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Yahoo
28-04-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Lawmakers End Racial and Ethnic Studies Course Mandate, Make More Education Changes as Session Ends
This story was originally published by Chalkbeat. Indiana lawmakers wrapped up the 2025 legislative session early Friday with a final vote on a two-year state budget that provides a 2% annual increase in funding for schools and establishes a universal school voucher program to begin next year. They also passed several education bills that are poised to transform teaching and learning in Indiana. Among them was a 116-page deregulation bill with provisions that end requirements for high schools to offer at least one semester of an elective racial or ethnic studies course per school year. This 11th-hour change apparently came at the request of the Indiana Department of Education after correspondence from the U.S. Department of Education regarding state code, Republican Sen. Jeff Raatz said late Thursday in floor discussions about House Bill 1002. The U.S. Department of Education recently ordered states to certify in writing that they're not participating in what the Trump administration says are illegal diversity, equity, and inclusion initiatives, or else risk losing federal funding. Raatz did not specify if that was the correspondence he was referring to. The administration's effort has run into roadblocks in the courts. Raatz said $1 billion in education funding for federally funded programs like school lunches was at risk if lawmakers didn't remove the course requirement. But the change in Indiana code doesn't prohibit schools from offering such courses. And the federal Education Department has said that 'schools with programs focused on interests in particular cultures, heritages, and areas of the world would not in and of themselves violate' federal civil rights law as it relates to DEI, 'assuming they are open to all students regardless of race.' 'Sometimes I have to do things I don't necessarily want to do,' Raatz said in response to questioning from Democratic Sen. Greg Taylor, who authored the 2017 law about the racial and ethnic studies courses. 'But bottom line is, we cannot as the state of Indiana … forgo a billion dollars in our education system.' 'Are you going to tell me that we're not brave enough to hold pat on an elective course for kids because the federal government says 'we could cut your funding'?' Taylor said in comments, referring to the law as one of his chief accomplishments. State lawmakers this year have also leaned into other culture war issues they previously declined to take up against the backdrop of a changing political landscape. One bill will allow school board candidates to declare a political party, ending the state's practice of nonpartisan school board elections. Another prohibits state employees, including teachers, from teaching or training that moral character is determined by people's 'personal characteristics,' or that they should be blamed for actions committed in the past, in an echo of several attempts to pass such legislation in recent years. And Gov. Mike Braun has already signed an expansion of the restrictions on transgender women competing on women's sports teams that affects colleges and universities. But not all legislation this year tackles social issues. State leaders hope that new requirements for math education in line with the push to implement the science of reading will lead to a boost in math scores similar to students' gains in literacy. And with a new framework for categorizing and reducing absences, they hope to address an absenteeism rate that has remained stubbornly high since COVID. Here are the education bills that passed the 2025 legislative session. Those already signed by Braun have been marked with an asterisk. The rest are on their way to his desk. Description: The property tax reform bill was amended to change how and how much residents would receive in property tax deductions and credits. The bill also now includes parts of SB 518, which requires school districts to share property tax revenues for operations with charter schools. Read more. Description: Stipulates that the government may not interfere in a parent's right to direct the upbringing of their child unless there is a compelling governmental interest. It also specifies that the bill cannot be construed to allow a parent to access medical care for their child that the child is not legally allowed to have, such as puberty blockers and other gender-affirming care currently banned for minors in Indiana, according to examples given in committee. Description: Increases minimum teacher salaries to $45,000. Read more. Description: Amends provisions that allow school corporations to provide a supplemental payment to teachers in excess of negotiated salary and allows districts to exclude revenue from bargaining for this purpose. Description: Allows secondary students to receive religious instruction during the school day equivalent to the time spent attending an elective course. Requires the Department of Education to grant initial practitioner licenses to individuals who hold degrees in STEM subjects and have completed a certain number of teaching courses. Shortens the timeline for reporting bullying investigations to parents. Description: Allows school board candidates in Indiana to declare a party affiliation. Read more. Description: The bill prohibits state employers, including public schools, from requiring employees to attend training that includes the ideas that a person's moral character is determined by their personal characteristics, or that they should be blamed for 'actions committed in the past.' It prohibits state employees from implementing these ideas or compelling students to do so. Description: Requires a school where fewer than 70% of students passed the IREAD to participate in the Indiana Literacy Cadre. Prohibits parents educating only their children from using ESA funds for tuition and fees Language on counselors has been removed. Description: Requires reports of student outcomes out of certain career and technical education and postsecondary programs. Description: Ends a provision allowing parents to request to transfer their children to school districts outside their legal settlement for better accommodation reasons. Removes a requirement that a superintendent must discuss a plan for annual performance evaluations with a teacher or the teacher's representative. Description: Would change summer school reimbursement to a per-student instead of program cost basis. Also requires that the evaluation process for STEM and reading materials must include the age appropriateness of the content. Amendments to create transportation and facility boards and mastery-based pilot programs have been removed. Read more. Description: Prohibits school districts from using sex ed materials that have not been approved by their governing boards. Requires sex ed courses to show a fetal development video and emphasize the importance of consent. Description: Makes several higher education changes. Codifies the state's announcement that students who earn a new Honors Enrollment Plus diploma earn acceptance to the state's public colleges and universities, but stipulates that this acceptance does not guarantee admission to a specific program. Requires the Commission of Higher Education to prepare an enrollment report for each college and university and their programs of computer science that disaggregates how many students are Indiana residents and not, and how many are U.S. citizens and not. Outlines a process for colleges and universities to approve or disapprove new degrees and programs. Description: Defines chronic absenteeism and requires the education department to establish a categorization framework to distinguish between excused and unexcused absences based on the reason for the absence. Description: With more than 70 provisions, this 130-page bill repeals and removes both expired and existing education statutes within Indiana code. Some notable points include: Removes a requirement that if a governing body grants a charter to a charter school, they must also provide a noncharter school for students to attend, allowing districts to become all-charter. Removes requirements for the secretary of education to have teaching and education leadership experience. Reduces the notice that schools must provide if they eliminate transportation. Requires the department to make a list of best practices and guidelines regarding classroom behavioral management strategies and a list of best practices to reduce student discipline. Keeps some requirements for teacher preparation programs to train teachers on trauma-informed practices, and positive behavioral interventions, but removes other requirements related to cultural competency and social emotional learning. Read more. Removes a requirement that school districts and charter schools must offer a course studying ethnic and racial groups as a one semester elective course in its high school curriculum at least once every school year. Description: Prohibits transgender women from playing on women's sports teams at the university level, and requires out-of-state teams to notify Indiana teams if a trans athlete is allowed to play on a women's team. Description: No longer requires a school corporation to offer a cash payment option at athletic events. Amended to allow students to request to transfer school districts for athletic reasons. Description: Removes language restricting school corporations from entering into a contract with a religiously affiliated nonprofit preschool program. Description: Various changes to child care requirements, including removing the requirement that children receiving care from a school must be children of students or employees. Description: Makes several changes to special education practices, including: Prohibits schools from adopting policies to prevent parents from recording IEP meetings. Requires schools to employ one person who has obtained nonviolent crisis intervention training. Description: Provides that a high school diploma issued by a nonaccredited nonpublic school (a nonaccredited private or home school) is legally sufficient to demonstrate that the recipient of the diploma or credential has met the requirements to complete high school. Provides that a state or local agency or institution of higher education in Indiana may not reject or otherwise treat a person differently based solely on the source of a diploma or credential. Description: Requires the DOE to create a new A-F grading metric for schools. Read more. Description: Creates more exemptions to the third grade retention requirements, particularly for Description: Requires IDOE to submit a report on the academic readiness of virtual students. Establishes a mastery-based education pilot program. Establishes centralized school facilities and transportation boards. Establishes the Indianapolis Local Education Alliance to conduct a school facilities assessment and establish a school facilities and transportation implementation plan. Read more. Provides that a land use application for any approval that is required by a unit for a public school, charter school, or nonpublic school may not be denied for the sole reason that the requesting entity is seeking to establish a public school, charter school, or nonpublic school. Description: Requires schools to automatically enroll certain students into advanced math courses in middle school and allows parents to opt students in as well. Establishes requirements for math screening, evaluation, and intervention, and spells out requirements for teaching math. Aleksandra Appleton covers Indiana education policy and writes about K-12 schools across the state. Contact her at aappleton@ Chalkbeat is a nonprofit news site covering educational change in public schools. The post Lawmakers End Racial and Ethnic Studies Course Mandate, Make More Education Changes as Session Ends appeared first on Capital B Gary.
Axios
25-04-2025
- Politics
- Axios
Indiana Statehouse: Where key education bills ended
The last days of the legislative session are a sprint where dozens of bills are passed, sometimes with substantive, never-before-seen additions, making it hard to keep track of everything that happens in those final 48 hours. Zoom in: Here are five key K-12 education issues Indiana lawmakers tackled. 📚 Ethnic studies course requirement Indiana high schools will no longer have to offer an ethnic studies course. Driving the news: The requirement, in place since 2017, was repealed as part of a last-minute change to House Bill 1002, an education deregulation bill. Sen. Jeff Raatz, R-Martinsville, said the ethnic studies elective was removed at the request of the Indiana Department of Education to comply with federal prohibitions on "race-based discrimination." What they're saying:"They're concerned about losing $1 billion that comes to Indiana for education," Raatz said. "We cannot forgo that." A spokesperson for Indiana's education department did not immediately respond to Axios' request for comment. The other side: Sen. Greg Taylor, D-Indianapolis, who helped author the 2017 legislation that created the ethnic studies course requirement, was incensed by the last-minute change and said he was not told about it. Taylor said the mandate, which just required schools to offer the course, did not require teaching about any particular ethnic group. Context: According to department materials, the course "provides a framework to broaden students' perspectives concerning historical and contemporary lived experiences and cultural practices of ethnic and racial groups in the United States." Academic standards for the course included learning about historical and contemporary contributions of racial or ethnic groups, cultural practices, the histories and origins of various ethnic and racial groups and cultural self- awareness. One of the standards reads: "Students evaluate how society's responses to different social identities lead to access and/or barriers for ethnic and racial groups in relation to various societal institutions, including but not limited to education, healthcare, government and industry." 🗳️ Partisan school boards State lawmakers narrowly voted to make Indiana's school board elections partisan. State of play: House and Senate Republicans were divided on how best to establish partisan school boards. The Senate wanted to move school boards, which had been nonpartisan, to the same primary process as other elected offices. Meanwhile, the House passed a version of the bill that allowed candidates to indicate a party affiliation (or abstain) on the general election ballot. Between the lines: The issue split the Republican supermajority. On the final day of the legislative session, the Senate voted to accept the House version — but just barely. Senate Bill 287 passed 26-24. Several expressed concerns that the move will turn people away from running during a time when some communities already have trouble finding enough school board candidates. 🏫 The Indianapolis Local Education Alliance A nine-person board tasked with conducting an assessment of all public school buildings in the Indianapolis Public Schools district boundaries will be created. While the language was stripped from Senate Bill 373 in the final days of the legislative session, it was added late Thursday to House Bill 1515. How it works: Mayor Joe Hogsett and Superintendent Aleesia Johnson are on the board and they get four and two appointments to it, respectively. The IPS board president gets an appointment, too. Called the Indianapolis Local Education Alliance, the group must hold its first meeting before July 1. By the end of the year, it must develop a plan for how to manage all facilities within those boundaries — those belonging to IPS and charter schools — under a new governing body and provide transportation to them. Recommendations should include a governance structure for a collaborative school system and school consolidation. 📝 A-F grades for school accountability They're baaaaaack. Why it matters: Besides the deja vu this will give veteran educators, the A-F grade labels will be applied to schools statewide starting next year. What's new: These aren't (exactly) the same letter grades. The state board of education is encouraged to consider factors beyond state standardized test scores. Between the lines: The over-reliance on those test scores was one of the criticisms of the earlier iterations of school letter grades. The other side: Rep. Vernon Smith, D-Gary, said he was concerned about going back to an accountability system that labeled some schools as "failing." 🤑 Universal vouchers It looked like Republicans' plan to expand the state's private school voucher system to all Hoosier families was in trouble when the revenue forecast revised down projections for the next two years by $2 billion. Yes, but: Where there's a will, there's a way. The budget bill delays the expansion for a year, but removes the family income cap starting in the 2026-27 school year. It's estimated that it'll cost the state an additional $94 million. What they're saying:"We are providing all parents with a choice," said House Speaker Todd Huston, R-Fishers, an advocate of universal vouchers. The other side: Critics questioned why Indiana was opting to pay for private school tuition for the wealthiest Hoosiers when the budget is so tight that the state cut access to child care subsidies and pre-kindergarten vouchers for low-income families. Those programs had been available to families living at or below 150% of the federal poverty level, but that was cut to 135% in the budget.
Axios
18-03-2025
- Health
- Axios
Indiana Statehouse: Education issues take center stage this week
As we creep closer to the final month of action, it's another busy week at the Indiana Statehouse. The big picture: At this point in the legislative session, lawmakers are working on the bills their colleagues sent from the other chamber. The House is considering bills that started in the Senate, and vice versa. Why it matters: They have one month left to get the bills out of committee and onto the floor in a manner that'll pass the full body. In some cases, that will result in major changes to legislation that's already passed in one chamber. Yes, but: That's a problem for conference committees, the last-minute process during which lawmakers hammer out a compromise after chambers pass different versions of a bill. Here's what we're watching this week: 🟢 Support for pregnancy care centers The Senate will vote to affirm its support for pregnancy care centers as early as today. The big picture: Sen. Jeff Raatz (R-Richmond) authored a resolution honoring the controversial centers' "comprehensive care" and "compassionate services." Why it matters: Studies have found that some centers do not always provide complete and accurate information. These unregulated, nonmedical centers may not always adhere to confidentiality expectations and often have ties to anti-abortion groups. Zoom in: Raatz's resolution also encourages the federal and state governments to "grant pregnancy care centers assistance for medical equipment and abstinence education." Indiana already provides money — $4 million this year — to pass-through entity Real Alternatives, which works alongside such centers. 🟢 Cancer clinical trials program moving House Bill 1065 is set to hit the Senate floor for amendments as early as today. Driving the news: The bill, authored by Rep. Robin Shackleford (D-Indianapolis), proposes the creation of the Cancer Clinical Trial Participation Program, allowing independent third parties — such as patient groups, corporations or government entities — to cover ancillary costs for patients taking part in clinical trials. 🚧 Partisan school board bill gets rewritten The House and Senate agree they want school board candidates to choose a party — but they don't agree on the method. State of play: Making Indiana's school board races partisan has been on the agenda for some Statehouse Republicans for several years but has never gotten across the finish line. The general idea seems to have more momentum this year, getting further in the legislative process than previous attempts, but there is still disagreement on the finer points. The latest: The full House will consider Senate Bill 287 as early as today. It was overhauled last week when a committee replaced the Senate's version with the House's proposal, which skips the primary process and allows candidates to simply put their party affiliation (Republican, Democrat, independent or nonpartisan) on the general election ballot. 💰 K-12 school funding hearing This afternoon, the Senate School Funding Subcommittee will take testimony on school funding issues. Lawmakers will consider overall K-12 spending and drill down on funding for the gifted and talented program and summer school. The hearing will start after the Senate session adjourns. The session starts at 1:30pm.
