Dr. Jennifer McCormick, state superintendent of education in Indiana, is a hero of public education. She has steadfastly sided with public schools and defied her own party’s embrace of charters and vouchers.
Blogger Steve Hinnefeld reports that Superintendent McCormick has endorsed Democratic candidates who support public schools instead of members of her own party aligned with the Mitch Daniels-Mike Pence privatization agenda.
Hinnefeld writes:
There was a time when Indiana Republicans supported public schools; at least, they supported their local public schools. The shift came in 2011, when Gov. Mitch Daniels got the GOP-controlled legislature to adopt school vouchers and expand charter schools. Today, many Hoosier Republicans have come very close to embracing the late economist Milton Friedman’s vision of a “universal” voucher program of unrestricted state support for private schools.
But McCormick, former superintendent of Indiana’s Yorktown school district, has been an outspoken advocate for public schools. Every time she spoke out for public school districts, you could see Republicans edging further away. When she announced in 2018 that she wouldn’t seek re-election, she implied that she was being elbowed aside. Legislators promptly changed the law so Indiana’s governor will appoint the state’s next chief education officer, starting in 2021.
Yes, support for public schools used to be bipartisan. Indiana has a long tradition of valuing public schools. But party leaders followed the Pied Piper, Milton Friedman, and determined to promote private school choice while defunding the public schools that enroll the vast majority of the state’s children.
Meanwhile, Hinnefeld writes, McCormick has endorsed Democrats because they, like her, believe in the importance of public schools.
I hereby add Jennifer McCormick to the Honor Roll of the blog, for her principled support of public schools and the common good and for her uncommon courage.
It must be so hard to watch her party become an unrecognizable supporter of greed and graft. What a sad way to live–reducing the meaning of your life to how much you can grab for yourself. They have given up their duty to their constituents in the name of the almighty dollar and their quest to squeeze every last dime out of the common good. When I taught, I never thought of myself as “selling” my services, and when I sent my kids off to public schools I was not buying their education. No wonder democracy means so little to them.
It is unfortunate Republicans no longer represent the common good. The party only represents the interests of the “Grand Old Plutocrats.” Eisenhower would be considered a left wing socialist by his party today. Dr. McCormick is a member of a minority of sane, responsible Republicans that put country and state above special interests.
Yup.
Did the opponents of public education follow Friedman blindly? Or perhaps they went searching for a philosophy to make their personal desires seem legitimate. Friedman was definitely an advocate for a particular type of economic policy, but there were plenty of others who seemed to justify what they wanted.
The free market free for all has been the economic gospel of the past forty years. All it has done is make the rich richer and everyone else poorer. It has eroded the quality of life in this country. Union membership is a little over 10%, one of the lowest levels in the industrialized world. Now the wealthy are attacking any remaining social safety nets. People are going to have to fight to retain any vestige of stability and dignity in this country.
well said: They went searching for a philosophy to make their personal desires seem legitimate. THAT covers the enter test-based school reform enterprise.
I think we are all susceptible to accepting a course of action or a philosophy that meets our own needs with too little scrutiny of its effects on others. The important issue is whether we continue to focus solely on our own benefit or change our behavior in recognition of our mistakes.