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Indiana reports record high school graduation rate
Hoosiers are graduating high school at a record rate, according to the Indiana Department of Education. More than 90% of Hoosier students in the class of 2024 graduated high school, up from nearly 89% the school year before and 87% in the 2022 academic year, according to state data. The class of 2024’s graduation rate …
Indiana Democrats chart a new course
EVANSVILLE, Ind. — Watching Indiana Democrats choose a new leader feels like observing a ship set sail in turbulent waters — a moment ripe with opportunity but fraught with historical baggage. Destiny Wells and Jennifer McCormick, both seasoned and accomplished, are vying for a role with outsize symbolic importance but limited practical power. The question …
My last column: Signing off after 55 years
SOUTH BEND, Ind. — This is the 2,863rd column I’ve written for the South Bend Tribune. It is also the last. I like to think some of the columns were fairly good. Maybe a dozen or so. The first column appeared on April 18, 1969. That’s over 55 years ago. I was only 12 years …
Power 50: Nominations now open for 2025 movers, shakers and elected officials
This will be one of those change-of-the-guard Howey Politics Indiana Power 50 lists that happens every four to eight years. The new gubernatorial administration of Mike Braun and the exit of Gov. Eric Holcomb means the 26th annual Power 50 — which is designed to gauge who will likely have the biggest impacts on Indiana …
The vanishing breed of Hoosier columnists
INDIANAPOLIS — About three decades ago, Jack Colwell and I were nominal rival newspaper reporters/columnists, he for the South Bend Tribune and I for the neighboring Elkhart Truth. It was a friendly rivalry, which tended to center on what was happening in frequently riotous congressional races (and recounts) or if President George H.W. Bush was …
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A State Fair: Disemboweled political parties
INDIANAPOLIS — In 2024, America saw both of its major political parties disemboweled but not yet dead. In 2025, we will learn how those parties, or new ones, will be resurrected. But nations do not need political parties to survive. Republicans, as we knew them, no longer exist. That party has been subverted by Donald …
A State Fair: If not now, when?
INDIANAPOLIS — According to the latest Census Bureau estimates, Indiana has 6.9 million people. We need to know that number because so many other numbers are expressed as “per 100,000,” such as 17.1 deaths by gunshot per 100,000 Hoosiers in recent years. Nationally that figure has been 13.7. Hence, if Indiana had 69 hundred thousand …
The sensational political year of 2024
INDIANAPOLIS — The year 2024 will go down in history books as a sensational one politically. For just the second time, America is sending a former president back to the White House. Indiana elected its 52nd white male governor. We watched a rematch take shape between President Joe Biden and former President Donald J. Trump. …
School choice is a good, not great, thing — sort of
MUNCIE, Ind. — I have long supported school choice. There are many good reasons to share my position. At the same time, school choice in Indiana has not delivered the broad success its defenders claim. School choice in Indiana began in 2000 with the first authorization of charter schools. Then, in 2008, the Mitch Daniels …
The fights ahead on government efficiency
BLOOMINGTON, Ind. — A few weeks ago on X, that social media platform’s owner, Elon Musk, posted that he has the U.S.’s twice-yearly daylight saving/standard time change in his sights. “Looks like the people want to abolish the annoying time changes!” he wrote. Vivek Ramaswamy quickly responded, “It’s inefficient & easy to change.” This wasn’t …
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“This road map contains the foundation for building a better Evansville. Between now and April 9 we will continue to build a strong team of collaborative, creative city leaders and to create a culture of transparency, accountability and accessibility.”
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The Earl of Indiana’s state government
After Mitch Daniels won the 2004 governor’s race, he began assembling his administration. His pitch to many was for them to step into a government role for two years as an act of community service. “I would always say, ‘Just give me two years to try to make this place better,’” Daniels told Howey Politics …
State employees to get one-time bonuses, not raises
Gov. Eric Holcomb, in a letter to state employees, said they will receive one-time stipends instead of raises in the upcoming year, citing “modest” state revenue projections. In recent years, state employees have received salary adjustments as officials attempted to slow turnover. Now, however, full-time state employees of the executive branch will receive one-time stipends …
Katie Jenner on teacher pay, school safety, chronic absenteeism and more
Indiana Secretary of Education Katie Jenner spoke with State Affairs on Dec. 9. The conversation came before the State Board of Education gave its final approval for a diploma rule that Republican lawmakers believe will “reinvent” high school. It also came before the release of a Dec. 17 revenue forecast that will likely have great …
New book shows relationship between election costs and trust
A new book co-authored by a University of Kansas professor shows how much money nearly every state spends on elections, including insights into how that spending affects voters’ trust at the ballot box.
Repairs to Statehouse dome’s peak completed, more work ‘sporadic’ until spring
The top of the Indiana Statehouse dome is visible again after the removal of some tiers of the scaffolding that surrounded it for months. That is likely about all that anyone looking from the ground will see of the copper dome until at least spring arrives and work can pick up again on the repair-and-cleaning …