INDIANAPOLIS, Ind. (NETWORK INDIANA): The state’s largest teacher’s union has laid out its legislative priorities for the upcoming session at the Indiana Statehouse.
They include much of the usual but also align with a lot of what state lawmakers have prioritized. This includes clamping down on bad reading scores throughout the state based on recent IREAD scores that show 18-percent of Hoosier third graders can’t read at a third-grade level.
Kevin Gambill, the president of the Indiana State Teachers Associations says he’s encouraged by the bipartisanship shown on getting reading scores back up.
One way lawmakers hope to do that is to pass stricter reading requirements for third graders, who if they don’t meet said requirements could be held back. Gambill has no comment on that proposal yet.
Gambill is also asking lawmakers to increase education funding overall.
“Our school funding priorities include a $500 million increase in the second year to basic tuition support,” he said. “The legislature also needs to fully fund the cost of textbooks.”
Both of those are non-starters for lawmakers this year since this session is not a budget session and with that, no spending measures will be considered.
Gambill said lawmakers can address expanding Pre-K access for families in Indiana. Indiana currently doesn’t require young kids to attend kindergarten, but Gambill said that needs to change.
Finally, the ISTA wants legislation to address the increasing number of students who simply don’t show up for school as much as they should. Chronic absenteeism is a big problem for many students, according to both lawmakers and Gambill. In many cases, it’s not the student’s fault.
The legislative session kicks off in January and is expected to last only two months.
2 comments
All of our kids and grand kids read above grade level. ALL OF THEM. Our Kids went to public school while the schools still held to teaching the basic skills needed to function in life. Today those same schools are pits of hooliganism. How do I know? My spouse subs in the elementary schools. She comes home very discouraged and frequently says our country is in deep deep trouble.
A couple of our grand kids were home schooled but spent some time in public high school. The rest of them were home schooled or attended private christian school. I would put them up against any kid in public school. Four of those were adopted from another country. The spoke no English when they arrived here. Yet they are sharp as tacks when it comes to reading, math, and other subjects.
So I say to the teachers unions: Your performance as teachers is woefully lacking. Your though process is the same as the 13 per-centers. Someone else is at fault. Far as I’m concerned the teachers unions can pound large piles of sand. You hang with Marxicrats long enough and the stink will rub off on you. All those Hamas supporters, BLM, and others marching and destroying or attacking others learned that somewhere. Where could it be??? Even the tranny movement had to learn it somewhere.
IF anybody cares about children’s education, The last thing anybody should ever do is give the responsibility to higher and higher levels of Government.
Keep all aspects of learning and funding as local as possible.
Why do you think Home Schooling is so successful and appealing? The smart parents know the public school system is a cesspool of Nonsense by no-nothing “Expert” MORONS and the private school option is expensive and likely still have some social engineering teachings such as the Trans -normalizing/grooming issue.
The BEST thing for Children is if the DOE at both the State and Federal Level goes away along with ALL teacher unions.