2018-2019 Reflections Theme:
"Heroes Around Me"

Inaccurate Portrayal of INPTA in Broadway's "The Prom"

‘Our Teachers Have Waited Long Enough’: Educators Say Indiana Needs to Act Now on Teacher Pay

12/10/2018

Educators and advocates are pushing state leaders to take action this year to raise teacher compensation — not to wait for additional research, as Gov. Eric Holcomb proposed last week.

“Our teachers have waited long enough,” said Teresa Meredith, president of the Indiana State Teachers Association, the state’s largest teachers union. “It doesn’t take a two-year study to discover what we already know: teachers need to be valued, respected, and paid as professionals.”

Read more here.

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Indiana PTA News

Raising Teacher Pay Likely to be at the Forefront for Indiana Lawmakers and Advocates in 2019 - Chalkbeat

11/19/2018

Business during Indiana's 2019 legislative session will include crafting our next two-year state budget. Lawmakers have reportedly already been in talks about how to set aside more money for teachers and other educators.

Teacher salaries in Indiana are down from 2009 when adjusted for inflation. The average teacher salary in 2018 was $54,846, down about 4.5 percentage points from nine years earlier, according to NEA data. Indiana currently ranks 18th in the nation for teacher salaries (adjusted for cost of living).

Indiana PTA supports increased teacher salaries in order to attract and retain quality teachers, as well as annual cost of living (COLA as determined yearly by the Social Security Administration) salary increases for teachers. Indiana PTA believes that educational professionals deserve salaries commensurate with the professional preparation and dedication necessary for effective teaching.

We encourage our members to contact their legislators in support of funding salary increases for teachers during the upcoming legislative session. Attracting and retaining quality teachers is in the best interests of Indiana's children.

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2018 Unit Flash Drive - Updated 12/07/2018

2018-2019
Indiana PTA Legislative Program

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: November 15, 2018

The new Broadway musical "The Prom" opens at the Longacre Theatre in Midtown Manhattan tonight. The play is partially set in small-town Indiana where PTA President Mrs. Greene is committed to maintaining a "traditional" prom. The key conflict in the story is tied to the PTA excluding same-sex couples from attending the event.

Indiana PTA is extremely disappointed in this portrayal of PTA leaders in our state. Indiana PTA membership adopted the resolution Making Schools Safe in 2012. The association then spent four years advocating for the passage of similar language to protect LGBTQ youth at the national level. Indiana PTA leaders were instrumental in the creation and passage of National PTA's resolution Recognition of LGBTQ Individuals as a Protected Class at the National PTA Convention in 2016. This resolution has allowed PTA leaders across the United States to speak up on the behalf of LGBTQ students.

Indiana PTA firmly believes that all children and youth should be able to attend school in a safe and inclusive environment that is free from discrimination. Indiana PTAactively works to ensure that all of our associated units treat LGBTQ students in a fair and inclusive manner. Any local PTA acting in the manner portrayed would be in violation of our Standards of Affiliation and in danger of revocation of their unit's charter.

As PTA leaders, we work to protect the rights of every child in our schools and communities, including increasing understanding and promoting acceptance of LGBTQ youth. Indiana PTA will continue to support school policies as well as state and federal legislation which helps create safe, supporting and accepting environments in all schools for our LGBTQ youth. The portrayal of PTA leaders as the source of discrimination in this production is against everything our association believes in and promotes.

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For further media inquiries, please contact Carissa Dollar, Indiana PTA Vice President of Advocacy at dollarPTA@gmail.com.