Democratic gubernatorial nominee Jennifer McCormick on Monday denounced an ongoing high school diploma redesign as “dismantling” educational rigor in favor of filling positions at Hoosier companies facing worker shortages.
State officials’ plan would let students fill more graduation requirements with work-based learning — internships, apprenticeships, military experience and more — while dialing down other academic mandates. Leaders of some public institutions have said the redesigned diplomas wouldn’t meet their admissions requirements, WFYI reported.
“If we are forcing kids into internships, really, those are just jobs — that should be temporary, low-paying, low-skill jobs,” McCormick told reporters during a virtual news conference.
McCormick, Indiana’s last elected public schools chief, said she understood the “pressure” lawmakers face to help employers fill roles. And she acknowledged interest in “flexibility,” particularly for math.
“But as a state, what we don’t want is to say, ‘Hey, we have encouraged 14-year-olds to take the minimum required amount of academics,’ send them to the workforce and hope for the best,” McCormick added.
She asserted that the redesign “is going backward” and pushed state officials to maintain academic rigor.
“If (students) want to be a welder, let them be a great welder with great transferable skills. If they want to be a doctor, they want to be a teacher, we’ve got to provide the rigor so we give kids options,” McCormick said.
“This is not just about filling the jobs of today. A high school redesign should be about a rigorous look at transferable skills to prepare kids for four to five decades,” she continued. “They’re going to have to be communicators, they’re going to have to be great problem solvers, (and) they’re going to have to be critical thinkers.”
She noted the state has also struggled with teacher and school counselor shortages to help implement the changes — and to communicate them to students and their parents.
Candidates weigh in
McCormick is running against Republican Mike Braun and Libertarian Donald Rainwater for governor.
In a statement, Braun said that although a majority of the state budget is spent on K-12 education, “far too many of our graduates are not prepared to enter the workforce or pursue a degree.”
“As a former school board member, I know parents are the primary stakeholders in their children’s education and every family, regardless of income or zip code, should be able to enroll in a school of their choice and pursue a curriculum that prepares them for a career, college or the military,” Braun continued.
Rainwater called the redesign debate “yet another example of our government believing that it knows better than parents what is best for the children in Indiana.”
“I believe that students and their parents need to determine their educational pathway to adulthood, not the government,” Rainwater said in a statement. “I also believe that it is the responsibility of students and their parents to make those decisions based on an academic environment that provides the maximum number of options in an innovative and competitive educational marketplace.”
He also expressed “concern” about his opponents’ motivations, saying that the government shouldn’t make educational decisions “based on the desires or needs of any special interest group.”
“I want every Hoosier student to be able to say, as Mark Twain said, ‘I never let my schooling get in the way of my education,'” Rainwater concluded.
Redesign responsibility
McCormick, meanwhile, pinned blame for the proposal on Gov. Eric Holcomb.
Voters elected McCormick — then a Republican — to be state superintendent of public instruction in 2016. Lawmakers in 2017 replaced the elected position with a gubernatorial appointee, to go into effect in 2025.
When McCormick announced she wouldn’t run for reelection, lawmakers moved the effective date up four years, to 2021. Holcomb signed both moves into law.
“Part of it was he wanted to be responsible for education, so he got what he wanted,” McCormick said of Holcomb. “But … with that responsibility comes the responsibility to do it well.”
“It’s his department of education. It’s his state board of education,” she said, adding, “… The responsibility lies in his office.”
Education Secretary Katie Jenner has said the state board will hear a revised draft proposal this week and will take a second round of feedback — including a public hearing — before releasing a final proposal.
Under a law passed by Indiana legislators in 2023, the state must adopt new diploma requirements by December.
Schools could choose to opt in and start offering the new diplomas as early as the 2025-26 academic year. The new diplomas will take effect for all Hoosier students beginning with the Class of 2029, who are entering eighth grade this fall.
Capital Chronicle Reporter Casey Smith contributed.