Indiana is about as red as a state can get. Republicans control the governor’s office and the General Assembly, and they can pass bills without a single Democrat in attendance. For good measure, former Gov. Mike Pence is now vice president, a heartbeat away from occupying the Oval Office.
So it’s a little startling to see a hiccup in the GOP legislative hierarchy. It came in February when first-term Gov. Eric Holcomb’s key legislative priority, presumably nothing more than a layup, was cast aside by a supermajority of Republicans.
Holcomb, like his six predecessors, wanted a right-thinking law calling for the position of the state superintendent of public instruction — the state education leader — to be appointed by the governor, not elected statewide as it’s now done.
Democrats expectantly disagreed, but they were surprisingly joined by 17 Republicans, leading to the bill’s stunning defeat in the Senate, after it already cleared the House.
Bills aren’t always dead for long in the legislature. House Speaker Brian Bosma altered House Bill 1005, and his Senate counterpart David Long said the language changes were enough to warrant the bill to advance again to the Senate floor.
Opponents of the bill contend it takes power away from voters to cast ballots for a critical office that impacts education policy.
Still, we think it makes sense for the schools chief to be appointed to keep education policy from going off the rails as it did during the four-year tenure of Glenda Ritz, who clashed so much with Pence that he created a shadow education department to usurp her. The sniping was so intense it left educators, who face high-stakes accountability, at a loss to know what to expect from state government.
The move to an appointed school leader would also force gubernatorial candidates to put forth straightforward education platforms leading to more seamless development by the Department of Education. More than half of Indiana’s $31 billion budget is devoted to K-12 education. As it stands now, the governor’s legislative agenda and the schools chief’s are not always in sync. They should be.
The revised bill faces a test this coming week on the Senate floor, where it awaits final reading. There’s likely been some arm twisting, so we’ll see if Senate Republicans fall into line behind the bill.
If passed, it would almost certainly be headed for a conference committee and another vote. While the bill’s changes are fresh, the issue is not. It’s time for Indiana to make this change to improve education for all Hoosiers.
