IPS: Some families must pay for pre-K after budget cuts
Some Indianapolis Public Schools families will start having to pay for pre-K for the 2025-26 school year after this latest state budget didn't include increases to childcare grant funding and the district's pandemic relief funding is now gone.
The district alerted families to the change on June 3 and said it came 'after much consideration of the financial impact on IPS' caused by alterations in the state budget this legislative session and loss of COVID money.
In this latest state budget passed in April, lawmakers did not include an increase in funding for Indiana's popular child care subsidy programs, known as On My Way Pre-K, which helps give low-income families vouchers to use for child care.
IPS had been heavily relying on those vouchers, as well as COVID-19 relief money sent to districts in the past few years, to fund its pre-K program, making it free for every family in the district for at least the past two school years.
However, school districts had to spend those pandemic relief dollars by the end of 2024, and the state announced in December that it would have to bring back its waitlist for the On My Way Pre-K program due to significant growth and not enough funding.
More on the waitlists: Indiana lawmakers expanded access to child care aid. Now there's not enough money
This latest state budget passed by lawmakers did not address those waitlists and instead funded them just enough so families currently using the vouchers wouldn't be affected.
Starting with the upcoming school year, IPS is implementing an income-based sliding scale to help ensure the program can remain funded.
If families qualify and apply for the On My Way Pre-K program, they could still access a pre-K seat in IPS for free, if the voucher program has enough funding. Some families may find themselves on the waitlist for this upcoming school year.
Here is the sliding scale that IPS is implementing for the next school year:
To qualify for a voucher, a family's household income must be below 150% of the federal poverty level, or for a family of two, earn below $2,644 per month before taxes.
More on IPS using the vouchers: A new requirement for IPS families seeking pre-K seats is coming next school year
For a family of four, the household's monthly income before tax must be less than $4,019 to qualify for the pre-K voucher. The child's guardian must also be working, going to school, attending job training or looking for a job.
The child must also be four years old by Aug. 1 and plan to start kindergarten next school year.
For families who need help filing out an On My Way Pre-K application, they can email reach out by emailing earlylearningdept@myips.org or call 317-391-1897 or 317-391-7643.
For families needing Spanish-speaking assistance, they should call 317-619-4279.
The district will also be holding an application assistance event from 2-4 p.m. on June 10-11 at the IPS Education Center located at 120 E. Walnut St., Indianapolis, IN 46204.
Hashtags

Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles


Axios
3 minutes ago
- Axios
Exclusive: Massie leans into Trump defiance in first TV ad
Kentucky Rep. Thomas Massie is using his first TV ad to highlight his call for the release of documents related to the investigation of the late sex offender Jeffrey Epstein. Why it matters: Massie is showing that he plans to lean into his defiance of President Trump, who is backing a primary challenge to the Republican congressman. What they're saying: "Look, it's simple: They're attacking me because I'm holding the Washington machine accountable," Massie says in the 30-second spot. In the ad, Massie points to his vote against the Trump-backed COVID relief package in 2020, and to his opposition to Trump's "big, beautiful bill." "Now, I'm leading the charge to force a vote on the complete Epstein files," he also says. Massie is one of 11 House Republicans to call for the release of Epstein-related files, though the Trump administration has said it opposes further disclosures related to the investigation. Zoom in: Trump has vowed to campaign against Massie, and his political operation has aired two ads targeting the congressman. The president's team is also recruiting a primary challenger to Massie, and has spoken with state Sen. Aaron Reed about running. It has also conducted polling indicating that Massie would be vulnerable to a Trump-backed challenge. Between the lines: Massie, who occupies a Trump-friendly central Kentucky district, does not say Trump's name in the spot.

Los Angeles Times
an hour ago
- Los Angeles Times
Trump's Fed battle is not like his other political tussles
President Trump is once again floating the idea of firing Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell, ostensibly in objection to excessively high interest rates. But this debate is not about monetary policy. It's a power play aimed at subordinating America's central bank to the fiscal needs of the executive branch and Congress. In other words, we have a textbook case of 'fiscal dominance' on our hands — and that always ends poorly. I'm no cheerleader for Powell. During the COVID-19 pandemic, he enthusiastically backed every stimulus package, regardless of size or purpose, as if these involved no trade-offs. Where were the calls for 'Fed independence' then? And where were the calls for fiscal restraint after the emergency was over? Powell failed to anticipate the worst inflation in four decades and repeated for far too long the absurd claim that it was 'transitory' even as mounting evidence showed otherwise. He blamed supply-side disruptions long after ports had reopened and goods were moving. And as inflation was taking a stubborn hold, Powell delayed raising interest rates — possibly to shield the Biden administration from the fiscal fallout of the debt it was piling on — well past the point when monetary tightening was needed. If this weren't the world of government, where failure can be rewarded — and if there had been a more obvious alternative — Powell wouldn't have been invited back for another term. But he was. And so Trump's pressure campaign to prematurely end Powell's tenure is dangerous. I get why with budget deficits exploding and debt-service costs surging, the president wants lower interest rates. That would make the cost of his own fiscal agenda appear more tolerable. Trump likely believes he's justified because he believes that his tax cuts and deregulation are about to spur huge economic growth. To be sure, some growth will result, though the effects of deregulation will take a while to arrive. But gains could be swamped by the negative consequences of Trump's tariffs and erratic tariff threats. No matter what, the new growth won't lead to enough new tax revenue to escape the need for the government to borrow more. And the more the government borrows, the more intense the pressure on interest rates. One thing is for sure: The pressure Trump and his people are exerting on the Fed is a push for fiscal dominance. The executive branch wants to use the central bank as a tool to accommodate the government's frenzy of reckless borrowing. Such political control of a central bank is a hallmark of failed monetary systems in weak institutional settings. History shows where that always leads: to inflation, economic stagnation and financial instability. So far, Powell is resisting cutting rates, hence the barrage of insults and threat of firing. But now is not the right time to play with fire. Bond yields surged last year as investors reckoned with the scale of U.S. borrowing. They crossed the 5% threshold again recently. Moody's even stripped the government of its prized AAA credit rating. Lower interest rates from the Fed — especially if seen as the result of raw political pressure — could further diminish the allure of U.S. Treasuries. While the Fed can temporally influence interest rates, especially in the short run, it cannot override long-term fears of inflation, economic sluggishness and political manipulation of monetary policy driven by unsustainable fiscal policy. That's where confidence matters, and confidence is eroding. This is why markets are demanding a premium for funds loaned to a government that is now $36 trillion in debt and shows no intention of slowing down. But it could get worse. If the average interest rate on U.S. debt climbs from 3.3% to 5%, interest payments alone could soar from $900 billion to $2 trillion annually. That would make debt service by far the single largest item in the federal budget — more than Medicare, Social Security, the military or any other program readers care about. And because much of this debt rolls over quickly, higher rates hit fast. At the end of the day, the bigger problem isn't Powell's monetary policy. It's the federal government's spending addiction. Trump's call to replace Powell with someone who will cut rates ignores the real math. Lower short-term interest rates will do only so much if looser monetary policy is perceived as a means of masking reckless budget deficits. That would make higher inflation a certainty, not merely a possibility. It might not arrive before the next election, but it will inevitably arrive. There is still time to avoid this cliff. Trump is right to worry about surging debt costs, but he's targeting a symptom. The solution isn't to fire Powell — it's to cure the underlying disease, which is excessive government spending. Veronique de Rugy is a senior research fellow at the Mercatus Center at George Mason University. This article was produced in collaboration with Creators Syndicate.


New York Post
an hour ago
- New York Post
AI bots deliver garbage based on Wikipedia
Here's alarming news: AI bots rely heavily on Wikipedia, which feed them a diet of half-truths, ideological bias and leftist lies — and then pass along the propaganda to millions of unsuspecting readers. A new study from Axios reveals that ChatGPT, Gemini and Claude — three of the most popular AI bots — use Wikipedia extensively for training their Large Language Models. Yet 'Wokepedia,' the user-maintained online encyclopedia, is so slanted to the left, it's in danger of tipping over. Advertisement The result is the public gets a perversely skewed view of the world. Indeed, Wikipedia actually keeps a blacklist of sources editors can't cite. Want to guess which outlets are redlined as 'unreliable'? That's right: conservative sources like Fox News, the Daily Wire, the Daily Caller and even The Post. Advertisement Which get the green light? Leftist outlets like AP, Vox, The Guardian, The Nation and — hold on while we spit out our tea — MSNBC. All the outlets, that is, that promoted the Russia hoax, blamed Trump for COVID and dismissed The Post's 100% accurate Hunter Biden-laptop story Russian disinfo. Yet the biased material Wikipedia spreads is used to train AI bots to answer billions of questions from people outsourcing their minds to Big Tech, misinforming millions. Advertisement AI's leftist bias is obvious to anyone who asks it questions about, say, January 6, gun control or some other hot-button issue. But don't take our word for it. The British Centre for Policy Studies also found consistent bias, especially on housing, free-speech and energy issues. Even AI bots themselves will tell you they have a leftist bias. Part of the problem is that the culture of Silicon Valley skews left. Advertisement The techies designing the AI algorithms are more liberal than the average American, so their bias works its way through the system. 'Garbage in, garbage out' is an old saying in computer programming. Meaning, computers are dumb. They process what we give them. If LLMs keep feeding off the same biased sources, then future content will reflect that bias, and continue to feed LLMs in a recursive loop. We will be stuck in a conceptual world that has no outside reference. Get opinions and commentary from our columnists Subscribe to our daily Post Opinion newsletter! Thanks for signing up! Enter your email address Please provide a valid email address. By clicking above you agree to the Terms of Use and Privacy Policy. Never miss a story. Check out more newsletters This is exactly what George Orwell warned about. President Donald Trump just released an 'action plan' that puts Big Tech on alert. AI companies will need to feed their LLMs a balanced diet of information or risk losing federal contracts. But the companies should be look to reform voluntarily, if they care about their credibility. If they insist on using lefty sources like Wikipedia, the least they can do is provide a warning with every answer they supply.