Karen Francisco, the fearless education writer at the Fort Wayne Journal-Gazette, describes here how Republican legislators are planning to hack away at the powers of the state superintendent.
They are trying to reverse the defeat of Tony Bennett and negate the will of the voters, who overwhelmingly voted to Glenda Ritz as state superintendent.
With Republican supermajorities in both houses of the legislature, they have the votes to silence Ritz and the people who elected her.
This is shameful. The legislature of the great state of Indiana is openly flouting the will of the electorate.
The people who elected Glenda Ritz should vote these scoundrels out of office next time.
Diane Ravitch's blog 
Choice (democracy) is merely a means to an end for the reformers.
Followed quickly by the end of the means.
The same people who voted for Ritz also voted for their state representatives. To say that the legislature is openly flouting the will of the people seems incorrect.
The fact that the legislature is undermining her is shameful, and hopefully the people take notice and make a change in the future. I fear for Indiana’s education, as the new Governor has said he will continue forward the path to “choice”. Ritz’s powers are going to be reduced and undermined at every turn. I do believe that she has the ability to publish Indiana’s state test scores. In the past, I don’t believe charter’s have always appeared, or they are noted as exceptions for various reasons. Hopefully she can point out that charters are not the wonderland they claim to be.
What I think is more likely to happen is schools that Tony Bennett took over, as failures, will be dumped onto Ritz as her failure to improve them. And this will be used to smear her as a failure.
Change the rules when they no longer work to your advantage: a classic strategy of controlling others.
I voted for Glenda Ritz, but there was no Democratic candidate in my district for State Representative — so I didn’t get to vote for a state rep.
It seems to me that the general public in the U.S. has a serious mental condition. What else could it be when they vote to destroy themselves continuously. In Europe and the Middle East they realize what is happening to them and are giving the governments real blowback here we sit on our butts and do nothing but watch Dancing with the Stars while our liberty and treasure are being taken away. I guess we deserve to get ripped off if we do not care in general.
Reblogged this on Transparent Christina.
Diane, I respectfully disagree with you on the following:
“With Republican supermajorities in both houses of the legislature, they have the votes to silence Ritz and the people who elected her.”
Actually the one thing that this Republican supermajority CAN’T do is “silence Ritz and the people who elected her!”
They can minimize her office’s funding. They can possibly even shut it down. They can do all sorts of things to Ms. Ritz and her supporters. But the one thing they CANNOT do is take her voice and the voices of those who support her.
If Fannie Lou Hamer in 1964 Mississippi couldn’t be silenced—despite repeated death threats, beatings and attempted murder—then any of us, anywhere, can speak, and tell the truth as we see it.
Let’s not forget that. No matter what they do to us, we always have our voice.
And there’s no weapon as powerful as clearly spoken words.