Indiana Statehouse: Where key education bills ended

📚 Ethnic studies course requirement

Indiana high schools will no longer have to offer an ethnic studies course.

Driving the news: The requirement, in place since 2017, was repealed as part of a last-minute change to House Bill 1002, an education deregulation bill.

• Sen. Jeff Raatz, R-Martinsville, said the ethnic studies elective was removed at the request of the Indiana Department of Education to comply with federal prohibitions on "race-based discrimination."

What they're saying: "They're concerned about losing $1 billion that comes to Indiana for education," Raatz said. "We cannot forgo that."

• A spokesperson for Indiana's education department did not immediately respond to Axios' request for comment.

The other side: Sen. Greg Taylor, D-Indianapolis, who helped author the 2017 legislation that created the ethnic studies course requirement, was incensed by the last-minute change and said he was not told about it.

• Taylor said the mandate, which just required schools to offer the course, did not require teaching about any particular ethnic group.

Context: According to department materials, the course "provides a framework to broaden students' perspectives concerning historical and contemporary lived experiences and cultural practices of ethnic and racial groups in the United States."

• Academic standards for the course included learning about historical and contemporary contributions of racial or ethnic groups, cultural practices, the histories and origins of various ethnic and racial groups and cultural self- awareness.
• One of the standards reads: "Students evaluate how society's responses to different social identities lead to access and/or barriers for ethnic and racial groups in relation to various societal institutions, including but not limited to education, healthcare, government and industry."

🗳️ Partisan school boards

State lawmakers narrowly voted to make Indiana's school board elections partisan.

State of play: House and Senate Republicans were divided on how best to establish partisan school boards.

• The Senate wanted to move school boards, which had been nonpartisan, to the same primary process as other elected offices.
• Meanwhile, the House passed a version of the bill that allowed candidates to indicate a party affiliation (or abstain) on the general election ballot.

Between the lines: The issue split the Republican supermajority.

• On the final day of the legislative session, the Senate voted to accept the House version — but just barely. Senate Bill 287 passed 26-24.
• Several expressed concerns that the move will turn people away from running during a time when some communities already have trouble finding enough school board candidates.

🏫 The Indianapolis Local Education Alliance

A nine-person board tasked with conducting an assessment of all public school buildings in the Indianapolis Public Schools district boundaries will be created.

• While the language was stripped from Senate Bill 373 in the final days of the legislative session, it was added late Thursday to House Bill 1515.

How it works: Mayor Joe Hogsett and Superintendent Aleesia Johnson are on the board and they get four and two appointments to it, respectively. The IPS board president gets an appointment, too.

• Called the Indianapolis Local Education Alliance, the group must hold its first meeting before July 1.
• By the end of the year, it must develop a plan for how to manage all facilities within those boundaries — those belonging to IPS and charter schools — under a new governing body and provide transportation to them.

• Recommendations should include a governance structure for a collaborative school system and school consolidation.

📝 A-F grades for school accountability

They're baaaaaack.

Why it matters: Besides the deja vu this will give veteran educators, the A-F grade labels will be applied to schools statewide starting next year.

What's new: These aren't (exactly) the same letter grades.

• The state board of education is encouraged to consider factors beyond state standardized test scores.

Between the lines: The over-reliance on those test scores was one of the criticisms of the earlier iterations of school letter grades.

The other side: Rep. Vernon Smith, D-Gary, said he was concerned about going back to an accountability system that labeled some schools as "failing."

🤑 Universal vouchers

It looked like Republicans' plan to expand the state's private school voucher system to all Hoosier families was in trouble when the revenue forecast revised down projections for the next two years by $2 billion.

Yes, but: Where there's a will, there's a way.

• The budget bill delays the expansion for a year, but removes the family income cap starting in the 2026-27 school year.
• It's estimated that it'll cost the state an additional $94 million.

What they're saying: "We are providing all parents with a choice," said House Speaker Todd Huston, R-Fishers, an advocate of universal vouchers.

The other side: Critics questioned why Indiana was opting to pay for private school tuition for the wealthiest Hoosiers when the budget is so tight that the state cut access to child care subsidies and pre-kindergarten vouchers for low-income families.

• Those programs had been available to families living at or below 150% of the federal poverty level, but that was cut to 135% in the budget.
• "I really thought that they, House Republicans, would at least keep vouchers … at the same level where they are currently, in light of the economic downturn," said House Minority Leader Phil GiaQuinta, D-Fort Wayne.