INDIANAPOLIS – Will Hoosier schools have the funds to put in place new literacy mandates proposed by state lawmakers? Indiana Secretary of Education Katie Jenner this week maintained they do, at least for now.
She said the Indiana Department of Education (IDOE) has enough holdover dollars to roll out additional reading tests and expanded summer school options laid out in Senate Bill 1, which is currently under consideration at the Statehouse.
But in the 2025 budget session, more state funds are expected to be requested.
“If you look at our longitudinal data, we can get back — we will. Literacy is one of the most solvable problems in our society today. We have the science, we have the practice, we can solve this,” Jenner told the Senate Appropriations Committee. “For our adults who are illiterate, what we are paying as a society — the impacts on the economy, the impacts on, most importantly, the individual — that far surpasses the cost that we will pay if we will make sure children are reading before leaving third grade, and certainly before they leave high school.”
Senators on the committee approved the bill in an 8-3 party-line vote, sending it to the full chamber.
Democrats have declined to support the measure mostly due to concerns over a provision that could result in holding thousands more third-graders back a year in school.
“I don’t think the bill is strategic,” said Sen. Fady Qaddoura, D-Indianapolis. “I think it continues to go down the path of bills that dance around the edges of tackling the problem.”
You can read the entire Indiana Capital Chronicle story by Casey Smith, here.
