Teachers unions are concerned state changes to the Teacher Appreciation Grant program will disrupt collaboration and promote inequity in schools.
The TAG program awards money to successful teachers based on national assessments and criteria established by the Indiana Department of Education.
House Enrolled Act 1001, which passed this year, establishes new rules for who is eligible for the TAG program and how much money is awarded starting in the 2025-26 school year. The new criteria says no more than 20 percent of certified teachers in a district can qualify to receive grant money per year. Last year, 89 percent of teachers across the state qualified for TAG money.
“Its intention is clearly to sow competition and division into what should be everyone striving to do what's best for the students,” said Jenny Noble-Kuchera, president of the Monroe County Education Association. “Every teacher that I have spoken to who is in the Monroe County Education Association despises the state's attempt to pit us against one another instead of supporting and respecting us as education professionals.”
Representative Robert Behning authored House Bill 1500, which proposed sweeping changes to the TAG program. The bill passed in the House but not in the Senate. Still, he was able to insert some of the language into the budget bill that became law, HEA 1001. He thought the old TAG program, which rewarded almost everyone, did not properly reward teachers who truly had a significant impact.
“What it ended up becoming is just a pass through of funding,” he said. “The reality is, what we would have been better off doing, rather than call it Teacher Appreciation Grant, is just to put the money into the school funding formula and let schools distribute it.”
TAG has new and more lucrative stipend levels: “recognition” receives $3,500, “exemplary” receives $5,000 and “exemplary plus” receives $7,500.
The previous program awarded $250 to $600.
Noble-Kuchera said the new guidelines are creating uncertainty for teachers in the union. She said when measuring student success for an art teacher versus a physical education teacher, for example, it’s hard to create equitable criteria. MCCSC is working on adding more local criteria to the state’s requirements to make the TAG application as inclusive as possible. But Noble-Kuchera said this isn’t necessarily the case for other corporations in the state.
“What each school corporation ends up having as criteria is going to differ from school corporation to school corporation, which is another problematic piece to this,” she said. “I have faith and I am confident that MCCSC, as a school corporation, will treat this system of teachers applying as equitably as possible.”
Noble-Kuchera said she sees the changes as another step toward dismantling public education. MCCSC is already having to work with less money and personnel as a result of Senate Enrolled Act 1, which reduces property tax revenue for public schools and requires sharing with charter schools. MCCSC has estimated it will lose between $14.7 million and $17.2 million. MCCSC also cut 61 health aides, food service and custodial staff positions due to state funding cuts.
“It makes me feel extremely frustrated and angry with the decisions that the state legislature is making about teachers, because if they spent one day in a public school, they would realize that the way that teachers have their working conditions has a direct impact on student outcomes,” Noble-Kuchera said. “So, their way of measuring student outcomes is by pitting us against each other, and that is shameful.”
Noble-Kuchera said the Indiana State Teachers Association is asking local unions to reject applying for TAG dollars entirely as a form of protest. But under the circumstances, MCCSC can’t turn money away.
When asked about concerns that the new model is inequitable, Behning said it’s inevitable teachers will be paid differently. He is working with the IDOE to make the criteria to judge teachers as fair as possible. He said the intent of the new program isn’t to create competition but to reward excellence. He hopes increasing stipend amounts will retain and attract more teachers.
“I think it's a tragedy when we have to put somebody in a classroom with an emergency license that doesn't understand classroom management, doesn't necessarily always have the content expertise,” he said. “And I just want to make sure that we have great educators in front of our students. We know that a great educator has a huge impact on student learning.”
Indiana Representative Gregory Porter co-authored HEA 1001, but ended up voting against it, in part because of changes to the TAG program added at the last minute. He thinks limiting the percentage of teachers who qualify for TAG money is “devastating” and won’t help attract teachers.
“I think that the culture within school buildings is going to change,” Porter said. “I think it's going to unfortunately put educators against educators. Some administrators may pick their favorites, and they may get more than other individuals, and in a much smaller group.”
Porter said the new criteria could favor STEM teachers because it could be easier to measure growth in those fields compared to a social studies or art class.
“You can show that history is going to be history. You know, econ is going to be econ,” Porter said. “I mean, you can pass a test, but, you know, it doesn't show the growth.”
The IDOE denied a request for interview but said in an emailed statement that “legislative changes during the 2025 session focus the TAG program around rewarding educators who significantly impact student outcomes, keeping students at the center of what we do every day.”
On Nov. 7, the IDOE will tell districts how much money they have to distribute to teachers. The amount is based on enrollment and proportional to the number of participating school corporations and charter schools.
Districts must submit to the state by January 30, 2026 how they plan to distribute the TAG funds. The filing must include which teachers they want to receive the money, the amount and evidence the teacher meets the criteria.
TAG funds will be distributed to school corporations and charter schools by April 15. Districts and charter schools then have 60 business days to distribute the stipends to teachers.
