Vote near on Indiana budget with schools boost, vaping tax
TOM DAVIES, Associated Press
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INDIANAPOLIS (AP) Indiana public school and teachers groups are cheering the education funding increase included in the new state budget plan that’s poised for final approval from lawmakers on Thursday to complete this year’s regular legislative session.
Support comes from those groups even as the Republican-dominated Legislature is set to endorse a contentious expansion of the state’s private school voucher program by raising the income eligibility level for a family of four to about $145,000 for the coming school year.
The state budget agreement announced Tuesday will boost overall school funding by about 4.5% each of the next two years. That deal, however, leaves out a push to follow the federal government’s lead of excluding some unemployment benefits paid last year from income taxes. It also imposes a new state tax on vaping products.
Vote near on Indiana budget with schools boost, vaping tax
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(The Center Square) â Indiana senators are proposing to spend $5 million more next year to help immigrant children in Indiana schools learn English, bringing the total annual expense of the program to $27 million.
Republican Gov. Eric Holcomb had proposed keeping funding for English-language learners at $22.5 million, but the Indiana Senate, in its budget bill passed last week, added $5 million for the 2021-2022 school year and $5 million for the 2022-2023 school.
If approved and signed into law, the annual funding for English Language Learner programs (formerly called ESL or ESOL) will be $27.5 million for each of the next two academic years.
The proposed increase, said Sen. Jeff Raatz, R-Richmond, the chairman of the Senate education committee, reflects the increasing number of students in Indiana schools who either have no English or a limited ability to speak and read English.