I wrote a post about the Mind Trust the other day, having realized that it is part of the faux reform movement intent on privatizing public education in Indiana.
Quite by coincidence, the great education writer Karen Francisco at the Fort Wayne Journal-Gazette wrote a piece about the Mind Trust on exactly the same day.
She points out that their modus operandi–right out of the ALEC playbook–is to bypass democracy and local control so as to impose privatization by fiat.
The entering wedge is the rhetoric: “It’s all about the children.” “Do you believe in great teachers?” “We are here to save black children.” “We came to save the children from failing schools.”
Knowing how these reformers work, the next step is to open charters in affluent suburbs, where there are no failing schools, no children to “save,” but then all children need choice, right?
And their empire grows.
Is there a prize for opening the most charter schools? for replacing the most public schools? Where do these people come from?
Diane Ravitch's blog 
Where do the come from? Our business schools and corporate boardrooms, and the corporate-owned academics and politicians who do their bidding. See Chris Hedges’s column today:
http://www.truthdig.com/report/page2/how_do_you_take_your_poison_20120924/
If I recall correctly, Indiana was one state where the voucher proponents were surprised to encounter resistance. Most Hoosiers were quite proud of their local public schools and there was a great deal of community investment in the schools. The politician types were surprised that most people not only didn’t want vouchers, but were offended at the suggestion that they needed them because their schools weren’t good enough.
Dienne, Sadly, even while I’d say the majority of people (voters) in Indiana reject the vouchers and most all of the other “reforms,” our legislators and our current State Super of Public Instruction are still hellbent on pushing them. The legislators really seem not to care what the public wants or what children in our state really need, and Dr. Bennett is some kind of puppet for Alec and the Mindtrust etc. If we don’t vote those who won’t listen out in November, things will only get worse for the children in Indiana. I’d like to encourage everyone in Indiana to vote for Glenda Ritz for State Superintendent of Public Instruction.
how about a referendum on vouchers?
They come from the Land of Greed. They have it all and still want more. They want to control our bodies and our minds. They’re the same people who are destroying our planet by using up our resources and convincing us that the cell phone we bought 6 months ago is obsolete and we must have a new one. They are the people who use children overseas to make cheap goods to sell to us at cheap prices and still make a hefty profit. Their over- industrialization is destroying our planet and yet they do not acknowledge climate change.