Indiana State Teachers Association Vice President Jennifer Smith-Margraf discusses the union’s 2025 legislative priorities on Tuesday, Dec. 10, during a news conference in Indianapolis. Photo by Casey Smith, Indiana Capital Chronicle.

By Casey Smith
Indiana Capital Chronicle

INDIANA — Indiana’s largest teachers union listed educator pay boosts, increased public school funding and consolidated training requirements among its top asks for the 2025 legislative session.

The Indiana State Teachers Association, which represents roughly 40,000 Hoosier educators, released a priority agenda on Tuesday — just weeks before state lawmakers are set to return to the Statehouse.

Jennifer Smith-Margraf, ISTA’s vice president, emphasized that “equitable funding for Indiana’s public schools” is of highest concern to the union.

The 2025 session will see state legislators craft the state’s next biennial budget, about half of which has historically been earmarked for education.

In recent years, however, Indiana’s Republican-dominated legislature has opted to grow the state’s private school voucher system at a faster rate — a shift ISTA has long opposed.

“We’re here to speak for educators and every student whose future depends on a fair, safe and supportive learning environment,” Smith-Margraf said during a Tuesday news conference. “Hoosiers value strong public schools that provide equal opportunities for all students. Whether Black or white, Latino, Asian, Native (American) or newcomer, every Hoosier child deserves a quality education, and that starts with well-funded schools.”

Top Priorities Focus On Funding Increases

A two-page agenda released by ISTA officials breaks the union’s priorities down into five categories.

A section on funding emphasizes increased funding to “efficiently support” Indiana’s public schools. That includes greater funding for early childhood education, as well as additional dollars to ensure that schools can adequately afford students’ textbook costs.

In 2023, the General Assembly mandated K-12 schools to cover the cost of textbooks and a range of other curricular materials, but district officials have since expressed concerns that the state dollars they’ve received do not completely cover related fees.

“What we’re asking (lawmakers) to do is to not just cover the textbook portion of it, but the fee portion of it, because we don’t believe that parents should be responsible for that, especially if they’re out working two, three and four jobs,” Smith-Margraf said.

The union is also advocating for Indiana’s compulsory school attendance age to drop to six, meaning kindergarten would become a requirement for Hoosier kids. Currently, Indiana students are not required to attend school until age seven, when first grade begins.

“Every child deserves a solid start,” Smith-Margraf said in reference to mandated kindergarten. “This funding will help make that possible.”

Another bundle of ISTA requests center around “fair compensation and benefits for educators.” The union wants to see teacher salaries aligned with “inflation-adjusted” benchmarks — which Smith-Margraf said would close the 22.8% pay gap with other professions. ISTA is also asking for all public school employees to receive 12 weeks of parental leave.

The latest data showed the average teacher salary in Indiana during the last school year was recorded at $60,557 — up from $58,531 the year prior.

ISTA is not recommending a specific minimum salary, however. Baseline educator pay in the state currently sits at $40,000.

‘Hopeful’ About New Administration

Reduced training requirements via the creation of a five-year cycle for state-mandated professional development is among the union’s other priorities, too. That would “reduce redundancy and improve efficiency,” and affect trainings around suicide awareness and child abuse prevention, according to ISTA officials.

Smith-Margraf also noted teachers’ request to exclude veteran teachers from the state’s new — and controversial — literacy licensure requirement, allowing for the completion of an 80-hour science of reading course, instead.

After the requirement was approved by the General Assembly earlier this year, ISTA and its members criticized the “unfair” and “overwhelming” 80-hour training. Many pleaded for more options to be made available for teachers to complete the professional development course — or that it be removed as a requirement altogether.

The state’s education department has since adjusted and added training options. Some educators have already been exempted from the licensure requirements, as long as they aren’t teaching literacy to students past fifth grade.

Additionally included among ISTA’s priorities is:

• The addition of 500 school counselors statewide to lower Indiana’s counselor-to-student ratio from 694:1 to 500:1, and to reduce non-counselor duties.
• Establishing “clear reporting mechanisms” for violence against school staff, as well as penalties for non-compliant districts, especially in light of a recent state report in which thousands of Hoosier teachers and other school workers said they were hurt by students on the job during the last academic year.
• Promotion of restorative justice programs over suspensions for non-violent offenses among students.
• Giving teachers mandatory collective bargaining rights in “decisions impacting their safety and working conditions.”
• Increasing funding for diversity scholarships and programs to recruit and retain minority educators.
• Allowing the bargaining of schools’ reserve funds that exceed 25% of a district’s budget.

Smith-Margraf said many of the union’s priorities are aligned with those in Gov.-elect Mike Braun’s agenda. She noted that ISTA is actively meeting with the new Republican governor’s administration and other state officials ahead of the legislative session.