The Indianapolis Public School Board will consider expanding its fledgling preschool program to add 200 spots for four year olds by establishing 10 more preschool classes in seven schools at its Tuesday meeting.
Ena Shelley, Butler University’s education dean and a national expert in early childhood education, started out 2014 cautiously optimistic about the chances of establishing state-paid tuition aid for low income preschoolers in Indiana for the first time.
Gov Mike Pence called on lawmakers to reinsert a pilot program to to help low income children begin early learning programs into a bill that now would only study preschool.
One of Gov. Mike Pence’s top legislative priorities, a preschool pilot program, appears to have been stymied for 2014.
In 2011, Indiana’s then-Gov. Mitch Daniels made education a major focus of his legislative agenda, unveiling four major bills that tackled many education hot buttons — teachers, unions, charter schools, and vouchers. But, as advocates quickly pointed out, Daniels had overlooked another favored policy: early childhood education.
House Speaker Brian Bosma endorsed Gov. Mike Pence’s plan to establish Indiana’s first state-funded preschool program Wednesday, but there was just one problem.
Gov. Mike Pence knows that some of his 2014 education proposals for the Indiana legislature could be costly.