In a smart editorial, Karen Francisco of the Fort Wayne Journal-Gazette remembers an earlier election when voters chose between an educator and a political figure.
The voters in the early 1990s chose the educator, just as they did in 2012, when they overwhelmingly elected Glenda Ritz.
Now the politicians are gathering like a wolf pack to take away the office and its powers, perhaps because she is an educator.
Who should lead our schools as state superintendent? The people of Indiana have spoken, but the powers-that-be in Indianapolis are not listening.
Diane Ravitch's blog 
They are brewing the hemlock as we speak …
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…or billionaires pushing “so-called education reform.”
Always great to see someone in the media who understands the issues.
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Ritz isn’t a rubber stamp so they have to roll right over her. So great that we’re encouraging “critical thinking”, right?
Purge the dissenter! 🙂
It’s freaking appalling how lock-step it is. They have their own language at this point: they all use the same words and phrases.
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I agree with her that lawmakers will ignore the public protest in the statehouse, but I still think public school supporters can reach state legislators. Not governors (who run statewide) but individual lawmakers.
There are public schools in each and every one of their districts. They have to be held accountable individually, for their action or inaction regarding individual (named) public schools in their districts. Not “support public education” but “support Lincoln Elementary in Rep. Smith’s district”
They really sing a different tune when you approach a state lawmaker and ask about public schools IN his or her district. They have no choice 🙂
I actually think it’s the ONLY way public schools will get any support. It has to be specific and personal to the state rep. They have to run in these places and whether they like it or not, public schools still exist and they serve the vast majority of children.
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Are there any states that do rely more on Educators to make or influence education policy than politicians funded by corporate reforms? Let’s highlight that state’s accomplishments like this commentary highlighted Indiana’s past.
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Administrators and faculty, at the largest Indiana public university could speak up for education. Or, are they too busy putting their hands out for Koch money?
Public universities will understand the consequence of their silence shortly, when the barbarians…. are at their gates.
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I agree, and good for you for raising it.
I don’t think this gets NEAR enough attention.
If they think they’re immune from this, they’re delusional. They’re next. I won’t have a bit of sympathy for any of them when they’re all low wage adjuncts conducting “workforce preparedness” classes.
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Glenda Ritz is not the superlative leader for which we hoped
but
She is FAR superior to the politicians killing the state of Indiana
but
of course our illustrious governor plans, we think, on running for the presidency so the lowest common denominator has to be applied to appeal to the lowest common denominator of public opinion, shaped by – you guessed it – the media.
I must admit though, that some of the newspapers are FINALLY getting the message so maybe there is hope for us yet. We can only hope and pray – and work towards a more enlightened future.
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What we have to do is simply DECLARE that no seat in the general assembly goes unchallenged and then find well-known candidates that support public education and teachers to run for office, knowing full well they will be outspent and smeared by the GOP candidates and their PAC money. Way too many seats in our General Assembly has no opposition, and that is a great deal of the problem. In order to capture a seat, the person that runs has got to be well known, simply because the GOP will outspend that candidate many times over.
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On Thursday evening February 19, a crowd of several hundred braved the near-zero temperatures to see a free screening of the movie RISE ABOVE THE MARK. The venue was the newly-renovated historic Lerner Theater in downtown Elkhart.
(Dr. Ravitch attended a viewing of RISE ABOVE THE MARK at Indianapolis last year. See this link http://www.indystar.com/story/news/2014/02/28/rise-above-the-mark-film-sparks-education-debate-/5918459/.)
The one-hour showing was followed by a one-hour panel discussion, moderated by Alex Holtz, president of the Elkhart Teachers Association. Panel participants included Brian Wiebe, (Elkhart County’s Horizon Education Alliance), as well as local school superintendents Robert Haworth (Elkhart city), Jane Allen (Middlebury), James DuBois (Baugo), Wayne Stubbs (Concord), Steven Thallheimer (Fairfield), and Joe Sabo (Wa-nee). Honored guest panelist Dr. Rocky Killion (West Lafayette), whose corporation created the film was also in attendance.
When Indiana’s disgraced ex-superintendent Tony Bennett was on the screen, members of the crowd could be heard booing and hissing. While Bennett’s activities were chronicled, there was a humorous musical theme which was whistled (sounded like a mix between “The Andy Griffith Show” theme song, the tongue-in-cheek Enzyte male enhancement commercials on TV a few years ago, and “If I only had a Brain” from the Wizard of Oz).
Dr. Killion, prominently featured in the movie, stated that audience members should tap into community support and found their own local chapter of “Friends of Public Education.” He said it’s the best investment you can make for a membership of $25 a year. (One of those I’ve followed is Northeast Indiana Friends of Public Education, anchored by strong teacher support from Indiana’s second-largest city, Fort Wayne; their excellent website is http://neifpe.blogspot.com/, and I suggest even non-Hoosiers reading here should check it out.) Killion noted that many state legislators may not pay attention to letters from constituents, but local chapters of FPE can issue public report cards on their state legislators’ support of public education. THAT will get the attention of the people in Indianapolis, according to Killion.
Another guest in the audience was Elkhart city mayor Richard (Dick) Moore, a Republican. He spoke about how legislators in Indianapolis tended to be insulated from their constituents back home, and either non-responsive, or forgetful of their (voters’) wishes. This is not word-for-word, but Mr. Moore said “You’ve got to change your [voting] behavior and stop sending those same people down to Indianapolis.”
For more about West Lafayette’s Superintendent Dr. Rocky Killion (a former music teacher, I believe), see this other posting from yesterday in this blog:
My favorite comment in this posting is from MathVale:
“We see Hershman (R-Buck Creek) use the augment [sic] “we can’t stop doing the wrong thing, just because what we have been doing is wrong”, Soon, we’ll see Republicans saying teachers don’t love America.”
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