An earlier post described efforts by then-Governor Mitch Daniels to make sure that Howard Zinn’s leftist history of the United States was not taught in Indiana’s public schools.
But even more alarming is his attempt to shut down Professor Chuck Little of Indiana University, a vocal critic. Little had the audacity to defend public education, which Daniels did his best to privatize.
When government officials use their awesome power to harass and silence those who dare to challenge them, democracy is in trouble.
Keep your eyes on academic freedom at Purdue. That’s where a board appointed by Mitch Daniels selected Mitch Daniels as president, despite his lack of any any academic credentials.
A colleague at Indiana University writes:
“While I appreciate that the original AP story and others like this one focus on the former governor’s desire to censor Zinn’s text, the more disturbing aspect related to public education involves Daniels’ apparent intention to target Chuck Little and the Urban Schools Association through audits and funding cuts. The Association is a non-partisan group for metropolitan school districts that advocate for the interests of urban students and teachers. To target the group would be akin to silencing advocates for poor, often minority students who have been more deeply impacted by Indiana’s education reforms than their suburban or rural counterparts. In a state where school choice programs and groups like DFER and Stand for Children are making unprecedented headway, Dr. Little and the IUSA are often the only voice before the legislature for Indiana’s urban students and schools.”
Diane Ravitch's blog 
The only word that comes to mind is “disgusting.”
they call mitch the blade, not because he makes swift and effective cuts to budgets and waste, but because he stabs those who do not play along with him in the back. What is most disturbing is that this self-described education reformer, the smartest person in the room, a person who only picks the best and brightest to forge a new future, did not know he could look up the approved list of textbooks for highschools in Indiana, and also access the approved list of substitutions for use in Indiana, at the Indiana Dept of Education website. His so-called ed experts, his advisor and his previous advisor, now state board of ed member, also must not have known this simple fact. The board member chases after any little thing he can to prove ed reform works and teachers are bad. After mitch’s approval, he set about mandating a review of approved texts, the approval process, and also wanted to make sure the books were not anti Israel. Another scary thing about this is that mitch is now lying about what he said in follow-up reports by AP. His man tony dismissed me without even a cursory interview–no longer needed, because I had stood up to their scam using research. tony was quick to pack the DOE with his ed reform ilk and mitch’s campaign staff.
One of the problems we face as defenders of public education is, how do you shame people who are shameless, especially when they control the levers of power and wealth?
How do you force pathological liars to tell the truth?
How do you force people with infinite greed and will to power to restrain themselves?
How do you stop predators from reflexively treating others as prey?
How do you keep parasites from destroying their host?
I know that people will say the answer is education and democracy, and they are right, but what to do when those those are under attack, as well?
Strange, scary times, requiring new habits of mind and action, and an ability to look at the truth without flinching or being misdirected.
As horrific and destructive as Mitch Daniels’ attacks on public education are, they should not be surprising.
Before he set out to destroy public schools in Indiana, and top it all off by his corrupt “self-appointment” as Purdue’s new “president”, Daniels was George W. Bush’s Budget Director.
Daniels was the key individual who turned a massive federal surplus into a massive federal deficit, all the while providing absolutely mendacious assurances that despite gargantuan tax cuts for the very wealthy and two full-scale wars and occupations, the budget would not fall into the red, under any circumstances.
And, while dutifully acting as Bush’s tool, Daniels also made the privatization of government services a major priority.
This extreme mania for privatization—aided and abetted by Dick Chemey and Donald Rumsfeld—has resulted in Americans paying more in taxes for inferior products and services, feeding the deeply corrupt “Revolving Door” of DC politics—one that allowed and still allows people like Cheney, Rumsfeld and Daniels to reward private contractors like Hailburton and Blackwayer with billion dollar no-bid contracts in return for a “deferred” payoff through a “job” or “consulting gig” worth millions.
Daniels—and/or his family members or “friends”—will undoubtedly take full advantage of these sleazy backdoor Quid Pro Quo deals to maximize their own personal gain at the expense of all Americans.
Watch this Daniels guy closely and Follow The Money. It’ll tell us all we need to know about this deeply corrupt Han being.
Mitch Daniels, what do you fear? Just because college students read a book doesn’t mean that they all believe every word. Please give the academic world and the students that attend college some credit. You are being paranoid. Open thought and discussion is a good thing. This type of grandstanding is just ridiculous. What are you afraid of?????? Free thinking???
I think the answer is yes.
Mitch is the guv who started the flow of public funds away from public schools in Indiana to private schools through vouchers, in the process spitting (defecating?) on Article I, Sections 4 and 6 of the Indiana constitution, which maybe he never bothered to read. As a former Hoosier PS teacher, I am glad I moved to Maryland, where teachers and PSs are more respected. — Edd Doerr (arlinc.org)
Now please contemplate that we in California have been told this week that we are getting Janet Napolitano as the new head of our vast U. of C system. This will double her earned income from her current DC job.
Chew on the portent of that appointment. Our Senator Feinstein’s husband is on the Bd. of Regents. HIs business dealings, and the Senator’s committee assignments, have made some wonder about it all, and now add the mix the Director of Homeland Security, who is not an academic, and let’s talk about strange bedfellows.
So Alice in Wonderland does not only invade Indiana.
Howard Zinn would have a fit over this, at least I think so since his testimony on CoIntelPro was so clear, as was his History of the US.
During the last textbook adoption cycle for Social Studies, Gov Daniels and his State Supt. Tony Bennett originally refused to approve any text for US History except for one book, William J. Bennett’s America: The Last Best Hope. A copy was sent to our school to review and adopt as our new text. One of the reporters who uncovered this story needs to dig a little deeper.
Not sure about all the background with Daniels and Indiana; however, Zinn’s history should definitely be read with a critical eye. He has a very biased and even dishonest view of US History. It shouldn’t be banned, of course, as that is censorship, but it shouldn’t be used as a definitive history text.
Biased? Yes. Zinn was the first to admit that about himself and his work.
And tell us what historical texts—or books or articles of any type—shouldn’t be “read with a critical eye”?
Does this advice only apply to books written by Howard Zinn?
Also, are you able to provide the name of one single American history text that ISN’T biased?
In fact, can you name even one American HISTORIAN who isn’t biased?
ALL historical narratives have some degree of “bias”. How could they not?
But “dishonest”? No. Not at all. Show us where in Zinn’s remarkable book he’s being “dishonest”. Show us the page or pages that you claim are “dishonest”. Where are your specific citations to back up your slanderous allegations?
Did you even read Zinn’s book, which many consider a masterpiece? Or did you just hear some awful things about it from someone throwing a tantrum on Fox “News”?
If you don’t like Zinn or his book, that’s your business. I don’t really care.
But if you’re going to make such scurrilous and unfounded allegations about a fine human being and his truly superb work, you should be able to provide us with some definitive proof.
So, where is it? We’re waiting…
So, does Mitch Daniels also support the banning of Zinn’s book at Princeton, his alma mater, or is such North Korean type censorship only confined to the students of Indiana’s public schools?
I hope Daniels keeps it up. People who’ve never even heard of Zinn will now feel an obligation to read his book, or just do it out of overwhelming curiosity.
I know that Daniels was the classic absent parent when his children were growing up. But even he should remember his own childhood and how nothing was coveted more than “forbidden fruit”.
Howard, your book is about to sell a million more copies. Thanks, Mitch!