We lost our dear friend, Phyllis Bush, today after a valiant struggle with cancer. Her beloved life partner and wife, Donna Roof, was by Phyllis’s side at every moment.
Phyllis was truly a hero of public education, founder of the Northeast Indiana Friends of Public Education and founding board member of the Network for Public Education.
It is with profound sadness that the Network for Public Education announces the passing of one of our founding board members Phyllis Bush after a courageous battle with cancer.
NPE President, Diane Ravitch, remembers how impressed she was when she first met Phyllis. “I will never forget meeting Phyllis. I spoke at a university event in Indiana, and no sooner did I step off the stage, then I was surrounded by Phyllis and her team. She wanted me to know everything about what was happening in Indiana. I realized I was in the presence of a force of nature. When Anthony Cody and I began creating a national board for the new Network for Public Education, I immediately thought of Phyllis. She was loved and respected by everyone with whom she came into contact. We will miss her. I will miss her.”
Phyllis was a warrior for public education. A retired public school teacher, Phyllis taught English Language Arts to students in Illinois and Indiana for 32 years. Upon retirement, she devoted her energies to fighting high-stakes testing and school privatization. She founded the Northeast Indiana Friends of Public Education and devoted her energies to lobbying for sound public education policies in her state and the nation.
“Whenever I spoke with Phyllis, she was preparing for, or coming back from traveling to Indianapolis where she would speak with legislators about the importance of supporting public schools. It did not matter whether they agreed with her or not—she was walking
into their office and making her case. When she was not lobbying herself, she was organizing others to do the work. Grassroots groups in Indiana and Ohio looked to Phyllis for leadership. And she led them all with incredible smarts, dedication and a fabulous sense of humor.” said NPE Executive Director, Carol Burris.
This year Phyllis was delighted to help host the Fifth Annual Network for Public Education Conference in her home state of Indiana. During that conference, Phyllis presented the first annual Phyllis Bush Award for Grassroots Organizing. That award was presented to SOS Arizona, which stopped ESA voucher expansion in its tracks.
Teresa Shimogawa, a teacher from Anaheim, California, wrote about meeting Phyllis at the conference. “Life is short and painful and messy, but people like Phyllis use their fleeting time to champion noble causes. Saving public schools is saving democracy. Phyllis is a true patriot. Her legacy is something that will transcend her physical life.”
Phyllis is survived by her soulmate, retired teacher Donna Roof, who she married in early December of 2018. She also is survived by her son David, her two grandsons, her older brother and sister and her nieces and nephews.
We will miss Phyllis every day. Her humor, hard work and devotion to the public school children of our nation were extraordinary. She was a joy and inspiration to everyone at the Network for Public Education.
Please give to the Phyllis Bush Award for Grassroots Organizing fundso that we can continue to honor her memory for years to come. You can make a tax-deductible donation to that fund here.
I regret that my path never crossed Ms. Bush’s. She was not just a warrior for public ed, she was a gladiator! My condolences to her family, friends, teaching colleagues, and fellow “gladiators” for public education.
As a resident of Indiana, Ms. Bush was one of the most outspoken critics of “reformy” education (charters, vouchers, over-testing) and an outspoken critic of Dr. Tony Bennett, the arch-enemy of public education in our state. Hoosier teachers owe her a debt of gratitude.
Ah, thank you and Carol for sending this news. I had worried about Phyllis recently. She hadn’t tweeted since early February, and I had worried that she was suffering. Jan Resseger https://janresseger.wordpress.com/ “That all citizens will be given an equal start through a sound education is one of the most basic, promised rights of our democracy. Our chronic refusal as a nation to guarantee that right for all children…. is rooted in a kind of moral blindness, or at least a failure of moral imagination…. It is a failure which threatens our future as a nation of citizens called to a common purpose… tied to one another by a common bond.” —Senator Paul Wellstone, March 31, 2000
I am and will be thankful for her every day.
What a moving tribute to this amazing woman.
I have two thoughts.
First, when Einstein’s collaborator and friend Michel Besso died, Einstein wrote a letter of condolence to his wife. In it he said, “Now he has departed from this strange world a little ahead of me. That signifies nothing. For those of us who believe in physics, the distinction between past, present and future is only a stubbornly persistent illusion.” Einstein passed away two months later. Einstein believed that it was a strong prediction of his theory (which has been experimentally verified countless times) that all times exist and that we happen to see the moment we are in at any moment. The other moments don’t disappear, any more than Boston disappears when you move on from there to New York. This notion is called Block Time.
Second, Plato and Sartre didn’t agree on much, but they did on this: in death we changeable beings finally have an essence–that which we are remembered for. One could do worse than to be remembered as in this post!
My condolences to all who knew her personally. I hope that these comments are some solace to you.
Beautiful words, marvelous tribute to this special woman, thank you, my condolences to all those grieving at her loss.
Phyllis was an inspiration to all of us in NEIFPE. Her passion for public education and her sense of humor pulled us through many a difficult time with the “reformist” forces in the Indiana legislature and State Board of Education. No matter how many awful things they did (and continue to do) she would always come up with a “semi-brilliant idea” to get us going again. Her leadership, vision, and strength will be missed.
I will say a prayer for you, Phyllis. We were lucky to have known you here.
💚
I am so sorry to hear this news. My deepest sympathies to you, Diane, and to Donna.
The Spanish word “compinche” describes an intimate friend, the kind who’ll get in trouble with you, be by your side in laughter and in tears, and will fight with you for what you hold dear. It’s what best describes you two, I think.
That’s a nice comment, Christine.
I was thinking about Phyllis just now as I was having coffee. The house is quiet, it’s still dark outside, even though it will be the first day of spring…the sun is getting warmer…the days longer.
You mention this idea of a “compinche”. What’s that idea mean now within the context of the 21st century, when we spend so much time all day long experiencing the world through computer screens?
I’m very glad to at least met Phyllis by way of this blog…to have been inspired by her courage and humor online even though I never met her face to face. That’s a really good thing.
On the other hand, I also woke up this morning thinking about the truly bad impact all this technology is having on us. I went into school yesterday (we were off on Monday) and I brought up the terrorist shootings in New Zealand. We do an activity involving current events at the start of class. A number of my 12th graders had watched the shooter’s self-made video as he killed 50 innocent people. One young man volunteered that he had saved the footage. How to respond? What do you say to that? Really, how do children, young adults, watch 17 minutes of absolute evil, then deal with the rest of the world?
I don’t know. I sure hope the future we are moving into goes the way of Phyllis and the people who love her. Civilization is such very thin veneer. And, there are so many powerful forces these days ripping apart our shared humanity.
So, here’s to the first day of spring and Phyllis. Thank you for offering us hope.
John –
I think the question of whether we can develop important relationships with others when we spend so much time with screens is answered daily on this blog. Granted, it’s often an island of civility here in Diane’s living room compared to other spaces in the blogosphere. But I have found it’s possible to use that old human tool – writing – to get to better know and understand other people and to find kindred spirits. It’s a gift from Diane to all of us.
I was teaching during Columbine and 9/11 (fortunately I had retired before Sandy Hook and the other recent awful events). The internet was of course not so nearly ubiquitous then, but I straight out told my students not to look at footage from those events. I told them: you don’t need to see this to know what happened. It will mark you and make the events seem less real. It will make those affected less like real people. It was my sense some kids need permission NOT to look, so I tried to normalize that response and get kids to share it. Parents are often at a loss and are hoping someone else is better at it – teachers ought to step up.
I agree with you we are in a dire time in our history. We educators have to just buck up as best we can – as Phyllis did facing her cancer. We can all plant some bulbs in the garden.
That’s an interesting idea, Christine….permission not to look. Just curious…what age students were you teaching? What subject?
I taught middle school for 14 years, then high school for the next 22, but I’d have said the same to both groups. I taught Spanish, Spanish for Native Speakers and English as a Second Language.
This topic is now back in the “older posts” section but perhaps you will see this reply, Christine? (I get the sense there might be some way to be messaged on here when someone writes back? Who knows. I can’t even keep up with the technology in my classroom that I deal with all day long. Every time I have a handle on the attendance program, for example, something is changed…made “new and improved”. Yeah, maybe. Ha,ha.)
We have a snow delay this morning so I have time to go back and try to pull my digital life together, so to speak. “Spring snowstorms”… just the phrase says it all.
Hey, God bless you for teaching 36 years. It always gives me a boost when I hear from someone who could keep on going. And, middle school for 14 years…gotta love ’em. They keep me honest as a teacher.
I did mention your idea to at least one of my classes and you were in my mind at the time. Thanks again.
Keeping Phyllis’s positive spirit alive in our schools is probably the best tribute we can pay to her.
I am sorry to hear this sad news. She was a pro public education powerhouse in Indiana.
My sympathies to her family, colleagues and many, many friends. She & they will be in my thoughts & prayers, & may her memory be a blessing.
What a lovely tribute to a dear friend of public schools. Her memory will continue in her mission and those she inspired.
Although I didn’t engage with Phyllis in Indianapolis—she always seemed so busy with others and I didn’t want to intrude—I have followed her story closely since learning about her. As one who has worked with cancer patients for more than 20 years, many of them becoming closer than friends, what impressed me so much is how Phyllis did it right. She lived for others, took joy in life, and intensified her relationships. I have seen so many people do it the wrong way.
Recently I attended a funeral service (a home going) and the pastor observed that we all have a disease called death. Not all deaths are tragic. A young child that runs into the street and gets hit by a car? That’s tragic. Phyllis understood that her situation was not. Her diagnosis opened new doors for living as she dealt with that disease called death. She was a teacher and taught so many important lessons to those she loved and cared about right up to the end. Would that we all could do the same.
Thanks to this blog, I became acquainted with this courageous lady who battled the scourge of modern life. That she did it with life and humor was an inspiration to me. I have so often repeated her joking name, Sherlock, for the colostomy bag. Perhaps that struck me as so funny because it was a humorous triumph over our fear of the domination of death.
Dance in peace, old friend I never knew.
Thank you, Phyllis Bush. Your life mattered and you did so much good. Not many can make this claim.
Yes, as Roy wrote: “Dance in peace …”
Our local editorial page editor is a great supporter of public ed. Here’s her tribute to Phyllis…
http://www.journalgazette.net/opinion/columns/20190321/a-lifelong-teacher
That’s a tribute any teacher would be proud of.