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INDIANAPOLIS (AP) — Republicans approved shifting authority over Indiana's standardized testing and other education policy matters from Democratic state schools Superintendent Glenda Ritz during the final hours of this year's legislative session.
The House and Senate backed provisions Wednesday night that give the State Board of Education control over development of the ISTEP exam and a new $10 million charter schools grant fund.
Those moves were the latest steps in the ongoing struggle for control of education policy involving Ritz, the Republican-controlled Legislature and the Board of Education, which is dominated by appointees of GOP Gov. Mike Pence.
The tussle played out in the hours before lawmakers voted to approve a new $31 billion, two-year state budget and adjourn the 2015 session. The spending plan includes a 2.3 percent increase in school funding, with more money going to schools in growing suburban communities; many urban and rural districts with shrinking enrollments will see cuts.
Pence and Republican legislative leaders pushed for months for allowing the Board of Education to elect its own chairman, ending a decades-old law that makes the state superintendent the board's leader.
Republican lawmakers backed off such a change this week, suggesting lawmakers wait until Ritz's current term concludes at the end of 2016, and instead turning to various steps of limiting her authority — such as giving a board vice chairman joint responsibility for the panel's agenda.
House Majority Leader Jud McMillin, R-Brookville, called the bill a compromise aimed at improving cooperation between board members and Ritz's Department of Education.
"Those entities have to be able to communicate effectively to make sure our children are best served by the policies that are implemented by this body are able to be passed along to schools," McMillin said.
Democrats and Ritz supporters have argued changes to Ritz's authority are politically motivated, effectively create a second state education agency and would undermine the will of voters who elected her in 2012.
"They expect that the state superintendent that they choose remain in charge of education policy here in Indiana," House Democratic Leader Scott Pelath said.
Pence said Wednesday afternoon that he supported the proposals as a consolidation of education policy decisions.
"I think the State Board of Education is the proper place to oversee those programs and to make sure they're being operated in a way that's in the best interest of our kids and our families and consistent with the policies embraced through Indiana's legislative process," Pence said.
Ritz spokesman Daniel Altman said the new proposals would leave her as chairwoman in name only and were being advanced without public input.
"It's just another instance of the disdain the governor shows for the voice of the public and for an open and transparent government," he said.
Another proposal for turning control of the state's private school voucher program over to the Board of Education was removed from the budget bill after the top Republican in the state Senate said its leaders weren't aware that provision had been included.
Senate President Pro Tem David Long said now wasn't the time to shift oversight of the voucher program as attempts are made to improve how the education board and Ritz work together.
"We're trying to give this thing a chance to work," Long said.
Ritz opposed the creation of the voucher program before she was elected state superintendent in 2012. The Department of Education produced a report last year that said the program cost the state roughly $16 million in the 2013-14 school year.
The House and Senate, meanwhile, both voted nearly along party lines to approve the state budget plan.
House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Tim Brown, R-Crawfordsville, touted the budget as one that makes education the top priority while keeping control of spending growth
"We live within our means, we mean that," Brown said. "We protect taxpayers. We have adequate reserves. We have a structural surplus and we plan for the future."
Democrats calculated about a third of Indiana's nearly 300 school districts would see funding cuts under the budget plan. They predicted hundreds of teacher layoffs around the state, with most of those in the poorest communities.
"I can't support this budget because I wanted to support every child in Indiana," said Democratic Rep. Melanie Wright of Yorktown.
Lawmakers also approved a proposal Wednesday night to allow needle exchange programs in Indiana communities with public epidemics as part of a response to a southern Indiana HIV outbreak linked to intravenous drug use.
Another bill approved allows Indiana's riverboat casinos to build on-land facilities as a way of helping them respond to increased competition from casinos in neighboring states.
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