Indiana facing chronic teacher shortage
School districts across Indiana are having trouble finding people to fill open teaching positions as the number of teacher licenses issued by the state has dropped by nearly 90 percent in recent years.
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Lawmakers pass bill that will let Ritz stay chair of education board
A bill passed Wednesday gives the State Board of Education more authority to oversee Indiana’s ISTEP program and a new grant program that gives more money to charter schools, while keeping Superintendent Glenda Ritz as chair until the next election.
More suburban students using state’s voucher program
Voucher use is up significantly in Hamilton County districts, but most children using the program still live in the state’s largest, poorest cities with some of the most troubled public schools.
Number of Indiana students using vouchers jumps dramatically
Democrats released the numbers Friday, saying they are evidence that the voucher program supported by Republicans is stealing money from public schools.
Indiana could be top state for school vouchers
Preliminary data from the Indiana Department of Education shows 29,437 Indiana children applied for vouchers this year.
Pence continues pitch for preschool voucher plan
Indiana Gov. Mike Pence spent Wednesday morning highlighting the work of an Indianapolis preschool as he made a final pitch for an early education voucher plan that has foundered in the Legislature.
Voucher students who never tried public school on the rise
Four in 10 students using vouchers never attended an Indiana public school, even though the original 2011 law that authorized the program required it.
More public schools receive A grades, fewer get F’s
More Indiana schools received top grades under a system the Indiana State Board of Education approved Friday after months of political wrangling. Among the F’s was a charter school that received a controversial A rating last year.
Lawson lauds $14M union insurance plan settlement
The agreement would end a four-year legal battle with Indiana's largest teachers union. But the Indiana State Teachers Association accused a Republican official of playing politics as she heads into an election year.
Lawmakers end voucher study with few clear answers
Both sides agreed they could use more data on how the individual voucher recipients are performing. More than 20,000 students applied for vouchers this year, up from roughly 9,300 students last year.
School-voucher applications in Indiana double again
The Indiana Department of Education reports it received 20,047 applications for vouchers for the 2013-14 school year.
ISTEP firm faces third-degree from lawmakers, big damages
Indiana's state superintendent announced Friday she is seeking at least $614,000 in damages from CTB/McGraw-Hill for ISTEP testing troubles as the company's president apologized to state lawmakers.
Pence signs Indiana voucher expansion bill
Gov. Mike Pence visited Calvary Christian School on the south side of Indianapolis on Thursday to sign the plan that will make more children eligible for vouchers.
Voucher expansion awaits governor’s signature
Indiana lawmakers have approved an expansion of the nation's broadest private school voucher program that will allow more children to be immediately eligible.
Lawmakers draw close on limited voucher-expansion plan
Legislators are hammering out a modest expansion of the state’s school voucher program following a meeting of House and Senate lawmakers.
Fiscal tug-of-war stalls Indiana voucher expansion
A plan to make vouchers more widely available to families has met a roadblock: So despite the momentum, lawmakers say they want more time to look at the voucher program approved two years ago.
Limited school voucher expansion approved by Senate
The Senate proposal would allow siblings of students already receiving vouchers to qualify for the program, raise the value of each voucher by $200 and eliminate a one-year waiting period in public schools for students who attend "failing" schools.
Indiana Supreme Court upholds school voucher program
In a 5-0 vote, the justices rejected claims that the law primarily benefited religious institutions that run private schools. The decision paves the way for a possible expansion of the program.
Looser Indiana school voucher rules face questions
The fate of a proposal to expand Indiana's private school voucher program by making kindergartners and some other students immediately eligible could come down to something that no one seems to know — how much it will cost.
Rally backs Indiana charter school, voucher programs
Supporters of Indiana's charter schools and private school vouchers packed a Statehouse corridor with hundreds of children from those schools for a rally Monday as they backed expansion of those programs.