Governor to address education
Heather Mangold
City
Editor
Gov. Frank O'Bannon will deliver the annual State
of the State address Wednesday night in Indianapolis.
In this address the governor will set the tone
on his issues for the upcoming legislative session, according to Sen.
Ronnie Alting, D-22nd.
Education has been noted to be the governor's primary
issue, according to Alting.
"The governor's budget that was presented is bleak
for educational needs," said Sue Scholer, R-26th. "It is very bleak
for higher education," she said.
Alting said that the governor is proposing a full-day
kindergarten pilot program to be put in place in Indiana.
Alting is not in favor of the full-day pilot program
because there are already 66 school corporations in Indiana that participate
in it.
Indiana's budget is another issue that will be
brought before the general assembly this session.
Purdue state relation officials are requesting
several funding increases for various programs at Purdue, according
to this session's legislative budget request update. These programs
include biomedical engineering, computational sciences, genomics and
biotechnology. The governor's budget does not include increases in any
of these areas.
However the governor's budget proposal does include
a three percent increase for residential and nonresidential student
fees. This matches the increases that will be requested in Purdue's
budget request plan.
The governor's budget proposal plans to use surplus
from gaming tax and tobacco settlement dollars.
Scholer said that other issues that seem to be
concerning the governor for this legislative session are corrections
and welfare.
Indiana citizens and legislators should question
that when other issues are more concerning, said Scholer.
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