Indiana was once renowned for its public schools, which were beloved community institutions. Then rightwing zrepublicans took control of the state, and the result was disruption, chaos, and community division. Instead of working together to improve their public schools, the public was enticed to pursue private choices, all under the false promise of “reform.”
Carol Burris went to Indiana, visited schools, met educators, and has written a three-part series about the corporate attack on public education in the Hoosier State. At the center of destruction are two men: Mitch Daniels, the former governor who is now president of Purdue (a soft landing he engineered), and Mike Pence, the pious evangelical who is now Vice-President.
Here is part 1 of Carol’s gripping story of the attack on public education in Indiana.
“Entire public school systems in Indiana cities, such as Muncie and Gary, had been decimated by funding losses, even as a hodgepodge of ineffective charter and voucher schools sprang up to replace them. Charter school closings and scandals were commonplace, with failing charters sometimes flipped into failing voucher schools. Many of the great public high schools of Indianapolis were closed from a constant churn of reform directed by a “mindtrust” infatuated with portfolio management of school systems.
“When I asked who was most responsible for the downward spiral of public education in the state, the answer was always the same: Mitch Daniels, Indiana’s 49th governor.”
Diane Ravitch's blog 
As a former Indiana PS teacher I am thoroughly disgusted with what Daniels, Pence and the GOP have done to our public schools.
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My state Senator Niemeyer sent me an email bragging about how much money was being put into schools. He didn’t differentiate between vouchers, charters and public school funding. I sent him a reply stating that he needed to speak with teachers and find out what they were saying. Then I gave a list of what needed to be done in the schools. I’d consider it a good job when all of my list had been fulfilled. Never heard back from him. [Ex: Each school needs a librarian and money to purchase books, food for those who come to school hungry, help for parents who need help in raising a very young child, social workers, a nurse for each school, medical help for students who needed care, funding for band instruments and material for art teachers, etc. HA on all of that and more being available. How about having enough funding that public schools can afford school busses to pick kids up?]
Watch out if Pence becomes president in case Trump becomes impeached or dies from exploding over the negative press or eating too much french fries, hamburgers and chocolate cake.
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Carol,
He might die from too many Big Macs
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I knew a young woman in her twenties who drank six or more diet Pepsis a day and died of stomach caner.
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Indianapolis Public Schools is going to have a nearly 1 billion dollar referendum to be voted on in November that will be used to give teachers a raise and provide a competitive wage scale for the educators in IPS. As a resident of Indianapolis, I am worried that it won’t pass. This is money that the state should be giving to the school, but because of the terrible mess that Daniels and Pence along with his GOP cohorts have created, the public is tired of schools begging for money. As a teacher in IPS, I can see that we are all doing the best we can for our students, but every time we get two steps ahead, we get hit with something like 12 kids that enroll on the last day before Christmas break that were put out of one of the many Charters that surround my school. We already have classes that are bursting at the seams (the 6th grade teacher across the hall from me has 56 in her classroom), little money for supplies (too much as to be spent on marketing) and constant scrutiny from admins that are trying to keep the charter school wolves from the door. IPS is rapidly becoming a school system of charters, called Innovation Schools that do little to improve on what the neighborhoods schools do and they pay their non-union teachers far less. And that is really bad, because IPS teachers make about 5 to 8,000 less than surrounding school systems.
I get a knot in my stomach when I hear Mitch speak, or Pence spew his verbal manure about education. Every single teacher that has retired early or left teaching, every school that has been taken over by the state, every kid that does not have art or music, every parent that has to drive or walk their kid to school because their is no money for busses has Mitch Daniels and Mike Pence to blame.
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Teresa, I’m so sorry to read that the Indianapolis school system is in such dire need. I live in Schererville (NW Indiana) and am VERY glad that I’m retired. [I was a k-5 elementary band and classroom teacher who retired from Teachers’ Retirement System of Illinois.] I don’t see how any 6th grade teacher can survive with 56 in a classroom. That is totally impossible to manage. What is wrong with this state? There is so much that is wrong and I’m sorry that you are living it.
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