As public school parent and advocate Keri Miksza watched her daughter, a junior at Bloomington High School South, and the rest of the girls swim and dive team compete in sectionals, she couldn’t help but think: “We could lose this.”
But it was not a relay she worried about losing. It was everything around her — the pool, the extracurriculars, the traditions — that shape the public-school experience. She feared such extraordinary cuts because of proposed legislation that would decrease funding for public schools.
“I mean you could apply that to any sport,” Miksza told the Indiana Daily Student. “Football. Marching band. Parents should be outraged.”
Miksza was part of a panel of local advocates and lawmakers who spoke out against proposed Indiana legislation on health care, public education and voting at the “People Powered Democracy Town Hall” on Saturday at Unitarian Universalist Church. Event moderator Doug Davis said he believed close to 300 people attended the town hall.
The event was sponsored by advocacy groups like Indiana Coalition for Public Education, Reverse Citizens United, Medicare for All Indiana and Indivisible South Central Indiana.
Organizers said they invited state senators and representatives with local constituents and U.S. Rep. Erin Houchin, whose district includes Monroe, Brown and other counties in southeastern Indiana. Democrats Sen. Shelli Yoder and Rep. Matt Pierce of Monroe County were the only two to attend.
Davis said Republican Reps. Bob Heaton and Dave Hall, who both represent parts of Monroe County, did not respond. The others, also all Republicans, said they were unavailable.
Health care
Rob Stone, associate director of IU Health Bloomington Hospice, and Tracey Hutchings-Goetz, communications and policy director for advocacy group Hoosier Action, spoke about health care. Hutchings-Goetz said her group has been organizing against Senate Bill 2, which creates new reporting requirements and standards for Medicaid and prohibits state agencies and other groups from advertising the Medicaid program.
She said after public pressure, legislators removed language that would’ve capped the Healthy Indiana Plan at three years of coverage, but SB 2 “is still bad news for Hoosiers.”
Hutchings-Goetz said the requirements that still remain would subject Medicaid users to more frequent eligibility checks, drive up costs and cover fewer people.
“I have had medical billing fights, and what this would do is, like, ramp that up to 11 for people who are already struggling to make ends meet, and people who are most likely, you know, experiencing some pretty serious health issues because we know that those diagnoses, things like cancer, coincide with poverty,” she said.
The bill also caps HIP enrollment at 500,000, which means tens of thousands of people would be removed. Hutchings-Goetz said the legislation doesn’t outline how they would be selected.
Yoder spoke about a bipartisan bill she co-authored, Senate Bill 317, which pertained to health care costs and debt. It would’ve required hospitals to offer patients the chance to pay expenses through a payment plan and include financial assistance information on billing statements, among other things.
The bill was narrowly defeated in the Senate, 23-26. Yoder said SB 317 did not pass because Republicans told Senate Democrats they took too long at the microphone during debates with other bills.
“The defeat of 317 was to teach us a lesson, but ultimately harm Hoosiers,” she said. “And that is really anti-democratic.”
Education
Keri Miksza, the chair of the Indiana Coalition for Public Education, outlined bills moving through the General Assembly that would affect schools.
She said she was concerned about Senate Bill 518, which would require public schools to share property tax revenue with charter schools. The bill passed its third reading in the Senate and was referred to the House.
“This can break up communities because there’s only so many dollars,” Miksza said.
The lack of government oversight of how tax dollars were being used once they reached private schools, and a lack of knowledge about their curriculums, concerned her.
Miksza also discussed Senate Bill 1, a controversial property tax relief bill that would also impact local governments. Though it has been amended, in its current form the bill would decrease Monroe County’s tax revenue by around $7.6 million in 2026, according to a fiscal analysis. Monroe County Community School Corporation would lose around $1.5 million.
That bill has now moved to the House. Yoder warned the House and Gov. Mike Braun want to take it back to its original form.
Yoder said it would tie the hands of public schools that would be unable to make ends meet with lost revenue. She mentioned the push to make private school vouchers, which help to subsidize the cost of private schools, universal under HB 1001. Currently, for a family of four, those making up to $230,880 would be eligible for a voucher, but HB 1001 would remove the income cap.
“What is the end goal here?” Yoder said. “Is the end goal privatization? I think we are seeing every sign pointing to yes.”
Rep. Matt Pierce said the millions of dollars it would cost to expand the private school voucher program would accomplish absolutely nothing when given to the wealthiest Hoosiers to subsidize their children’s private education.
He said the bill wouldn't “improve the quality of education for a single child in the state,” but instead maintain the status quo.
Voting
George Hegeman, a board member of Monroe County’s League of Women Voters, spoke on bills he said would suppress voters.
Senate Bill 10 specifically, he said, would invalidate state-issued student IDs as a valid form of voter identification. Under the bill, the county voter registration office would have to conduct “list maintenance” on the computerized list of voters at least twice a year to remove individuals who are deceased, reside in a different county than that they are registered in or failure to respond to a notice that the voter has not provided proof of citizenship.
“The issue is that students from out of state who may want to register and vote in Indiana, or Indiana residents who are from elsewhere, not locally, will be in big trouble,” Hegeman said.
SB 10 passed the Senate and was referred to the House’s Committee on Elections and Appointment.
Debbie Asberry, also with the League of Women Voters, spoke on House Bill 1680. The bill would prohibit, with some exceptions, individuals from completing or printing information on voter registration forms on behalf of another individual. Asberry said the bill could make it more difficult for people to help elderly and disabled voters register.
“It’s red mapping, it’s voter suppression,” Asberry said. “It is just continuing death by a thousand cuts.”
