Morning Bell: Indiana House GOP Budget Includes More Education Dollars

Kyle Stokes / StateImpact Indiana

Looking down Market Street from the Soldiers & Sailors Monument at the Indiana Statehouse.

House Republicans’ budget will propose increases for spending on education – The proposal “includes about $63 million more per year for schools than Pence proposed a month ago.” Evansville Courier & Press

2nd school count comes with concerns – “This year, Indiana joins more than 40 states around the country that count student enrollment on multiple days during the academic year,” although it won’t affect funding — yet. See our posts from last year on what we called ‘The Boring School Financing Bill That Could Change Everything.’ Fort Wayne Journal Gazette

Seeking Glenda Ritz’s definition of success – She’s scored some early victories, “most notably persuading the Senate Education Committee to drop its plan to withdraw Indiana from the Common Core national standards in favor of Ritz’s plan for a series of public input meetings.” Get On The Bus

The President’s Universal Pre-K Plan Isn’t Actually Universal – “The fine print shows that despite Obama’s call “to make high-quality preschool available to every child in America,” what he’s proposing is not really a universal program as much as a slate of initiatives to expand early options” The Atlantic

Conservatives Skeptical of Obama’s Preschool Plan – “President Obama’s plan to expand preschool for the nation’s children faces deep skepticism among Republicans, who fear the creation of another federal entitlement program that they say could add to the nation’s deficit and swell the ranks of the teachers’ unions.” The New York Times