Indianapolis—Teach Plus Indiana issued the following statement in response to the budget proposed by the House majority caucus:
“Teach Plus Indiana is optimistic about the progress reflected in the House majority caucus budget proposal, including funding for a teacher advancement grant program and a teacher residency pilot program. At the same time, Teach Plus teachers want to see more dollars allocated to teacher compensation over the course of this session and in the biennial budget. As highlighted in the recently-released report from Teach Plus and Stand for Children, Indiana teacher pay is the lowest in the region. To close this gap, we must commit as a state to increasing teacher pay and to working together to find significant, sustainable solutions both now and in the long term.
As Teach Plus Policy Fellow Shelby Phelps shared in her House testimony on behalf of HB1003, “The time is now to allocate funds from the budget to increase teacher salaries. It’s about paying teachers what they deserve for their hard work, continued learning, and passion they infuse into their classrooms every day.”
“Without an increase in pay, Indiana will continue to lag behind other states, losing the excellent, experienced teachers our students need,” said Rachel Hathaway, Teach Plus Indiana Program Manager. “Teach Plus and our Policy Fellows look forward to continuing to inform these important conversations during this session as we reach a decision on the final budget.””
About Teach Plus
Teach Plus empowers excellent, experienced teachers to take leadership over key policy and practice issues that affect their students’ success. Teach Plus programs are designed to place highly effective teachers at the center of improvements in schools as leaders of their peers and outside schools influencing policy decisions that affect their classrooms. The programs develop excellent teachers into leaders who achieve change and mobilize others in their school, district, state, and across the nation to bring change to scale. Since its inception in 2009, Teach Plus has grown to a network of more than 42,000 solutions-oriented teachers across the country. teachplus.org
