State Teachers Union Wants Education Funding Increase

The Indiana State Teachers Association laid out its plans today for the 2015 legislation session and also questioned Gov. Mike Pence’s proposed funding increase for charter schools. 

ISTA President Teresa Meredith wants Indiana lawmakers to make education funding a priority in the next two year budget by increasing it 3 percent in each of the next two years. That would be about $545 million over the beinnium.

Other ITSA priorities are:

• Redirecting $50 million of funding to student remediation efforts.
• Lowering the required age to start school from 7 to 5.
• Funding subsidies for teachers to pursue a national board certification.
• Restore $2.5 million for reading programs and specialists for each year. 

“If students are really, truly at the center of what we are talking about here in education, if Indian is really committed to make this the education year," Meredith said. "Then they need to make education a real priority.”

Meredith says she does not support Gov. Mike Pence’s proposal to lift the cap on the dollar amount for vouchers and increase funding for charter schools.

Today Pence released his budget proposal for 2015-16, 2016-17 and it contains $200 million increase in K-12 school funding, including $41 million set aside for charter schools.

Meredith says charters have yet to prove they are at the same level as public schools. She wants lawmakers to require the state Department of Education to analyze and report how much money earmarked for public schools is redirected to charter schools in each district.

Contact WFYI reporter Eric Weddle at eweddle@wfyi.org or call (317) 614-0470. Follow on Twitter: @ericweddle.