WFHB Bloomington Community Radio
Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 4:46 — 4.4MB)
Starting as early as 2021, the State Superintendent of Public Instruction will no longer be elected by Hoosier voters.
The Republican-controlled State Senate voted 29-19 yesterday, to eliminate the elected position and make the state’s highest educator an appointed Secretary of Education.
House Bill 1005 was originally approved in 2017, by the Indiana General Assembly. The switch, from an elected to an appointed position, was planned for 2025. The date was moved up to 2021, after the current State Superintendent, Jennifer McCormick, announced late last year she would not seek a second term in 2021.
Sen. (D-Bloomington) Mark Stoops, who sits on the Committee on Education and Career Development, said the switch will no longer require school teaching experience as a prerequisite for the state’s highest ranking educator. He expressed concern the Governor’s appointee may focus on business, rather than education.
The new, Governor-appointed Secretary of Education will be in charge of running a $6 billion state agency, overseeing education for k-12 students.
According to Stoops, the original measure which passed the legislature in 2017, was a Republican response to a Democrat, Glenda Ritz, holding the State Superintendent’s office for the first time in 40 years.
HB 1005 passed on the State Senate floor yesterday afternoon, at 2 p.m. The bill will go to Gov. Holcomb’s desk to be signed into law later this week.
Gov. Holcomb encouraged the state legislature to consider increases to teacher salaries, during his State of the State address in January. The average teacher salary in Indiana is lower than any surrounding states. That bill is currently being considered in the legislature, which would adopt it into the state budget.
