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Bucshon to hold hearing on STEM, feature Rose-Hulman official

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220px-Larry_Bucshon,_official_portrait,_112th_CongressRose-Hulman Institute of Technology Vice President for Academic Affairs Phillip J. Cornwell, PhD, will testify at a congressional hearing on Thursday, January 9, about how private-sector organizations can assist the engagement and retention of American youths toward science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) careers.

Cornwell will join world-renowned innovator Dean Kamen in testifying before the U.S. House of Representatives’ Science, Space and Technology Committee’s Subcommittee on Research and Technology, chaired by U.S. Eighth District Representative Larry Bucshon (R-Indiana).

The hearing, scheduled to start at 10 a.m., will be broadcast live on CSPAN and can be viewed online at http://science.house.gov/hearing/subcommittee-research-and-technology-hearing-private-sector-programs-engage-students-stem.

A professor of mechanical engineering, Cornwell was selected as one of America’s top STEM college educators in 2012 for the Princeton Review’s Best 300 Professors book, and has earned the institute’s prestigious Dean’s Outstanding Teacher and Board of Trustees’ Outstanding Scholar awards. He has been a member of the Rose-Hulman faculty since 1989.

Rose-Hulman has been the nation’s No. 1-ranked undergraduate engineering institution for 15 consecutive years by U.S. News & World Report’s survey of college presidents and engineering deans. It has a first-year retention rate between 90 to 93 percent and a five-year graduation rate of approximately 80 percent—much higher than the national average of 50 percent (six-year graduation rate).

Improving that national engineering graduation rate by just 10 percent would produce around 100,000 new engineers in six years, according to Cornwell. He believes this would be possible by providing youth STEM development programs, rewarding professors with a passion and expertise in undergraduate STEM education, and providing meaningful STEM internships early in students’ college educational experiences.

Excellent high school mathematics and science instruction also is necessary to properly prepare students for the rigors of STEM education and careers, says Cornwell.

Finally, Cornwell’s congressional testimony will urge the federal government to further encourage students preparing for STEM careers by differentiating student loan rates based on a college’s graduation rate and student’s course of major.
“A STEM-educated workforce is critical to preserving the American capacity for innovation and securing U.S. economic strength and competitiveness in the 21st century global marketplace,” said Bucshon, a physician and chairman of the subcommittee who invited Cornwell to provide his expert testimony. The congressman added: “It is critical that we engage students at an early age and retain them in STEM related careers. Rose-Hulman is a national leader in this effort and proof that private industry development and involvement are vital to the science, technology, engineering and mathematics advancements left to be discovered. I thank Phil Cornwell for joining us for such an important discussion.”

FIRST Robotics, founded by Kamen, Project Lead the Way (PLTW) and similar national initiatives are encouraging middle- and high-school students toward STEM fields. Rose-Hulman is hosting FIRST Robotics’ Crossroads Regional for the second straight year (March 6-8) and recently became a PLTW affiliate partner.

Also, the institute is encouraging STEM initiatives through its Homework Hotline, a toll-free telephone and online math and science tutoring service; PRISM web portal, providing digital learning tools to teachers and fostering professional development for science teachers; and Operation Catapult program, a summer career exploration opportunity for high-achieving high school students.

Rose-Hulman Ventures, located on the institute’s South Campus, provides real-world, hands-on work experiences for students, as early as the freshman year, to work with professional project managers to develop innovative new products and services in corporate clients.

As part of his testimony, Cornwell will tell committee members a personal story about a Rose-Hulman student who was contemplating quitting college after being disappointed by a course assignment grade.

“With tears in her eyes, she said she didn’t know if she wanted to be an engineer, and she didn’t enjoy the material we were studying,” states Cornwell in his written prepared remarks for the congressional hearing. “I encouraged her to persevere, and I know her friends, who were also engineering students, encouraged her to persevere, and she did.”

That student earned two bachelor’s degrees at Rose-Hulman last spring and is now studying for a master’s degree as an international scholar in England.

Kamen, whose inventions include the world’s first wearable infusion pump and the Segway, received an honorary degree in engineering from Rose-Hulman in 2012. He urged members of the Class of 2012 to “see education as a privilege, carry it as a responsibility.”

 

About Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology

Founded in 1874, Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology is dedicated to preparing its students with the world’s best undergraduate science, engineering, and mathematics education in an environment infused with innovation, intellectual rigor, and individualized attention. The college, located in Terre Haute, Indiana, has an enrollment of approximately 2,000 undergraduate students and 100 graduate students. For 15 consecutive years, U.S. News & World Report has rated Rose-Hulman as the top undergraduate engineering college in the nation whose highest degree is a bachelor’s or master’s. Rose-Hulman has also been recognized by The Princeton Review, which cited six of the institute’s professors within their 2012 Best 300 Professors book, the only institution of higher learning in Indiana to be included. Learn more at www.rose-hulman.edu.

 

Story Contacts:

Dale Long, 812-877-8418, Dale.Long@rose-hulman.edu

Nick McGee, 202-225-4636, nick.mcgee@mail.house.gov

 

The Big White Ghetto: Appalachia after the Great Society

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Owsley County, Ky. – There are lots of diversions in the Big White Ghetto, the vast moribund matrix of Wonder Bread–hued Appalachian towns and villages stretching from northern Mississippi to southern New York, a slowly dissipating nebula of poverty and misery with its heart in eastern Kentucky, the last redoubt of the Scots-Irish working class that picked up where African slave labor left off, mining and cropping and sawing the raw materials for a modern American economy that would soon run out of profitable uses for the class of people who 500 years ago would have been known, without any derogation, as peasants. Thinking about the future here and its bleak prospects is not much fun at all, so instead of too much black-minded introspection you have the pills and the dope, the morning beers, the endless scratch-off lotto cards, healing meetings up on the hill, the federally funded ritual of trading cases of food-stamp Pepsi for packs of Kentucky’s Best cigarettes and good old hard currency, tall piles of gas-station nachos, the occasional blast of meth, Narcotics Anonymous meetings, petty crime, the draw, the recreational making and surgical unmaking of teenaged mothers, and death: Life expectancies are short — the typical man here dies well over a decade earlier than does a man in Fairfax County, Va. — and they are getting shorter, women’s life expectancy having declined by nearly 1.1 percent from 1987 to 2007.

If the people here weren’t 98.5 percent white, we’d call it a reservation.

Driving through these hills and hollows, you aren’t in the Appalachia of Elmore Leonard’s Justified or squatting with Lyndon Johnson on Tom Fletcher’s front porch in Martin County, a scene famously photographed by Walter Bennett of Time, the image that launched the so-called War on Poverty. The music isn’t “Shady Grove,” it’s Kanye West. There is still coal mining — which, at $25 an hour or more, provides one of the more desirable occupations outside of government work — but the jobs are moving west, and Harlan County, like many coal-country communities, has lost nearly half of its population over the past 30 years.

There is here a strain of fervid and sometimes apocalyptic Christianity, and visions of the Rapture must have a certain appeal for people who already have been left behind. Like its black urban counterparts, the Big White Ghetto suffers from a whole trainload of social problems, but the most significant among them may be adverse selection: Those who have the required work skills, the academic ability, or the simple desperate native enterprising grit to do so get the hell out as fast as they can, and they have been doing that for decades. As they go, businesses disappear, institutions fall into decline, social networks erode, and there is little or nothing left over for those who remain. It’s a classic economic death spiral: The quality of the available jobs is not enough to keep good workers, and the quality of the available workers is not enough to attract good jobs. These little towns located at remote wide spots in helical mountain roads are hard enough to get to if you have a good reason to be here. If you don’t have a good reason, you aren’t going to think of one.

Appalachian places have evocative and unsentimental names denoting deep roots: Little Barren River, Coal Pit Road. The name “Cumberland” blankets Appalachian geography — the Cumberland Mountains, the Cumberland River, several Cumberland counties — in tribute to the Duke of Cumberland, who along with the Ulster Scots ancestors of the Appalachian settlers crushed the Young Pretender at the Battle of Culloden. Even church names suggest ancient grievances: Separate Baptist, with the descriptor in all-capital letters. (“Come out from among them and be ye separate” — 2 Corinthians 6:17.) I pass a church called “Welfare Baptist,” which, unfortunately, describes much of the population for miles and miles around.

Here is a link to the entire article that is 4 pages and appeared first in the National Review authored by Kevin Willamson.

http://nationalreview.com/article/367903/white-ghetto-kevin-d-williamson

Small law firm acquisitions drive record year in mergers

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by Jennifer Nelson for theindianalayer.com

Law firm combinations were up 47 percent in 2013, which is the highest number of combinations recorded in the seven years that Altman Weil MergerLine has been compiling data, the organization announced Wednesday.

The surge in mergers last year was driven by a boom in acquisitions of small law firms, said Altman Weil principal Ward Bower.

“These kinds of deals are smart, low-risk moves to enter new markets and acquire new clients, and we expect the trend to continue in 2014,” he said.

Of the 88 law firm combinations reported in 2013, 82 percent were acquisitions of firms with 20 or fewer lawyers. Most of the larger deals in 2013 involved a bigger firm that was at least five times the size of a smaller firm with which it combined.

Bower also pointed out that most of the law firm combinations these days are actually acquisitions, not mergers.

“The complexity of a true merger of equals is exponentially greater. There are any number of potential pitfalls on the way to the altar,” he remarked.

Taft Stettinius & Hollister LLP recently completed its merger with Chicago firm Shefsky & Forelich. Four other firms with Indiana ties combined in 2013. In June, Lorch and Naville and Ward King Agnew in New Albany combined to create a 14-attorney firm of Lorch Naville Ward LLC. In September, Fort Wayne firm Federoff Kuchmay LLP merged with Carson Boxberger LLP, upping the total of attorneys at Carson Boxberger to 27.

Board of School Trustees of the Evansville Vanderburgh School Corporation will meet in executive session

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EVSC

The Board of School Trustees of the Evansville Vanderburgh School Corporation will meet in executive session at 3:30 p.m. on Monday, January 13, 2014, in the John H. Schroeder Conference Centre at the EVSC Administration Building, 951 Walnut, IN 47713, Evansville, IN. The session will be conducted according to Senate Enrolled Act 313, Section 1, I.C. 5-14-1.5-6.1, as amended. The purpose of the meeting is for discussion of collective bargaining, (2)(A);  initiation of litigation or litigation that is either pending or has been threatened specifically in writing, (2)(B); purchase or lease of property, (2)(D); and job performance evaluation of individual employees, (9).

The regular meeting of the School Board will follow at 5:30 p.m. in the EVSC Board Room, same address.

The Board of School Trustees of the Evansville Vanderburgh School Corporation will conduct a board of finance meeting at 5:30 p.m. on Monday, January 13, 2014, in the Board Room at the EVSC Administration Building, 951 Walnut St., Evansville, IN 47713.

 

Leadership Evansville

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2013 COL Award Recipients
Recognition for Lifetime Achievement 

John Streetman

 

Recognition for Jefferson Award Recipient

 

Sherry Ocker

 

Division Winners

 

Recognition for Individual Achievement– Dr. Daniel L. Schenk

Recognition for Business/Organization– Welborn Baptist Foundation

Recognition for Project– Vanderburgh County Teen Court

 

Special Awards

 

Sara B. Davies Award– Sheila Huff

Willie Effie Thomas Diversity Award– Steve Brown

Servant Leader Award– Scott Wylie

Sam Featherstone Youth Award

            -Sam Featherstone

            -Paige Miller (Individual)

            -Youth Resources: TEENPOWER (Bus/Org)

            -Ms.Stafford and Second Grade Class (Project)

Winternheimer/ LaMar Public Service Award– Brett Niemeier

Shirley James “Greening the Community” Award– Carol McClintock

Lieutenant Colonel Reginald Gibson Award– Gerald Summers

Regional Impact Award– Tri- State Alliance Alternative Prom

Visionary Award– Andy Guagenti

Community Collaboration Award– VOICE

Sportsmanship Award– Jon Siau

Leaders in Courage Award– Sara Weinzapfel

Outstanding Innovation Award– Shawn Collins

 

Recognition for Individual Leadership

 

Arts– Neal Franklin

Education– Kim Derk

Environment– Ed Ziemer

Government & Public Service– Brian Hildebrandt

Health & Social Service– Catherine Engel

Neighborhood & Community- Stan Gregory

 

Recognition for Business/Organization Leadership

 

Arts-Old National Bank for their sponsorship of Public Education Foundation/ EVSC summer musical

Education– Kyle L. Parker Memorial Scholarship

Environment– Evansville Area Trails Coalition

Government & Public Service– 911 Gives Hope

Health & Social Service– Harvest Time Ministries

Neighborhood & Community– Family Day in the Park

 

Recognition for Project Leadership

 

Arts– Sculpt EVV

Education– HOLA Summer Camp

Environment– Clean Evansville

Government & Public Service– Open Eyes: Employing Individuals with Disabilities

Health & Social Service– Fifth Third Bank’s Women’s Financial Network’s Economic Empowerment Over Domestic Violence

Neighborhood & Community– Sr. Johanna’s Table

Do you know someone who shows leadership in our community?
Leadership Evansville intends to demonstrate and celebrate the depth of our citizens’ commitment to our community.  Celebration of Leadership is a process and an annual event whereby Leadership Evansville publicly seeks out and honors individuals, organizations, projects and businesses who make significant, collaborative contributions to our community.
These nominated leaders can be volunteers, professionals, youth, businesses and organizations, and all members of our community in the following categories:
Arts
Education
Environment
Government/Public Service
Health/Social Service
Neighborhood/Community
Nomination deadline: January 17, 2014

SAVE THE DATE
March 18, 2014
The Centre
5:30 p.m.
Reception to immediately follow in the Arts Council of Southwestern Indiana

House Republicans to push tax cut, preschool

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By Halie Solea and Erika Brock

TheStatehouseFile.com

INDIANAPOLIS – Republicans who control the Indiana House said Wednesday they’ll push to let counties cut a tax on business property and work to send more poor kids to preschool.

House Speaker Brian Bosma, R-Indianapolis, unveiled a Republican agenda Wednesday that includes a state-funded preschool pilot program. Photo by Allie Nash, TheStatehouseFile.com

House Speaker Brian Bosma, R-Indianapolis, unveiled a Republican agenda Wednesday that includes a state-funded preschool pilot program. Photo by Allie Nash, TheStatehouseFile.com

House Speaker Brian Bosma, R-Indianapolis, presented an agenda focusing on workforce development – which also included a new focus on college internships, increased funding for roads and highways and the repeal of “burdensome regulations.”

The preschool and tax plan dovetail with Gov. Mike Pence’s agenda for the 2014 session – which started this week – but the Republicans have a different twist on both ideas.

While the governor wants a preschool program for all low-income students, Republicans will focus on what they call a “pilot,” initially helping about 1,000 children.

Indiana is currently one of 10 states that does not offer state-funded preschool programs and 60 percent of Indiana children aged 3 and 4 are not enrolled in preschool, he said. Republicans plan to accomplish their goal by linking preschool recipients to the K-12 voucher program.

“We had an aggressive program last year, which would have created a pilot program for about 1,000 preschool kids, low-income, high-quality programs around the state and while we had a little success and are working something into the budget that was a scaled down version of that program, we’re coming back with our full-pilot program,” Bosma said. “It’s our hope that we can enact legislation this year that will be funded in next year’s budget preparing 1,000 children for early learning opportunities.”

Bosma didn’t offer many details about the preschool program or say how much it would cost. He said Republicans are still working on the specifics of how to pay for it.

In addition to the preschool program, House Republicans intend to address student training and internship programs in try to close the skill gap between generations. Bosma said Republicans want to create a tax incentive to encourage schools to place significance on internship opportunities for students.

“Work ethic is really wanting in many folks, not in our workforce today or entering the workforce,” Bosma said. That and other basic skills can be “very difficult to train.”

“Plenty of employers told me that if we can get these young people in training opportunities, we can help them with these issues,” he said.

Bosma said House Republicans also want to boost highway funding by using part of the $400 million that was set aside for future projects in the two-year budget passed in 2013. Pence has proposed something similar and Senate Appropriations Chairman Luke Kenley, R-Noblesville, is skeptical.

“We put in last session that we would not spend the $400 million in this budget cycle because we had already given an extra $100 million to local governments and given INDOT an extra $250 million and we thought we would want to save it for special big projects,” Kenley said. “We’ll need to look over the proposal and if it makes sense.”

House Republicans also plan to eliminate or phase out the business personal property tax on new equipment. Bosma said that the tax is a “disincentive” for business owners looking to buy property in Indiana as surrounding states either do not have such a tax or have one that is much lower.

Eliminating the tax “will give local counties the option to give what they know the community needs,” Bosma said. He said the feedback he has received thus far has been consistently positive and anticipates further positive response.

Rep. Scott Pelath, D-Michigan City, said later that while he supports the goals of the House Republicans’ agenda, he would have liked to have heard more details about the proposals.

And he said a proposed constitutional amendment to define marriage as the union of one man and one woman is the “white elephant in the room.” He said Republicans are trying to avoid controversy by keeping off their agenda. A few years ago, House Republicans had said the marriage amendment was one of the most important issues facing the state.

“It looks like an agenda to get out of the session as quickly as possible with the least damage,” Pelath said.

Republican Gov. Mike Pence said he was pleased with what he heard.

“I commend House leadership for producing an agenda that builds on the progress our state has made in education, infrastructure and economic development,” Pence said. “As this legislative session begins, every Hoosier should be encouraged by the shared priorities of this administration and both houses of the General Assembly.”

Halie Solea and Erika Brock are reporters for TheStatehouseFile.com, a news website powered by Franklin College journalism students.

VANDERBURGH COUNTY FELONY CHARGES

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Below is a list of felony cases that were filed by the Vanderburgh County Prosecutor’s Office on Tuesday, January 07, 2014

 

Charles Hardin II              Operating a Vehicle While Intoxicated-Class C Misdemeanor

(Enhanced to D Felony Due to Prior Convictions)

 

Robert Jackson                 Possession of Methamphetamine-Class D Felony

Residential Entry-Class D Felony

Unlawful Possession of Syringe-Class D Felony

Battery-Class B Misdemeanor

 

Keyvan Fellows                Rape-Class B Felony

 

Cedrick Lewis                    Intimidation-Class D Felonies (Two Counts)

Criminal Trespass-Class A Misdemeanor

(Enhanced to D Felony Due to Prior Convictions)

Resisting Law Enforcement-Class A Misdemeanors (Two Counts)

Battery Resulting in Bodily Injury-Class A Misdemeanor

(Habitual Offender Enhancement)

 

Roger Vailes                      Dealing in Methamphetamine-Class B Felony

Possession of Methamphetamine-Class D Felony

Unlawful Possession of Syringe-Class D Felony

Possession of Paraphernalia-Class A Misdemeanor

 

 

 

 

For further information on the cases listed above, or any pending case, please contact Kyle Phernetton at 812.435.5688 or via e-mail at KPhernetton@vanderburghgov.org

Under Indiana law, all criminal defendants are considered to be innocent until proven guilty by a court of law.

 

2014 Local Scholarship

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Evansville Tri-State Affiliate Local Scholarship

The purpose of the Susan G. Komen for the Cure® Evansville Tri-State Affiliate Local College Scholarship Award is to assist students who have a parent that has battled breast cancer or lost a parent to breast cancer. Two scholarships of $500 each will be awarded.

The promise of Susan G. Komen for the Cure® is to save lives and end breast cancer forever by empowering people, ensuring quality care for all and energizing science to find the cures.   Komen believes that breast cancer affects not only the individual, but all family members. This Award is one way we recognize that affect and address the resulting needs.

The Evansville Tri-State Affiliate of Susan G. Komen for the Cure® has made this scholarship opportunity possible, therefore all applicants must reside within the service area of the Evansville Tri-State Affiliate:  The counties of Edwards, Gallatin, Hamilton, Hardin, Lawrence, Richland, Saline, Wabash, Wayne & White in Illinois; Daviess, Dubois, Gibson, Knox, Perry, Pike, Posey, Spencer, Vanderburgh and Warrick in Indiana; and Crittenden, Daviess, Hancock, Henderson, Hopkins, McLean, Union and Webster in Kentucky.

Requirements:

  • Have a parent that has battled breast cancer or lost a parent to breast cancer.
  • Reside within the service area of the Greater Evansville Affiliate.  The counties of Edwards, Gallatin, Hamilton, Hardin, Lawrence, Richland, Saline, Wabash, Wayne & White in Illinois; Daviess, Dubois, Gibson, Knox, Perry, Pike, Posey, Spencer, Vanderburgh and Warrick in Indiana; and Crittenden, Daviess, Hancock, Henderson, Hopkins, McLean, Union and Webster in Kentucky.
  • Be a high school graduate, a high school student who will graduate by June 2014, or have received the equivalent of a high school diploma.  Current college students are eligible.
  • Plan to attend a college or university in the United States.
  • Have a college GPA of 2.8 on a 4.0 scale (if already attending college).
  • Be no older than 25 years old by May 2013.
  • Be a U.S. citizen, or documented permanent resident of the U.S.
  • Never at any time have been subject to any disciplinary action by any institution or entity, including, but not limited to, any educational or law enforcement agency.

Download the guidelines and application document.

Applications are due by March 15, 2014. Incomplete applications will not be considered.

VOICE’s Flower Pot Meetings Continue with Healthy Green Space

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Thursday Morning At Wesselman Nature Society 8:30 a.m.

Facilitated by Leadership Evansville in partnership with Mayor Lloyd Winnecke and the city of Evansville

 

January 8, 2014

 

WHAT:                    EVANSVILLE, Ind. – On Thursday, January 9 at 8:30 a.m. at Wesselman Nature Society on the east side of Evansville, Leadership Evansville host VOICE’s third Flower Pot meeting on “Healthy Green Space,” where any interested citizen, organization, or business is invited to share their knowledge and passion to begin collaborative planning and actions in this topic. At this meeting, participants will:

-        Identify low hanging fruit in this area that they would be able to actively do now, short term and long term

WHO:                       Leadership Evansville Executive Director Lynn Miller Pease, in partnership with Mayor Lloyd Winnecke and the City of Evansville, will host the third VOICE Healthy Green Space Flower Pot Meeting, and will be joined by key stakeholders with a vested interest who have already committed to participate in this Flower Pot, including Keep Evansville Beautiful, Evansville Area Trails Coalition, Vectren, Wesselman Nature Society, the Department of Parks and Recreation and  Department of Metropolitan Development and Welborn Baptist Foundation. Additionally, every citizen is invited and encouraged to participate in the Healthy Green Space Flower Pot meetings to help collaboratively build strategic actions and have ownership in the results because it takes all of us to make a difference.

 

WHEN:                    Thursday, January 9, 2014 at Wesselman Nature Society 8:30 a.m.

WHY:                       VOICE brought together over 1,700 diverse community members to participate in 32 facilitator-led group discussions that allowed them to articulate and document their visions for Evansville’s preferred future. With the first visioning phase concluded, the second phase of VOICE consists of communicating the outcomes and next steps in the form of Big Action Meetings (BAM) so all VOICE participants know their VOICE was heard. Over 250 people attended the VOICE BAM sessions, which revealed the three high-priority topics (Healthy Green Space, City Core, Experiences) to move forward with strategic planning and action. Of these attendees, 70% of them signed up to take action in these topics. Additionally, nearly 200 citizens attended the first round of Flower Pot meetings. LE will continue to facilitate this process.

 

MORE:                     More information at: www.evansvillevoice.com, www.facebook.com/evansvillevoice

@evansvillevoice on Twitter

 

CONTACT:             Lynn Miller Pease l 812-589-3682

 

New education bill will address skills gap

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McNamara_r76The 2014 legislative session began this week. I am looking forward to having productive discussions on how we can improve our state and create a better living environment for all who call Indiana home. In an effort to continue this process, last week I announced a bill that I will be introducing this session.  The bill calls for the creation of the Career and Technical Education (CTE) Diploma. Students have the options of the Academic Honors Diploma and the Technical Honors Diploma, but those options don’t get at the heart of the skills gap problem.  In order to address the skills gap we have to address it where it starts.  The current system doesn’t do that.

Currently, there is a one-size-fits-all approach to graduating high school students with Core 40. Core 40 is designed to produce the same learning skills in all students.  The lack of diversification that currently exists doesn’t allow students to develop the skills necessary for industry and technical education.  For example, the same sets of skills apply from English 9 – English 12. However, manufacturers need workers skilled in Technical Writing, Technical Reading and Technical Communication.

Students simply are not given the opportunity under the Core 40 to develop and strengthen those skills.  The same is true for math skills acquired in Algebra I, Algebra II or Geometry.  One can argue that you need Technical Math and/or Technical Problem Solving courses to be successful in the industrial environment.

This bill will also call upon the Indiana Career Council to appoint a subcommittee that includes members of each council, representatives of career and technical education programs, the Department of Education and community colleges to develop the requirements for the diploma.

The subcommittee will be able to obtain input in developing the diploma requirements from licensed mathematics and English language arts educators. The subcommittee will be authorized to design new curricula or create new courses in developing the diploma. A requirement of at least 40 academic credits, or the equivalent workload, will be designed so that completed courses may be used to fulfill the requirements established for other high school diplomas approved by the State Board of Education. The bill will entreat the Indiana Career Council and the State Board of Education to approve the new requirements and courses before they are offered.

This bill will benefit students, industry and the economy. Students can now have the option to choose a diploma that is in interest to his/her chosen field and will be able to graduated high school with useable skills that companies need. The Diploma will help students build their skills in English, math and science- all within the context of a career that interests them.  More education and training leads to higher earnings and great job satisfaction and makes Indiana a more desirable place to come do business because of the options. With less time spent on remediation and ore time spent on training skills people will be able to work sooner.

This bill will be one of many I work on this session. If you have any questions or issues that you think need to be addressed in the General Assembly please contact me via email at h76@in.gov or by phone at (317) 232-9671 . I hope everyone is staying warm and looking forward to the Colts heading to another playoff game!

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