INDIANAPOLIS – Ten education bills are already advancing in the early weeks of the 2025 legislative session, including those seeking to improve K-12 student attendance, guarantee better teacher benefits, and remove “unnecessary or outdated” school regulations.
The assortment of House and Senate bills are largely headed to their respective full chambers — those with fiscal impacts will first need approval from budget committees, though.
Indiana’s GOP supermajorities and new Republican Gov. Mike Braun said their education agendas prioritize school deregulations and private school choice expansions.
House and Senate Democrats, meanwhile, are pushing for public education funding increases and increased access to pre-K programming, in addition to other measures.
Nearly three dozen education-related bills were filed across the two chambers. Many of those are unlikely to get hearings. Even fewer bills will make it across the legislative finish line by the end of April.
A handful of bills that have been subject to public testimony — and are now on deck for possible amendments and committee votes — deal with school counselor supports, student “well-being” and “resiliency” resources, college graduate job placements, school board vacancies, charter school police departments, teacher grants, and rollbacks to educator and administrator licensure requirements.
To view the education bills gaining traction so far and read the rest of the Casey Smith story for the Indiana Capital Chronicle, go here.
