and an Indiana partnership invests in Israeli startups.

From the television studios at WFYI Public Media.

Its Indiana Week in Review for the week ending April 17th, 2026.

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

Additional support is provided by ParrRichey.

Indiana is poised to infuse $200 million into state and federally funded program to help low income working families pay for childcare.

Dylan Peers McCoy reports the money would end a freeze on enrollment that has lasted more than a year.

Indiana daycares have been forced to lay off staff, cut classrooms, or even close altogether after the state funding for childcare vouchers.

Governor Mike Braun announced that he will ask the state budget committee to spend $200 million to pay for new vouchers.

This investment allows us to reopen access after 15 months of frozen admissions.

It puts us on a good, sustainable path forward.

The money is expected to pay for vouchers for about 14,000 children currently on the waitlist.

So is this going to move the needle on the state's child care gap?

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

Democrat Ann Delaney, Republican Mike O'Brien.

Jon Schwantes host of Indiana Lawmakers and Niki Kelly, editor in chief at Indiana Capital Chronicle.

I'm Jill Sheridan, managing editor at WFYI.

So Ann is this funding maybe too little, too late.

Well, it's little.

I mean, after the Republicans cut the program, the waiting list grew to 35,000 families.

Okay, we're supposedly going to take 14,000 off.

But the bigger problem, it seems to me, is the uncertainty of it.

I mean, they've lowered the compensation to the providers and there are providers that saying they can't make it work with the amount of money they're receiving.

Number one and number two.

How do you how do you plan how do you hire people, rent a facility, get it all set up.

If from year to year we can't make up our mind whether we're supporting child care or not.

I mean, we want everybody to work.

We put all these work requirements on people receiving Medicaid and things like that.

And then we make it as difficult as we can for them to do it.

You know, a regular family earning $15 an hour as a full time employment as frankly, many state employees are doing, cannot afford $300 a week for child care.

Can't.

And that's with one child.

If they have two, forget it.

So either we're committed to providing quality child care which prepares these children for school or we're not, and we're obviously not.

I mean, this is a little bit does move the needle just ever so slightly, but it doesn't fix the problem.

I mean, the problem is, you know, ongoing here in the state and something that we've been dealing with now for a year as the state did, cut off those vouchers, this is a temporary fix.

And we're, betting on whether or not, you know, there will be long term solutions to this problem.

Well, what I think it's great that they're clear in half.

The half the waiting list, I don't think is it's 14,000, out of 35,000.

So I guess it's it's 35%.

To two sevenths.

I don't know what.

Let's not do math.

But just make the important.

Thank you.

Thank you for fact checking me.

but no, look, I think I think the legislature is.

I think Republicans and the business community have never been more focused on on childcare.

I think when I think part of the problem with funding this is, is that when you you got to be really intentional before you fund a long term program, because Ann's right.

You can't just go stand up a childcare network and then go just kidding.

The funding is gone.

And then 311 of the facilities closed.

and then you go, oh, nevermind, it's back on.

And they're like, well, we all we're not all those people went in or they're doing something else in life, right?

This is like, you got to be really intentional when you when you set these things up, no matter what it is, whether it's childcare or anything else, the government's going to support.

So I do think we are entering a period.

The Republicans been talking about this in the legislature for a number of years now.

I think the business community has recognized how important it is for the for word, for for workforce.

it's not a lot of money to go clear the through the whole waiting list.

It's $450 million to go through the waiting list.

But not.

Not permanently.

And then.

Forever.

Not at the.

rate rate they're compensating the provider?

No.

That's right.

But but if you if you if you're going to make a commitment to, to restart part of this industry in the state is going to support it, it's got to support it forever.

Because when it doesn't, you see what happens.

All these facilities, clothes, all these people go off in life and do different things.

The churches don't have the, you know, the churches that are supporting these health, child care, programs don't have the they can't you can't take their money away and they just go and everybody we'll just pay for it out of the, the plate.

You know, they just can't do it.

So, so yeah, I hope you know, double down on this, get to get to the budget session and hopefully fully fund it so we can clear the waiting list and make a real commitment to it.

And the Budget Committee yesterday did approve this money.

And we did hear, Brian, up to this point in talking about, you know, that this was going to be a focus for him.

Was this a bit of a surprise to you, Niki?

yeah.

I mean, the state budget director made clear yesterday that the governor is, you know, supportive of continuing this into the next biennium.

It'll be a big priority in his budget.

one interesting thing about the 35,000 on the waitlist is we don't technically know if all those people are eligible.

So, you know, because they're not they're sitting on a waitlist.

We're not spending time and effort to go ahead and to, like, determine how many people didn't bother to sign up because the list is so long, right?

So, hopefully we'll get a better idea when they start pulling people off the waitlist.

How many of those are actually eligible?

And I don't really like how they are prioritizing some of the seats.

For instance, adoption and foster children for kids in the CHINS system for, children of child care workers.

So I thought that was a good move, too.

And Ann mentioned, Jon, the reimbursement rates, which are, you know, not going to be tracking the same as they used to.

Will that be a concern as we're moving into the future and trying to still solve this crisis?

It's going to be with us for a while.

I think this crisis, there's no easy fix it.

Even we saw talk about what do you say 450 million would be a fix.

That's a steep hill to climb.

when you look at the state budget, what it is over a biennium, states have tackled this.

the most notable New Mexico last November became the first state with a fully universal.

Didn't matter what your family income was, you were going to have child care.

And that was done with a multibillion dollar trust fund set up, supported by, I think, upwards of 70% of of the residents of the state.

and I think they see it as a competitive advantage, which it probably is.

And we talked so much, at the administration level in the state House with economic Development Corporation about we want to always be attractive and have the greatest appeal for a number of companies that might come here and create jobs or open new facilities.

We have a tax structure based on attracting people and being competitive.

We try to provide infrastructure and so forth, and the tech facilities that that are conducive to that.

Eventually, as more and more states, I think, adopt this approach, you have seen New York City, you see versions of this with Vermont, with New Hampshire, California, and even some Republican dominated states.

Texas is looking at how they can do this to eventually this state, if it wants to be competitive in terms of economic development and a workforce will have to find a way to make sure that those who, want to work in our workforce and, and be a gainfully employed member, contributing members of society have sort of that backstop for their families and the care that's given.

in the meantime, though, it's a with federal funding uncertainty.

Everything we talked about is if federal funding stays the same.

But I don't think we can make that bet.

So with that so much uncertainty and we were able to build up a lot of the facilities that we have here in the state.

And now some of those facilities are struggling.

Will the infrastructure still be there for us?

it's it's anyone's guess whether the infrastructure will still be there.

It has not been a Republican priority, either on the federal level or on the state level.

And it has to be, and it will take years to make up the damage that they've done by cutting it as drastically as they did in 2024, 25.

Do you think that we will be in a good shape if we do continue to long term fund child care in the state of Indiana?

I think we have to.

I think there are Republicans who disagree and and have deprioritized over.

There are Republicans in the legislature who have priorities on that.

I think we're going to see in the 2017 budget session that but it's going to be a priority.

We'll see.

Time now for viewer feedback.

Every week we pose an unscientific online poll question.

This week's question.

Will this funding help ease the child care crisis facing some Hoosier families?

Vote yes or no?

The last question posed to viewers should the state extend the gas sales tax exemption beyond the 30 days?

61% saying yes and 39% answering no.

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

A federal judge has blocked Indiana's ban on using state IDs to vote.

Ben Thorp reports.

Federal judge called the ban an unconstitutional burden, granting voter advocacy groups a preliminary injunction.

Voter advocacy groups and an Indiana University student sued the state last year, following the passage of legislation that blocked the use of student IDs in voting, on the grounds that it didn't prove someone was an Indiana resident.

In his decision, Judge Richard Young disagreed with Indiana lawmakers, writing, quote, there is no evidence that student IDs have been used to engage in voter fraud or any other voting related misconduct.

A spokesperson for one of the voter advocacy groups behind the case celebrated the decision.

In a statement, Attorney General Todd Rokita said he will appeal the judge's decision.

So.

Mike, what does this mean for election security in Indiana?

Nothing.

but look, I, I've always supported voter ID showing your idea of the polling place I never saw was an undue burden.

no more than it's an undue burden to show to the grocery store or the airport.

but think about the problem you're trying to solve to.

Let's let's presume someone appears at the polling place.

Mike O'Brien.

They showed me the polling book, my signature matches.

I showed my student I.D.. Yep.

That's that's me.

photo matches.

I go and vote.

We later find out that I shouldn't have been in there.

The problem isn't the student ID.

The problem is, how did I get in there?

There's a failure at the DMV.

There's a failure at the county clerk's office.

There's a failure at the secretary of state's office.

That's the problem you have to solve for.

It's not the.

I showed up and showed my student I.D.

and illegally voted, but my name was in the system, and I signed my signature.

I match the signature, and I make the photo matched.

And I went to all this effort to illegally vote.

that's the problem you're trying to solve, too, is the security of the voter list.

That's that's the that's got to be the priority.

It's not the it's not the I showed my ID at the polling place because everything else matched.

The fraud started.

If I showed up in the voter list, the fraud started way before I showed a student ID at the at the polling place.

But I also don't think that's a problem, because I think we do have a secure voting list.

And I do think that that we don't have voter fraud in Indiana, because I think I've been in I've been in the basement of county clerk's offices for 100 elections and watch I've been in polling places.

I've watched all this happen.

I've watched the counting of votes and the volunteers in that process and all of the, you know, the chain of events that need to happen to secure an election that is not that is a substantial process and it is secure.

And we should be proud of that because we had Connie Lawson and know Todd Rokita and others who made sure it was secure.

It created processes to make sure it was secure.

and now we're just pulling the rug out from under it because someone showed a student ID instead of a driver's license.

And it's like, if that's happened and we're missing the point, like it's the system that's that's fraudulent.

Why target the students in the first place?

Them with this line.

Because they're afraid they're going to vote Democratic.

But that's but the real problem.

That was a very good explanation for what has nothing to do with voter security, nothing to do with voter fraud.

Thank you all it has.

I appreciate that.

Yeah, it was very creative.

All I have to do is.

So accurate.

Supressing the vote.

That's all it's about.

That's why we try to contract the number, the the difficulty in voting, absentee voting by mail or having the hours convenient or the locations convenient.

All of that is designed to keep us at the bottom of turnout in the all the 50 states.

And Republicans have been unceasingly at odds with making voting accessible for years.

And this is just one more wrinkle, because that idea is as good as the best.

The driver's license in terms of proving who you are and your ability to vote.

And we want to restrict it.

And that's just perfectly encapsulates the Republican approach.

It has nothing to do with voter security, but it has to do with.

Voters.

Having been kept out of that room because they know I'm going to disagree with it.

But I've never been in a room that we where we've run elections or run run a campaign where there's ever been a conversation about how do we make sure people don't vote, we go to like.

This because it occurs in the legislative caucuses.

You're not invited to.

Stream of efforts as campaigns to get people from their couch to the.

Polling place.

Your people, only your people.

You do the same thing.

Of course, you work your policy.

Go back to the RNC.

Indiana, of course, is one of the first states, if not the first state in the country to require this.

It went to the Supreme Court and it was litigated.

There was because we could give me a give me a half hour and a computer.

We can have the documents where the RNC and task forces within the RNC nationally branded.

And this was not in Indiana.

Yes.

Make sure where this was part of the strategy.

Voter suppression was a strategy.

I mean, that's let's not quibble about that.

That's clearly.

Don't quibble.

Well, Niki, I mean, the students I can imagine, have pretty low turnout for voting anyway.

And does this just create more of, unquestioning mass, a bit of chaos as students might be wanting to head to the polls and to.

We mean, any time you're doing injunctions while voting is going on is not the greatest.

But the fact is, is that when this was pushed forward, the inference on the floor in various committees was that somehow these people shouldn't be eligible to vote, that they could be voting in their home state.

And they could, you know, they don't live here, but we have voter registration laws.

You have to show certain IDs, you have to show your utility bills.

And why I think that, you know what I mean.

And so it was never like about the voter ID, it was just a quicker way to get at it than the voter registration stuff.

Well, it would be.

And it's not a negligible issue.

I think your organization reported that if you look at Monroe County and the IU campus is a specific example where election officials said that of the students who voted at polling places on the IU campus, in the 2024 cycle, two thirds of those individuals used student IDs so that, presumably that wasn't just the first card they came to in their wallets or purses.

They that's what they had, and that's what they used.

The judge estimated at least 40,000 students are in fact, that could be as high as 90.

Yeah, I heard that.

What Indiana Economic Development Corporation also this week announced a $60 million partnership aimed at bringing Israeli tech startups to Indiana.

As Ben Thorp reports, the initiative aims to integrate Israeli startups with Indiana University's health care systems and companies in.

Indiana will commit $15 million to the initiative, with the Iron Nation Partnership expected to invest another $30 million.

Iron nation is a platform that launched in the wake of the October 7th attacks in Israel, and is aimed at producing investment in Israeli startups.

Indiana is committed to competing and winning in the industries shaping the future, governor Mike Braun said in a press release.

The partnership strengthens the relationship between Indiana and Israel.

The state has been purchasing Israeli bonds at a time when activists have called for a divestment in the country, given the ongoing conflict in Palestine, Indiana State Treasurer has said those bonds are some of the state's best performing investments.

This has gotten quite a bit of chatter this week.

Is this a good investment for the state?

I mean, eye of the beholder, right.

And also this is going to take time for us to see if they can lure some companies here and bring some jobs here.

there's a lot of discussion of it at the yesterday state Budget Committee.

really hoping for some more information on return on investment, that kind of thing.

But any time you prioritize, tax credits or economic development money, I mean, it does.

It's nothing that you can say right away is going to work or not.

So we'll have to we'll have to see how it does.

Maybe a year from now.

And if we're making any progress.

A lot of that chatter, Jon, we're hearing, you know, about why not invest in Indiana startups and startups here at home.

Well, I'm presumably I'm not speaking for IEDC, but I guess the idea is through these this collaboration and partnership, it will benefit Indiana significantly as well.

And we'll have to see.

I think IEDC needs a win.

and if this delivers, great.

but it is not without controversy.

given this, the geopolitics, the backdrop against which this is taking place now, I was curious.

The portfolio, was it all military because that notion of Iron Nation, and it came after the attacks across the border, but actually, it's I see it's it has to do with business operations and logistics and medicine and, so maybe there would be wisdom in pointing out that this is we're not just building the next set of laser guided bombs or something, which, which could contribute, presumably to the tension that's already there.

As we I strife in the Middle East.

Right.

Is this timing ill and.

No, I mean it.

Niki's right.

This is very vague and it's really not in terms of the IEDC, a very large investment.

So, you know, just let's wait and see if it produces anything.

with the war going on right now in the United States being involved in the war with, with Israeli, we are hearing a lot of people, commenting on on that as well.

The timing of this investment.

Front of everyone's mind, it's a geopolitical comment was was correct.

And, and that's, that's the backdrop.

I do I think the, the, the big positive for me is IEDC hasn't really had a public strategy since Eric Holcomb left office.

I mean, that that was the IEDC was the driving agency of his administration.

it was very high profile.

There was criticism of that.

Why are we invested more in Indiana when the governments in Italy and all these other places trying to trying to attract foreign investment?

but that's what it's supposed to do.

And it has not had a public facing plan, really.

Like, like the previous administration had.

And that was in part because they were doing, you know, the administration was doing good due diligence on the you know, the legislature is pumping a lot of money in there.

They're starting to ask questions about where it's going.

And so they they spent time, as they appropriately should have, like kicking the tires on.

Like where, where are we spending all this money.

So they've done that and you know, they've, they've done what they needed to do.

But now it's nice that, you know, it looks like they are starting to restart the car here to the I you can actually make it a the economic development engine that it was where it was breaking investment records and jobs workers and income.

You know individual income records, household income records with the jobs that they were bringing in.

So it's good to see it's getting back to that.

I mean, the IEDC also focusing now on, you know, a lot of bioscience, a lot of, biotechnology, life science industries.

But as you mentioned, you this seemed separate from that.

Well, potentially it seems separate.

Again.

That's why I was, comforted by a portfolio that does seem pretty broad.

I don't think it's devoid of the bio sciences and the medical biotechnology that has been served as by design, as the backbone of economic development in that sector.

For the state of Indiana.

So, it's just these issues are fraught.

I mean, I'm sure at some point, you know, because of the geopolitics, those issues, it's not in a vac happening in a vacuum state.

The obvious nothing ever does.

Yeah.

We also heard, though, as well with the story this week, Niki, about the Israeli bonds which the state has invested in in the past and how those bonds are very well performing and again, investing, in the country.

is it make financial sense?

Look, I don't have the expertise whether that makes financial sense.

I mean, they clearly the politics behind the world affairs is pushing either these of Israeli startup tax or the Israeli bonds.

And they're wanting to show.

Yeah, that's always.

Been, you know, support for Israel.

And, we'll just have to see how it goes.

Okay.

Well, the Indiana Department of Natural Resources proposes a quota increase for bobcat hunting and trapping in animal welfare.

Advocates say that could lead to the animals extinction in the state.

Samantha Horton reports.

Last year, Indiana, for the first time since 1969, said the statewide bobcat trapping quota and allow people to hunt and kill bobcats with weapons instead of just traps.

But Indiana director of Humane World for animal, Samantha Chapman, says the state support of and increasing the killing of bobcats is both concerning and irresponsible, with those, increased hunting and trapping quotas.

We really could see an imbalance of wildlife.

Public comment is open through May 19th.

So, Jon, is the state acting too quickly on this rule?

Well, let me just say, the older I get, the less appetite I have for killing anything with legs and a face.

Yeah.

I mean, they all look like my puppy.

They all are everything.

You know, I don't even, like, kill bugs anymore.

and there's no bobcat quota.

on on on on cockroaches.

Well, but what do you think I live?

Come on.

No, they're not cockroaches, but, butterflies and those kinds of things.

But it.

One does wonder why there is the haste here.

as I understand it, these rules in the past, and, of course, we've never had weapon based, elimination before.

It's always been traps.

And so forth to help control the population.

But this is a change not only in the numbers that can be taken, but also in the means that can be employed to claim their lives.

And thin the, the population, and in the past, that would have gone to the 12 member Natural Resources Commission where people I think of all partisan stripes and expertise can weigh in.

That's not being done here.

and even if they, they were if and there was a public comment period.

But one wonders again how much heat is being paid to that.

I think there were upwards of 3000, comments when the the current system was employed, overwhelmingly negative and against it, but sort of like, a ballroom in Washington DC.

Or you can have people that are overwhelmingly against something.

I mean, like 99 to 1.

And the committees sometimes see fit to ignore it.

So too bad they didn't stick with the protocol.

that would have addressed at least some concerns here.

Yeah.

And you had you had Purdue studying the Bobcats and trapping them and studying them for that purpose to determine exactly what the rules should be.

And I don't think either Purdue or groups like the Sierra Club or any, any of those groups concerned about this were consulted before this was enacted.

There's no rush.

Okay?

I mean, there allegedly are some people down in Dubois County that are mad the turkeys are getting eliminated, but I don't I haven't seen any proof of that.

A farmer in Dubois County, the a setup for.

You, not me.

The governor, the governor.

the softball.

I should just point out her college mascot is Bobcats.

If they wanted to come.

And we were saying.

There's a boiler there.

You know, we ought to.

Know what we're doing.

You really don't know exactly how many animals are in the state.

Well, yeah, I mean, that's hard to do.

And I will say I am a bobcat, but, I mean, to me, the more interesting part is this the in the weeds part, which is that the Governor Braun's administration is now completely going around the Natural Resources Commission, and they are putting forward rules without consultation of them and basically just kind of blocking them.

So during session, they tried to get rid of the Natural Resources Commission, and lawmakers said, no, you're still going to have it.

And now they've said, okay, we've figured out a way that we're just going to because why would we worry about science?

I mean, what does that have to do with anything?

I was pretty upset when they did the same thing with the otters, you know, a number of years ago with an endangered species for, you.

Know, long hours.

For killing otters too.

Well, that's unfortunately.

That's Indiana Week in Review for this week.

Our panel has been Democrat Ann Delaney Republican.

Mike O'Brien, Jon Schwantes host of Indiana lawmakers.

And Niki Kelly, editor in chief at Indiana Capitol Chronicle.

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.