The Indiana Secretary of State’s office is sending checks to 27 school corporations after the state finalized a settlement with the Indiana State Teachers Association. Delphi Community Schools will receive $590,303.35 from the legal action.
The settlement ends a lawsuit surrounding the union’s failed health insurance fund. It filed four years ago over a medical plan ISTA offered to teachers and school employees. The state argues the funds were improperly used on risky investments and to pay off long-term disability claims.
Secretary of State Connie Lawson announced that a $14 million settlement has been finalized. She says the money will be distributed to the school corporations based on how much they lost. However, it will only pay back about 50 cents for every dollar lost.
“It’s my opinion that ISTA and NEA have a moral obligation to repay its member the rest of the misappropriated money.”
Lawson says while ISTA has always claimed its innocence, she charges that the union intentionally misled its members.
In a statement, the ISTA says the $14 million for the settlement came from what the union won in its own lawsuit against those it says are actually responsible for the collapse of the insurance trust. The union says the case has been settled in terms that are fair to school employees.
