State Rep. Jordan on giving schools more control

Friday, February 7, 2025 at 11:00 AM

By Staff report

'Removing burdensome regulations could encourage schools to be even more responsive to the unique needs of their communities, parents and students.'

State Rep. Jordan, R-Bremen, has co-authored House Bill 1002 to give Hoosier K-12 schools more flexibility on education decisions.

He says the goal of the legislation is to remove outdated and duplicate text in Indiana's education statues to provide schools more local control.

"This is an opportunity to streamline Indiana's K-12 education by repealing unnecessary, outdated or redundant statutes," he said. "Doing so prevents schools from having to spend valuable time, money and resources to ensure they're in compliance with Indiana Code."

Some of the proposed changes to Indiana's education statutes include removing "may" provisions on actions schools can already do without state permission, dozens of unused funding programs, specific mandates enacted during the COVID-19 pandemic and duplicate code, resulting in a nearly 10 percent decrease in the state's education regulations.

The legislation also would no longer order teacher training that isn't federally required so local school boards can make those decisions.

"Removing burdensome regulations could encourage schools to be even more responsive to the unique needs of their communities, parents and students," Jordan said.

Visit iga.in.gov to learn more about this and other proposed legislation and watch session and committee meetings.