The vast majority of Hoosiers support their public schools.

As part of our #VotePublicEd campaign this past election, we asked candidates and elected officials at the state level to pledge support for Indiana’s traditional public schools that serve over one million students across the state. The ICPE Candidate Pledge Program was a volunteer-led effort. Our goal was to encourage those who get elected to use their office to advance legislation and policies that support Indiana traditional public schools.

Overall, the candidates that signed our pledge lost. View the full results here. There were no Republicans that signed. All of the incumbents that did sign were returned to office. Of the 33 candidates that signed our pledge, 7 won and 26 lost. This tells us that we must continue pushing to make people aware of what is happening in public education before it is too late.

ICPE Candidate Pledge

As a state-level elected official, I pledge that I will:

☑️  Prioritize traditional public schools when funding education.

☑️  Reject any proposed universal voucher systems.

☑️  Reject further expansions of voucher programs (Indiana Choice Scholarship Program, SGO scholarships, the Indiana Educational Scholarship Account Program, etc.).

☑️  Support fiscally conservative spending caps on voucher programs.

☑️  Ensure a consistent standard of transparency, accountability, and oversight for all entities receiving K-12 funding from taxpayers.