Indiana teachers union wants lawmakers to support students, respect teachers

"No matter who the kids are or where they come from, we believe they deserve access to a free, public education, and they should have time and support to actually learn."

Meredith said that first means ensuring there are sufficient funds allocated to cover the full instructional cost for every student at every public school.

Currently, the state has an estimated $9.3 million education funding shortfall that, if not addressed during the upcoming legislative session, could force school spending cuts at the end of the academic year.

Legislative leaders and Republican Gov. Eric Holcomb have pledged to move money as needed to close the funding gap.

It was caused by actual school enrollment exceeding by about 6,000 students the projections used in April to craft Indiana's two-year budget, which annually appropriates approximately $7 billion for elementary and high school education.

Attendance age

Another top priority for the teachers union is setting the age when Hoosier children are required to attend school at 5, instead of 7, and mandating kindergarten attendance for the 7,000 or so Indiana children who skip it each year.

Meredith, who taught kindergarten in the suburban Indianapolis city of Shelbyville, said she was appalled when she first learned years ago that Indiana children could be as old as 7 before having to enroll in a formal education program.

"In all the years that I taught kindergarten, it always amazed me that a student would show up in first- or second-grade never having been to school," Meredith said. "They come in, in a very different place."

"If they were coming in more prepared, and coming in in kindergarten with their peers like they should be, how much more could they learn — instead of having to catch up?"

Jennifer McCormick, the Republican state superintendent of public instruction, likewise favors setting the mandatory school enrollment age at 5.

However, measures filed in prior legislative sessions to enact that change repeatedly have failed to receive even a committee hearing, let alone a vote by either the House or Senate, to avoid seeming to dictate to parents how their young children should be raised.

Other goals

Meredith is not expecting the Legislature will dial back its strong, and seemingly unlimited, support for charter schools and private school vouchers, despite public schools generally outperforming the "school choice" options.

So instead she's looking for equality. Namely, applying to private school employees the same prohibition imposed on public school employees concerning the use of school funds and resources for political activities.

She also believes private schools that accept vouchers should be required to publish their budgets in a local newspaper as public schools must, and be subject to state audit so Hoosiers know how their education funds are being spent. 

"They don't have any level of accountability to the public — the taxpayers — for how that money is used," Meredith said.

"There's no oversight, there's no checking up, there's no State Board of Accounts that's coming in to look to see that that money is really meeting the needs of students."

ISTA also would like the General Assembly to pause Indiana's high-stakes school and teacher accountability consequences until the inevitable kinks have been worked out with the ILEARN standardized test that's supposed to replace ISTEP in the next few years.

In addition, the union wants the timed portion of the teacher licensing exams extended, since Meredith said there are qualified potential educators being kept out of the profession because they're unable to complete their tests in the limited time provided.

As for whether any of that might become law, Meredith said she's trying to be hopeful: "You just never know in Indiana."