Fifty-eight percent of Hoosiers favored tax dollars going directly to Indiana’s public schools in that 2015 survey by the Bowen Center at Ball State University. Only 39 percent supported using state funds for private and charter school vouchers.
The leadership of the Indiana General Assembly’s ruling party has different education priorities, more aligned with the national education reform movement.
Controversy over House Bill 1005 epitomizes the contrast between the dominant Republican Party’s top legislators and average Hoosiers.
Indiana is struggling to attract and keep its public school teachers. A 2019 Rockefeller Institute study showed Indiana ranked last in the nation in teacher salary increases since 2000. Hoosier teachers and supporters demonstrated. Gov. Eric Holcomb appointed a commission to find specific ways to bolster educators’ pay, and after two years, the panel released its findings, outlining 37 recommendations to lift the average teacher salary to $60,000