The former boys basketball coach at the exclusive private school in Indianapolis was charged Thursday with trying to entice a 15-year-old female student into a sexual relationship, and court documents allege school officials hampered the investigation.
Supporters say the bill would help students who have been expelled or dropped out of school get back on track, while critics contend it’s too broad.
Providence Cristo Rey is one of a handful of Indiana schools with overwhelming numbers of low-income students that is achieving results at least as good as or better than the state average.
School districts across Indiana are having trouble finding people to fill open teaching positions as the number of teacher licenses issued by the state has dropped by nearly 90 percent in recent years.
A bill passed Wednesday gives the State Board of Education more authority to oversee Indiana’s ISTEP program and a new grant program that gives more money to charter schools, while keeping Superintendent Glenda Ritz as chair until the next election.
Voucher use is up significantly in Hamilton County districts, but most children using the program still live in the state’s largest, poorest cities with some of the most troubled public schools.
Democrats released the numbers Friday, saying they are evidence that the voucher program supported by Republicans is stealing money from public schools.
Preliminary data from the Indiana Department of Education shows 29,437 Indiana children applied for vouchers this year.
Indiana Gov. Mike Pence spent Wednesday morning highlighting the work of an Indianapolis preschool as he made a final pitch for an early education voucher plan that has foundered in the Legislature.
Four in 10 students using vouchers never attended an Indiana public school, even though the original 2011 law that authorized the program required it.
More Indiana schools received top grades under a system the Indiana State Board of Education approved Friday after months of political wrangling. Among the F’s was a charter school that received a controversial A rating last year.
The agreement would end a four-year legal battle with Indiana's largest teachers union. But the Indiana State Teachers Association accused a Republican official of playing politics as she heads into an election year.
Both sides agreed they could use more data on how the individual voucher recipients are performing. More than 20,000 students applied for vouchers this year, up from roughly 9,300 students last year.
The Indiana Department of Education reports it received 20,047 applications for vouchers for the 2013-14 school year.
Indiana's state superintendent announced Friday she is seeking at least $614,000 in damages from CTB/McGraw-Hill for ISTEP testing troubles as the company's president apologized to state lawmakers.
Gov. Mike Pence visited Calvary Christian School on the south side of Indianapolis on Thursday to sign the plan that will make more children eligible for vouchers.
Indiana lawmakers have approved an expansion of the nation's broadest private school voucher program that will allow more children to be immediately eligible.
Legislators are hammering out a modest expansion of the state’s school voucher program following a meeting of House and Senate lawmakers.
A plan to make vouchers more widely available to families has met a roadblock: So despite the momentum, lawmakers say they want more time to look at the voucher program approved two years ago.
The Senate proposal would allow siblings of students already receiving vouchers to qualify for the program, raise the value of each voucher by $200 and eliminate a one-year waiting period in public schools for students who attend "failing" schools.
