Educators rally Monday at statehouse for lawmaker action

Educators from across the state are rallying at the statehouse to show support for Indiana public schools and students.

At the state house to show support for educators from across the state are rallied at the state house to show support for indiana public schools and students.

News 18's meredith hackler is there now meredith what message are educators trying to send.

Jeff while there weren't thousand of educators here like there was in november..

Their message to lawmaker is similar.

They don't want promises by the governor.

They want action when it comes to teachers pay.

This rally was hosted by indiana coalition for public education.

They discussed several topics during the rally.

While teacher pay was a topic of discussion so was the hold harmless bill which would not hold teachers or schools responsible for low ilearn test scores.

The hold harmless has been signed by the governor.

But it's not a permanent solution.

Educators say they'd like to see standardized testing separated from accountability (permanently.

"on the long term we'd like to see testing decoupled from teacher evaluations forever.

We'd like to see the schools don't get punished for testing going forward tests are great for diagnostics but they weren't meant to be punishment" another topic of discussion was charter schools.

Public education advocates feel that charter and voucher schools aren't held to the same standard as public schools.

They are asking for more accountability for charges and vouchers..

And that there be a hold on approving anymore charter schools or vouchers in the state until they can prove they are improving education for children.

One of the main take away a from this rally is that public school advocates want law makers to understand how valuable they are to the state of indiana.

The indiana coalition for public schools says 9 out of 10 children in the state attend public school..

They say they want lawmakers to consider that number and make funding public schools a priority.

Live at the state house meredith hackler mews 18.

New at five -- construction is coming along at the tippecanoe