Dive Brief:
- The U.S. Department of Education is still undecided on Indiana's No Child Left Behind waiver application.
- The department issued waivers to five states — Delaware, Georgia, Minnesota, New York, and South Carolina — on Thursday, but Indiana was not one of them — despite the fact that the state resubmitted it's application June 30.
- Without the waiver, states are held accountable to the Bush-era education law (including stringent Annual Yearly Progress expectations) and lose flexibility in how they spend their federal funding. Without a waiver, Indiana stands to lose over $200 million in Title I funding.
Dive Insight:
Indiana's education department appears to be in a bit of a mess right now. The state decided to opt out of the Common Core in March and rushed to create new standards by the upcoming school year. In the process of creating these new standards, the federal government informed the state that it needed to resubmit its NCLB waiver application. In somewhat rushed turnaround, a new application was submitted, though Gov. Mike Pence's office came out Wednesday blaming Superintendent Glenda Ritz of complicating the process. According to Pence and members of the state Board of Education, Ritz did not allow them to review the waiver amendments prior to submission.