- Electoral Reform
- Transportation
- Non-Violence
- Economic Justice
- Social Justice and Civil Liberties
- Drug Policy and Prison Reform
- Commerce and Economic Development
- Agriculture
- Education
- Environment
- Public Health
All state-wide and local campaigns should be publicly financed. A system such as Clean Money Campaign Reform, currently being used in Arizona, Maine, New Mexico, North Carolina and Vermont, serves as a good model.
Ballot access for third parties must be made easier. Current Indiana rules make it extremely difficult for third party and independent candidates to get on the ballot for state or national office. The minimum number of signatures of registered voters required to get on the ballot should be ½ of 1% of total votes for Secretary of State in that district. The deadline for petition signatures should be noon the day after Labor Day of the election
year.
Broadcast bands are public property so it is fair to require broadcast media using those bands to fulfill public needs as a condition of their licensing.
All broadcast media within the state should be required to dedicate a certain amount of time to fair and balanced campaign coverage as a public service to the community. In this coverage, each candidate for a particular office should be given equal air time to present her/his views on the issues.
INGP calls for replacing winner-take-all election systems with proportional
representation and instant run-offs.
INGP supports the use of public referendums in the state of Indiana
The Indiana Green Party recognizes the unsustainable nature of our fossil fuel based transportation system, and therefore hold the following positions regarding transportation in our state.
We oppose the proposed new terrain Interstate 69 extension through southwestern Indiana for environmental, fiscal, political and social reasons.
We support the building of high-speed rail connections between Indiana cities instead of more roads for individual gas-powered vehicles. The Indiana Department of Transportation should put more effort and funding toward the development of such rail connections, and less toward road development.
We support public transportation within Indiana cities. All state offices should be built on local public transportation lines to be accessible to the greatest number of constituents, and the state government should encourage publicly funded municipal public transportation.
We support more fuel efficient transportation and the usage of alternative fuels, which, if used in motorized vehicles, would be less damaging to the environment and more sustainable in the long run than gasoline
INGP calls for the abolition of the death penalty.
INGP calls for teaching non-violent conflict resolution in all public schools through a systematic program beginning in the elementary grades and continuing through the senior year of high school.
INGP calls for implementation of peaceful conflict resolution when disagreements arise within the school setting.
All police should be trained in non-violent conflict resolution. Other police training should be examined to ensure that officers are trained to use minimum necessary force.
INGP supports universal public access to and promotion of programs to prevent domestic violence, including rape prevention and domestic sexual abuse of children.
INGP shall make the funding of rape prevention a top priority.
INGP supports universal public access to anger-management programs.
The Indiana Green Party recognizes that in our society money equals power, and those with
money will generally use their power to further increase their wealth at the expense of the public
good. We seek a more equitable balance of power, and pursue the following goals to work
toward greater economic justice.
A steeply progressive state income tax should be established. Those living under poverty
level should pay no income tax at all.
A living wage should be required of all employers, starting with the State of Indiana itself,
so that Indiana families can afford basic necessities such as food, clothing, shelter, and
health care.
Labor’s right to organize and engage in collective bargaining must be supported and
strengthened. These and other labor rights must be extended to migrant and temporary
workers.
The INGP opposes CAFTA
INGP pursues implementation in Indiana as much as possible of the national GP platform,
which supports universal healthcare and a single-payer insurance program that is publicly
financed at the national level, administered locally, and privately delivered with freedom of
choice of provider.
INGP supports increasing access to affordable and low-income housing.
INGP recognizes the services provided to the State of Indiana and the United States by
non-citizen workers and will seek ways to expand and protect their rights.
INGP demands that the USA Patriot Act be repealed.
INGP supports restoring full citizenship rights to convicted felons after they have served
their sentence.
The American Indian Commission in Indiana, composed of Natives, per the recent proposal,
should be authorized to deal with tribes on grave repatriation issues.
INGP recognizes and calls for full equality of public and private treatment of same-sex
marriage.
INGP supports passage of an Equal Rights Amendment to the U.S. Constitution.
INGP supports equal opportunity in employment and education and supports affirmative
action required to redress past and present inequalities in employment and education.
INGP opposes the use of Eminent Domain by corporations from which they will derive a
profit or extend their power into any community. This use of eminent domain is another
extension of corporate welfare.
INGP calls for the decriminalization of drug use and drug addiction.
INGP supports public funding of, and universal access to, drug and alcohol addiction treatment programs.
INGP supports increased use of alternative sentencing.
INGP supports public funding for and increased use of victim-offender reconciliation programs.
INGP calls for a ban on the use of private prisons.
INGP calls for an end to the isolation of prisons and prisoners from the rest of society wherever public safety allows.
INGP calls for community-based prison system that integrates rehabilitation and reconciliation into the life of the community being served by a prison.
INGP supports improvements in living conditions in prisons.
INGP supports improved education programs in prisons.
INGP supports universal in-prison access to drug rehabilitation programs.
INGP supports substantial expansion in counseling programs in prison in areas such as anger management, nutrition, and healthy lifestyles.
INGP calls for committing the criminal justice system in general to the goal of rehabilitation, reconciliation, and effective re-integration of former inmates into
community life.
INGP calls for redirecting public tax and infrastructure-based incentive programs away from large and multinational corporations and toward the support of community-based independent businesses, especially in the area of sustainable alternative energy.
INGP supports economic development policy aimed at supporting enterprises such as:
Member-owned consumer cooperatives;
Worker-owned companies;
Family-owned small businesses;
Businesses committed to sustainable models of local economic development;
Businesses committed to workplace democracy;
Businesses committed to keeping jobs in Indiana, regardless of the cost of labor elsewhere.
Businesses committed to effective environmental stewardship.
INGP is opposed to urban sprawl. Toward this end:
INGP supports intra-urban and inter-urban public transportation
INGP supports sustainable growth that is controlled democratically and locally.
INGP opposes the New Terrain Interstate-69 project in Southern Indiana.
On the issue of the extension of Interstate-69, INGP supports either:
The no-build option, or;
The alternative I-70 and U.S. 41 Route.
INGP supports the creation of local currencies to assist in local economic sustainability
INGP proposes stopping and rolling back the privatization of publically owned infrastructure, services, and assets
INGP supports sustainable organic agriculture and the consumption of locally grown food.
INGP opposes the following agricultural practices:factory farms
inhumane treatment of animals in agriculture
INGP supports the following reforms in agriculture:
Stricter pollution controls
Higher environmental regulatory standards generally in agriculture
Reduction of dependence on fossil fuels through development of ethanol and biodiesel
INGP supports local collectively-owned democratically-operated agricultural cooperatives
In light of Indiana’s heritage of hemp growing, INGP supports re-introducing production of
industrial hemp.
INGP supports public programs promoting local farmers’ markets.
INGP calls for tax and infrastructure-based incentives to increase urban-rural integration and
solidarity through local farmers’ markets.
INGP supports public programs promoting community gardens and local food
self-sufficiency generally
INGP supports the labeling of all foods with genetically modified ingredients.
INGP supports the current bill proposed by state legislators known as the “Farmers’ Bill of
Rights”.
Given the variety of non-food crop sources, INGP supports growing food crops for purposes
of feeding people instead of alternative fuels.
Funding should be increased for counselors in public schools.
Programs dealing with anger management and peaceful conflict resolution in public schools
should be supported and increased.
ISTEP should be supplemented with other forms of assessment.
ISTEP should not be used to threaten funding decreases or cutoffs or the shut-down of local
schools.
Neither ISTEP nor any other form of testing should be used to threaten the graduation
prospects of any individual student or group of students.
Funding of public education should be increased at the state and federal levels.
Funding of public schools should be gradually removed from dependence on local property
taxes.
Funding for public education should be equal for all school districts, on a per-student basis,
and regardless of the economic condition of the community.
Education reform measures:
INGP calls for an end to corporate propaganda in the schools by declaring public schools
to be “corporate advertising-free zones.”
INGP opposes junk food in schools.
INGP calls for smaller class sizes.
INGP calls for increased funding for teachers’ aides.
INGP opposes the presence of military recruiters in schools and opposes providing
information to recruiters about children in schools.
INGP supports funding of education in music and the arts.
INGP supports sex education in the schools.
INGP supports increased funding for professional development and continuing education
for teachers.
INGP supports the right of teachers to organize unions and collectively bargain.
INGP supports separation of church and state especially in public schools.
INGP is opposed to prayer in public schools.
INGP is opposed to mandatory reciting of the Pledge of Allegiance in public schools.
Democratic and Alternative Education
Expand and/or duplicate current magmet and learning options that have a waiting list.
Also, create new learning alternatives of choice to meet the needs of a variety of families
and learners.
Have the Indiana legislature continually review and make appropriate recent state
graduation and dropout rate formulas.
Encourage democratic education. Realize that democratic classrooms and schools offer
the best hope for the development of civic-minded citizens and support of our public
schools.
Review current special education and alternative education policies. Critique the
over-representation of Black makes in special education and the viability of current
discipline alternative schools.
Assure that all students can read at grade level by the end of the 3rd
grade.
Abandon the “one-size-fits-all” approach and the bell curve mentality
Customize learning and democratize intelligence.
Abandon the limited definition of potential/guardian-school involvement. Turn
parents/guardians from clients to partners in all school decisions.
Abandon the deficit model of so-called low-performing students – a model that assumes
the problem for school failure is located in and limited to a lack in the culture, in abilities,
in motivation, or in coping skills of the children and their families.
Art as the 4th
R. To reach all students, promote media literacy: the understanding and use
all types of media (the performing, writing, and graphic arts) in teaching, learning and
assessment.
Understand that technology is youth culture. Encourage educators to reflect on ways that
technology influences the Information Generation and on what they need to know about
its impact on teaching, learning and assessment.
Support the current breaking-up of Indianapolis high schools into small learning
communities where relationships and trust can be built.
Abandon and reinvent the concept of special education.
Encourage districts to move from alternative education to educational alternatives for
everyone all the time.
Provide alternative learning environments that provide options to medications for
students with ADHD.
Abandon the Bell curve mentality by providing an outcome-based school climate that
promotes a high level of learning for all students.
Along with the traditional objective classroom exams and high-stakes ISTEP/GQE
assessments, provide a variety of non-traditional assessments that measure how a student
thinks about and applies acquired knowledge and skills over and above the ability to
recall facts.
Besides answering the phone or holding bake sales, involve parents in personnel, budget,
curriculum, scheduling, discipline, and all other important school decisions. If parents are
not qualified to make these decisions, train them to do so.
Create and promote and inter-disciplinary environmental curriculum. Infuse all subject
areas with discussion, research, and action on environmental awareness and issues.
INGP calls for the implementation of stronger air and water quality standards throughout the
State of Indiana.
1) INGP opposes all logging on public lands.
1) INGP calls for limiting forestry in the State of Indiana to sustainable forestry practices only,
including forestry on privately-owned land.
1) INGP supports the development of biking and hiking trails on public lands wherever these
would not unduly harmful to ecosystems.
1) INGP supports linking public forest lands with wildlife corridors.
1) INGP supports protection of endangered species.
1) INGP supports further development of existing, and launching new community recycling
programs.
1) Extractive mining practices and coal burning in Indiana and elsewhere are environmentally
destructive. The INGP calls for accelerating the implementation of wind, solar and other
renewable non-fossil-fuel-based electricity production. The INGP calls for the development
of home-based and local community-based self-sufficiency in electricity generation through
renewable energy. The INGP supports public subsidies for these purposes where necessary.
The INGP calls for ending the use of coal for electricity production.
1) INGP supports immediate action to address the following specific environmental problems in
Indiana:
Depleted Uranium at Jefferson Proving Grounds;
Nerve gas at Newport;
Brown field re-mediation;
Dumping fly-ash in coal mines;
U.S. Steel dredging in the Grand Calumet River;
Aging oil tanks at the British Petroleum facility in northwestern Indiana.
1) INGP proposes that the Rocky Mountain Express (REX) pipeline be rerouted from its currently proposed path to make use of existing rights-or-way
1) AIDS Prevention and Treatment:
INGP supports aids education in schools and for the general public;
INGP supports making condoms freely available in schools and to the public;
INGP supports public funding of Aids Hospice Programs;
INGP supports needle exchange programs for drug abusers.
1) INGP supports public funding for end-of-life hospice care.
1) INGP calls for the legalization of the medical use of marijuana.
1) INGP supports stem cell research.
1) Health Care and Insurance Reform:
INGP calls for full legalization of certified midwifery, and for coverage of midwife
services under all private and public insurance plans.
INGP calls for full coverage under all private and public insurance plans for the services
of Nurse-Family Practitioners.
INGP calls for full coverage for birth control by public and private insurance plans.
INGP calls for public support of and universal public access to birth control and abortion
counseling.
INGP supports full parity of coverage for mental illness under all public and private
insurance programs.
INGP opposes insurance companies and HMOs intervening inappropriately in health care
decisions.
INGP opposes unreasonable limitations on hospital stays.
6) Health Awareness Issues:
INGP supports public funding of educational programs in the schools and for the general
public on healthy and sustainable lifestyles.
INGP supports strict public monitoring and reporting of the quality of the food supply.
INGP supports and encourages availability and consumption of organic foods.
INGP supports teaching and promotion of holistic approaches to health and medicine.
INGP supports public research initiatives in areas of alternative medicine, such as homeopathy, herbal medicine, acupuncture and acupressure.