Indiana gubernatorial candidate Jennifer McCormick unveiled her "commonsense" education plan on Thursday which focused on school accountability and prioritizing public schools and teachers.
McCormick, the state's former schools chief, and her running mate Terry Goodlin, a former state representative who also previously served as a school superintendent, said their platform would seek to provide more flexibility to local school administrators and educators in developing their curriculum and ensure any schools that received public funding were held to the same academic standards and accountability.
The plan focuses on five pillars: early childcare, school accountability, teachers, school curriculums and post-high school education.
The Democratic platform pledges to expand "quality and affordable" childcare and seeks to work towards universal pre-kindergarten education statewide.
The plan also calls for establishing a "streamlined and transparent" accountability platform for all schools, including charter and private schools receiving vouchers, to equal academic and fiscal standards.
"We're really a school choice state, and there are no quality guardrails on that system," McCormick told reporters on Thursday. "If we're going to be a state of school choice, it needs to be parent choice and not school choice."
The Democratic ticket also vowed to fight for a minimum base salary of $60,000 for Hoosier educators. When asked how teachers' raises would be funded, McCormick said it would be a matter of prioritizing and relooking at the state budget, noting the more than $1 billion set aside for Indiana's private school voucher program.
Furthermore, their plan vowed to review mandates placed on teachers and school boards, and eliminate those that were "unnecessary or burdensome".
McCormick also called for local school districts to have the autonomy to develop their own curriculum based on their own needs and available resources.
"Why should we have to go to the State Board of Education to beg them to address the needs of our kids?" she asked. "Autonomy doesn't mean you lower standards. It just means that you allow for more flexibility."
On higher education, McCormick and Goodin said they would work on reestablishing an emphasis on attaining post-high school education in the state, and better fund the state's colleges and universities and workforce development training programs.
McCormick is facing Republican U.S. Sen. Mike Braun and Libertarian Donald Rainwater to succeed term-limited Republican Gov. Eric Holcomb in November.
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