Indiana House Republicans continue to refuse to pay teachers more now

INDIANAPOLIS – A proposal from State Rep. Gregory W. Porter (D-Indianapolis) to increase teacher pay now was rejected today by Indiana House Republicans. This is the second time this legislative session that Republicans have voted against giving teachers a pay raise.

Porter proposed an amendment to the state budget bill (House Bill 1001) that would have given teachers across the state a 5 percent salary increase in each of the next two years. The proposal was defeated in a party-line vote.

“This year, Governor Holcomb and the General Assembly outlined teacher pay as a  priority for the 2019 legislative session,” Porter said. “Yet, here we are halfway through session and those words are not being met by actions from the Governor or the Republican majorities in the House and Senate.

“I proposed a clear and simple solution: take money generated from the renegotiated Indiana Toll Road agreement to pay for a 5 percent raise for every full-time Indiana teacher,” Porter said. “My solution would have given teachers a significant pay raise in the same amount of time – two years – that the Governor’s teacher pay commission will take to simply study the issue.

“The truth is that we don’t need to be studying ways to increase teacher pay,” he continued. “If teacher pay is truly a priority for 2019, let’s work together to pay them more now.”

This legislative session, Rep. Ed DeLaney (D-Indianapolis) also introduced an amendment that would increase teacher pay by making a school corporation eligible to receive a licensed teacher pay grant for teacher salaries if a minimum annual gross salary paid to full-time licensed teachers exceeds $40,000.