Blog & Statehouse Notes
This space serves as vital resource for those who are dedicated to preserving and enhancing public education in Indiana. Through insightful articles, updates, and analysis, ICPE provides timely information on legislative actions, policy changes, and advocacy efforts impacting Indiana’s public education system. We strive to empower stakeholders with the knowledge and tools necessary to support and defend public education.
Indiana’s Choice – Film Panel Discussion
Join us for an evening discussing the documentary, "Indiana's Choice," with individuals involved in the making of the film. Indiana's Choice is a documentary that demonstrates how school choice policies in Indiana enable segregation of students and discrimination...
ICPE Monroe County: Are Indiana Legislators and IPS School Board Owned by Out-of-State Billionaires?
Want to understand why Indiana legislators pushed unpopular school privatization this session? Check out the latest blog post from our friends at ICPE Monroe County, who are asking all the right questions. Read the post and spend time with the chart assembled by ICPE...
Op Ed: The Leaky Bucket of Indiana K-12 School Funding
Marilyn Shank, Vice President of ICPE, wrote a letter to the editor which appeared in the print version of the Indianapolis Star on April 25, 2021. Every odd-numbered year when the Indiana General Assembly develops the state’s next budget, legislators often brag...
ICPE Response to Indiana’s Proposed Budget Bill
ICPE Response to Indiana’s Proposed Budget Bill April 21, 2021 The Indiana Coalition for Public Education (ICPE) welcomes the news that Indiana’s proposed budget will include $1.9 billion in new dollars for K-12 education over the biennium including a $1.03 billion...
It’s about accountability: Why we still oppose private school ESAs and voucher expansion
It is confounding to us as former State Superintendents of Public Instruction that legislators do not seem to value accountability. In this legislative session and past sessions, legislators are eager to divert more of taxpayers’ hard-earned dollars to various forms...
Vic’s Statehouse Notes #356 – looming threats and flaws
Dear Friends, With only three days left in this General Assembly session, a dangerous threat to our state remains to be fixed. Education Scholarship Accounts are still in the budget bill, and the bill language does not protect Indiana from extremists, from criminals...
Will ESAs help our most vulnerable students?
Kristina Frey is an attorney who works as a juvenile public defender in Marion County. She testified on HB 1001 at the School Funding Subcommittee meeting on 3/25/21 specifically on ESAs and voucher expansion. She shared how these provsions can and will affect her...
Call to action – Speak up now before it’s too late
If the proposed Education Scholarsip Accounts (ESAs) are included in the state budget bill, they will be the proverbial "camel's nose under the tent." Like voucher programs, ESA programs start out small and then grow exponentially, costing millions in taxpayer dollars...
Vic’s Statehouse Notes #355
Dear Friends, The Senate budget proposal was announced on April 8th. The Senate budget put more money into the K-12 budget than did the House plan in the second year of the budget. In the second year (FY 2023), the House increase was 2.4% and the Senate increase was...
Every Indiana public school is losing money because of vouchers
Every Indiana public school is losing money because of vouchers. Even if no students leave your school district to use a voucher, even if you don’t have any voucher-accepting schools in your small or rural school district, your school district still loses money due to...
Joel Hand testimony & video on HB 1001 K-12 Funding Subcommittee
Thank you to our amazing lobbyist Joel Hand! He testified before the School Funding Subcommittee last week on March 25, 2021. He and almost 60 other speakers endured a 6-hour marathon meeting that lasted past 10pm. After he spoke, Joel was questioned by Senator Raatz...
Vic’s Statehouse Notes #354 Voucher expansion & ESAs are rolled into budget bill
Dear Friends, They put ESA’s in the House budget. Now ESA’s have to be kept out of the Senate budget! ESA’s, the radical plan to give taxpayer money directly to home school parents – with no accountability, no check on extremists and no criminal background checks--...
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