Teachers, parents, students demand ‘fully-funded public schools' at Indiana Statehouse rally
Teachers and families attend a public education rally on Monday, April 14, 2025, at the Indiana Statehouse. (Casey Smith/Indiana Capital Chronicle)
A sea of red descended upon the Indiana Statehouse Monday as hundreds of teachers, parents and students from across the state rallied to demand increased funding for public schools — and to protest pending policy proposals that could shift millions of local dollars to charters.
The rally — one of many hosted in recent years by the Indiana State Teachers Association, the state's largest teachers union — came just hours ahead of a possible final vote on a massive property tax plan. The latest provisions baked into the legislation could reduce public schools' tax dollars by as much as $744 million over the next three years.
ISTA President Keith Gambill said that blow comes in addition to education funding gaps in the newest draft of the state budget.
'The overall funding increase of 2% per year — of $870 million — does not even meet inflation,' Gambill said. 'Our students deserve bold investment, not the bare minimum.'
He said teachers will be pressing lawmakers in the coming days and weeks 'to ensure that public dollars are staying with public schools.'
The legislative session must end by April 29 but could be finished as early as April 24. All bills — including the state budget — must be finalized by that time.
'Our schools deserve to be fully funded — and fully public — so all kids receive a quality education,' Gambill emphasized.
Teacher attendance at the rally forced at least three Hoosier school districts to move to an e-learning day, including Indianapolis Public Schools and nearby Pike Township, as well as Monroe County Community Schools in Bloomington.
Our schools deserve to be fully funded — and fully public — so all kids receive a quality education.
– Indiana State Teachers Association President Keith Gambill
The shift to e-learning appeared to prompt a legislative amendment published Monday morning by Indianapolis Republican Rep. Andrew Ireland.
Proposed language filed to Senate Bill 373, an unrelated education bill, sought to jeopardize funding for public school districts that convert scheduled in-person instructional days to virtual because of 'planned or coordinated absence of teachers or other personnel for the purpose of participating in a protest, demonstration, or political advocacy event.'
Districts would risk losing state tuition support for each day of a violation, according to Ireland's amendment.
Gambill read the amendment aloud during the rally, drawing shouting and boos from the crowd.
'We have got to talk to our legislators today, tomorrow and every day between now and the end of the session. We must be vigilant,' he said. 'We have to speak from the heart, and remind them that behind every policy is a classroom with a teacher and students.'
Ireland introduced the amendment Monday afternoon to make a statement, but withdrew it without discussion or a vote.
Chants echoed throughout the Statehouse halls for more than two hours Monday morning.
'Schools need funding!'
'Pay our teachers!'
'Defend public education!'
Rallygoers, many dressed in red t-shirts, had homemade signs in tow, too. Banners, poster boards, paper placards — and even painted messages on the backs of LaCroix boxes — were raised by attendees amid chanting, cheering and frustrated yells.
Everyone's goal was the same: demand 'fair' and 'adequate' funding for public schools.
Gambill said recent changes to both bills were improvements from their original versions. But he maintained that increases to base tuition support in the Senate GOP's state budget draft 'are not enough,' and held that amendments added to the property tax measure would divert 'critical' dollars from traditional publics to charters and could allow districts to 'side step' collective bargaining rights for teachers.
Monica Shellhamer, a vice president with the Indianapolis Education Association, said during her rally remarks that teachers continue to be left out of conversations around school funding.
'Indianapolis public schools has been a target of the legislature for many years and this year is no different,' Shellhamer said. 'Bill after bill continued to be submitted to shut down or defund Indianapolis public schools.'
Jenny Noble-Kuchera, president of the Monroe County Education Association, further pointed to pending education cuts at the federal level.
'The way it is currently, public education as we know it will begin to disappear, and our children are the victims,' she said Monday. 'We already have severe mismanagement at the federal level of Title I grants for our lower-income students, of critical programs supporting students with disabilities, and elimination of programs for our schools.'
'This is bad enough, and now Indiana politicians can't put their youngest constituents first, and support basics, like learning to read and write, and foundational math,' she continued. 'It's not OK.'
SUBSCRIBE: GET THE MORNING HEADLINES DELIVERED TO YOUR INBOX
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Boston Globe
24 minutes ago
- Boston Globe
GOP can't include limits on Trump lawsuits in megabill, Senate official rules
'Individual district judges -- who don't even have authority over any of the other 92 district courts -- are single-handedly vetoing policies the American people elected President Trump to implement,' Sen. Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, chairm of the Judiciary Committee, said in announcing the proposal in March. Get Starting Point A guide through the most important stories of the morning, delivered Monday through Friday. Enter Email Sign Up Republicans are pushing their bill to carry out Trump's agenda through Congress using special rules that shield legislation from a filibuster, depriving Democrats of the ability to block it. But to qualify for that protection, the legislation must only include proposals that directly change federal spending and not add to long-term deficits. Advertisement The Senate parliamentarian, Elizabeth MacDonough, makes such judgments. She ruled that the measure did not meet the requirements, according to Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y. 'Senate Republicans tried to write Donald Trump's contempt for the courts into law -- gutting judicial enforcement, defying the Constitution, and bulldozing the very rule of law that forms our democracy,' Schumer said in a statement. 'It was nothing short of an assault on the system of checks and balances that has anchored this nation since its founding.' Advertisement Senate Republicans sought to target the preliminary injunctions and temporary restraining orders that often block administration policies. Republicans in the House passed a measure in their version of their party's major policy bill to impose limits on federal judges' power to hold people in contempt. The actions came as federal judges have opened inquiries about whether to hold the Trump administration in contempt for violating their orders in cases related to its aggressive deportation efforts. The decision on Sunday is part of a broader review MacDonough is conducting of the Republican-written legislation, which includes large tax cuts and reductions in social programs such as Medicaid and food stamps. She ruled that Republicans could include in their bill a divisive measure that would block states from regulating artificial intelligence for a decade. Sen. Josh Hawley, R-Mo., opposes that provision and has said he intends to introduce an amendment to try to kill the measure. MacDonough also rejected a GOP plan to push some of the costs of nutrition assistance, formerly known as SNAP, onto the states, a ruling that has sent Republicans back to the drawing board to find another strategy for covering tens of billions of dollars of the bill's cost. She was expected to work into the week evaluating the measure and instructing Republicans to strip out any provision she deems out of order, including whether they can use a budget trick that would make extending the 2017 tax cuts appear to be free. Advertisement If Republicans fail to remove the measures she deems out of order, Democrats could challenge the bill on the floor, forcing Republicans to muster 60 votes to advance it. That would effectively kill the legislation since Democrats are solidly opposed. This article originally appeared in
American Press
5 hours ago
- American Press
Iranian ambassador says US ‘decided to destroy diplomacy' with strikes on nuclear sites
Republican presidential nominee former President Donald Trump arrives at an election night watch party at the Palm Beach Convention Center, on Wednesday in West Palm Beach, Fla. (Associated Press) Iran said that the U.S. 'decided to destroy diplomacy' with its strikes on the country's nuclear program and that the Iranian military will decide the 'timing, nature and scale of Iran's proportionate response.' Iran's U.N. ambassador, Amir Saeid Iravani, spoke to an emergency meeting of the United Nations Security Council hours after the U.S. attack. 'We will take all measures necessary,' he told the meeting.
Hamilton Spectator
5 hours ago
- Hamilton Spectator
Trump's go-it-alone strategy on Iran risks dividing an already split Congress
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump's decision to launch a military strike on Iran's nuclear sites without fully consulting the U.S. Congress layered a partisan approach onto a risky action, particularly because the White House briefed top Republican leaders beforehand without doing the same for Democrats. While House Speaker Mike Johnson , Senate Republican leader John Thune and the GOP chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee were all briefed before the action, their counterparts were not. Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer was given a perfunctory heads-up by the White House shortly before the strikes were made public. And House Democratic leader Hakeem Jeffries' office received a 'courtesy call' before Trump announced it. The so-called Gang of Eight congressional and intelligence leaders were not notified before the mission , according to two people familiar with the situation and granted anonymity to discuss it. One, Rep. Jim Himes, the top Democrat on the House Intelligence Committee, said he learned of the strikes on social media, which he said 'is an uncomfortable thing for the ranking member of the Intelligence Committee.' 'Bad enough that we weren't informed,' Himes, of Connecticut, said Sunday on CNN, 'but unconstitutional that we didn't have the opportunity to debate and speak, as the representatives of the people, on what is one of the more consequential foreign policy things that this country has done in a long time.' It's a highly unusual situation that is complicating the difficult politics ahead for the president and his party as the U.S. enters an uncertain national security era with the surprise military attack on the nuclear facilities, an unprecedented incursion in Iran. Trump faces a vote in Congress as soon as this week on a war powers resolution from Sen. Tim Kaine, D-Va., that would 'direct the removal of United States Armed Forces from hostilities against the Islamic Republic of Iran that have not been authorized by Congress.' Another resolution has been introduced by lawmakers from both parties in the U.S. House. And at least one Democrat, Rep. Alexandria Ocasio Cortez, said Trump's actions are 'clearly grounds for impeachment.' At the same time, the Trump administration is expecting Congress to send an additional $350 billion in national security funds as part of the president's big tax breaks bill also heading soon for a vote. Senators are set to be briefed Tuesday behind closed doors on the situation in Iran. White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said Sunday that the White House made 'bipartisan courtesy calls' to congressional leadership. She said in a social media post that the White House spoke to Schumer 'before the strike' but that House leader Jeffries 'could not be reached until after, but he was briefed.' While the president has authority as the commander in chief of the U.S. armed forces to order specific military actions, any prolonged war-time footing would traditionally need authorization from Congress. The House and Senate authorized actions in Iraq, Afghanistan and beyond after the Sept. 11, 2001, attack. 'Congress should be consulted,' Kaine said on CBS' 'Face the Nation.' 'We were not.' As soon as Trump announced the actions late Saturday, he won swift support from the GOP leadership in Congress. Johnson, Thune and the Senate Intelligence Committee chairman, Sen. Tom Cotton of Arkansas, were all briefed ahead of time and sent almost simultaneous statements backing the military campaign, as did the House Intelligence Committee chairman, Rep. Rick Crawford, also of Arkansas. But by apparently engaging with only one side of the political aisle, Trump risks saddling his Republican Party with political ownership of the military action against Iran, which may or may not prove popular with Americans. Rather than rally the country to his side, Trump risks cleaving its already deep divisions over his second term agenda. Johnson, who praised Trump's action against Iran as 'the right call,' said the president's targeted strike was within his authority and in line with past presidential actions. 'Leaders in Congress were aware of the urgency of this situation and the Commander-in-Chief evaluated that the imminent danger outweighed the time it would take for Congress to act,' Johnson, R-La., said on social media. Trump himself has shown little patience for political dissent from within his party, even as criticism rolls in from among his most trusted backers. The Iran military campaign threatens to splinter Trump's Make America Great Again movement, which powered his return to the White House. Many Trump supporters aligned with his campaign promises not to involve the United States in overseas actions and instead to be a peace-making president. 'I think I represent part of the coalition that elected Trump,' said Rep. Thomas Massie, R-Ky., on CBS. 'We were tired of endless wars in the Middle East.' Massie and Democratic Rep. Ro Khanna of California have introduced their own war powers resolution in the House, a sign of how close the far left and far right have bonded over their opposition to U.S. campaigns abroad, particularly in the Middle East. The Trump administration insisted Sunday the U.S. is not seeking a war with Iran. 'We're not at war with Iran. We're at war with Iran's nuclear program,' said Vice President JD Vance on NBC's 'Meet the Press.' And Trump swiftly attacked Massie, who is one of the most steadfast non-interventionist GOP lawmakers in Congress — along with Sen. Rand Paul, also of Kentucky — and the president suggested he would turn his Republican Party against the congressman. 'MAGA should drop this pathetic LOSER, Tom Massie, like the plague!' the president said on social media. 'The good news is that we will have a wonderful American Patriot running against him in the Republican Primary, and I'll be out in Kentucky campaigning really hard.' __ Associated Press writer Mary Clare Jalonick contributed to this report. Error! Sorry, there was an error processing your request. There was a problem with the recaptcha. Please try again. You may unsubscribe at any time. By signing up, you agree to our terms of use and privacy policy . This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google privacy policy and terms of service apply. Want more of the latest from us? Sign up for more at our newsletter page .
