The Tribune-Star reported on Friday that the Clay Community School Board approved a half-day suspension with pay Thursday for a teacher accused of helping spread the high-stakes ISTEP-plus exam's essay question. The teacher's name wasn't disclosed.

The suspension comes amid a statewide effort to discipline teachers who deliberately circulated what they believed was a politically motivated test essay through e-mails and on Facebook.

That question asked Indiana eighth-graders to explain why they should be chosen for a type of voucher program Indiana Republicans are pushing that would use taxpayer money to help send children to private schools.

The leak prompted the state to scrap the question and the writing scores for 83,000 eighth-graders.

Earlier this week, Indiana Superintendent of Public Instruction Tony Bennett was adamant that teachers involved in the leak will be disciplined and that the state will take legal action against them.

Bennett said test vendors indicated that the cost to the state to rectify the situation could be $200,000 or more.

Bennett also said that several teaching licenses could be revoked because of the leak, but there are no criminal consequences.

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