COMMENTARY: Report card: Grading the legislative agendas

My grades will be based on key factors, such as whether the agenda makes a real impact, addresses a pressing need or ignores other critical matters.

Gov. Eric Holcomb

Holcomb’s agenda includes both governing and legislative priorities. Since it’s session, I am focusing on his legislative goals.

He starts with a variety of regulatory changes that could make it easier for child care providers to find staff. More staff means more seats that Hoosier parents desperately need. The lack of seats — and high prices — keep some parents out of the workforce. The changes must be balanced, though, to make sure child safety is not compromised.

Holcomb also wants to improve reading rates for Indiana’s third graders. His idea to require the IREAD-3 test to be taken first in second grade is a shockingly simple change that could make a real difference. The earlier we have data, the more remediation can happen. Remediating on the front end is far better than the other option: making children repeat third grade. It’s clear some children are being promoted to fourth grade when they are not ready. But holding back nearly 8,000 children seems a bit extreme. Doing so might well result in them being able to read. But studies show these children are more likely to drop out of school due to the social impacts.

Holcomb’s proposal to expand awards from the State Disaster Relief Fund seems pragmatic and helpful, if not pressing.

Creating yet another task force, this one on bail reform, is yawn-worthy, though.

Overall grade: B

House Republicans 

House Republicans have a small but interesting agenda. The first is a simple idea that could help fill the tens of thousands of empty jobs in the state. It would allow Hoosiers to receive financial aid from the Frank O’Bannon Grant and 21st Century Scholarship to include job training and not just traditional college coursework. Many youth aren’t interested in college anymore and don’t believe it’s worth the money. But some kind of training, credentials and postsecondary education is necessary to make a living. This could be a nice move with the one caution that it could increase the costs of an already-expensive program.

The House will move a 13th check bill to make right a wrong from last year. To be fair, they weren’t the problem. For decades lawmakers have provided an additional check or cost-of-living adjustment to public retirees. But inexplicably, the Senate blocked the move last year and thousands of public servants were left without. The money isn’t an issue because it’s already sitting unused in a dedicated account.

The House also has an administrative bill to “protect taxpayers and business owners who interact with state agencies.” It’s nebulous insider baseball. And I haven’t been given any concrete examples of the problem they are trying to fix.

Lastly, a move to support Indiana’s Jewish community against antisemitism is laudable but more complicated than it seems at first blush.

Grade: B+

Senate Republicans

This caucus is helming efforts to improve literacy. Prior to the bill becoming public Thursday, there has been a lot of talk about the thousands of students who fail the state reading test and don’t meet an exception but are still promoted to fourth grade.

It seems like the Senate plan doesn’t materially change Indiana’s retention policy because it generally codifies what is already in an Indiana State Board of Education rule while adding another exception. There is no enforcement and schools will still make the decision, but leaders clearly hope the bill’s emphasis spurs a change.

They also want to give the state test in second grade for assessment and to provide more remediation opportunities. But again, the bill stops short of meaningful change in that it doesn’t require the students who are struggling to actually go to summer school.

The Senate Republican agenda does include a pretty important bill limiting the use of prior authorization. The term “prior authorization” refers to a practice used by insurance plans to require a preemptive review of a planned service before the insurance plan will agree to pay for that service. It’s a big swing that would really help but I imagine it will be amended significantly.

And a bill on child care likely doesn’t go far enough. It aims to reduce bureaucracy and red tape to create additional child care seats. That red tape, though, is part of making sure the children are safe. It will be an interesting balancing act. Because it’s a non-budget year, there are no incentives or subsidies to help ease the problem.

Grade: C

House and Senate Democrats

House and Senate Democrats are automatically at a disadvantage because they’re superminorities. That means Republicans don’t need their support to pass legislation, and that most of their own bills are doomed to fail immediately. So, while pushing for things like ballot measures and drug caps are philosophically honest, they also are fruitless.

I do appreciate their focus on property taxes. The rising bills have barely made a dent in discussions on the GOP side, who would rather talk about eliminating income taxes.

And the Democrats are being more realistic that the child care problem is going to take a cash infusion.

I think the best Democrat proposal is expanding access to pre-kindergarten. The program has been around now for almost 10 years but has become stagnant. It would be an obvious way to strengthen literacy. GOP lawmakers raised the income threshold to 400% of the federal free and reduced-price lunch threshold for private school vouchers. Yet, pre-kindergarten vouchers are still limited to 150% of the federal poverty level.

Grade: B-