Issue Position: Education

Issue Position

School Choice

Ryan believes the most important issue our Legislature must get right is to ensure that every child has the best opportunity to receive a high quality education in Indiana. He trusts Hoosier parents with the flexibility and understanding to exercise school choice and control over where and how their children are educated.

Ryan will sponsor legislation to expand school choice to all Hoosier families by instituting personal Education Savings Accounts for every school-age child with state funding. Education Savings places more power and greater choice in the hands of parents so that every child has the opportunity to attend the school that works best for them regardless of income. Your child's savings account will continue to grow over the years and may be used for additional educational needs such as tutors, college prep, school books or special needs. These dollars may also be used eventually for help with college tuition. Lower income families would receive 100% of available state funding to attend private schools if they choose while other students would be eligible to receive 90%.

We are fortunate to have excellent public schools and dedicated educators in the 59th district which is unfortunately not the case in other areas of our state. In fact, for the first time in recent memory our local high schools graduated more than 90% of its students and should be widely celebrated; however, there remains a graduation gap in the state for lower income, minority, and students with disabilities for which school choice can be a great equalizer. Education Savings provides a big step forward in realizing the best education opportunities for middle and lower income families and students with special needs, opening up more options for individualized learning and a new way to save for college for our children.

Ryan wants all of our children to have the best opportunity in the country for a quality education and to have good-paying jobs available when they graduate. No child should be for want of a great education in Indiana. Ryan will be a strong advocate for improving education and future success of all our children on this most important issue.

ISTEP

Ryan will bring much needed leadership and renewed energy to the important issues of education for our district. There have been too many failures and missteps with testing and scoring that now must be addressed. Ryan is concerned about the state of education and the recent failures with ISTEP+ and will focus on common sense solutions that work for all Hoosier students and educators.

School children and their parents should not have to worry about whether their test scores are accurate or if the test will even work correctly. Ryan is also strongly opposed to Common Core which influenced ISTEP+ and his opponent initially favored. Indiana has spent too many tax dollars on these poor results and should fight to recoup costs and damages.

A blue-ribbon panel of local educators and experts should be brought together across the state to identify a better testing solution that meets a high standard and addresses the following issues:

Teachers should have access to their students' scores and continual progress.Measuring our students and teachers should provide benefits to the classroom.
Testing should be done in a smart way spread over time and not approach 12 hour exams. Testing should be more manageable and less stressful for our students so they can better prepare for success.
We need to put the focus back on letting teachers teach and not burdening our classrooms with excessive paperwork or high stakes over-testing of students, especially at the elementary grade level.
Ryan believes it is important to be able to measure the success of our students and teachers, but there is a better way to achieve this, and he trusts our excellent educators, experts, and organizations in Indiana will be able to come together to solve this important issue at a lower cost. Ryan will be a strong voice for positive change to improve education in Indiana and will lead this effort for the children and parents of our district at the statehouse.

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