A top education official in Indiana has proposed that all students will be able to attend preschool for free in the state and hopes to deliver it by the year 2020.
The Superintendent of Public Instructions, Glenda Ritz, said in a statement that the plan will be state-funded noting that it will only take less than one person of the whole budget to make her plans materialize, WDRB.com reported.
Ritz added, "Through a combination of leveraging federal dollars, reverting state allocations and eliminating wasteful spending in the state's budget, the funds are there if the political will exists."
As of now, Indiana's pre-school program centers on assisting children coming from low-income families. Ritz called on Governor Mike Pence on Tuesday to adopt a universal pre-K educational program wherein all students, regardless of family background and income, will be given free education.
Indiana is one of the many states not having a major pre-kindergarten program. This was found out by the National Institute for Early Education Research at Rutgers University. However, many groups, religious conservatives, and home schoolers opposed the federal funding that could be put into the program. Ritz herself frequently clashes with the Republican officeholders.
Ritz is up for re-election in November and reiterated in her Tuesday announcement that her proposal for the pre-K program has been a longstanding goal of hers. She said that it is not motivated by the upcoming general elections. She noted, "Regardless of the politics, I plan to get this implemented."
Despite calling on Pence, it is unlikely that he will be supporting her. He is one of the strong advocates of the state's existing On My Way Pre-K pilot program that was launched across five counties last year. It has sent around 2,300 children from low-income families to preschool at an annual cost of around $10 million. Also, in a Tuesday interview, Pence said that he is more favorable to a pre-K program that helps poor children.
Ritz estimated that her plan will cost around $150 million annually. She noted that this is possible if money budgeted for other types of child-welfare programs will be rededicated to her proposal. More solid details about the plan will be released by Ritz later this week.
