What Gives In Indiana?

I just have to wonder if Indiana cares about children, or the future of the state. Is the Republican Party only interested in pandering to the parents of rich kids and soothing the fears of the trans-phobic?

‘Smoke and Mirrors’: Democrats, critics denounce Republican budget proposal over school funding

Republicans touted 2% increases for education funding in both fiscal years for the state’s next two-year budget, a number that includes expanding “school choice” vouchers for even the wealthiest Hoosiers.

With that in mind, Democrats said increases to public schools — where the vast majority of Hoosiers are educated — would be closer to 1.3%. 

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 Costerison said that was preferable for school officials. By putting curricular material dollars in the foundation — not a separate line item — “that grows over time as foundation grows.”

He noted, however, the growth “won’t be huge,” and cautioned that the roughly $158 each school gets per student for curricular materials “does not meet the needs” of some Hoosier districts when it comes to textbook costs.

Education Government & Politics Latest report on the wellbeing of Hoosier youth gives Indiana a mixed report card 

The 146-page Indiana Kids Count Data Book ranked Indiana 27th in the country for overall child wellbeing. This ranking was derived from data in the four outlined categories, and the information was collected considering age, gender, race, ethnicity, place of birth, language, household type and religion.

“Within that data, there is a lot of encouraging stories,” said Silverman. Teen birth rates are down, more mental-health providers are available, household median family income has increased, and child poverty is the lowest it has been in a decade.

On the other side of the coin, just 40% of 3- and 4-year-olds in Indiana are enrolled in early childhood education, childhood food insecurity has increased, and only 40% of students in grades 3-8 passed both math and language arts state testing.

Indiana is one of 17 states suing over a federal law that protects students with disabilities 

 But the lawsuit, led by Texas, takes a much broader aim: It asks the court to rule that Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973 exceeds federal authority. That landmark civil rights law — which applies to organizations that receive federal funding such as hospitals and schools — prohibits discrimination based on disability.  The states also asked the court to strike down the entire new rule.

An expert on disability education law told WFYI that it’s extremely unlikely that the courts would rule that Section 504 is unconstitutional. And people with disabilities are not at imminent risk of losing protection.

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 A spokesperson for the office of Indiana Attorney General Todd Rokita told WFYI in a statement that he supports Section 504.

"As a father of a special needs child, Attorney General Rokita understands and is in full support of the ADA and Section 504. That is exactly why Indiana joined a multi-state lawsuit to stop the Biden Administration's unlawful attempts to add ‘gender identity disorders’ to the list of disabilities,” the spokesperson wrote in an email. “And now thanks to President Trump, Section 504 will be restored to its original intent."

People, you need to calling your state reps about all this nonsense.

 sch 2/18

And to bring us to today: Senate Republicans approve limiting health insurance program for Hoosiers

 

 

sch 2/19