Tony Lux, recently retired as superintendent of the Merrillville Community public schools, has written a blistering opinion article in the Fort Wayne Journal-Gazette.
He says that it is time for all supporters of public education to unite and vote for legislators who support public education.
Despite the fact that the voters of the state of Indiana overwhelmingly ousted State Superintendent Tony Bennett, an advocate of privatization, his policies continue.
Glenda Ritz, running against Bennett, received more votes than Governor Mike Pence, yet Pence has used the powers of his office to cut down the power of Ritz and to push ever more profit-making into the schools.
The only way to stop the total destruction of public education in the great state of Indiana is to vote for legislators who will support public schools against the entrepreneurs, privatizers, and profiteers.
Lux writes:
All public schools continue to be harmed financially [by Pence’s policies of privatization]. Tax caps and expanded tax reductions have reduced state income. Along with the continuing obsession for maintaining the golden grail of a $2 billion state surplus, these factors have resulted in declarations by the governor that there just isn’t any state money to appropriately increase school funding. Nevertheless, diversion of education tax dollars toward the proliferation of unproven charter schools and private school vouchers have reduced funding for all public schools.
The governor makes grand claims that Indiana lives within its means (despite tax income that is diminishing due to an array of continuing and expanding tax deductions), and that Indiana maintains strong reserves (through “reversions” that take money back from state programs that serve the public), while still making “investments in education.” These claims ring incredibly hollow and are transparently hypocritical to anyone close to public education (and other public services as well).
Supposedly, business tax breaks will bring new jobs. But those new jobs require better-skilled graduates. Only thriving public schools in our cities, towns, suburbs and farm communities will achieve those results. Charter schools have little evidence of success, and tax dollars for vouchers are being expanded to pay for already-successful students rather than to fund programs for underachieving students.
The state’s return on investment in these strategies is practically negligible in increasing the percentage of students at grade level and in increasing the college and career skills of our high school graduates.
Mel Hawkins of Indiana says the election of 2014 may be the most important ever for the future of public education in Indiana. Now is the time to step up and support those who will fund our public schools and oust those vandals who would destroy them and turn our children into profit centers.
Diane Ravitch's blog 
“He says that it is time for all supporters of public education to unite and vote for legislators who support public education.”
Yes, but the problem is there aren’t any (aside from a few long-shot third-party candidates). Oh, sure, there are people (like Obama and de Blasio) who will say they support public education, but look what they do once they get in. The problem is we need more accountability. Not from teachers – from politicians. All of these politicians screaming for teachers’ heads if test scores don’t improve, but what recourse do we voters have for politicians who don’t do their jobs? The best we have now is just to vote them out in two, four or six years, but that’s a long time to wait and allow someone to collect big money for not doing anything.
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Dr. Tony Lux has written extensively on Indiana education and is a tremendous asset for public education in this state. As superintendent of the Merrillville school corporation the schools received great commendations and school administrators came from far and wide to view the excellence of his school system.
He confronted Tony Bennett in person at Bennett’s appearance in our Highland high school auditorium.
Would that there were more people like him. He is a gem. He speaks with authority, knowledge and integrity.
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Good for him. None of these politicians got elected running against public schools. They would not have won if they had done so. which is why none of them run on that.
I just read an interview with Paul Vallas in Illinois. He insists he isn’t about chartering schools. Do we have to get these people to sign a contract or what? There isn’t a single midwest governor who ran or will run against public schools yet they’re all privatizing as fast as they can. It’s really dishonest and not at all fair to voters.
.
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There are teachers running for state legislature in IN. Hoosiers need to vote for these people if they want to have any chance at all of stopping the destruction of public schools in this state.
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cross posted at
http://www.opednews.com/Quicklink/Indiana-Voters-Need-to-Ba-in-Best_Web_OpEds-Diane-Ravitch_Important_Public-Education_Schools-141020-313.html#comment516678
with this commentary which has embedded links at the oped site:
I say this over and over, and what’s ongoing in INDIANA demonstrates the PROCESS FOR THE DESTRUCTION of Public Education and thus,t he road to opportunity and income equality.One of my previous commentaries:
5,880/50 (districts/states) the division of schools districts, 15,880 in 50 states, make it impossible to know what is happening in the schools next door, let alone in NYC (the largest district in the nation) where they decimated the public schools, and in LA, (the second largest district) where corruption was blatant and rampant in order to monetarize education by Bamboozling the people and selling as “choice’ magic elixirs such as charter schools,
Knowing what manipulation and outright fraud is passing as ‘reform’ now that the schools are failing because they have been underfunded and been emptied of the professional staff of veteran educators. Krugman talks about inventing failures, so the ‘fix’ can change everything, and this was the plan!
But the real motive for ending public education, beside making it impossible for the middle class to survive with the necessary skills, is to end democracy, which depends on shared knowledge.
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