Indiana
Indiana lawmakers move forward with bills to ban antisemitism, expand workforce training funds – Indiana Capital Chronicle
Indiana lawmakers are fast-tracking a bill they say will ban antisemitism in public educational institutions — although critics of the proposal maintain it limits free speech and conflates anti-Jewish rhetoric with criticism of a foreign government.
The legislation advanced from the House Education Committee on Wednesday in a bipartisan 12-0 vote, sending it to the full chamber.
Authored by Republican Rep. Chris Jeter, of Fishers, House Bill 1002 is a priority measure for the House GOP caucus.
Indiana law already bans discrimination on the basis of race and “creed,” which means religion. The legislation would specify that antisemitism — bias against Jewish people — is religious discrimination and is not allowed within the public education system.
The legislation uses a definition of antisemitism adopted by the U.S. State Department, U.S. Education Department and the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance. And it makes clear that “criticism of Israel similar to that leveled against any other country” is not antisemitism.
“This bill does not tell anybody what they can or cannot say, does not tell anybody what they can or cannot do. There’s no new crime. There’s no police force enforcing it. It’s simply a reflection of our values as a state when it comes to teaching our youth and our students,” Jeter said before the House Education Committee on Wednesday. “We have a long tradition of support for our Jewish community, and particularly our Jewish students. This bill reaffirms that — it makes it clear that they’re going to be safe here.”
Jeter filed an identical bill in 2023. It passed out of the House in a 97-0 vote but never received a committee hearing in the Senate, effectively killing the proposal.
Sen. Jeff Raatz, R-Richmond, who chairs the Senate Education Committee, said last month that he expects his chamber to support the bill this time around.
Antisemitism on Hoosier campuses
Some 40 people testified on the bill Wednesday at the Indiana Statehouse. Many were students or faculty at Indiana colleges, including Indiana and Purdue universities. A handful of high school students also spoke before lawmakers, sharing stories about various antisemitic incidents in their classrooms.
Rabbi Sue Silberberg, executive director at IU Hillel, said the bill is a much-needed response to a problem she has “faced and struggled with” during her tenure at Indiana University.
Since the Hamas attack in October, she said antisemitic chalkings, drawings on bridges and flyers hung around the campus have prompted an increase of scared and crying students to her office.
“I’ve seen antisemitism regularly throughout my years at IU. Thankfully, IU has tried to address it,” Silberberg said. “But the overarching problem has been that Indiana does not have a clear and strong definition of antisemitism, and it is not specifically identified or called out as a problem and something that we stand behind prohibiting or stopping in our state.”
At Purdue, public health student Honor Fuchs said she has faced antisemitism “in the form of wildly biased curriculum, hateful posters on campus and outright verbal attacks from students.”
She described an experience last fall, when she and other Jewish students were “mobbed, yelled at and insulted by fellow students” while holding a fundraiser on the campus.
“I couldn’t complain, because being called a Nazi pales in comparison to the real persecution my grandparents faced in Nazi-occupied Romania,” Fuchs said. “It is horrifying that in 2024, in the United States, I have to make these calculations of gradations of bigotry and discrimination.”
Günther Jikeli, associate director of IU’s Institute for the Study of Contemporary Antisemitism, also supported Jeter’s bill, noting that criticism of Israel is not the same as “wanting to destroy this person or this community or this state.”
But more than two-dozen critics of the bill pushed back, many emphasizing that criticism of the Israeli government does not amount to antisemitism. Some warned of witch hunts under the vague definition.
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Daniel Segal, representing Jewish Voice for Peace – Indiana, said the bill “undermines the struggle against antisemitism and would thus make me and other Jews less safe in Indiana.”
“House Bill 1002 makes it harder to fight the scourge of antisemitism, because its sole purpose is to sow confusion about antisemitism. We cannot fight what we are confused about,” he continued.
“If people want to respond to criticisms of the Israeli state, they should provide reasoned counter arguments, not fake charges of antisemitism,” Segal said. “Defenders of the Israeli state resort to these fake charges of antisemitism only when they lack such reasoned counter arguments.”
He added that the legislation would also “trample education” by making teachers and students “fearful of speaking openly, in regard to the history and current events in Israel and Palestine.”
Echoing others who testified, Anisse Adni, an Islamic studies teacher in Indianapolis, said lawmakers should take out “vague and ambiguous language” in the bill “that would restrict our constitutional right to freedom of speech.”
“If I, as an American citizen, have the right to criticize my own government’s policies — if I have the right as an American to ask my government to right its wrongs, to change its policies — and I have no fear of punishment or reprisal because free speech is enshrined in the constitution … Why would I, as an American, be okay with my right of free speech being impeded or restricted when criticizing a foreign government’s policies? It shouldn’t be wrong.”
“I’m not anti-Chinese if I criticize China’s government policies or their behaviors or whatever it may be,” he continued. “We should not conflate antisemitism with criticism of the Israeli government and its policies.”
Fixes to last year’s workforce training legislation
House lawmakers additionally advanced a bill that seeks to make fixes to a major work-based learning bill adopted during the 2023 session.
The new measure, House Bill 1001, authored by Rep. Chuck Goodrich, R-Noblesville, primarily seeks to allow money from the 21st Century Scholars program and Frank O’Bannon grants to be used by high school graduates for training by an approved intermediary, employer or labor organization — rather than for education costs at a college or university.
The bill would also permit annual career savings account (CSA) grants to be used by students to cover costs associated with obtaining drivers licenses, and extend the timeline for completing CSA applications.
Last year, Goodrich similarly authored HEA 1002, which put in motion statewide career-centered education and training programs that seek to graduate Hoosier students who are better prepared for the workforce. Paramount to that legislation was a provision to establish CSAs for students in grades 10-12 to pay for career training outside their schools.
Participating students can use the $5,000 CSAs to pay for apprenticeships, career-related coursework, or certification.
Goodrich said his 2024 bill “widens the scope” of how those funds can be used and “removes barriers” faced by some Hoosier students who tried to access technical education and work-based learning opportunities over the summer.
Democrats on the committee took issue with multiple provisions in the bill, however.
Rep. Ed DeLaney, R-Indianapolis, pointed to language that expands the use of state-sponsored scholarships, which he said leaves out spending cap stipulations or specific restrictions around what funds can and can’t be used for.
“We’re going to enter into the program without any guidance for how much we’re going to spend?” DeLaney questioned.
Committee chairman Rep. Bob Behning, R-Indianapolis, said the Indiana Commission for Higher Education (CHE) will instead have to decide when 21st Century and Frank O’Bannon funds are eligible for students post-high school.
Democratic Rep. Vernon Smith, D-Gary, also expressed concerns over the provision to fund drivers licenses.
“Are we going to start buying used cars, too? Will the next step be uniforms, or technical equipment, coming out of the scholarship accounts?” he asked.
Goodrich said in response that access to transportation “has been a huge issue for kids getting access to opportunities.”
Before voting on the bill, the committee unanimously adopted two amendments offered by Goodrich; one to clarify data reporting requirements associated with work-based learning programs, and another to add teaching to Indiana’s Next Level Jobs Employer Training Program grants.
DeLaney offered other amendments but they all failed.
The bill passed out of the committee in a 9-4 vote along party lines. DeLaney promised to call additional amendments to the bill on the House floor.
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BLOOMINGTON, Ind. – Indiana’s baseball team entered Big Ten play last Friday hoping for a fresh start after an uneven start in its early nonconference games that had the Hoosiers one game under .500.
What the Hoosiers got instead in its weekend series at Penn State was more of the same problems.
The Nittany Lions took two out of three games from the Hoosiers in State College. Pa. A Friday doubleheader was split. Penn State won the opener 15-9 with Indiana winning the nightcap 17-6 in eight inning. Penn State took the series with a 10-6 victory on Sunday.
In Friday’s opener, Indiana led 3-1, but a six-run third inning proved decisive for the Nittany Lions. Indiana starting pitcher Gavin Seebold have up nine earned runs in just 3 2/3 innings of work. Indiana lost despite home runs from Devin Taylor, Hogan Denny and TJ Schuyler.
In the second game, Indiana scored at least two runs in all but one of the first five innings. The top three spots in the batting order – Andrew Wiggins, Taylor and Korbyn Dickerson – combined to got 7 for 15 at the plate with a home run (Dickerson) and four RBI. Third baseman Cooper Malamazian went 4-for-5 at the bottom of the order. (Malamazian was later named Big Ten Player of the Week.)
Indiana led Sunday’s game 2-0 until Penn State surged ahead starting in the fifth inning. Two runs were scored in fifth, one in the sixth, three in the seventh and four runs in the eighth inning as Penn State led 10-3 at the end of it. The Hoosiers had three errors – two of them in the outfield – and the Indiana bullpen gave up all seven earned runs.
It was Indiana’s first series loss to Penn State since 2008.
What has plagued the Hoosiers (7-9, 1-2) so far? Indiana’s pitching continues to be a problem. As of Monday, the Hoosiers ranked 14th in the Big Ten with a 6.44 ERA. Opponents are hitting .264 against Indiana and averaging 4.6 walks per game against Indiana’s staff.
Indiana’s defense has been uneven. The Hoosiers have 23 errors in 16 games and they rank 223rd in the NCAA in fielding percentage at .959. Indiana had three errors in Sunday’s loss to Penn State.
On the positive side, Indiana was expected to hit well and has. Dickerson (.380, 8 HR, 27 RBI), Taylor (.382, 6 HR, 21 RBI) and Jake Hanley (.394, 0 HR, 10 RBI) are 2-3-4 in the Big Ten in base hits. Dickerson is third in the Big Ten with eight home runs and 27 RBI. Malamazian is tied for fourth in the Big Ten with a .440 batting average.
The Hoosiers have been patient at the plate and lead the Big Ten in walks with 119 – 20 more than any other school. Indiana is third in the Big Ten in batting average (.321), home runs (24) and runs scored (150).
There’s a long way to go in the season, but Indiana has a lot of work to do to put itself in NCAA Tournament consideration. At present, Indiana is ranked No. 121 in RPI with a 1-5 record in Quad 1-2 games.
Indiana goes back to work on Tuesday as it travels to Indiana State for its annual round robin series with the Sycamores. Indiana State is also 7-9.
Indiana will then host its first home Big Ten series of the season as Ohio State comes to Bart Kaufman Field on Friday for a three-game series. Expect runs – Ohio State (4-9) has a team ERA of 8.68.
The logic is simple: If you can’t win on policy or public support, you try to win with semantics and confusion.
House passes spending bill — Here’s what’s in it
The House passed a spending bill that would raise the deficit and could put Medicaid in danger.
Even by government standards, Medicaid is notoriously complex — an intricate web of carve-outs, cross-subsidies, and shared state-federal financial responsibilities. I once heard the funding structure of a particular Indiana Medicaid program described as “a house of cards built on top of a shell game,” which feels like a fair description of Medicaid as a whole.
At the same time, Medicaid — especially Medicaid expansion under the Affordable Care Act (commonly known as Obamacare) — is widely popular. This puts conservatives seeking to cut the program in a bind: They must find a way to undermine it without directly attacking something voters support. The program’s bureaucratic complexity provides that opening.
President Trump and congressional Republicans have ruled out major structural changes to Medicaid, instead focusing on cutting more arcane and opaque features of the program, such as eliminating states’ ability to use provider taxes.
Provider taxes are levies imposed by states on health care providers to help cover Medicaid expansion costs. They are critical to funding Medicaid expansion in many states, including Indiana. The ability to impose these taxes is essential for maintaining state support of Medicaid expansion. To justify eliminating these arrangements, opponents have labeled them as waste, fraud or abuse, using loaded phrases like “money laundering” or “bribery.”
It is fair to critique provider taxes as bad public policy, that they are overly complex and/or create significant disincentives for fiscal restraint. However, these mechanisms are a legitimate exercise of state taxation power on actual commerce within state borders, not a nefarious backroom scheme to defraud taxpayers.
This push to end provider taxes is a prime example of using bureaucratic complexity as a smokescreen for deep cuts to the program. By framing it as a technical adjustment that merely enhances efficiency, rather than a direct funding reduction, Congress can obscure the real impact: jeopardizing Medicaid expansion and restricting access to care for millions of Americans.
The logic is simple: If you can’t win on policy or public support, you try to win with semantics and confusion.
Healthy Indiana Plan could reduce care for hundreds of thousands
Indiana’s version of the provider tax, the Hospital Assessment Fee, plays a crucial role in funding Medicaid by generating federal matching funds. This money is essential for maintaining hospital reimbursement rates and supporting the Healthy Indiana Plan, the state’s Medicaid expansion program under Obamacare. The HAF allows Indiana to sustain and expand access to care without relying entirely on state general fund dollars.
The HAF generates over $1 billion annually, bringing in additional federal money that hospitals rely on to care for Medicaid patients. With state lawmakers already concerned about rising Medicaid costs, finding an additional $1 billion to sustain HIP could be an insurmountable challenge.
Eliminating the provider tax may sound like a mild technocratic tweak, but in reality, it would gut Medicaid expansion, destabilize hospital finances, and reduce access to care for hundreds of thousands of Hoosiers. By branding these changes as a crackdown on “waste,” politicians can claim to be protecting taxpayers while sidestepping responsibility for the millions who could lose health care access.
A major threat to addiction services
Over the past decade, Indiana has significantly expanded access to addiction treatment, including residential care, medication-assisted treatment and peer support, leading to one of the largest drops in overdose deaths nationwide.
The heroic Hoosier recovery community deserves the most credit for these wins, and HIP is the policy and programmatic foundation that makes it possible. Traditional Medicaid primarily covers the aged, blind, and disabled. Medicaid expansion programs (like HIP) extend coverage to a broader low-income population.
Most individuals with substance use disorder are both low-income and not classified as disabled, meaning they would have no access to care without Medicaid expansion. The elimination of the HAF — and the likely cuts to HIP that would follow — would reverse Indiana’s progress, severely undermining our fight against addiction.
It is reasonable to argue that addressing the national debt may require difficult choices, including potential limits on Medicaid spending (although that argument is severely undermined when accompanied by a deficit-exploding tax cut).
Likewise, a philosophical debate about the government’s role in health care or Medicaid expansion’s mixed track record on health outcomes is a legitimate discussion. But, if lawmakers want to debate Medicaid expansion, they should do so transparently, without disguising significant cuts as routine and harmless policy adjustments.
Jay Chaudhary is the former director of the Indiana Division of Mental Health and Addiction and former chair of the Indiana Behavioral Health Commission.
The 2025 Big Ten men’s basketball tournament bracket was announced Sunday evening and IU will play Oregon.
The Hoosiers are the No. 9 seed and will face the No. 8 seed Ducks on Thursday, March 13 at noon ET on BTN at Gainbridge Fieldhouse in Indianapolis.
Oregon won the regular season meeting against Indiana 73-64 in Eugene on March 4. The winner of Indiana-Oregon will play top-seed Michigan State on Friday, March 14 at noon ET on BTN.
Here’s the full tournament schedule and bracket:
Wednesday, March 12 (First Round)
Game 1 (#13 Northwestern vs. #12 Minnesota) – 3:30 p.m. ET (Peacock)
Game 2 (#15 Iowa vs. #10 Ohio State) – 25 minutes following Game 1 (Peacock)
Game 3 (#14 USC vs. #11 Rutgers) – 25 minutes following Game 2 (Peacock)
Thursday, March 13 (Second Round)
Game 4 (#8 Oregon vs. #9 Indiana) – 12 p.m. ET (BTN)
Game 5 (#5 Wisconsin vs. Game 1 winner) – 25 minutes following Game 4 (BTN)
Game 6 (#7 Illinois vs. Game 2 winner) – 6:30 p.m. ET (BTN)
Game 7 (#6 Purdue vs. Game 3 winner) – 25 minutes following Game 5 (BTN)
Friday, March 14 (Quarterfinals)
Game 8 (#1 Michigan State vs. Game 4 winner) – 12 p.m. ET (BTN)
Game 9 (#4 UCLA vs. Game 5 winner) – 25 minutes following Game 7 (BTN)
Game 10 (#2 Maryland vs. Game 6 winner) – 6:30 p.m. ET (BTN)
Game 11 (#3 Michigan vs. Game 7 winner) – 25 minutes following Game 9 (BTN)
Saturday, March 15 (Semifinals)
Game 12 (Game 8 vs. Game 9 winner) – 1 p.m. ET (CBS)
Game 13 (Game 10 vs. Game 11 winner) – 25 minutes following Game 11 (CBS)
Sunday, March 16 (Championship)
Game 14 (Game 12 vs. Game 13 winner) – 3:30 p.m. ET (CBS)
(Photo credit: IU Athletics)
Category: Media
Filed to: 2025 Big Ten tournament
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