Indiana Republicans visit the white House.

Education Secretary Katie Jenner has a new job.

Plus, Diego Morales on a federal data request and more from the television studios at Wfyi.

It's Indiana Week in Review for the week ending August 29th, 2025.

Indiana Week in Review is produced by Wfyi in association with Indiana Public Broadcasting Stations.

This week, Indiana Democrats say Republicans trying to redraw the state's congressional map are greedy cheaters.

Dismantling the bedrock principles of democracy.

Democrats rallied at the Indianapolis airport as Republican members of the legislature headed to the white House for a visit amid the redistricting debate.

If Republicans redraw Indiana's congressional districts to try to oust the state's two Democratic congressman, Democrats say legal action will follow.

Representative Mitch Gore says that's because redrawing the map will require carving up communities of color.

Diluting their power.

The representation, their ability to fight for schools, health care, housing and justice.

Senator Andrea Hunley called on Republicans to forgo pay if a special session is called for redistricting.

And at a time when our state budget is already crunched.

This is so irresponsible to ask our taxpayers to foot the bill.

A special session would likely cost taxpayers between 150 and $250,000.

a special session for redistricting inevitable?

It's the first question for our Indiana Week in Review panel Democrat Ann DeLaney Republican Chris Mitchem Jon Schwantes, host of Indiana Lawmakers and Niki Kelly, editor-in-chief of the Indiana Capital Chronicle I'm Indiana Public Broadcasting Statehouse Bureau Chief Brandon Smith Chris.

Is a special session now inevitable?

I don't know if I would use the phrase inevitable, but I'd say it's certainly more likely today than it was two weeks ago, just because of all of the external factors that you've been seeing.

And I think an important or an important point to remember in this conversation is I don't think they're considering, you know, if they can call a special session, get a pass, I think it's rather they should, because I can't imagine Mike Braun working with the legislative leaders and calling a special session and not having the votes.

I think that would be very shortsighted, and they probably wouldn't do that.

So that could be a reason why they could be potentially expanding this a little bit.

But, I think when you look at the external factors, I do think you have to give credit to the Trump administration, regardless of which side you fall on, because they're making this a priority.

They could have just came out and said, hey, states do this and then kind of walked it back or not, has been has directly involved as they have been.

But the effort of, you know, getting the Indiana General Assembly out there.

Trump himself meeting with Speaker Brey and President pro Tem or, excuse me, Speaker Houston and President Pro Tem Abraham.

you know, I think that is something that they're doing on that side, but also on the other side.

you know, you saw Texas just hours ago, recently signed their maps into the to effect.

And I think you're also seeing California consider it as well as Maryland and Missouri.

So I think all of these things are stacking up as to where if Republicans in Indiana do decide to do this kind of a hit or the political pressure they would feel doing it.

You kind of have some more cushions.

There wouldn't be as extreme.

I mean, oh, it's extreme.

I mean, they're clearly being bullied.

That's what they're clearly being been get from, but they're going to get response from the voters on this because it is trying to rig the system.

It's exactly what it's about.

And it's because Trump is so unpopular because his votes are hurting people and his decisions.

I mean, now we can't even get vaccines if we want them, he says.

We can.

RFK says we can.

But you have to go through a doctor and you're probably going to have to pay for it.

There are a lot of people that $160 for a shot is too much.

So we're going to have an epidemic again of Covid, all thanks to Trump.

And on top of that, he's kicking people off their, health care.

It's he is extremely unpopular.

He would ordinarily lose seats in an off election and he was worried about a landslide.

So he thinks if he stacks the deck, he can survive.

He's not going to survive.

There's going to be input from voters here in Indiana that are going to jeopardize the new districts that they put into play.

So it's not a there will be backlash because this is unprecedented.

There's been some discussion, a discussion of that in the background of this, which is, yeah, you can draw a new map in Indiana if you split Indianapolis into a few pieces, maybe split the region into a couple of pieces that are probably going to lean at least Republican most of the time.

But do you think maybe some of the the reason why we haven't seen the special session called yet, anyway is because they're wondering, are we creating more problems for ourselves than we need to?

Well, I mean, when I talk to lawmakers who are against it, they're against it for a couple of reasons.

Our maps are already great.

They love them.

When they passed them four years ago, they said, there's nothing wrong with them and we don't have any new data.

You know, we're just going to go in and just, you know, gerrymander them, like, plainly and simply.

Yeah.

other people are concerned that, yeah, sure, you could theoretically get A90 map.

Several of those would be like 51, 49 districts.

And more importantly, a couple of the really solid Republican districts are going to become a little more vulnerable.

Like, will they absolutely flip?

No, I'm not saying that.

But you are going to have to spend more money in them.

So overall, they're going to have to spend more.

Also, if you make those seven districts a little more, you know, take away some to to stretch it out to nine, that means they might be a little less strong and they're going to get a different type of candidate.

You probably get a more centrist candidate, honestly.

So maybe that's a good thing for Indiana.

You know, in the eye of the beholder.

Democrats this week obviously talking about, the legal action that would absolutely follow if Indiana passes a new congressional map, probably focus.

I mean, at this point, the US Supreme Court has said political gerrymandering is A-okay by them.

Racial gerrymandering, however, is the one thing that's so far has survived at the Supreme Court.

We'll see if it ultimately does.

But do you think legal action is going to even enter into the minds of Republican leaders here?

Maybe at the margins, but, I mean, that alone is not going to stop it, because when you talk about legal action, you're talking about something that would take a long time to play out clearly.

Unless, well, I was just going to say it might not be able to take a long time.

The shadow docket doesn't work for everybody.

Yeah.

That's true.

if I were arguing the other side, then I'd say, yeah, you could do it like that.

it seems to me, other than to placate Donald Trump, there's really no win in this for Republicans.

I've said this before.

You have super majorities in the House and the Senate in in Indiana.

You can't get any better.

You can already do business without the other side.

They can pull up a Texas and go away and it doesn't matter.

So they have that also the point that they would have to essentially acknowledge that we're doing this solely for gamesmanship, political gamesmanship, because the maps we passed before we lauded those maps as some of the best in the country because of the continuity, they were able to keep together, the similar types of people in terms of communities, in terms of counties.

And they, they praise themselves and probably and justifiably so on coming up with maps that did that.

Some of the best, outsiders have said in the.

Maps in the country.

Well.

If you in terms of keeping like groups together, that they, they are generally lauded even by, you know, independent third party types.

so, so the risk there is of course, everything is set here.

Plus throwing down with or siding with Donald Trump, who may in fact become a liability at some point, if not by certainly not by the next election, but in the sake of for history and in the in terms of voters who don't like this, I think Hoosiers generally like a fair level playing field.

I think at the core.

And that's why I think you.

Have to but do, do, do the core Republican primary voters want them to run.

I think you have enough people, particularly in the Senate, Republicans, who would not look favorably on this.

I think they're honorable people and see this as somehow dishonorable.

It is time now from viewer feedback.

Each week we post an unscientific online poll question, and this week's question is will redrawing Indiana's congressional map guarantee Republicans all nine U.S. House seats a yes or B no?

Well, last week we asked you whether governor Mike Braun's helicopter trips to his home in Jasper are a problem.

86% of you say yes, 14% say no.

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

Go to Wfyi Dorgan.

I wire and look for the poll.

Well, Indiana's current secretary of education, Katie Jenner, will take on a new responsibility this fall overseeing the state's colleges and universities.

Jenner will take on the duties of Commissioner for Higher Education Chris Lowry, while continuing to serve as secretary of education for Dillon Pierce.

McCoy reports.

Jenner's appointment is designed to consolidate control of the state's K-12 and higher education systems.

Indiana leaders are doubling down on the premise that high schools should connect directly with college and career training.

Secretary of Education Katie Jenner has led the state K-12 system for five years.

She says that as the state's higher education chief, she'll continue to push for young people to have more opportunities to earn college credit and certifications while in high school.

It really changes the game.

We can start to ensure we're targeting and working with students as early as possible to make that connection.

Jenner was unanimously approved as the state's next commissioner for higher education.

She'll take over in October.

And is this a logical move?

Well, it's logical if you want to demean higher education, which is what this administration is interested in doing.

They want to control the professors.

They want to control the message.

They want to control the course offerings.

They want to control everything in it.

The person I didn't realize that the the Commissioner for Higher Education was a part time job.

I didn't realize that that you can put them all together like that.

You know, we have flagship institutions in the state that we ought to be very proud of and we ought to be building on, and we ought to be touting, and we ought to be encouraging people from around the world to come here.

And instead we take the opposite approach.

We treat higher education as if it's.

Well, it may be for some people, but it's not really important.

Well, doing this demeans higher education.

It says it's a secondary consideration.

And basically if you go from high school to someplace, maybe you go there, maybe you go to trade school, maybe you don't even need it.

It really is the wrong message to send.

And, you know, I just really when we had Stan Jones and, and and we've had other very distinguished, commissioners for higher education, Theresa.

Lubbers.

Lisa Lubbers.

Absolutely, absolutely.

Both sides of the aisle all agreed that higher education in Indiana was important.

And to be encouraged, not this administration.

A lot of people on both sides of the aisle praised the job Katie Jenner has been doing at the Indiana Department of Education.

And I don't think there's anybody, whether you like or not, who thinks she was slacking off in that job.

Does this suggest that the commission commissioner for higher educatio I don't think so.

I actually think it's the opposite that they're continuing to prioritize it, because to your point, I think you'd have you'd be hard pressed to find anybody else in the executive branch that gets as bipartisan support as Katie Jenner does.

I mean, you can just look at the results, particularly recently in K-Through-12 education, you know, top six in the country in reading now in both fourth grade and eighth grade improvements in math education, according to the latest I read results.

So she's getting the job done.

And I do think she gets some of that bipartisan credibility because you don't see her on the forefront of a lot of the curriculum discussions or what books should be allowed in libraries.

Like, she's really not the face of that.

She really is in the trenches of making sure that, you know, we have the infrastructure to continue improving these reading scores.

So if she's doing a good job there, I think with the priority you've seen from the current administration of trying to just get that seamless pipeline from K through 12 to college, whether it be through the new diploma system and making sure that you have internships and all that good stuff.

I think this makes a lot of sense if you want to have a continuous pipeline of talent coming from K through 12 to the college.

Internship are designed to get people to go to college.

Well, they're trying to make sure that they go to the next level.

But I mean, they should.

Have the tools to do so.

That idea of trying to make a more, seamless pipeline between high school and whatever comes next has been going on in Indiana for a while now.

Is this just a logical extension of that?

You could.

That is the argument that's being made, and certainly right.

Other administrations, Republican and Democrat alike, have tried to look at the continuum to say, we want to make sure that the students who matriculated Indiana's colleges and universities are prepared.

So we're going to do this in terms of curricular development.

So I get that, and I don't think anybody would question, success and what she's done.

The numbers don't lie.

I mean, we've seen really good numbers in terms of reading scores and and graduation rates from high school.

those.

Are college going rate, however, has not been doing well.

So maybe she can apply some of that same magic.

And look more power to her.

I hope it works.

but I do think there is a messaging, a structural issue when, because as a practical matter, I'm no education expert, but teaching kids to read or play nice, whether there's a big Bloks or Tinker Toys.

Sorry.

Brand name, is not the same as getting people to think critically at in post-secondary setting.

They're not the same.

And again, we're not competing with ourselves here.

This isn't where we're going for our own personal record as a state.

We happen to have 49 other states that want our piece of the pie, and are willing to do what they need to to skim off the best and brightest for their institutions and the best faculty for their institutions and the best funding for their institutions.

That's where it gets problematic.

Arguably, the Commission for Higher Education is at a time when it's being asked to do more than ever in terms of the review of all of these courses at all of these universities and colleges now.

They're now taking complaints against professors.

They're reviewing tenure.

Is this too.

Much to me now?

They don't even get their own leader.

Yeah.

And look, Katie Jenner is amazing, but she's still only one person.

I mean, I don't know where suddenly she's going to have more time in the day to do a whole second job.

And also, I mean, she should get a raise because we had two people making 275,009 year or whatever it was.

So hopefully they give her a raise.

But I also kind of wonder what's the next level after this?

And we're looking at boards and commissions like, do we just combine the Higher Education Commission, the state Board of Education?

Is that what is going to be the next, next logical step?

I mean, at some point you know, someone needs to be watching out for both things, and there is a little bit of a concern about blurring, you know, the focus of each by putting them all together.

In recent months, the U.S. Department of Justice has sent letters to more than a dozen states requesting access to sensitive voter information, including voter rolls.

Indiana is one of those states.

Indiana Secretary of State Diego Morales says his department has received a letter, but it's currently in the middle of the review process and has not send anything to the DOJ yet.

Obviously, I'm not an attorney, but my general counsel is an attorney.

And he's reviewing the legal way, the.

Legalities, what can we submit or what we cannot?

The DOJ told a National Association of Election officials it intended to contact all 50 states to seek voting and election information.

Josh, should Hoosiers feel comfortable with this request from the Trump administration.

There's not much that should make Hoosiers feel comfortable.

Aside from football, which maybe we'll talk about, later.

I mean, this is a talking point.

but we had Mike pence, who, remember during the first Trump administration, was appointed to this blue ribbon task force, it's going to get to the bottom of voter fraud.

They disbanded because there was nothing to do.

Then.

We've had subsequent to that and a number of initiatives to make sure our voter rolls are pure.

There was, of course, I never can remember the, the acronym the state by state.

Eric.

Eric.

Thank you.

I'm going to remember Eric at some point, but that was actually created largely by Republican secretaries of state to make sure that there weren't people registered in multiple locations, for instance, if that's a problem.

And then they decided it was a terrible thing and Satanic.

I'm only being partly facetious and said, we got to get out of this as fast as we can if they somehow favors the other side, so they back away from that.

Then you to say that these maps are somehow flawed and not maps.

I'm sorry the voter rolls are somehow flawed, would suggest that Morales has not been doing his job because if in fact, there are people on the rolls, it shouldn't be there.

Last I checked, it was he was the one watching, and a lot of the county clerks who would oversee this at the county level are Republicans who are voicing concern.

So rather than say, I think there might be some foreigner on here, it shouldn't be.

Maybe they should have policed it better in the first place.

But I think for him to acknowledge now, this is problematic says, yeah, I guess I wasn't really the chief election officer after all, because obviously I didn't police this closely enough to keep people who shouldn't be voters from showing up on the rolls.

I mean, I think it's I think Diego Morales would agree that he is one of President Trump's most ardent supporters in the state of Indiana.

And has been pretty much from the very beginning.

I was actually a little surprised to hear Diego Morales not say, oh, yeah, we've sent him everything he wants.

It's, hey, let's let's hold on here.

There are think laws we have to follow.

Well, because again, you know, this is not a federal voter file.

This is a state voter file.

And it's handled a lot by county, each county government.

And so yeah, I haven't seen the letter and exactly what they've asked for though.

We've asked for it.

so I don't know whether to be concerned.

The fact is that voter rolls are public.

Like I can call a county and find out if you voted or you you know, those are public.

So in some way, the things that are the public record sure.

Send it over to one.

Right.

but I'd have to get a little more information on exactly all of what they're asking.

Yeah.

It's that I mean, on the one hand, there's information that, like Nikki just said, anyone can get access to because it's public.

Is it a matter of exactly what is being sent?

Why does the federal government need access to it?

I mean, the states run the elections by the Constitution.

What are they doing with that information?

What would I mean?

What concern is it of theirs?

They're not running the elections.

I can't well.

Yet.

Well, the question is, will we have elections by the time this guy's through?

But the fact of the matter is, it really is not, their concern.

And, you know, I don't know what happened to that list of 5000 that Rokita and, Diego came up with some time ago, remember, where people didn't put all that information through because, you know, if they've been registered for 30 years, you weren't asked to.

Yeah, but they made a big deal about that.

It's the perennial search either for somebody who's on there, you know, maybe maybe there are 1 or 2 people in the 5 million or 6 million people in this state, and that's all they want to be can.

Say on that front.

There may be we may talk about this again next week, because I think there will be some significant developments on that front in the coming week.

I'm curious, you know, I can remember when for a lot of conservatives or a lot of Republicans in Indiana, the idea of sending sensitive personal information to the federal government would have been pretty, pretty outrageous.

Yeah, it doesn't count when it's Donald Trump asking.

Yeah, I don't know.

I think it a lot of it does have to come down to what's in the letter.

I think I'm aware some of the letters that are sent by the DOJ to states have been like, hey, we need your records from your previous election and any other election history that you have.

And some of the letters are just, hey, give us an overview of how your state runs an election like this.

I think they're kind of teetering on which states they want information from in which not.

So I think that would matter a lot if we got to see the letter.

But I don't think like even from the start, whether you agree with it or not, Trump has made election security a priority.

So I don't see anything inherently wrong with the DOJ trying to go get more information.

And, you know, shockingly, especially to some others, you know, Diego does seem to be doing his due diligence and making sure.

He goes, that's absolutely.

Right.

Why should they be able to get information?

Why why?

It's a get information doesn't hurt anything.

If you want to make sure that you have everybody going.

Do they have a that.

Of wanting to make sure they have election integrity across.

The country?

They're not responsible for oversee it.

They're not going to go in with the.

Strange things.

To make sure they have a safe.

In the.

States to do that.

And that is Diego's job.

I know he doesn't need Donald Trump, and there's.

Nothing wrong with sending information.

About that.

Yeah, it is actually legal.

The Indiana Citizen reported this week that Lieutenant Governor Mike Beckwith met in April with what he called his, quote, Anti-Woke Advisory Committee to explore strategies to advance conservative viewpoints in public schools.

The Indiana Citizen obtained notes of the meeting and reports that strategies discussed include launching conservative student groups mandating conservative ideals and teacher training, and creating watch lists for nonprofits and school districts deemed to support pro LGBTQ policies.

Attendees included state lawmaker Craig Haggard, conservative activists, and former Indiana Attorney General Curtis Hill, the Indiana Citizen reports.

Among the recommendations for action in the meeting notes, is adding teeth to a state law that requires schools and other taxpayer supported institutions to display the American flag.

The proposal would find those who don't comply.

Nikki Kelly, is there anything about this that surprises you?

No.

no surprise at all.

I will say this.

Look, I get that he was elected, but there's absolutely nothing in his job description about the schools.

And now he's using state resources to butt into places that are controlled by other agencies, other officials, other office holders.

Other other government.

Yes.

So that's a concern.

You know, if you wanted to be a lawmaker, then run to be a lawmaker.

You know, on the other hand, I also find it interesting they're mad about, you know, people who support LGBT or what.

A progressive idea.

Progressive ideology getting in there.

So their answer is, well, let's put conservative ideology in there.

I mean, why isn't it both we get both out.

It's not it's not keep politics out of schools.

Yeah.

It's put our politics in the schools.

Of course.

I mean, this is this spells out what's, I think, interesting and powerful about this story is it really details the agenda and very clear facets, not just the people who of like mine got together.

so, you know, credit to the Indiana Citizen and I should say all of the nonprofits Capital Chronicle and others that have really fill the void in terms of keeping Hoosiers, informed.

So thank you to citizen.

Thank you to to the Chronicle.

but, it's if in fact, there's need to be done in education, maybe we should let Secretary Jenner know, because now that she's taking over, higher education as well as K through eight, this would seem to fall into her bailiwick.

So maybe maybe she could just continue to consolidate the this agenda under under that.

Yeah.

I'm being facetious.

I don't think she was invited to that.

But like, I think the reason why she got this new gig is because she's now on the front lines of those kind.

Yeah, I think that's.

She's the one that's been chosen to oversee.

Finally, college football is back.

As most of the FBS teams kick off this weekend.

My Missouri Tigers already one Notre Dame starts the season ranked sixth, IU is ranked 20th, and Delaney can IU replicate its success from a year ago?

I think they can, I really do.

I think they're going to have a really good team and they have a very good schedule.

So I'm very optimistic for you.

You're the most popular guy because you're an Ohio State fan.

Can they beat Texas this weekend?

So horn down Ohio State's actually going.

And the good thing about this is that the Colts are going to have a horrible season.

So whenever Archer sees that the Colts first overall pick.

Wow.

Outstanding Arch Manning to the Colts.

Here we go.

All right.

You heard it here first I guess Johnson I'm not sure.

You were not sure that Oregon and Happy Valley Penn State are necessarily away or great schedule but yeah no, but nevertheless nevertheless, we're as high as 11 in some polls from people who know a lot about these things.

I'm optimistic.

This is the one thing I like talking about.

My alma mater.

So every week if we want to talk about IU football, I'm happy to do so.

Nikki, how are the Ohio Bobcats going to do this this year?

I don't even know.

I haven't looked at it.

you know, we'll win some games, but I don't think are you will do as well.

And obviously rooting for Notre Dame in their opener.

Yeah for sure I'm.

Are you Notre Dame.

Just Notre Dame doesn't other than other than this opening game we have this could be a real tough one.

It's true.

Good.

You know it's it feels impossible that you can replicate the success of a year ago.

But also they brought in one of the best quarterbacks on the market this transfer class, the best transfer class.

So it is remarkable the things that he's doing down.

And I'm.

Not I know you found a.

Really great place to get rid.

Of Missouri.

You're now absolutely not all I am.

I see everybody.

And I support them too.

All right.

That's Indiana Week in Review for this week.

Our panel is Democrat Ann DeLaney Republican Chris Mitchem Jon Schwantes of Indiana Lawmakers and Niki Kelly of the Indiana Capital Chronicle You can find Indiana Week In 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 lot can happen in an Indiana week.

The views expressed are solely those of the panelists.

Indian Weekend Review is produced by Wfyi in association with Indiana Public Broadcasting Stations.