Panel recommends math course changes, fewer data reporting requirements for schools

INDIANAPOLIS (WISH) — The state’s largest teacher’s union on Monday said a state legislative panel missed an opportunity to address the state’s teacher shortage.

A legislative study committee endorsed several recommendations for schools, including integrating financial literacy into math coursework. The committee chair and education advocates said this is a good way to teach students a needed skill without creating a new course requirement.

The panel also recommended scrapping the requirement that school corporations submit an annual performance report, saying the soon-to-be-launched Indiana GPS Dashboard makes the requirement redundant.

Indiana State Teachers Association President Keith Gambill said he was disappointed the committee did not discuss the state’s education worker shortage. The ISTA estimates the state’s K-12 schools are short 3,600 workers, including nearly 2,200 teachers.

“We have to recognize that what our students need are the resources and the educators, at all levels,” he said. “We need those supports wrapped around those students so that we can guide them through what they have had to go through for the past three years.”

Committee chair Rep. Robert Behning, R-Indianapolis, said school staffing was beyond the study committee’s purview this year. Topics for study committees are approved at the end of each legislative session and the teacher shortage was not among the issues his committee could consider. Still, Behning said to expect legislation meant to bring more educators into the classroom, such as increased funding for scholarships for education majors.