Harris testifies at Indiana State Board of Education public hearing about proposed diplomas
INDIANAPOLIS – Yesterday (July 30), the State Board of Education (SBOE) held a public meeting regarding the proposed GPS and GPS+ high school diplomas. Legislators, educators and concerned parents gathered to voice their concerns about the new diploma requirements.
State Representative and IBLC Chair Earl Harris Jr. (D-East Chicago) provided the following statement regarding his testimony at the hearing:
“This summer, the Indiana Black Legislative Caucus has hosted town halls in Lawrence, Evansville, Elkhart, Michigan City and Fort Wayne, with two upcoming town halls in Gary and Terre Haute. Overwhelmingly, attendees have asked our caucus about the GPS and GPS Plus diplomas, noting their frustrations about the lack of answers to their questions surrounding the proposal.
“Over and over, IBLC town hall attendees have raised questions regarding the safety and feasibility of the proposal: How does transportation work? In the event a student is injured, who would assume liability? What about background checks for the employees at these jobsites who will be working with children? Parents certainly do not want their children to be forced into a potentially unsafe situation, and as a small business owner, I'm not sure I would want to take on the liability issues posed by these work-learning experiences.
“Aside from the issue of safety, the lack of academic rigor required by these diplomas will absolutely pose problems for those seeking to attend college. While not every child will choose to pursue higher education, every student needs to be given the same opportunity to do so if that is the path they choose. These new diploma requirements would make it almost impossible for a student to even be considered by an Indiana college. Purdue University has outright stated that the diploma requirements do not meet admission standards in math, lab sciences, social studies and world languages. This is a major problem, and we cannot overlook the consequences of implementing a diploma system that does not even meet the bare-minimum admittance requirements for Indiana's universities.
“This will be my eighth year in the Indiana General Assembly. Perhaps the most important bill I will have passed is the law which made the 21st Century Scholars program automatically enroll eligible students. Under this law, tens of thousands of students who could otherwise not afford college would now have the funds necessary to do so. If adopted, these diploma requirements would undue that progress by making these same students fall short of the necessary course requirements needed for university consideration.
“I sincerely hope that the SBOE takes heed of the feedback from both myself and my fellow Hoosiers to make significant changes to these diplomas. We must ensure not only the protection of our students, but that the children who want to go to college have a path to do so.”