House Republican majority rejects effort to educe state bureaucratic bloat

INDIANAPOLIS – Indiana House Republicans today rejected an effort by House Democratic Leader Scott Pelath from Michigan City to reduce the bureaucratic bloat in state government.

The House majority refused to deny funding to the Center for Education & Career Innovation (CECI), an extra layer of bureaucracy created by Gov. Mike Pence in August 2013 to act upon education policy in the state.

“I believe most people in Indiana would be surprised to know that the CECI exists, and its purpose in state government,” Pelath said. “I think they would be surprised because they are under the belief that education policy is handled by the Indiana Department of Education, which is led by a Superintendent of Public Instruction they elected into office back in 2012.”

In the biennial state budget approved by the Legislature in 2013, more than $14 million in funding was provided for the CECI. This funding comes from a variety of sources, including the state Board of Education, Indiana Works Councils, the Education Roundtable, and the Indiana Career Council.

By comparison, the budget for the Superintendent of Public Instruction is $16 million over the biennium.

“What have the people of Indiana seen from this new bureaucracy?” Pelath asked. “So far, we have seen that they have hired a bunch of high-priced bureaucrats and not much else.

“Despite this complete lack of performance, we are to treat the CECI as a state agency, with the ability to enter into agreements with other agencies, and be in the position to have access and control over all kinds of sensitive data, including personal information about students,” he continued.

“The people of Indiana have no control over the CECI, which appears to have been set up to usurp our Department of Education and its leader, who, after all, was elected by the voters of this state,” Pelath noted. “Until we have the opportunity to find out what this ‘agency’ does, I do not see why we should be spending taxpayer dollars for what appear to be duplicated services and a concerted effort to muddy up education policy.

“I am disappointed to see that this effort was rejected by a majority that used to pride itself on criticizing redundancy and bureaucratic bloat in government,” he said.