Capitol Insider
Capitol Insider
March 17, 2023
Sub-Committee on School Funding
The Appropriations Sub-Committee on School Funding began hearings this week to consider school funding in HB 1001 (a.k.a. the Budget Bill). Included in the House version is a 70% increase for private school vouchers compared to a 5% increase for public school corporations. The House budget increased the cap to qualify for a voucher from an income of less than $30,000 for a family of four to an income of $220,000 for a family of four!
AFT Partnership with Trine University is Offering Discounted 3 Credit Hour Online Education Courses
AFT Indiana has partnered with Trine University and VESi to offer members a yearly subscription to online graduate courses for $225 per year. You can enroll in one course per term or two courses during the summer (if you skip fall or spring), for a total of 3 courses per year.
Choose from over 30 online courses for license renewal and salary advancement
Learn online at your own pace from the convenience of your home
Three graduate courses (up to nine credits) per year for $225 -- a savings of over $1,000 per year
What unions do
In AFT President Randi Weingarten’s latest New York Times column, she describes what it is exactly that unions do. Though unions are the most popular they have been in decades, anti-union sentiment still thrives in red states and across the nation. “Several years ago, The Atlantic ran a story whose headline made even me, a labor leader, scratch my head: ‘Union Membership: Very Sexy,’” Weingarten writes in the column. “The gist was that higher wages, health benefits and job security—all associated with union membership—boost one’s chances of getting married. Belonging to a union doesn’t actually guarantee happily ever after, but it does help working people have a better life in the here and now.” Click through to read the full column.
A torrent of censorship
Nearly 250 years since our country’s founding, some Americans are still attempting to restrict others’ basic freedoms. In Florida and elsewhere, censoring books is part of larger efforts to exert greater control over and undermine education.
Voting for democracy and a better life
In the leadup to the midterm elections, pundits predicted a red wave, even a tsunami, based on polls, historical precedent, and steep gas and grocery prices. But I had my doubts. I spent the weeks before the elections talking to voters and traveling on the AFT Votes bus, rolling through a dozen states with more than 50 stops. In a year when kitchen table issues, democracy and our freedoms were on the ballot, many people told me that the elections came down to a choice between, on the one side, election deniers and extremists stoking fear, and on the other, problem-solvers working to help the country move forward. Many races were close, but Americans turned the tide from a red wave to a swell of support for progress and problem-solvers. Read the full column here.