State leaders align with Turning Point.

Braun declines to sign syringe exchange legislation and funding on track for the Imagination Library from the television studios at WFYI Public Media.

It's Indiana Week in Review for the week ending March 13th, 2026.

Indiana Week in Review is produced by WFYI in association with Indiana Public Broadcasting stations.

Additional support is provided by ParrRichey.

Governor Mike Braun is calling for conservative, Christian aligned organizations to expand in Indiana schools, as Ben Thorp reports.

Critics say the move blurs the line between religion and education.

Governor Mike Braun is calling for conservative, Christian aligned organizations to expand in Indiana schools.

Critics say the move blurs the line between religion and education.

Indiana is partnering with Turning Point USA, the conservative group formerly led by Charlie Kirk, the campus activist killed in a shooting last year.

Braun says the partnership is about ensuring conservative students can be as loud as their peers.

It's not endorsing anything particularly.

It's making sure you've got the freedom of speech to be as loud about your point of view as the other side is always exercise with high decibel levels.

It's not clear how the partnership will practically play out.

Braun says schools will not be required to host clubs, and they will still need to be approved through the normal process.

In a statement, Democrats Shelli Yoder said, quote, Hoosiers deserve schools that educate, not indoctrinate.

Will this partnership thrive in Indiana?

It's the first question for our Indiana Weekend Review panel.

Democrat Robin Winston, Republican Mike O'Brien.

Jon Schwantes is host of Indiana Lawmakers and Ebony Chapel, director of brand and community strategy at Free Press Indiana.

I'm Jill Sheridan, managing editor at WFYI.

So, Robin, does this make sense for the governor to put his weight of the state behind this program?

No, it doesn't make any sense.

I do hope that he will allow the ACLU to have chapters that he Southern Poverty Law Center, maybe, oh, I don't know, democratic socialist.

But keep this in mind, Jill.

And everybody.

There are already clubs at the schools.

There's none.

I talked to 4 or 5 superintendents this week.

They're already have clubs at the schools.

So to put your finger down and say we want this particular one particularly overly partisan.

I think if you remember, look what the students did a few weeks ago when they walked out in protest of Ice.

They're already demonstrating their intensity about being involved in the civics and political process without having to form a club.

So Mike is is something that we heard the governor saying, you know, he just wants to give all students the right to be loud, to be heard.

This is a group that aligns with what he believes, and I fully expect him to do that.

I mean, I wouldn't expect him to balance it out and go.

I'm also for the ACLU to have a club, which they can.

And he said that he said, anybody can do this.

We sat here two weeks ago on the ice walkouts and we all thought it was so great.

These students were engaged in their communities practicing good citizenship, staking out a position on a really complicated, controversial issue of the day.

And me included.

We all thought.

That was great.

And two weeks later, now were marginalizing the governor saying, no, that's good.

And here's a group that can do it.

We've had these groups in schools forever, so we're not going to do this.

They keep the Boy Scouts out.

There's a religious element to the Boy Scouts.

Keep the Young Democrats out.

Keep the Young Republicans out for registered voters and doing the things that, that, that this group's saying they want to do, they want to register kids to vote.

Educate them about their community and engagement and citizenship.

So there's a fundamental difference.

Here's what it is.

We all applauded the fact that the students were engaged and were walking out of their classrooms to show their frustration.

You know why they did that?

Because they were motivated within or among their peers to do it.

The governor did not call for them to ask for.

The superintendents were helping them Organize it.

There's a difference.

Do you want the chief executive of the state to do this is jumping on the bandwagon?

We had Sarah Huckabee, the governor of Arkansas, beat the governor here by a day and had Erica, Kirk.

Kirk.

Thank you.

they're alongside with the ones now.

We're going to have Texas.

We're going to have Florida.

We're going to have Montana.

We're going to have Nebraska.

I mean, this is just the latest trend.

And and the problem is, well, the defense is for advocates.

No tax dollars have gone into this.

And that would be a clear violat Well, the endorsement well, it's the endorsement is still an encouragement.

They're calling it not endorsement or not.

But what if he said, I think the Catholic faith, he's Catholic, right?

The Catholic everybody from Jasper is the Catholic faith is the right faith.

And I want you to go and pray in school.

Oh, did you say that?

No, he didn't say.

Of course he.

Didn't.

Oh, but that would have been a clear violation.

But he said the Republican.

In on this.

Please, let's get in on this.

I think the issue there is the full throated support of one group.

If we could see the governor and the Secretary of state come out and offer this full throated support to every other group, press conferences and the like, I think we would be having a different conversation, but we haven't seen that.

I would also like to point out that we have to pay attention to how we are aligning ideologically.

I think you bring up a good point, Jon, about what comes from within the schools and what is being proposed to them from the adults.

I have not seen a big surge of students from here in Indiana, which we have to be specific about.

There have been some that have come from out of state to help push this organization, but we have not seen that same groundswell from within the states.

I think that is very important to point.

Out that it will fail.

And it's the same.

Thing we're seeing with legislation.

A lot of it used to be 20 years ago, and a lot of it still is homegrown.

It's organic.

A constituent will see a lawmaker who represents him or her in the coffee shop and says, you know, or ought to be a law about this.

And they're and they'll attempt it.

And now we have.

But now it's Alec and not just Alec.

They're part groups on both sides of the aisle and all ends of the political spectrum that are putting boilerplate language forth, cut and paste.

And you have authors sometimes saying, you know, I'm not sure what's in the bill.

I better go check on that again.

And I think this is.

All come together and develop that, though.

They're not just.

Being vetted, the group.

But you know what I wish we had, but it doesn't always pan.

And I wish really full throated support for our schools and funding and our teachers and funding as we claim for organizations.

We're sitting on a $5 billion budget, supposedly a surplus.

Why can't we give more money to our schools, schools that we're going school?

I bet, Mike, I promise you, we like a record amount next year to charter schools and vouchers and public schools and like of every school, but also school district, as you are keenly aware, school district after school district, having to go to the voters and ask for more money because they don't have enough coming from the state to make the same full throated commitment to public education.

Freedom and open markets and economic prosperity, I'm sure Junior Achievement would love to have a similar course, but I'm sure Junior States of America would love to have a similar endorsement.

I'm sure Boys State, but the people, the people.

That that fully.

Support that are already there and have been there.

This is the other side.

They should do it to.

Wow.

What this one city supports.

He's a politician, guys.

He's not going to like he's not going to balance that.

That is true because this is what that part of the party now just.

Like just like state parties do and outside organizations do, and the RGA does and the DGA does, and all these other groups are trying to organize people and shoppers, and we're 200, 200 days away from an election.

Amazingly, Turning Points been around longer than that.

They never called for that before.

It's in an election year.

They're going to do a little higher profile.

Well, yeah.

As our secretary of state this week, aligning voter registration for high schools as part of this effort as well.

And you you make a good point.

You know, we are just a few weeks away from the primary elections.

It's so important though at the time it was so important.

Let's let's stress public education funding.

That's intensely as we talked about that.

Well, there's no time for education.

We got too many.

Maybe you'd like to.

It's time for viewer feedback.

Every week we pose an unscientific online poll question.

And this week's question should the state be partnering with Turning Point USA?

Vote yes or no.

The last question posed to viewers Will Greg Ballard's entry into the Secretary of State race have a big impact in November?

73% answering yes and 27% saying no.

If you would like to take part in the poll, go to WFYI.org/iwir and look for the poll.

Indiana Governor Mike Braun declined to sign a bill to extend syringe service programs.

Aprile Rickert reports.

It's become law now without his signature.

Mike Braun had until Monday to sign a bill extending syringe services programs in the state another five years.

He says he thinks the programs treat a symptom and don't get at the cause of why they were started in the first place.

I'm not going to sign it, but I'm not going to veto it.

The bill includes requirements for participants to live in certain areas and show ID programs will have to adhere to a 1 to 1 needle exchange and be at least 1000ft from buildings like schools and places of worship, unless they have permission.

Six Indiana counties have the programs, including Clark and Marion.

So, Mike, is it a surprise that Governor Braun did not sign this bill?

I'm more surprised didn't veto it.

Frankly, I mean, I, I think I think given anything else, he isn't probably isn't fully he wasn't supportive of this, as a lot of Republicans have a hard time swallowing it every time it comes out.

and so they did.

I think the reason he allowed it to become law, though, was because it was narrowed, because there was a recognition that it needed to be narrowed.

the program itself, I think lawmakers in this debate were pretty shocked at like the volume of the program.

I mean, 12, 12 million syringes and six counties is like they're like, wait a minute.

What what are we or what outcomes are we getting?

We could is this is this successful?

One major outcome is the fact that in places like Scott County, who 10 years ago had a horrific HIV outbreak due to intravenous drug use, I talked about this on the show in January.

You go back to the latest data from the Indiana Department of Health.

Less than five new cases of HIV.

So there are so many, fabulous outcomes that have come as a result of that.

I think the issue, and I think part of the issue is that one, I think it was, extremely cowardly of the governor to not take a stand one way or the other on this.

So it's very much riding the fence, which I think is unfortunate.

And it is yet another example of that party treating substance abuse as a morality issue as opposed to a public health issue, which it is.

Well, Robin, we heard a lot of Republicans at the statehouse, though, that remember those days, you know, ten years ago and when we were establishing, a syringe exchange programs that were in support because they did see the harm reduction impacts that it had for people and were able to get people into services to help with addiction.

I talked to Terry Gooden, who's from Austin, with the epicenter of everything you talked about.

and he thinks the program's good.

It clearly has worked in his county, a rural county, by the way.

It's worked then.

There's one part of this bill, though, that you had to turn your syringe in to get another syringe.

If you go to any doctor's office, you see that they have a box there that says, put the put the needles in there carrying around dirty needles.

I don't think it's a good public health initiative.

That ought to be scrapped from the bill.

I don't think people should have to walk in.

The ID part is going to.

What's that?

Okay, well, I know they had to.

They didn't.

I understand they always did not, but they now have to.

And but I just think that's a bad part of the bill.

But the ID that he brings up as well, that Robin brings up, you know, that ID of requirement is been kind of a sticking point for a lot of.

People, and it probably will discourage some individuals who don't want the stigma associated with it.

I guess the other side would say it's a small compromise to be able to continue a program that has shown a value.

one thing that wasn't brought up this time, as it was, when this first was initiated, was the reflection through prayer.

As you'll recall, Mike pence got a lot of national attention by suggesting he would pray on it and, come up with a policy decision ultimately.

New York Times, others sort of suggested that that's an interesting approach in the state of Indiana to public policy.

So I didn't hear that time around this, this time around.

That's true.

But once we get religion in schools, well, was it then we'll get that squared away.

Extending it for the five years though, it is interesting that he chose not to veto it, but to let it continue.

Why do you think that of any.

I. Think it could be a couple of different things.

Maybe it is to buy some goodwill with people who really want to see this happen.

And he knows.

Okay, well, I don't want to disappoint this side.

That really doesn't want that to happen.

So let me try to, like, ride the fence a little bit with it.

I feel like it has something to do with that.

Maybe it's also a way to not bring on more ire from the white House.

I mean, that's a part of it since since we know that that is a big part of his motivation behind doing things.

Meaning our governor.

The governor's veto in Indiana doesn't being much of a bill like those passes overwhelmingly because they're just going to come back and spike it?

Do you think it will have an impact for people that have used this program.

That it's already had an impact?

But we have to remember that we have to address this from a holistic approach.

It isn't just simply turn in your needles, get a new I mean, turn in your syringe, get a new syringe.

It's what are we going to do in supports in those communities for people that have a substance abuse problem and an addiction problem that has to be addressed.

And a lot of people argue those programs did do help.

They do make a major dent.

And this reveals that sort of simmering below the surface long term suspicion of, if not antipathy toward public health.

There are a lot of people, I say they need to rebrand because the notion of public health that I think they're the people who gives out syringes and condoms to kids in kindergarten and all this kind of stuff, and the notion that it's somehow, you know, Moscow's running.

On that, though.

I mean.

Well, we've we've pulled back.

We've pulled back.

Yeah.

but by public, I think for some reason that you, like, think that we should have a healthy public, but some people find that problematic.

While they are at least addressing it.

Yeah.

I mean, if you put this in a quiz on a jeopardy!

I don't think they would say Indiana was the state that was doing the syringe exchange program.

So at least the General Assembly addressed it.

And that's that to me.

You asked earlier doesn't make an impact.

The very fact they addressed it makes an impact.

Well, it's still uncertain how much money is remaining to sustain Indiana's Dolly Parton Imagination library program.

Caroline Beck reports Indiana's first lady Maureen Braun says fundraising is on track.

The National Literacy.

Program sends children a free book every month, from birth to age five, to any family that signs up.

The program's future in Indiana was called into question last year, when governor Mike Braun cut $6 million in funding from the state budget.

His wife has taken up the task of keeping the program alive.

First Lady.

Maureen Braun said during her.

annual breakfast fundraiser that they were about 90% of the way to their two year fundraising.

Goal.

The benefits of what we're doing aren't just for today, but don't have an impact throughout these kids lives.

The program currently sends books to over 143,000 Hoosier children.

So, Jon, why do you think this program has been such a priority?

By all accounts, we have a literacy problem in our schools, and with young people.

That has been a priority, for a number of years.

We've addressed it through teacher training and teacher accountability.

And that's been a brouhaha all on its own.

But that's been a thrust.

the prior governor, Eric Holcomb, actually credited this program with playing a huge role in taking Indiana in terms of national literacy youth rankings from 19th to sixth.

And this is a program that sort of rings the bell of public private partnership or has, at least traditionally in the past and has it was originally structured.

You know, everybody on both sides of the aisle likes public private partnerships.

it's statewide.

Everybody benefits.

Kids don't have to buy in or there's no pay to play.

it has proven results.

And on top of all that, who doesn't like the queen of of country Dolly Parton?

Yeah, I mean, that's why I save that for last.

Yeah.

No.

Who doesn't love Dolly Parton?

Like everybody loves Dolly Parton?

That is absolutely true.

It was a she brought us the vaccine.

People feel how they want to feel about that.

But she helped do it.

You know, and give us great music.

but yeah, I think that this is fabulous PR for the governor's office.

So shout out to the First lady for doing what needs to be done to help push that.

Well, a lot of things were cut.

You know, when we had a $2 billion shortfall.

And one of the things was this imagination Library.

But it was one of the first things to get, you know, revived.

And, Don't forget, we never really had it.

The shortfall, that was a projection.

We ended up with a surplus.

So all of the entities that got cut, right?

Unnecessary, which that probably adds to the popularity of funding it.

Now, a lot of attention to bring back, you know, the Imagination Library.

why do you think that?

For all the reasons.

Yeah.

Letter articulated.

there's a great event Tuesday morning that raised a lot of money.

You know, so there's there's a lot of private dollars that are flowing into this too.

And then it's going to it'll it'll be on the, on the, on the priority list for the, for the next budget.

And yet we didn't hear from the governor.

We reached out to understand exactly what, you know, fundraising will look like, what levels of funding we were at now.

It was 6 million originally in the budget set aside for this, but we're not knowing exactly how much.

Yeah, but this is tremendous.

I mean, the first lady is taking an active role.

How do you lose on Dolly Parton kids books?

I mean, I mean, if you're against that, you're against Little League baseball.

I mean, I don't I don't know how you could be against something like that.

That's wonderful for her to do it.

And it's similar to what Judy O'Bannon did when she was first lady.

She made a priority of Indiana Landmarks.

They made a big difference.

I'm sure that Karen Pence made it a priority of Indiana Arts.

So Holcomb, Janet Holcomb did similar things.

So it's just using the the bully pulpit of the governor's office to make a difference.

I remember talking with, Mrs.

Pence about art therapy as well, but I think you make a great point that, Dolly is just so universally loved and no one would want to make her mad.

No, no, I would want to do whatever she wanted me to do.

Exactly.

Absolutely.

Well, roughly half dozen TSA agents in Indianapolis have left the job as the latest federal shutdown has left them without pay.

As Ben Thorp reports, Indianapolis airport officials said there have been no impacts so far at Indianapolis International, but travelers may experience delays at other airports around the country.

TSA agents are still required to work even as they stop receiving paychecks.

Kevin Smith leads the local TSA union in Indianapolis.

He says agents are still recovering from the last federal shutdown.

We got a couple.

Of paychecks and boom, we're right back down into.

You know, another shutdown.

No pay.

Smith says some agents have left the job because of the financial instability.

He says he's hopeful the shutdown ends before Congress is set to take a recess at the end of the month.

So, I mean, is this a difficult cycle that we're getting caught in here?

You know, it is.

even the gambling websites predict that we're going to be in this shutdown until about April, which is wild to even say.

but yeah, we shall see if they're not able to come to an agreement on this funding by Monday.

You're going to see people go more and more weeks without pay, and it's egregious.

I was reading this morning about people who are sleeping in their cars at the airport to avoid burning gas.

Selling plasma to make ends meet, to take care of their children.

And it is egregious.

I would love to see.

I don't know if this is possible, to see the airline step up, or perhaps other corporate interests to help cover this shortfall where our government is failing to meet the moment in Denver, they are offering an opportunity to give gift cards to TSA.

So I don't know if that's something that we're going to have to see persist or get bigger.

But we are really, really in a challenging situation right now.

And we discussed, Jon, you know, the this shutdown not too long ago here on this program.

And again, it was the TSA agents that were getting impacted.

it seems like they feel the brunt.

Sure.

Yeah.

And there's it's not as if they're sitting on huge cash reserves, you know, saying, oh, don't worry, pay me at the end of the quarter or as long as I get it by Independence Day.

so yeah, these are these are real world problems as Washington bickers about what to do.

And there was a vote, I believe in the Senate just last night.

This last night, didn't go anywhere.

And there are various ways probably to to do an end run on the core issue.

You know, ironically, the the funding is not affecting Ice, which is what prompted this debate.

And then the whole thing, but there have been there has been talk about breaking off other funding elements so that maybe TSA and others could be funded, without Democrats and those who are concerned about ICEs conduct in recent months, without appearing to give in.

Well, Mike, I mean, this, most recent shutdown has seemed to go on a little bit more under the radar than the previous shutdown.

Well, we.

Launched a whole war that.

Was kind of running the headlines.

Well, not so, and maybe even the issue of, that, you know, the Ice agents in Minnesota, I mean, it does feel chaotic sometimes when we're, you know, discussing these issues and we're discussing how, you know, the American public is this.

parts just broken and it's broken when Democrats are in charge, broken when Republicans are in charge.

This is the way we budget at the federal level, and the leverage that both parties use on each other for issues that are completely unrelated or tangential to the to a a core priority, I need TSA to work, I get the ball to.

These are people making a lot of money.

To your point, if you like this new.

Development I was making for 200 and making that kind of what you can't 30.

Four months your lifestyle in your home.

And we should be asking when the cash flow for months.

I, I agree with you, Mike, but remember we tried to peel off TSA funding and the other guys with no approve it.

So it's not like us holding the funding in check because, well, we're clever.

But what we're holding is check our guys showing up at your house with a mask, showing up without a warrant, deciding to do whatever they want to do in the streets of Minneapolis and other places until we.

And totally violating constitutional rights of people, until that's resolved.

I don't think you're going to move anything on the ICE issue, which, by the way, is funded to the end of the year, so they're already taken care of.

We've tried to peel off TSA.

The other guys won't do it.

Got to be a compromise.

We train Ice to scan for weapons and explosives and bring them under.

Make it so that.

People don't fly.

They're only checking IDs anyway.

Well, I don't know.

They're good at checking IDs.

You have to take their mask off, though.

Or are we at risk as well of, you know, having no one want to be a TSA agent?

Exactly, exactly.

I'm surprised here in Indianapolis, we haven't had more people quit.

Yeah, half a dozen.

I'm like, that's pretty good.

So I don't know how well they're treating them over there that makes them want to stay.

But yeah, it's really challenging.

We have to reach some sort of, you know, understanding here because how is the country supposed to run, you talk about in, Houston at their airport, you have the lines backed out to the parking garage.

It's the same as in New Orleans.

Other big places where they have traffic coming in and out.

We have an international airport here.

I can't imagine what it would be like to just have the whole entire thing shut down.

I'm getting very stressed about my flight.

I don't.

Get out.

Let's all go watch Get Out because TSA was the hero in that.

TSA was a hero.

Hopefully somebody you know stands up to be the hero this time.

All right.

Well, also coming up this weekend, who will be hoping the bracket as March Madness kicks off?

Jon, what do you think in your team?

Have any.

September 5th, against, North Texas kicks off.

Your way?

yeah.

Because, you know, I come from a football school and, Not a basketball school.

Purdue All right.

I'm putting aside the animosity that many Hoosiers feel.

Let's go with, with our home grown team, we'll go with Purdue, since that's the only option I got.

Who do you like Mike.

I like Purdue getting in.

I don't like Purdue being able to win twice in a row.

I didn't say that.

You want to know who I want?

What are you looking for?

Louisville first and then Purdue.

But then Louisville women's basketball I'm looking forward at the same time.

I bet you some money.

Well, lots of money.

My alma mater has no chance of being in the fight ... chirp chirp Ball State.

I'm.

So I'm going to pick whoever Willie B Byrd junior likes.

And that's Indiana Week in Review for this week.

Our panel has been Democrat Robin Winston, Republican Mike O'Brien, Jon Schwantes host of Indiana Lawmakers.

And Ebony Chappel, director of brand and community strategy for Free Press Indiana.

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

I'm Jill Sheridan, managing editor at WFYI.

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

The views expressed are solely those of the panelists.

Indiana Week in Review is produced by WFYI in association with Indiana Public Broadcasting stations.

Additional support is provided by ParrRichey.