over the beinnium.

Other ITSA priorities include:

• Redirecting $50 million of funding to student remediation efforts.
• Lowering the required age to start school from 7 to 5.
• Funding subsidies for teachers to pursue a national board certification.
• Restore $2.5 million for reading programs and specialists for each year.

“If students are really, truly at the center of what we are talking about here in education, if Indiana is really committed to make this the education year, then they need to make education a real priority,” Meredith says.

Meredith also says she does not support Gov. Pence’s proposal to lift the cap on the dollar amount for vouchers and increase funding for charter schools. Rather, she says lawmakers should require the state Department of Education to analyze and report how much money earmarked for public schools is redirected to charter schools in each district.