(NETWORK INDIANA ) Indiana’s teachers say they shouldn’t have to wait for raises. Governor Holcomb says they won’t have to.
Holcomb and both parties in the Indiana House say raising teachers’ pay is on their 2019 priority list. But Holcomb inadvertently ruffled feathers at the Indiana State Teachers Association when he warned it would take until 2021 to implement a “framework” for ensuring teachers get more money. On Wednesday, Holcomb told the annual Bingham Greenebaum Doll Legislative Conference that warning was “somewhat mischaracterized.” He says he’s focused on both short and long-term increases for teachers in the legislative session which begins next month. He says nearly every state budget has increased school funding, and while an updated economic forecast won’t be released till Monday, he’s pledging an increase in the upcoming two-year budget.
But Holcomb says not enough of those increases has made its way to teachers’ paychecks in the past. And he says his basic point remains the same: he says it’ll take more than one budget cycle to identify where to find the hundreds of millions of dollars needed to guarantee raises, and craft a “systematic and sustainable” way to make sure teachers actually get the money.
Holcomb has said the eventual bill will preserve local school boards’ spending authority but has yet to reveal any specifics.