This newspaper has had its disagreements with the proposed policies of Indiana Superintendent of Public Instruction Glenda Ritz, but not on her proposal to save Indiana parents from having to pay for textbooks. (Instead, it would be paid by most taxpayers, as it is done in most other states.)
Indeed, Indiana is one of only eight states to require parents to pay for their children's school textbooks. But Democrat Ritz raised the textbook issue again last week in presenting her 3 percent school spending proposal increase to state fiscal officials, plus free textbooks for Hoosier schoolchildren.
Her textbook proposal isn't expected to go far in budgetary considerations; after all, this is the state that saw some counties attempt to charge parents for their children to ride school buses. But it is the state that calls in its constitution for a free public education. Go figure.
This is, as well, the state that originally took a leadership role in the development of a standardized test called "Common Core State Standards," only to see Gov. Mike Pence drop the test following objections by the so-called tea party.
With that in mind, consider that state Sen. Luke Kenley, a Noblesville Republican, who chairs the Senate Appropriations Committee, asked Ritz last week whether state lawmakers will have the opportunity to weigh in on a new standardized test developed in Indiana after Common Core was dropped.
Courier & Press staff writer Chelsea Schneider reported last week that Ritz said her department would need an approximately $20 million increase to cover the cost of standardized testing and remediation. Ritz said her department anticipates testing will cost Indiana an estimated $65 million.
Kenley asked Ritz if lawmakers would have an opportunity to weigh in on the new standardized test. He said "so we just get to pay for it? I'm just trying to figure out what our role is or how we can look at what we have and feel a sense of comfort. Or is it a done deal?"
What is going on here is that since Indiana dropped Common Core, the state is having to develop the new test, along with the new standards.
If strikes us that had Indiana stuck with Common Core, a test that will be prepared for and given in most states, it might have had money left over to make it easier to pay for state-financed textbooks, an idea completely in step with a free public education.