INDIANAPOLIS — Gov. Eric Holcomb’s proposal to start picking up the tab on textbooks and curriculum materials for most Hoosier school kids in grades K-12 is raising some questions during the first week of session at the statehouse.
The House Ways and Means Committee, the committee that holds the purse strings on the House side of the state’s budget process, had some questions Thursday for the people presenting the governor’s budget requests.
Indiana spends half of its budget on education and the governor wants $160 million of those education costs to cover the schoolbooks and curriculum fees for most Hoosier families.
He even made the proposal part of his State of the State address Tuesday night, pointing out a mom in the audience who he said paid more than $600 last year for schoolbooks for her four kids.
“Our state constitution promises a tuition-free education. Let’s cover the full cost of curriculum fees paid for by parents like Mandy, so that, starting next school year, no parent receives such a dreadful bill again,” the governor told those gathered in the House chamber for his address.
Right now, the state only pays for the schoolbooks of kids who get free or reduced lunch, no matter what kind of school they go to, traditional public, charter public or private school.
Holcomb wants to change that to now include kids in kindergarten through 12th grade at traditional public and charter public schools, no matter how much money their parents make.
So what about kids who go to private schools who don’t qualify for the free and reduced lunch program? Will the state pay for their schoolbooks, too?
Right now, under the current budget proposal from the governor, the answer is no, which has raised questions from some about the fairness of the proposal.
“I’m just being an advocate for all parents, not just some parents. All of them because they pay property taxes to a school they don’t attend. They pay income taxes. They pay sales taxes that go to a school system they don’t use. It seems as though it should be more level on its first look,” said Rep. Ben Smaltz, R-District 52, a member of the House Ways and Means Committee.
Rep. Greg Porter, D-District 96, who sits on the same committee, said he agrees with the governor's proposal to eliminate textbook fees for all public school students – while maintaining the current income tax deduction for textbook fees for non-public and homeschooled students.
“I’m not adverse for any parent to have that. I try to create parity for all students in the state of Indiana,” he said.
Republican leaders in the House say they’re still looking at the proposal, but it wasn’t spelled out Thursday on their list of measures they’d like to accomplish this session.
“I’m not telling you we won’t do it. I just want to make sure our caucus and our committee has an opportunity to weigh it all out,” said House Speaker Todd Huston, R-District 37.
Holcomb said not covering textbook fees and curriculum materials was counter to Indiana’s constitution.
As for coming to an agreement with lawmakers on the details of the proposal.
“I won’t pretend to be naïve nor unaware that where ewe start is where we finish and this coming together for a long budget session requires us to share details that may have not come up before,” Holcomb said. “This is a prime opportunity, month after month to try and be as persuasive as we can."