Pelath on IDOE budget: “At long last, public schools, families are priorities again”

INDIANAPOLIS – Indiana House Democratic Leader Scott Pelath from Michigan City today issued the following statement on the budget proposal outlined by the Indiana Department of Education (DOE):

“This announcement should be cause for celebration for one simple reason: at long last, the agency that oversees the education of Hoosier children is finally recognizing the need to pay attention to the needs of families and our public school system.

“First, after years of seeing previous state school superintendents and administrations place a greater budget priority on vouchers and private schools, we are finally seeing an awareness that something needs to be done to make our public schools whole. State support is the cornerstone of the system that carries a constitutional responsibility to educate all our children, not just a select few, and it is good to see a return to that consideration.

“Second, it is good to see that we have a school superintendent and a department of education that recognize the onerous burdens placed on families across Indiana through the textbook tax. Elimination of this tax defines middle class tax relief, a consideration that has been sadly lacking from the one-party rule we currently have in state government. At the very least, it should spur discussions of the need to give families of students in our public school system the same kind of break we so willingly extended to families that teach their children at home or send them to private schools.

“Indiana House Democrats have long advocated the need for elimination of the textbook tax. Having the support of the Department of Education ensures that this will be a budget priority in the upcoming session.

“This proposal helps our middle class and our public schools after years of neglect. It demands broad-based support.”