ICPE 2022 Legislative Positions
1. PUBLIC SCHOOLS SHOULD HAVE LOCAL CONTROL—NOT POLITICAL CONTROL
a) ICPE supports nonpartisan school board elections. Partisan politics has no place in our children’s schools and kids should not be pawns in party politics. Partisan tests should not influence hiring decisions for administrators or teachers. School board candidates should be accountable to the community as a whole, not political party leaders.
b) Local school board members are accountable to the communities that elect them; candidates should run to serve and improve those schools—not further their political careers. ICPE opposes requiring school board candidates to declare party affiliation.
2. PUBLIC FUNDS REQUIRE PUBLIC TRANSPARENCY AND ACCOUNTABILITY
a) ICPE supports legislation that requires all Indiana schools receiving public funds (charter, virtual, innovation, private/voucher, home, micro schools) to have the same financial reporting requirements.
b) ICPE supports legislation that requires all Indiana schools receiving public funds to meet and report the same academic, operational and accountability requirements. All schools receiving public funds must also adhere to legal standards and be held to the same equal access and public access requirements as those of traditional public schools.
c) ICPE supports legislation and policies that promote transparency in the state budget regarding Scholarship Granting Organizations and how tax dollars are being used in choice scholarship (voucher), charter and innovation network schools.
d) ICPE supports requiring charter and private schools that accept State tax money to report the percentage of tax money spent on school operations AND the percentage that goes to sponsoring organizations and affiliated Churches.
3. PUBLIC FUNDS BELONG IN PUBLIC SCHOOLS
a) ICPE supports full funding for public schools, schools that are guaranteed by our state constitution. We oppose any further loss of revenue through business personal property tax cuts or difficult-to-understand or needlessly complicated language on referenda ballot measures.
b) We support a moratorium on the expansion of public funding for charter, choice scholarship (voucher), innovation schools as well as education savings accounts (ESAs), SGOs (scholarship granting organizations) or micro/home schools. Draining funds for these experiments in private hands and marketization does financial harm to traditional public schools where over 90% of Hoosier children attend.
c) ICPE recognizes that the teacher shortage reflects years of underfunding our traditional public schools and micromanaging the teaching profession. We support legislation that addresses the aforementioned areas.
4. PUBLIC SCHOOLS MUST SERVE ALL OF THE CHILDREN OF ALL THE PEOPLE
a) Public education’s mission is to serve all children and prepare them to live in and contribute to our pluralistic society. ICPE believes all children deserve the depth and breadth of a curriculum that is inclusive and historically accurate. We oppose any restrictions on this vital work.
b) Social emotional learning is important work in meeting the needs of the whole child to ensure each student is mentally and emotionally prepared to learn and become a productive member of the workforce and community. ICPE supports this continued work and rejects any attempts to restrict it.
c) We support the work of diversity, equity and inclusion in our schools and oppose any attempt to derail or restrict the efforts to fulfill the promise of public education for all students.
d) Play is essential to learning and a fundamental right for children. ICPE supports legislation that guarantees this for all children in kindergarten through fifth grade.
5. STATE-IMPOSED “ACCOUNTABILITY”
a) ICPE supports a moratorium on assigning A-F letter grades to schools and school systems. We support the use of multiple measures when evaluating our schools.
b) ICPE supports holding our public schools “harmless” in every respect from the latest state test results (ILEARN) and supports disconnecting the link between test scores and teacher and school evaluation.
a) ICPE supports nonpartisan school board elections. Partisan politics has no place in our children’s schools and kids should not be pawns in party politics. Partisan tests should not influence hiring decisions for administrators or teachers. School board candidates should be accountable to the community as a whole, not political party leaders.
b) Local school board members are accountable to the communities that elect them; candidates should run to serve and improve those schools—not further their political careers. ICPE opposes requiring school board candidates to declare party affiliation.
2. PUBLIC FUNDS REQUIRE PUBLIC TRANSPARENCY AND ACCOUNTABILITY
a) ICPE supports legislation that requires all Indiana schools receiving public funds (charter, virtual, innovation, private/voucher, home, micro schools) to have the same financial reporting requirements.
b) ICPE supports legislation that requires all Indiana schools receiving public funds to meet and report the same academic, operational and accountability requirements. All schools receiving public funds must also adhere to legal standards and be held to the same equal access and public access requirements as those of traditional public schools.
c) ICPE supports legislation and policies that promote transparency in the state budget regarding Scholarship Granting Organizations and how tax dollars are being used in choice scholarship (voucher), charter and innovation network schools.
d) ICPE supports requiring charter and private schools that accept State tax money to report the percentage of tax money spent on school operations AND the percentage that goes to sponsoring organizations and affiliated Churches.
3. PUBLIC FUNDS BELONG IN PUBLIC SCHOOLS
a) ICPE supports full funding for public schools, schools that are guaranteed by our state constitution. We oppose any further loss of revenue through business personal property tax cuts or difficult-to-understand or needlessly complicated language on referenda ballot measures.
b) We support a moratorium on the expansion of public funding for charter, choice scholarship (voucher), innovation schools as well as education savings accounts (ESAs), SGOs (scholarship granting organizations) or micro/home schools. Draining funds for these experiments in private hands and marketization does financial harm to traditional public schools where over 90% of Hoosier children attend.
c) ICPE recognizes that the teacher shortage reflects years of underfunding our traditional public schools and micromanaging the teaching profession. We support legislation that addresses the aforementioned areas.
4. PUBLIC SCHOOLS MUST SERVE ALL OF THE CHILDREN OF ALL THE PEOPLE
a) Public education’s mission is to serve all children and prepare them to live in and contribute to our pluralistic society. ICPE believes all children deserve the depth and breadth of a curriculum that is inclusive and historically accurate. We oppose any restrictions on this vital work.
b) Social emotional learning is important work in meeting the needs of the whole child to ensure each student is mentally and emotionally prepared to learn and become a productive member of the workforce and community. ICPE supports this continued work and rejects any attempts to restrict it.
c) We support the work of diversity, equity and inclusion in our schools and oppose any attempt to derail or restrict the efforts to fulfill the promise of public education for all students.
d) Play is essential to learning and a fundamental right for children. ICPE supports legislation that guarantees this for all children in kindergarten through fifth grade.
5. STATE-IMPOSED “ACCOUNTABILITY”
a) ICPE supports a moratorium on assigning A-F letter grades to schools and school systems. We support the use of multiple measures when evaluating our schools.
b) ICPE supports holding our public schools “harmless” in every respect from the latest state test results (ILEARN) and supports disconnecting the link between test scores and teacher and school evaluation.