Indiana Chief Justic Loretta Rush seeks another term.

Fewer students complete the FAFSA.

Plus, looking ahead to th Indiana Democratic Convention.

And more from the television studios at WFYI It's Indiana Week in Review for the week ending July 12th, 2024.

Indiana Week in Review is made possible by the supporters of Indiana Public Broadcasting stations.

This week, Loretta Rus announced she will seek another five year term as Chief Justice of the Indiana Supreme Court.

Rush became the first woman to serve in the role in 2014.

The Chief Justice is chosen by the state's Judicial Nominating Commission from among the fiv justices on the Supreme Court.

The commission is primarily made up of three citizens appointed by the governor and three lawyers appointed by other lawyers.

Rush was first named Chief Justice in 2014, after being appointed to the state's High Court two years earlier by Governor Mitch Daniels.

She is reappointed to the job in 2019 and now seeks a third term.

In a letter to judges and judicial branch staff, rush says she wants to continue working on issues that include the state's attorney shortage, the opioid epidemic, improving court technology and protecting judicial officers from violent threats.

Russia's renomination bid has the support of the other four justices.

Should Loretta Rush serve another five year term as chief justice?

It's the first question for ou Indiana Week and review panel.

Democrat Ann DeLaney, Republican Mike O'Brien, Oseye Boyd, editor in chief of Mirror Indy.

And Leslie Bonilla Muñiz reporter for the Indiana Capitol Chronicle.

I'm Indiana Public Broadcasting statehouse bureau chief Brandon Smith.

Ann DeLaney...

Rush also face a retention vote on the ballot this fall, should she be retained.

I'm delighted.

I was afraid she was going to retire, so I think this is a really good move.

I think she's led the court in a good direction.

I haven't always agreed with their decisions, but I mean, she's been concerned with the fact that in rural areas of the state, there are not enough lawyers to provide the legal services necessary.

And she's developed a commission to to try to come up with, ways to ameliorate that, that problem, which is a real problem for people.

I mean, if they can't find a lawyer that they when they need one, it's a it's a real difficulty.

So I think she's thought outside the box and she's well-regarded, and she's been a wonderful alum of the Mauer School of Law.

And so I'm delighted she's running again.

She had talks last fal about the idea of whether or not she which she was unsure.

When we talked to her, I think it was in November, she was a little uncertain about whether she'd run for another five year term as chief.

Are you.

Did we kind of need another five years of her leadership to kind of move us into the nex sort of the future of Indiana, which feels like we're at a bit of a turning point.

Yeah, consistency.

I thought I was going to come up here and defend her, but and so and surprise me.

But, I think to your question, I think that speaks volumes of the other four justices are fully supportive of her being retained and being the, continuing to serve as the as the chief justice.

So I think she's this was like the reaction to this was, I mean, this is this says it all.

Ann DeLaney is like, no, that's that's great.

says it all.

And the reaction from the attorneys I've spoken to wa it was going in the rural areas, creating uniformity from a technology standpoint, county by county, full access to, you know, the my case.

in my case, this was a big deal for not only attorneys, but, you know, for nosy neighbors that want to know more about, you know, the lawsuits tha their neighbors are involved in.

But it's.

There.

Also some there's some overlap sometimes with those things.

The nosy.

Yeah.

Yeah.

That's right.

So, though I think this I think this is great, it's great for continuity too.

In terms of the retention votes.

So this is different from her running for chief Justice.

The chief justice is chosen by the Judicial Nominating Commission.

I do have to say to the point that the other justices supporting her, the way this generally works is the other justices still go in for, like the interview, right, when they're choosing the new chief.

And it's very funny to see them talk about like, well, obviously I support her.

But just in case, here's some stuff about me.

Yeah.

but.

And it hasn't it's been little bit more open than that.

Yes.

Yes.

But, the retention vote is different.

The public gets to weigh in on that, and that's for all of the members of the Supreme Court, all of the members of the Court of Appeals on a regular rolling basis.

Those haven't become political in Indiana.

Really ever.

And I don't know to my memory that anyone has ever not been retained.

But we've seen Supreme Court races across the country get much more political.

Do you see things changing at any point in Indiana.

Not in the near future, I don't know, 30 years from now, 40 years from now, who knows what could happen.

But in the near future, I don't, because we tend to be okay with our system as it is.

I do think, though that we need more transparency when it comes to judges, to what judges are actually doing, like when we're bringing up my case and the rule, and the getting more laws and lawyers in rural areas, I feel like the public needs to know that a little bit more so they understand exactly what's going on.

So then they can make an informed vote, a decision, because I do think the things we brought up are very good, but I don't think the general public would know that.

I think you just go in there and just vote yes, because she's already in there.

Right?

I would just say she's.

Already in there unless.

There's unless there's a concerted effort with money to defeat somebody And if they get retained for a.

Second, for and is that the poin in other places where we've seen these races become more political, it's oftentime because the public is actually voting on who gets appointed in the first place.

Right.

Well and I think the other piece too, like why this isn't really that political here, at least for now, i just because to what you said, like people don't know about it.

It's just like a really pretty low information sort of race.

And maybe like if there was a big effort behind it, then it would be a more political and b probably a little bit more, like voted on because people don' have to vote on every position.

And that's pretty far down the list, I think, on the ballot.

So that's.

Yeah.

So, so by the time you get to that page, sometimes you've forgotten about it completely.

For a few Hoosiers that don't just picks.

Straight ticket voting midstream.

All right.

Time now for viewer feedback.

Each week we post an unscientific online poll question.

And this week's question is, should Indiana Supreme Court Chief Justice Loretta Rush serve another five year term, a yes or B no?

Last week, we asked you whether Joe Biden should ste aside as the Democratic nominee for president.

58% of you say yes, 42% say no.

I'd love to know if more Democrats or Republicans were saying no and yes on that one, bu we don't want to break that out.

If you'd like to take part in the poll.

Go to WFYI.org slash.

We'r and look for the poll of fewer Indiana high school seniors have completed the federal application for college financial aid this year than state leaders had hoped.

From his education desk, Rachel Fradettereports, problems with the federal aid portal likely impacted how many students completed the form.

This past school year.

Indiana higher education leaders set a lofty goal to have more than 60% of high school seniors complete the FAFSA, but only about 45% of Indiana seniors completed the form, according to federal data released last month.

That's about the same percentage of seniors who completed the form in the last few years.

Data will be tracked through September.

The FAFSA or the Free Application for Federal Student Aid form, determines how much financial aid students get from federal and state governments, as well as from higher education institutions.

Students and families across the country struggled to complete the FAFSA last school year due to delays and glitches in the rollout of the new version of the application.

But Indiana higher education leaders hope that next year will be different.

Once the problems are fixed they expect to see an increase in applications in the future.

Michael O'Brien state lawmakers have tried to make FAFSA completion more of a priority, too, in schools.

They didn't mandate it, but it was certainly encouraged a lot more.

do we chalk up this year of lower than hoped numbers to this one off glitch?

Yeah, they lost four months.

Right.

It was normally the these go out in October.

They won't went out in January.

while the state was trying to at the exact same time the state had this new law that was trying to encourage, schools to proactively require, require with an opt out, yo know, students fill these out.

It's worth noting that we were number one in the country in year over year.

So we're down 0.9% year over year.

The next closest state was down four and a half in North Dakota.

So and that's really because of it to brag on the client invested and the Commission on Higher Education worked together to go out.

They have they already have 600 events planned for next year to go to go school by school and city by city, to promote this, help people with just the literacy part of filling out this form, which is really complicated.

My mom still talks abou 27 years ago filling out a fast.

She remembers it like it was like hard, you know, so she she took the lead and my family on, on doing that and still talks about it.

So, it's it's it's it's certainly not where they want to be.

But given that every state was down and we were numbe one in the country in terms of how much we slipped, I think it bodes well for public compliance rates going to lock in 25.

Yeah.

It's just you mean this is the federal government's problem and we got to put it on the federal government.

Right.

It was terribly, terribly done, I think not just the four month delay but I think the the application itself is, is so cumbersome that people get their they're put of by even trying to fill it out, which is not what you want to do.

You know, you need to get certain information.

Certainly, I would argue with that.

But it can't be quite as cumbersome as it is.

And it needs obviously to be done on schedule because a lot of kids just, you know, didn't didn't get it.

Definitely a barrier.

Yeah, absolutely.

Need more college go.

Sunday's.

Yeah.

For people to fill out that form.

I don't know if everyone's aware of college or Sunday.

And that's when you can go and actually get help to fill the form out.

So we need to do more of that.

In terms of what lawmakers have done.

You've been pointed out, you know, they did.

It's mandatory, but there's an opt out.

And that was that was a big debate in the General Assembly about what are we actually going to require of students and that sort of thing.

There was a whole fight that happened for a while, and lawmakers generally like to see the results of their work.

And here obviously not a lot to trump it, but to the number that Mike just pointed out.

Is that going to kind of bolster the idea that, oh, we did the right we made the right call and it'll get better in the future.

I mean, I think it's definitely an encouraging sign that like, we didn't drop even close to as much as like other states in terms of their completion rate.

But I do think that to see the specific impacts of what lawmakers here have passed, like they're going to have to wait at least another year.

Yeah.

All right.

The Gary Community School Corporation has officially shifted from state back to local control.

Indiana Public Broadcast Kirsten Adair reports the district is no longer financially distressed, but residents still won't be able to vote on their local school board for the foreseeable future.

The district has been under state control since 2017, when it had more than $21 million in operating debt.

It was forced to relinquish local control to an emergency manager appointed by the state.

The school corporation has maintained a surplus of more than $1 million since 2021.

Michael Raisor, the state appointed manager, says Gary has budgeted for the next five years it has a considerable cash reserve.

The school district is in som of the best financial shape of.

Districts in the state right now.

A five member school board appointed by the Indiana Department of Education, the Gary Common Council and Gary's mayor have advised the district for the past year.

The board will take over in July and appoint Yvonne Stokes as the new superintendent.

Razor and his deputy manager will stay on as consultants during the transition, Oseye Boyd This was sort of the state's first go in taking over an entire school district because of these financial issues.

This in Muncie, would you is it fair to call this this takeover of Gary successful?

I'm going to say yes.

I think, though it depends on who you ask.

Who you as if it's been successful because, enrollment has continued to decline in Gary schools.

However, they are now out of being distressed.

So that's a good thing.

Now, I like that Yvonne Stokes is going to be there.

Now.

The Superintedent from Hamilton Southeastern schools are now going to be there.

So I like that she actually stayed in Indiana versus going someplace else after the controversy she had and in Hamilton Southeastern schools.

But I think there' a lot of challenges still ahead.

How do you attract those students back to Gary schools so that we don't fall into this distress situation again, because if there's no enrollment, that's going to actually impact the money that comes into the schools.

So I think there's some challenges there.

And as well as staffing and getting, getting better, not.

Not unique, not unique.

Not unique to Gary at all.

But I think there's some challenges there.

What I have concerns about those when we say, local control, but the school board is appointed so the, the community doesn't actually have a voic in choosing the board members.

That much is the same as in Muncie, where Ball State is controlling the school board.

Well, appoints the school board, I should say not controlling.

that's not the right.

Not the right word.

but I think that kind of gives you a, less incentive to actually be concerned about what's happenin with your local school district.

Yeah.

To that end, obviously, again, talking about how lawmakers want to see the results of their work.

Now, this goes back a ways.

But if lawmakers look at this sort of thing again, do you think they look at what happened in Muncie.

Look at what happened in Gar and go, yeah, this worked well.

Yeah.

I mean, I think it is they'v got experience in this tool now.

And so I feel like tha definitely something of a arises with another one of our schools like I think they woul probably feel pretty comfortable doing it again.

They know how it works and they know how to do it.

But I also to your point about enrollment, I do think that's interesting because they've also shown willingness to penalize schools with dropping enrollment an and reward those schools that, you know, are seeing a lot of growth.

to the point about the local school boards are still not being elected by those communities.

Do you think that's fair at this point?

I think since they're solvent, I don't see any reason why the local community shouldn't have a voice.

Now in selecting those school board members.

I mean, the they I don't want to say suffered through, but they endured being taken over by the state.

And that's now working so that they're solvent and it's time for for locals to run their schools again, I think.

And not just not just solvent, but doing benefits.

But most of them know since since where they where they were, though, they probably have a lot of infrastructure that they have to do that has been been postponed for years because of the financial problems.

I what's the art now?

The Gary I think the Gary mayor still has a rol in appointing the school board.

So at least there's some there' a little closer than there is.

Tinkers to Evers to change.

Yeah, a little bit.

But what's the argument at this point for not giving full control back to the people of Muncie, the people that.

Use it back in.

Right.

I mean, when the how long ago they take this over 15 years ago.

I don't think it was that long, but it's been like a decade.

That's been about a decade.

So I created this new system and that's the school had to fail on certain metrics.

Right So many years in a row.

Right?

Right.

So many years in a row before the state then had this acces to this option to take it over.

And of course, it's successful.

I mean, the, the, the, the one metric was you were 21, I think it was $21 million of debt.

And now they're now they're in the positive, which is which is incredible.

Of course, you have to address the issues that, like other school districts, have to have to deal with with personnel and infrastructure and, you know, capital expenses and all of those things.

So I think the state, the state keeping an eye on that for some period of time, I think is appropriate.

So it doesn't happen again.

Yeah.

Yeah.

But after 15 or 10 or however many years it spends, I think it's local control is wha school is supposed to be about.

So it's about time they got a voice.

A direct voice.

Yeah.

And who runs the schools?

All right.

Indiana Democratic convention delegates will decide two competitive and nomination races at the state party convention this weekend, choosing the nominees for lieutenant governor and attorney general.

The race for the Democrati lieutenant governor nomination feature four candidates, spurred in part by unease among some in the party.

At gubernatorial candidate Jennifer McCormick's pick, conservative Democrat Terry Goodin.. Goodin, a former state lawmaker, is expected to win, but he'll face Tammy Dixon-Tatum, who failed to get on the ballot for governor this year.

Bob Kern, a perennial candidate for many offices.

And Cliff Marsiglo, who unsuccessfully ran for mayor of Indianapolis last year.

The convention race for attorney general is more competitive.

Destiny Wells and Beth White have both been vyin for the nomination for months.

Wells, a lieutenant colonel in the Army National Guard who had an unsuccessful bi for Secretary of state in 2022, previously worked in the AG's office.

White is a former county clerk and leads the Indiana Coalition to End Sexual Assault and Human Trafficking.

Leslie, does it seem like Terry Goodin is headed for a pretty comfortable victory here?

I would say the odds are in his favor.

But I mean, one thing to consider is we or, you know, political observers might have thought the same thing about, you know, the Republican.

Julian McGuire.

No, we didn't.

It did seem like there was a lot more buzz headin into the Republican convention that that Julian McGuire might be in trouble as opposed to this one.

Right.

Well, I mean, it's something like when you're in the driver's seat in terms of controlling the governor's office for so long and the presumptive next governor has, you know, picks his person and that person doesn't win.

That's a much bigger deal than Democrats, you know, trying to come out of the wilderness here.

but it's also like, get out of your own way, you know, it's like we and w do it too, and it's just party.

It's how party politics works.

But it's like you really needed a competitive you.

It really needed competition.

Your legs race.

You need everyone row in the same direction you don't need.

This isn't a time for Democrats to go.

Let' go mix it up at the convention.

Let's all get on the exact same page and try our best.

There are a lot more candidates, running against the gubernatorial nominees pick at the Democratic convention than the Republican one.

Is that?

Well, yeah.

And those are the only two in the in the in the.

Race always going the other way.

So no, I mean, the difference is obvious.

I mean, Beckwith had a large campaign for.

A few years.

These two were perennial candidates that nobody takes seriously.

So it's not going to have any problem at all.

And yes.

So also remember that that, Jennife McCormick had the overwhelming Democratic primary vote whereas Mike Braun only got 40%.

Sure.

Yeah.

And there were other people who had spent a lot of money against him who were not happy about his choice.

So all of that said, the contest for lieutenant governor on the Republican side, and it's missing on the Democratic side.

A few weeks ago, when Jennifer McCormick announced Terry Goodin, her pick, there was a lot of unease, within the party about how conservative his voting record was.

He immediately tried to come out and say those votes were a mistake.

I don't believe the same thing, though.

He did come out and say, that's true.

He came out and said those votes were a mistake.

I feel differently now and then.

It seems like he's tried to go out and do the wor of talking to people about that.

Are you surprised that it looks like three?

What is it three weeks later or four weeks later?

Are you surprised that it looks like his path to victory is going to be so easy?

No, no.

Looking at the competition, no.

I don't know what more to say.

And then.

I want to ask you also about the attorney general's race, where we do expect probably a more competitive, contest among the two candidates.

Does it seem like one of the at this point has the advantage?

Leslie?

I mean, from what I've heard, and probably no more than me, but, it seems like, you know Beth White has a lot of support from within the party because she has been doing the work for so long, and maybe people want to reward that, but also, I mean, Destiny has, run statewide way more recently.

She maybe she's got a little bit more statewide name recognition.

And she's also a younger face.

She's got the stor about growing up and, you know, conservative area, that maybe helps her appeal to moderate or, you know, moderate Republican Hoosier voters.

Destiny Wells has been running for this office a little longer than Beth White has.

not dramatically longer, but certainly longer.

Do you think that ends up helping her with such a small population?

who's going to be voting on this, this race?

It definitely could be.

One of the things I think is at some point, there has to be this, passing on the baton.

At some point, there has to be this letting the younger people come up through the ranks and actually gain positions of power.

And I and I feel like that tends to be a problem, especially the Democratic Party, that we don't see younger people being allowed.

It's kind of been a shutting them out of we want to keep the power from the few people that we have already that we already know, that we already know.

So I would like to see somehow people who are younger get rewarded for trying to actually take office, because then you're going to have a problem where no one wants an office and when they're young and we have a problem where where we want to be, 70 80 year old running for office.

I have no ide what sort of race you would be.

Well, on both sides.

Both sides?

Absolutely, absolutely on both sides.

Problem?

No, it' not just a democratic problem.

It's it's it's people staying in offic for maybe way too long or jobs.

that no.

One wants to.

Retire anymore as a Republican.

Want or wants to or can, quite honestly, as a Republican, who would you rather face?

Destiny Wells or Beth?

Why fight all day long?

I mean, that's.

Talk about rowing the same direction.

I mean, there's enough, you know, this is a gift to Todd Rokita that you're that you're breaking the party into one and dividing Indianapolis Democrats from out state Democrats.

so it bodes really well for Todd Rokita.

This is this is a competitive, you know, Indianapoli institutional candidate versus, you know, a woman with a great, you know, a younger one with a great story and, you know, a more appealing candidate, I think, why you pick Beth White over destiny.

Well, I don't know.

but I'm also picking Todd Rokita in spite of my.

You know, all.

The time I haven't been.

To say about it.

I do I do think, though, that we're not paying attention yet to the national environment.

What's happening with national Democrats.

And I thought this week was like a master's class in party control, because you got these one off congressmen talking about Biden's not not can't do it anymore.

No one cares what the congressman you never heard of from Minnesota said.

They got them all in a room and said, shut up, because if he goes down, you're going down and they locked it down.

And then Nancy Pelosi opened the door.

It's like, okay, that was a bat.

And to me, I Democrats credit that was a masters class this week in getting control of the national narrative that was spinning out of control.

Destiny Wells, Beth White I mean, I think, I think a lot of people feel like Destiny Wells might have a better shot against.

I think she I think she does.

And I think she's probably going to be the nominee besides that.

And there's no there is not the kind of divisive campaign that you've seen during the Republican primar between some of these opponents.

If they've not been attacking each other and they're running for the race.

Right?

I mean, ones on television.

I mean, I don't even I'll say that because I'll say I don't think Michael Beckwith and Julie Maguire was they weren't attacking.

I'm not talkin about the gubernatorial races.

In the congressional races.

You don't have that kind of animosity up here.

And there isn't a lock on the Marion County delegation by any means.

so.

Sure, they know Beth White.

For sure.

That's the white House.

All right.

Finally, a new state tourism sponsore study of the April eclipse shows an economic impact of more than $145 million to Indiana and more than 3. million tourists for the event, but that most of those tourists were just Hoosiers moving around the state and Illini, do you still count yourself as a tourist when you're going around?

You know, you got to give spin control to the agency.

I mean, for crying out loud, we went a maybe three quarters of a mile to the neighbors of my son that had a little rise in their house and watched it there.

No, I don't count myself.

I don't think they were.

I think the study counted a if you went more than 50 miles.

I think that's technically ho they counted you as a tourist.

They all.

Right.

If you get a holiday, it sure is.

Okay.

Should you be counted as a tourist if you're just staying in the States?

I kind of agree with that.

I think that, like when I am in my little neighborhood in Indianapolis, like I go to the same like three places and I spend my money there.

So like when I'm, you know, driving across the state to go visit like a state park or something like that, like I'm supporting local businesses that I wouldn't have, like a restaurant I wouldn't have tried gas station, I wouldn't have stopped that, like, etc.

etc.

and.

I mean, look at the restaurants.

Or something.

Yeah the destinations we have here.

I mean, we have a national park in the dunes, we got French Lick, we got I mean, we have we have places that I want to g in Indiana when we feel great.

Don't there's no question about that.

And if you're going and you're staying overnight at a resort or something else, yes, you could be counted as a tourist.

I'm not sure that driving.

Up 20 miles an hour.

Can't count.

When I get there.

I it and stay at a hotel that I'm a tourist.

Yeah, there you go.

I don't know, I think a day trip.

Oh, yeah, a day trip.

I think.

A day, yes.

All right.

Okay.

Well that's there you go.

And you were counted in this study.

that's Indiana Week in Review for this week.

Our panel is Democrat Ann DeLaney Republican, Mike O'Brien, Osey Boyd of Mirror Indy and Leslie Bonilla Muñiz of the Indiana Capitol Chronicle.

You can find Indiana Weekend Reviews, podcast and episodes at WFYI.org/IWIR or on the PBS app.

I'm Brandon Smith of Indiana Public Broadcasting.

Join us next time because a lo can happen in an Indiana week.

The opinions expressed ar solely those of the panelists.

Indiana Week in Review is a WFYI production in association with Indiana's public broadcasting stations.