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Indiana Legislature Plans to Expand Vouchers

By dianeravitch
January 15, 2013 //
7

Vic Smith sends out bulletins about statehouse politics in Indiana. This is his latest, which includes a good summary about the current plan to expand vouchers in Indiana.

 

Dear Friends,
The Senate Education Committee will vote on the voucher expansion bill, Senate Bill 184, on Wednesday afternoon, Jan. 16th.  Please contact the Senators on the committee before the vote to express your
opposition.
 
The hearing on Senate Bill 184 sponsored by Senator Yoder revealed a division within the committee.  Even before public testimony on the bill began, Senator Kenley expressed his continued support of the position the Senate took when the voucher bill was passed, that is, that students should try public schools first.  Eligibility for vouchers required a year in public schools for that reason.  Then if students move to a private school, there is a cost savings. Under Senate Bill 184, the cost savings disappear when siblings who have not been in public schools receive a voucher and a new fiscal cost must be funded in the budget.
Senator Kenley, as quoted in Scott Elliott’s story in the January 12th Star, said it well:  “We passed the original bill on the assumption that you go to public school first.  This changes the premise.  It’s a pretty fundamental change.”
Fiscal Cost for Indiana Taxpayers
 
Scott Elliott’s story also quoted the testimony of ICPE lobbyist Joel Hand citing the extra fiscal costs that a sibling voucher expansion would bring: “Based on the $3932 average voucher, he said, if just one in 10 of the 9,130 students in the program had a sibling not in public school who used a voucher next year it would cost Indiana about $3.5 million annually. If a quarter of the students had a sibling who used a voucher it would cost Indiana nearly $9 million a year.”
The extra fiscal cost in the millions of dollars is clear and substantial, in a state that in the last budget zeroed out state funding for professional development, which in the previous budget was given $5.5 million a year.  Is helping private school parents pay tuition a higher priority than professional development?
Financial Relief for Private School Parents
 
Keep in mind that the biggest impact of SB 184 would be financial relief for private school parents.  With the exception of incoming kindergarten and first graders, it would allow no new students to go to a private school.  The older students covered by this bill are already in private schools.
Instead for all older siblings, this bill is about giving financial relief to the parents of current private school students, parents who happen to have another younger child who has qualified for a voucher.
 
Giving a voucher to an older sibling who is already in a private school does nothing to expand school choice.  The choice was already made. Now this bill helps parents pay for their previous choice with your tax money.
Giving financial relief to parents of private school students would be a generous thing for the state to do, but other parents would wonder why they aren’t being favored by the state with financial relief as well.  Public school parents have been asking for financial relief for school textbook rental for over a decade.  Why, they should ask, are private school parents getting relief when we are not?
 
Testimony on the Bill
 
In public testimony on Senate Bill 184 last Wednesday, five speakers spoke in favor of the bill followed by eight speaking against the bill.  Karen Combs of Lafayette in her testimony against the bill gave a timely reminder to the Senators that Gov. Daniels himself in a speech given at Harvard explained to his audience how Indiana did it right by having families go to public school first before they are eligible for a voucher.
No additional testimony will be taken, but the committee vote on SB 184 is scheduled for this Wednesday, January 16th in the Senate Chamber, along with votes on three other bills, including the cursive writing bill.  Then the rest of the afternoon is scheduled for testimony on SB 193, the Common Core bill.  Apparently a large crowd is expected which accounts for scheduling the hearing in the Senate Chamber.
As of Monday evening, no meeting has yet been scheduled for the House Education Committee.
Contact the Committee Members
 
It is time to contact Senators on the committee on Tuesday and Wednesday before the vote to express your opposition to expanding the voucher program in a way that will for the first time add new and expensive fiscal costs to the program.  That this bill was taken up first in the session shows the wrong priority.  The Senators to contact are as follows:
Chair:  Sen. Kruse
Republican Members:  Senators Yoder, Banks, Buck, Kenley, Pete Miller, Leising and Schneider
Democrat Members: Senators Rogers, Broden, Mrvan, Taylor
You should also add your own Senator to the contact list.  If you made contacts last week, it would not hurt to send another email or note before the vote.  They need to know that public school advocates are watching every step of the way.  One strong advocate opposing Senate Bill 184, Patricia Logan, had an excellent letter to the editor printed in the Indianapolis Star just this morning, January 14th.  Thanks, Trish!  Let’s all turn up the volume!
Thank you for speaking up for public education!
Vic Smith      vic790@aol.com
ICPE is working to promote public education in the Statehouse as efforts are made to take public money away from public schools through an expansion of vouchers.  We are well represented by our lobbyist Joel Hand, but to keep him in place we need all members from last year to renew and we need new members who support public education.
Go to www.icpe2011.com for membership and renewal information.
 
 
Some readers have asked about my background in Indiana public schools.  Thanks for asking!  Here is a brief bio:
I am a lifelong Hoosier and began teaching in 1969.  I served as a social studies teacher, curriculum developer, state research and evaluation consultant, state social studies consultant, district social studies supervisor, assistant principal, principal, educational association staff member, and adjunct university professor.   I worked for Garrett-Keyser-Butler Schools, the Indiana University Social Studies Development Center, the Indiana Department of Education, the Indianapolis Public Schools, IUPUI, and the Indiana Urban Schools Association, from which I retired as Associate Director in 2009.  I hold three degrees: B.A. in Ed., Ball State University, 1969; M.S. in Ed., Indiana University, 1972; and Ed.D., Indiana University, 1977, along with a Teacher’s Life License and a Superintendent’s License, 1998.
Categories Indiana, Vouchers

Tony Bennett Lands on his Feet in Florida

By dianeravitch
December 12, 2012 //
16

Tony Bennett, the defeated state superintendent from Indiana, has landed the job as state commissioner in Florida.

Bennett is the hero to the rightwing “reform” sector, a champion of privatization, vouchers, charters, online for-profit schools, and the Common Core. His last action in Indiana was to lower standards for new trackers and principals, so that no preparation was needed to become a teacher and anyone could become a principal with only two years of experience as a teacher, even in higher education.

Jeb Bush is mad for Bennett, who serves as head of Bush’s Chiefs for Change.

Categories Bush, Jeb, Chiefs for Change, Corporate Reformers, Education Industry, Florida, For-Profit, Indiana, Merit pay, On-Line Education, Privatization

Indiana: “One Last Stab at Teachers”

By dianeravitch
December 6, 2012 //
11

Karen Francisco is an outstanding writer for the Fort Wayne Journal-Gazette in Indiana.

For her fearless coverage of the right-wing attack on public education, she joins our honor roll.

Unlike so many journalists who report what is in the press release, she digs deeper and informs the public

In her most recent column, she explains that defeated State Superintendent Tony Bennett was using his last days in office to continue his attack on the teaching profession. Before the election, in which he was decisively defeated, he proposed to lower standards for new teachers and for principals. Her column appeared before yesterday’s meeting of the state board.

Despite the voters’ clear rejection of his policies, the state board of education agreed to lower standards. The proposal, called REPA2, allows anyone to teach if they graduated college with a 3.0 average and passed a test. No training or professional preparation is necessary. A person can get a license to be an administrator with only two years as a teacher (it was previously five), either in school Orin higher education.

Francisco also explained the Republican plan to shift transfer control of decision-making over important issues from the state superintendent to the political appointees on the state board of education. This would nullify the recent election results and strip the new superintendent of power to change the privatization and anti-professionalism policies of the defeated Bennett.

She called it right.

Here is a report from an observer at the board meeting yesterday:

From: Vic Smith
Subject: Vic’s Statehouse Notes #100 – December 5, 2012
Date: December 6, 2012 1:14:53 AM EST

Vic’s Statehouse Notes #100– December 5, 2012

Dear Friends,

The State Board of Education passed REPA 2 with three changes today by a vote of 9-2. The way they did it, however, leaves a string of legal questions which lawyers will no doubt be studying in the days ahead to determine if the action taken today will stand.

It was historically appropriate that the final meeting held in the Riley Room today before the IDOE moves to new offices was an overflow crowd. The first meeting held in the Riley Room in 2001 was also an overflow crowd protesting the first version of PL221 rules, known by some as the “orange sticker protest.” Those were the good old days when a huge show of opposition at a public hearing could actually influence the State Board and the State Superintendent to change direction. On that occasion, PL221 was tabled and completely rewritten. Not so today. A huge show of opposition in public comments led to three changes, but an effort to table REPA 2 today failed and the package of licensing rules which will lower standards for both teacher and administrator licenses passed.

The remarkable turnout and the long list signing up for Public Comments led Dr. Bennett to change the agenda and take Public Comments first rather than last, as the printed agenda showed. Before beginning the Public Comments, Dr. Bennett called on Glenda Ritz to address the board. She explained that she had requested that the action items be tabled so that her administration could determine the fiscal impact of the proposals. She said that when that request was denied, she requested time to address the board in order to ask them directly to table REPA 2. She said, “Preservice training is important. We can’t put unqualified teachers in the classroom.”

Such sentiments opposing REPA were echoed with clarity and passion by 20 speakers during Public Comments, while 4 speakers favored it as is. School of Education leaders from Butler, Indiana University, IUPUI and Indiana Wesleyan asked for specific changes. Individuals came from Indianapolis, Columbus, Bloomington, Warren Township, Winimac and Fort Wayne to speak against lower standards for licensing. Officials representing the Indiana Association for Teacher Education, the Indiana Middle Level Education Association, the Indiana Federation of Teachers, the Indiana PTA and the NAACP spoke out against REPA 2. My testimony, attached for those who want more details, raised the legal question of whether the rule can be revised in the major ways announced last Friday without triggering another round of public hearings.

After an hour and a half of Public Comments, the board considered REPA 2. After an hour of detailed discussion, Mike Pettibone, the only K-12 administrator on the board, after saying, “I’m not against REPA 2, but I don’t have a final draft in front of me and I need a final draft before I buy it,” moved to not adopt it now but to consider it at a future meeting.

His motion failed for lack of a second.

After additional discussion, Neil Pickett moved to approve REPA 2 with two changes. The first change would be to remove ENL (ESL) licensing from the list of areas that could be added to a teacher’s license by passing a test. The second change was to add a pedagogy requirement to the “Adjunct Teacher Permit”, referring to the provision allowing any person with a Bachelors Degree to get a five year license if they have a 3.0 GPA in a content area and pass the content area test.

A dizzying round of comments then began which left observers who honor parliamentary procedure scratching their heads. Sarah O’Brien asked if “High Ability” could be added to “ENL” on the list of programs that could not be substituted with a single test. Neil Pickett initially objected to the addition, but eventually changed his mind and, apparently, simply added “High Ability” into his motion. An idea to have “Adjunct” teachers take a pedagogy test after their 5th year was rejected by Mr. Pickett, saying that the initial “Adjunct” license should require some pedagogy. Dr. Bennett then offered the concept of the “Workplace Specialist” in which vocational area specialists, such as welders, are hired as teachers but take pedagogical courses as they are teaching during their first year on the job. That sounded fine to Mr. Pickett, and without clearly restating the wording of the motion, he summarized his position that ENL and High Ability should be excluded from the list of “test only” areas and that Adjunct permits should be tied to Workplace Specialist requirements. Dr. Bennett quickly called for second to the motion and then called for a voice vote.

The motion passed 9 – 2. Jo Blacketor, James Edwards, Dan Elsener, Neil Pickett, Sarah O’Brien, David Shane, Tony Walker, B. J. Watts and Tony Bennett voted yes. Mike Pettibone and Cari Whicker voted no. Mike Pettibone was concerned that board members did not receive a final version of the rule before voting and expressed the thought that the current method of giving emergency licenses takes adequate care of shortage areas. Cari Whicker expressed concern as a classroom teacher that she thought principals who evaluate teachers should be required to have more than 2 years of classroom teaching experience. The last version of REPA 2 cut the requirement from 5 years to 2, and also in a new controversial provision allowed experience in higher education teaching to count toward these 2 years.

What are the Potential Legal Problems Hanging over this Action?
Some have speculated that the shaky parliamentary procedure and imprecise motions might put the action in legal limbo. The deeper problem, however, relates to the law governing the passage of rules. Indiana Code 4-22-2-29 says:

IC 4-22-2-29
Adoption of rules; adoption of revised version of proposed rule
Sec. 29. (b) An agency may not adopt a rule that substantially differs from the version or versions of the proposed rule or rules published in the Indiana Register under section 24 of this chapter, unless it is a logical outgrowth of any proposed rule as supported by any written comments submitted:
(1) during the public comment period; or
(2) by the Indiana economic development corporation under IC 4-22-2.1-6(a), if applicable.

It would be easy to argue that the final REPA rule “substantially differs from the version” printed in the official record. It changes the authority to approve teacher education programs from the IDOE to the State Board. It cuts the years needed for an administrative license from 5 down to 2 and allows higher education teaching to count for this purpose without defining how much higher education teaching constitutes a year. It changes authority for content area tests for licensure from the IDOE to the State Board. Finally, in the revision made today, the “workplace specialist” pedagogy was required for Adjunct teachers.

It seems clear that “workplace specialist” pedagogy was not “supported by any written comments submitted during the public comment period” as the law requires. This idea wasn’t introduced until the last ten minutes of the discussion.

Any reasonable person watching today would think that a board considering an issue such as this should table it for further study to clarify final language before the vote. This board, no doubt for political reasons, did not want to wait. A motion was quickly patched together and passed that lawyers will now be reviewing to see if the final rule “substantially differs” from the version printed in the Indiana Register. If opponents are resolute, a lawsuit is possible citing failure to follow procedures in the law quoted above. A successful lawsuit could result in additional public hearings at a later time, during the Ritz administration.

Will a lawsuit actually be filed? Only time will tell. The ways things were handled on the crucially important issue of teacher licensing since last Friday when revisions were first revealed has left the door open to a potential legal challenge. If no legal challenge materializes, the whole episode has left a huge number of educators, parents and community leaders incensed that standards for teachers and administrators in Indiana are being lowered.

Best wishes,

Vic Smith vic790@aol.com

I urge you all to join the Indiana Coalition for Public Education by going to http://www.icpe2011.com for membership information.

Some readers have asked about my background in Indiana public schools. Thanks for asking! Here is a brief bio:

I am a lifelong Hoosier and began teaching in 1969. I served as a social studies teacher, curriculum developer, state research and evaluation consultant, state social studies consultant, district social studies supervisor, assistant principal, principal, educational association staff member, and adjunct university professor. I worked for Garrett-Keyser-Butler Schools, the Indiana University Social Studies Development Center, the Indiana Department of Education, the Indianapolis Public Schools, IUPUI, and the Indiana Urban Schools Association, from which I retired as Associate Director in 2009. I hold three degrees: B.A. in Ed., Ball State University, 1969; M.S. in Ed., Indiana University, 1972; and Ed.D., Indiana University, 1977, along with a Teacher’s Life License and a Superintendent’s License, 1998.

Categories Education Reform, Honor Roll, Indiana

Crybaby in Indiana

By dianeravitch
December 2, 2012 //
23

At Jeb Bush’s bipartisan conference on the privatization movement, outgoing Indiana Governor Mitch Daniels complained that teachers used illegal tactics to defeat State Superintendent Tony Bennett. He claimed, with no evidence, that teachers campaigned for Glenda Ritz using school emails and facilities.

Bennett, of course, was the hero of the privatization movement. Jeb Bush made him the chairman of his “Chiefs for Change,” a group of state superintendents devoted to high-stakes testing and privatization. Bennett had a war chest of about $1.5 million, compared to about $300,000 for Ritz. His loss was a shocking upset and setback for the privatizers.

And Ritz not only beat him, but got more votes that the Republican who won the governorship. Some conservatives insisted that Bennett lost because he endorsed the Common Core standards and angered some conservative voters.

But Governor Daniels, soon to be president of Purdue, blames those terrible, unprincipled teachers, the people responsible for educating the children of Indiana..

Categories Corporate Reformers, Indiana

Creationism Again

By dianeravitch
November 28, 2012 //
7

Oh my heavens!

I can’t believe it.

Creationism survives.

Science teachers, get involved.

Indiana teachers and parents and citizens: aren’t you glad Glenda Ritz will be state commissioner of education next year?

From a newspaper in Indiana:

A lengthy column today in the Lafayette Journal-Courier, by David Bangert, is headed “The evolution of Gov. Pence starts here; another creation science bill looms: An old fight over science will get a new look in 2013.”

A sample:

Indiana will have another discussion in the 2013 General Assembly session about how evolution is taught in the state’s science classrooms.

Same issue, new approach

“We’re going to try something a little different this time,” state Sen. Dennis Kruse, R-Auburn, said this week.
Kruse was behind last session’s Senate Bill 89. In its original form, the bill offered to give local school boards the option to “require the teaching of various theories concerning the origin of life, including creation science.”

Though not all prone to focus on the merits of sticking with the scientific method in science classrooms, senators were moved to water down the bill largely because of the presumed price tag. Creation science — even offered as a school board choice rather than a state mandate — adds up to a losing church-and-state proposition in the high courts. Rulings have been clear, not to mention expensive: Teaching creation science and intelligent design in public schools amounts to pushing religion, not science. And that crosses the Establishment Clause of the First Amendment.

A compromised SB89 that made it through the state Senate allowed schools to add courses that looked at the origin of life, provided they included theories from multiple religions. Considering that school districts already could do that with their non-science elective courses, the Indiana House took a pass.

This year, Kruse said, he’ll carry a bill designed by the Discovery Institute, a Seattle-based public policy think tank. According to its website, the Discovery Institute “seeks to counter the materialistic interpretation of science by demonstrating that life and the universe are the products of intelligent design and by challenging the materialistic conception of a self-existent, self-organizing universe and the Darwinian view that life developed through a blind and purposeless process.”

More from the story:

Louisiana has had a similar law since 2008. Tennessee followed suit in 2012. Tennessee Gov. Bill Haslam declined to sign it, saying it would bring confusion instead of clarity, according to the Tennesseean news­paper in Nashville. Civil libertarians, the Tennessee Science Teachers Association and members of the National Academy of Sciences warned about what came to be called the “monkey bill,” named for the 1925 Scopes Monkey Trial that went after a Tennessee teacher who dared to teach evolution against state laws at the time.

Eugenie Scott, director of the National Center for Science Education, told Nature magazine that the law was simply a “permission slip for teachers to bring creationism, climate-change denial and other non-science into science classrooms.”

The law took effect in April without the governor’s signature.

Categories Curriculum, Indiana, Religion, STEM

What Happened to Public Education in 2012 Elections

By dianeravitch
November 27, 2012 //
13

Joanne Barkan has written an excellent summary of how public education fared in the recent elections.

Barkan knows how to follow the money. Her article “Got Dough?” showed the influence of the billionaires on education policy.

She begins her analysis of the 2012 elections with this overview of Barack Obama’s embrace of GOP education dogma:

“Barack Obama’s K-12 “reform” policies have brought misery to public schools across the country: more standardized testing, faulty evaluations for teachers based on student test scores, more public schools shut down rather than improved, more privately managed and for-profit charter schools soaking up tax dollars but providing little improvement, more money wasted on unproven computer-based instruction, and more opportunities for private foundations to steer public policy. Obama’s agenda has also fortified a crazy-quilt political coalition on education that stretches from centrist ed-reform functionaries to conservatives aiming to undermine unions and privatize public schools to right-wingers seeking tax dollars for religious charters. Mitt Romney’s education program was worse in only one significant way: Romney also supported vouchers that allow parents to take their per-child public-education funding to private schools, including religious schools.”

Barkan’s analysis shows significant wins for supporters of public education–the upset of uber-reformer Tony Bennett in Indiana, the repeal of the Luna laws in Idaho, and the passage of a tax increase in California–and some significant losses–the passage of charter initiatives in Georgia and Washington State.

The interesting common thread in many of the key elections was the deluge of big money to advance the anti-public education agenda.

Even more interesting is how few people put up the big money. If Barkan were to collate a list of those who contributed $10,000 or more to these campaigns, the number of people on the list would be very small, maybe a few hundred. If the list were restricted to $20,000 or more, it would very likely be fewer than 50 people, maybe less.

This tiny number of moguls is buying education policy in state after state. How many have their own children in the schools they seek to control? Probably none.

The good news is that they don’t win every time. The bad news is that their money is sometimes sufficient to overwhelm democratic control of public education.

Categories Bloomberg, Michael, Broad Foundation, California, Charter Schools, Colorado, Connecticut, Corporate Reformers, Democrats for Education Reform, Education Industry, Education Reform, Gates Foundation, Bill Gates, Georgia, Idaho, Indiana, K12 Inc., Michigan, Privatization, Race to the Top, Teacher Evaluations, Unions, US Education, Vouchers, Walton Foundation

America’s Favorite Parlour Game?

By dianeravitch
November 20, 2012 //
5

What is America’s favorite parlour game?

If you are talking about the average American, I don’t know though I would guess that parlour games have been replaced by watching TV.

However, if you are talking about the wonks in conservative think tanks, a rare breed to be sure, I will share their secret: they are obsessed with trying to understand how their idol, Tony Bennett, got beat at the polls.

He had everything going for him: the nation’s leading advocate of privatization. Chair of Jeb Bush’s Chiefs for Change. Plenty of money. And he lost.

Some attribute it to the massive power of those evil unions (Mike Petrilli at Fordham).

Some say he lost his base by embracing Obama’s Common Core standards (Rick Hess at AEI).

This Hoosier says he lost because he became a willing servant of the federal Department of Education and forgot the people of Indiana.

Remember federalism? An old idea, to be sure, but a good one.

Categories Accountability, Chiefs for Change, Education Industry, For-Profit, Indiana, Privatization

Help This Small Community By Signing Its Petition

By dianeravitch
November 19, 2012 //
10

The town of Scottsburg, Indiana, has fewer than 10,000 residents.

There is a proposal before the City Council to open a charter school.

This will split the town.

Some public school parents have started a petition to ask the City Council and the Mayor not to open a charter school.

Please sign the parents’ petition.

And be sure not to sign any other petitions on the change.org website or you may find yourself part of an organization you don’t want to belong to.

Ironically, this is the town where the recently defeated State Superintendent Tony Bennett got his start.

Help save public education for the children and families of Scottsburg.

 

Categories Charter Schools, Indiana

How Did David Beat Goliath in Indiana?

By dianeravitch
November 15, 2012 //
7

Conservatives can’t believe their hero Tony Bennett lost.

Bennett had the support of the national conservative establishment.

The Thomas B. Fordham Institute had crowned him the American Education Idol.

He had nearly $1.5 million to spend.

Republicans loved his attacks on unions.

The Obama administration loved his support for the Common Core standards.

He is president of Jeb’s group of rightwing superintendents called Chiefs for Change.

He is on the board of directors of the Council of Chief State School Officers (its president is Tony Luna of Idaho, whose teacher-bashing laws were repealed by the voters).

Education Week invited Bennett to lead a forum on “Road Maps to Success” in implementing the Common Core in March 2013 (that should be a hoot, especially since one of the session will be held in Indianapolis!).

And he got shellacked in the election by a political novice.

Glenda Ritz received 100,000 votes more than Mike Pence, who was elected Governor.

The pondering goes on and on.

How did David beat Goliath?

Here is one effort to explain it.

Let’s see: teachers, principals and superintendents were angry, but that would not be enough to beat him.

The unions were angry, but that would not be enough to beat him.

Parents were angry at the avalanche of testing. There are lots and lots of parents. That would matter.

Hoosiers who graduated from public schools, who loved their teachers, who respect the importance of public education figured out that he was doing his best to turn it over to entrepreneurs.

Maybe that’s what did it.

Categories Bush, Jeb, Charter Schools, Chiefs for Change, Education Industry, Education Reform, For-Profit, Indiana, Vouchers

Good News from Florida

By dianeravitch
November 14, 2012 //
7

I should have reported this sooner, but other election returns distracted me.

Jeb Bush’s latest privatization scheme suffered a major setback at the hands of Florida voters.

He and his allies pushed Amendment 8 to allow public funds to flow to religious schools. As usual with “reform” measures, this one had a misleading name. It was about “religious freedom,” but voters recognized it was a voucher scheme and they rejected it overwhelmingly.

Other bad news for the Bush machine: Tony Bennett, the head of Bush’s Chiefs for Change, was whipped.

Tony Luna pushed Bush’s expensive but profitable (for tech companies) ideas about mandatory laptops for every student and mandatory online courses, as well as merit pay and union-demolition. Happily, the Luna laws were crushed and repealed by Idaho voters.

Categories Bush, Jeb, Chiefs for Change, Florida, For-Profit, Idaho, Indiana, Privatization, Religion, Testing, Vouchers
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