Tuesday, March 25, 2014

Register to Vote - Spring Break 2014



Click Here to register to vote or to confirm your registration.

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Vic’s Election Notes on Education #12– March 25, 2014

Dear Friends,

As in 2012, I will be writing commentaries about candidates in the 2014 elections which I call “Vic’s Election Notes on Education.”

In order to get these election commentaries, you may need to send me a different email address. A new law has set new legal rules for emails about candidates. If you are using a school district or state email address to receive this message, you will need to send me a different personal email address in order to receive “Vic’s Election Notes on Education”, an address which is not part of a messaging system operated by a public school district or by any other government employer. This includes all emails ending in k12.in.us.

This change was prompted by the 2013 General Assembly in a new law detailed below.

This change does not affect the distribution list for “Vic’s Statehouse Notes,” notes which do not discuss candidates or campaign materials.

The New Law


Indiana Code 3-14-1-17, passed in 2013 after the 2012 electoral defeat of Tony Bennett, makes it a Class A misdemeanor to “knowingly or intentionally use the property of the employee’s government employer” to advocate for or against a candidate or a public question.

Additionally, “a government employee may not knowingly or intentionally distribute campaign materials” advocating for or against a candidate or a public question using “the government employer’s real property during regular working hours.”

A second offense makes these actions a Class D felony.

The full text of IC 3-14-1-17 can be found here. Public school advocates working at the grassroots who want to elect candidates friendly to public education need to be well-versed on the details of this law.

The Supreme Irony

This law reinforces my strong belief that public schools and public equipment should not be used for partisan political purposes. As Caleb Mills recommended in the 1850’s, public schools should be non-partisan forums for the citizenship education of students as they first learn about our democracy. This law follows that long tradition.

The great flaw here is that private schools and private school computers are not covered by this law even though private schools are now getting public money. They may be using their public money to operate computers and email systems to support candidates on a partisan basis, but it is not against the law or against any regulation for private schools to engage in partisan activity.

Private schools have every right to directly tell young students how they should stand on partisan political issues or which candidates they should support. Indeed, a Statehouse rally of private school groups brought busload after busload of students to the Statehouse in 2013 to call for more private school vouchers. Do you think any students were given the opportunity to opt out of going to the Statehouse?

The seeds for the demise of our democracy have been planted in the public funding of private schools and the partisan forum they provide for educating young people. We are now using tax money to subsidize private schools including their partisan activities.

The supreme irony is that the supermajority in Indiana that passed IC 3-14-1-17 to separate public funding from partisan activity also passed in the same session a huge expansion of private school vouchers. Vouchers allow public dollars to go to private schools which have every right to engage in partisan political activity. In contrast, I believe that all public money should be focused on non-partisan public schools.

The Importance of Elections in Building Support for Public Education

The 2014 elections in May and November, as do all elections, will have a tremendous impact on the future of public education in Indiana. While “Vic’s Statehouse Notes” address general policy positions and recommendations, “Vic’s Election Notes on Education” will comment on candidates using my First Amendment freedoms and relying on my deep belief that candidates should support public education as a vital element in the continuation of our democracy.

“Vic’s Election Notes on Education” is a personal effort. It is not linked to any organization. It is not being distributed by me to any organization. It is only being distributed to those individuals who have previously sent personal requests for my commentaries.

If you want to pass “Vic’s Election Notes on Education” along to others, you do not need to ask my permission, but you do need to observe the new law described above, refraining from advocating for candidates or distributing campaign materials using the property of a government employer and refraining from such activities during working hours, as the law says.

If you want to be taken off the distribution list, just let me know. If you know of others who want to be added to the list, just send me an email.

Let me know if you have a different email address to replace a school district or a state government email address.

Thanks for your interest in the future of public education!

Best wishes,

Vic Smith

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.

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Book Review: Letters to a Young Teacher

by Jonathan Kozol

Reviewed by Susan Berry

Jonathan Kozol is an educator, activist, and author of more than eleven books. His most popular book, you may remember, was Savage Inequalities, a book that showed the “extremes of wealth and poverty” in our nation’s schools. He is a strong advocate for inner-city children and those who work with them. Kozol has been a teacher and understands daily life in a classroom. He is frustrated with vouchers and inequity among schools. He is especially frustrated with the excessive testing being forced on our students and teachers. He agrees with his good friend, the late Mr. Fred Rogers, that children need “open space and open time.” He contends that the “sacredness he saw in children” has been replaced by concerns like “economic value,” “utility,” and “productivity.”

Kozol worries too about the young men and women becoming teachers. He worries that their energy, enthusiasm, and passion may not last. And he prays that all teachers never lose the joy and tenderness that “brings good people to the task of teaching.” Kozol understands kids and teachers and he shows that support in all the letters he has written to a first-year teacher and has published in this book.

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All Children Deserve the Best



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Tuesday, March 18, 2014

IREAD-3: Too Much Pressure


For Further Reading:
  • IREAD-3
  • The purpose of the Indiana Reading Evaluation And Determination (IREAD-3) assessment is to measure foundational reading standards through grade three. Based on the Indiana Academic Standards, IREAD-3 is a summative assessment that was developed in accordance with House Enrolled Act 1367 (also known as Public Law 109 in 2010), which "requires the evaluation of reading skills for students who are in grade three beginning in the Spring of 2012 to ensure that all students can read proficiently before moving on to grade four."
  • Lawmaker: Board of Education disregarded legislative intent with IREAD-3
  • ...lawmakers were aware of research showing that students who are held back are much less likely to graduate from high school, and they also questioned implementing such high-stakes accountability when Indiana trailed other states in funding early-childhood education. Some legislators, he said, were concerned about the cost of the...proposal.
  • 'IREAD, You Read...' or, 'Indiana's Statewide Reading Test'
  • Every third grader has two chances to pass the high-stakes exam. Students who don’t pass on their first try in March will be given the chance to pass a retake in June or July after a period of intensive remediation. Third graders who don’t pass after two attempts will have to retake third grade versions of the ISTEP and IREAD exams the following school year, which state officials say will likely lead to them being held back from entering fourth grade.
Keep up to date on Public Education issues.

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Monday, March 17, 2014

Grades on Tests Don't Correspond to Life



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Friday, March 14, 2014

Vic’s Statehouse Notes #178 – March 13, 2014

Dear Friends,

Good news on the last day of the session: the preschool bill House Bill 1004 was passed today by both the House and the Senate creating a 5-county pilot program without any link to K-12 vouchers. Sections 10 and 11 which many of you have written about have disappeared. To public school advocates who contacted legislators about keeping K-12 vouchers out of the preschool bill, I say thank you!

This key bill represents both a new day for preschool in Indiana and a rare moment of success for public school advocates. Thanks to all who participated!

Details of House Bill 1004

A silence lasting several days on the preschool bill was broken when a Conference Committee on 1004 was held at 9:00 am this morning. Representative Behning reviewed the key features of the Conference Committee report:
  • A pilot program will be established in five counties selected by FSSA.
  • The Family and Social Services Administration will supervise the program.
  • Families making 127% of poverty will qualify for grants of $2500 up to $6800.
  • It will be funded by unspent money reverted to FSSA and by CCDF block grant money.
  • At least 10% of the funds are to be from private donations or from federal funding.
  • The receipt of a grant has no impact on eligibility for a K-12 choice scholarship.
  • A longitudinal study will follow 4 year olds in the program through their assessment results in Grade 3.
  • Expenditures are limited to $10 million in the first year, with a limit of an additional $1 million for the longitudinal study.
  • Providers may include public or private preschools that meet Level 3 or 4 standards in the “paths to Quality program.”
  • A prekindergarten and early learning study commission will study ten key topics to develop Indiana’s program.
All members of the Conference Committee should be thanked for advancing this proposal: Representatives Behning, VanDenburgh, Thompson, Sullivan and Vernon Smith and Senators Pete Miller, Rogers, Kenley, Broden, Kruse and Yoder. Senator Kenley played a crucial role in bringing the House and Senate versions together.

Floor Votes on HB 1004

The House voted first this afternoon on HB 1004, passing the bill 92-8. All Democrats voted for the bill along with most Republicans, except for Representative Baird, Culver, Harman, Ober, Rhoads, Thompson, Turner and Wesco.

I was able to hear the floor debate in the Senate. Senator Pete Miller introduced and supported the bill as the sponsor. Senator Schneider then rose to oppose the bill, calling it a “budget buster” and a “camel’s nose under the tent” for a “catastrophic fiscal impact on the state of Indiana.” Senator Holdman supported the bill, especially the longitudinal study and the “paths to Quality” standards. Senator Head rose to support the bill, saying it is run on reverted funds and that the sunset provisions “won’t let the camel get too far.” Senator Becker supported the bill, saying that Evansville business leaders have already told her they will help support the matching dollars. Senator Rogers then rose to support the bill, saying that if we can expend revenue for breaks to business as they just did for Senate Bill 1, they can fund a small preschool pilot program. She called it a matter of priorities. Senator Leising supported the bill, urging the early learning commission to coordinate several early childhood programs already funded by federal and special education dollars.

Then came the vote. The Senate passed the bill 40-8, with Senators Crider, Delph, Kruse, Schneider, Smith, Tomes, Yoder, and Michael Young voting no.

Senate Bill 1 easily passed both houses today allowing local options to reduce the business property tax and putting approximately $2 million in school property tax funding at risk two years from now, as I described in Statehouse Notes #177 last Tuesday.

The House adjourned sine die about 10:00 pm this evening and the Senate did the same at 10:40. The short session is over. It is a rare treat and a great pleasure to be able to report a success for public education on the last day of the session.

Your messages throughout the session on behalf of public education made a big difference. Thanks for participating!

Please keep up your steadfast support of public schools!

Best wishes,

Vic Smith

ICPE has worked since 2011 to promote public education in the Statehouse and oppose the privatization of schools. The 2014 session of the General Assembly is now over. Joel Hand did an excellent job representing ICPE throughout the session. We need your membership to help pay the bills for ICPE lobbying efforts. Many have renewed their memberships already, and we thank you! If you have not done so since July 1, the start of our new membership year, we urge you to renew by going to our website.

Although ICPE entered this session of the General Assembly in better financial shape than in any previous session, we still need additional support to fund the commitments our board has made for our lobbying efforts. We are counting on your financial help during the session.

We have raised the needed money in past sessions, and we must do so again. We need additional members and additional donations. We need your help and the help of your colleagues who support public education! Please pass the word!

Go to www.icpe2011.com for membership and renewal information and for full information on ICPE efforts on behalf of public education. Thanks!


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.
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Thursday, March 13, 2014

Why We Will Win!

NEIFPE members Phyllis Bush, Terry Springer, and Anne Duff explain WHY WE WILL WIN!
On March 1st and 2nd, a group of education activists from Indiana attended the Network for Public Education (NPE) National Conference in Austin, Texas. The Lady Bird Johnson Auditorium on the campus of the University of Texas at Austin buzzed with energy as people from all over the United States gathered, united by a single purpose – to support public education. Most of them had never met in person; many knew each other only through social media conversations and posts. What could have become a great deal of whining and gnashing of teeth about the sorry state of the corporate education reform was instead a powerful convocation of like-minded advocates and activists.

NPE Board member, Anthony Cody opened the conference welcoming 500 teachers, administrators, parents, school board members, legislators, and students. Cody’s speech emphasized that the entire audience was unified in support of public education and against corporate reform and “hedge fund managers who have discovered a passion for the poor.”

John Kuhn, Superintendent of Perrin-Whitt School District in Texas, and Karen Lewis, President of the Chicago Teachers’ Union, reminded us in their keynote speeches that being a traditional public school teacher is noble and good. In her keynote address, Diane Ravitch movingly listed the heroes of public education, naming students, teachers, legislators, superintendents, and numerous advocates. When she called out the Northeast Indiana Friends of Public Education as heroes, all the letters we have written, all of the calls that we have made, all of the presentations that we have given, all of the testimony we have spoken, all of the frustration and sadness we have felt suddenly seemed worthwhile.

Arising from this message of validation, we (along with the rest of the audience) could feel that there is hope and that the tide is turning. Momentum is building, and it feels as though we are approaching a tipping point. The 500 activists at the conference represent thousands more across the country who are questioning the wisdom and the speed with which education reforms and untested policies have been implemented and which ask for virtually no accountability for charter schools and for voucher-funded parochial schools. Parents and teachers are protesting the vast amount of instructional time devoted to preparing kids to take tests whose only real value appears to be to label students, teachers, schools, and communities as failing.

Parents are questioning how their children's private information is being accessed and sold to the highest bidder, and parents are calling for consent legislation that allows them control of their child's data.

Throughout the country there is a growing sense of outrage over the bill of goods corporate reformers have sold legislators. The primary way in which these reformers have operated is by writing stock legislation that governs legislation at the state level and threatens local districts with punitive action. Throughout the country, there is a growing sense that parents and educators have been right all along; public schools are not failing. The corporate, for-profit reformers view children as data points and test scores; their view is unacceptable. The research shows that this "brave new world" of testing, accountability, charters, and vouchers that Bill Gates, Michelle Rhee, the Koch Bros, the Walton Foundation, and ALEC have promoted is not working.

Parents and teachers know that the joy of learning comes from imagining, creating, playing, thinking, experimenting, problem solving, and being ready to learn. The joy of learning comes when a child has an "aha moment" when he/she finally gets it. Parents know that play contributes to learning; that children need the physical activity at recess and in gym class just as much as they need “rigor” sitting at a desk; that art and music help children learn much more than learning to practice for a test and bubble in an answer sheet.

The momentum to reclaim our public schools is growing, but in order for it to continue, more parents, teachers, administrators, students, grandparents, and concerned citizens need to stand up and voice outrage at the attack on public education by profiteers and power-brokers. Public education is a human institution created for the common good and is an essential factor in our democracy. It should not be a market place commodity. It should guarantee equity for all students rather than be a competition where there are winners and losers. We need to be informed about the legislation that is proposed and to let our legislators know what we want in our schools. We need to speak louder and defy the power and money behind corporate reformers and the legislation proposed by ALEC.

And we can do it. In the words of Diane Ravitch, "We will win because everything these faux reformers are doing is failing or has already failed. You can’t succeed if everything you do fails. . .The walls of Jericho will come tumbling down…. Blow your trumpets. Wake the town. Tell the people. It’s a well-known saying, but I never tire of reading it or writing it: Margaret Mead says, 'Never doubt that a small group of individuals can change the world. That’s the only thing that ever has’."

At the end of the conference, the Network for Public Education called on Congress to investigate high stakes testing. The revision of NCLB is long overdue, but neither the Bush nor Obama administrations nor Congress has done anything except increase the stakes. NPE has issued a call for “formal hearings to investigate the over-emphasis, misapplication, costs, and poor implementation of high-stakes standardized testing in the nation’s k-12 public schools.”

The message of this conference is clear: We can reclaim our schools as kind and friendly places for teaching and learning – not profit centers for corporations, and entrepreneurs, and snake-oil salesmen, and consultants.

As Ravitch concluded, “We are many, and they are few. And this is why we will win.” Winning means preserving public education for the common good and for all our children. It will take more effort, more voices, more action.

Phyllis Bush, Terry Springer, Anne Duff
Members of Northeast Indiana Friends of Public Education and The Network for Public Education

Wednesday, March 12, 2014

Vic’s Statehouse Notes #177 – March 11, 2014

Dear Friends,

The Conference Committee on Senate Bill 1 and House Bill 1001 met at 4:30 this afternoon to make public the details to reduce the business property tax. Hopes that it would all go to a study committee to delay any damage to local government and school revenues were not fulfilled. Local school revenues are likely to take a hit based on two local options made available to each county, effective two years from now for property taxes payable in 2017.

The “Replace Don’t Erase” Coalition worked hard to eliminate the local option provisions to keep counties from pressuring each other to cut taxes, thus cutting school, library and local government revenue. The RDE efforts mitigated the potential damage, but the final deal now has two types of local options. If school and local government revenues are to be left intact, county officials will have to reject both local options, an outcome that seems unlikely.

Provisions of SB 1/ HB 1001


The provisions of the bill were presented by Senator Hershman, Senate Republican Conferee, with the support of Representative Turner, the House Republican Conferee. Senator Tallian, the Senate Democrat Conferee, brought an alternative plan which deleted the corporate tax reduction and the local option for reducing property tax on new equipment, an alternative which had the support of Representative Porter, the House Democrat Conferee. The alternative plan was not accepted.

Here are the main provisions unveiled today:
  • Corporate tax rate reduction to 4.9% over 6 years.
  • Financial Institutions Tax (FIT) rate reduction to 4.9% over 6 years.
  • Local option small business personal property tax exemption.
If the local COIT board approves, this would allow small businesses to exempt personal property with an acquisition cost less than $20,000. LSA estimates that if every county did this, $7.6 million would be shifted to other taxpayers and $6.6 million would be lost to local budgets due to circuit breakers. Of this $6.6 million, $2.0 million would be lost to schools.
When the Senate proposed this plan, it was a statewide plan with a fixed statewide cost that theoretically might have been replaced with state dollars. The new proposal today is to make this a local option with no prospect of state replacement dollars.
  • Local option for the elimination of property tax on new business personal property.
If the local COIT board approves, new business equipment would be exempted from the business property tax. Eventually as all equipment is replaced, the property tax on equipment will slowly disappear and local school and government revenue will fall.
The Impact on School Revenue

There is no good news here for public school revenue, except perhaps that it might have been worse. From the start of this debate, reducing the business property tax was going to damage public school property tax revenue. The only question was whether it would be a huge hit or a small hit. Intense lobbying has reduced the size of the problem, but there is still a problem if school officials don’t convince county officials of the wisdom of rejecting the local options, an unlikely prospect.

Governor Pence wanted to help businesses, and he didn’t mind doing that at the expense of revenues for schools, libraries and local government. He worked hard to make this happen in a sometimes reluctant legislature. Now that they have followed his lead, at least $2 million per year in school property tax revenue is at risk, just at the time when the great competition between public and private schools for the hearts and minds of parents is revving up, a competition created by the voucher program passed by the General Assembly in 2011 and expanded with Governor Pence’s strong support in 2013.

There is something wrong when Indiana’s grand experiment in a competitive marketplace is set up and then public schools are threatened with a new cut in their funding. It doesn’t look like fair competition to me. It looks to me like public school revenue support is being undermined in a creative new way every year, and the favoritism shown by the Governor for private schools in the competition and his willingness to let public school funding erode remain obvious.

This proposal today had the air of finality. It seems clear that it will go through as presented.

Let your legislators know that they are to be thanked for mitigating the original plan which threatened even deeper cuts to school budgets. You might also let them know you are disappointed that $2 million in public school revenues have been put at risk through these local option proposals.

In addition, you might ponder these things in your heart as you consider the elections coming up in May and in November. Some have taken comfort in the fact that implementation is two years away and this might be changed in the new budget in the next General Assembly after the next election.

As of late Tuesday evening, there is no further information on the status of the preschool bill.

Thanks for your active support of public education!

Best wishes,

Vic Smith

ICPE has worked since 2011 to promote public education in the Statehouse and oppose the privatization of schools. The 2014 session of the General Assembly is now past the half way mark in its deliberations. We need your membership to help support our hard working lobbyist Joel Hand. Many have renewed their memberships already, and we thank you! If you have not done so since July 1, the start of our new membership year, we urge you to renew by going to our website.

Although ICPE entered this session of the General Assembly in better financial shape than in any previous session, we still need additional support to fund the commitments our board has made for our lobbying efforts. We are counting on your financial help during the session.

We have raised the needed money in past sessions, and we must do so again. We need additional members and additional donations. We need your help and the help of your colleagues who support public education! Please pass the word!

Go to www.icpe2011.com for membership and renewal information and for full information on ICPE efforts on behalf of public education. Thanks!


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.
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Tuesday, March 11, 2014

ISTEP: Not as Intended



For Further Reading:
  • Test Today, Privatize Tomorrow: Using Accountability to "Reform" Public Schools to Death
  • Of the many schools and districts that are obviously struggling, how many have received the resources they need, at least without a court order? If conservatives are sincere in saying they want more testing in order to determine where help is needed, what has their track record been in providing that help? The answer is painfully obvious, of course: Many of the same people who justify more standardized tests for information-gathering purposes have also claimed that more money doesn’t produce improvement. The Bush administration’s proposed budgets have fallen far short of what states would need just to implement NCLB itself, and those who point this out are dismissed as malcontents. (Thus Bennett and Finn: “Democrats are now saying that Republicans are not spending enough. But that is what they always say – enough is never sufficient for them when it comes to education spending.”)
  • Indiana school grades align with poverty
  • The 2013 grades, approved recently by the Indiana State Board of Education, track pretty closely with the percentage of children who qualify for free and reduced-price school lunches. The fewer poor kids, the higher the grades, and vice versa.
  • Education Isn't Broken, Our Country Is
  • We don't have an education problem in America. We have a social disease. It is as though we are starving our children to death and trying to fix it by investing in more scales so we can weigh them constantly.
  • What Are Tests Really Measuring?: When Achievement Isn't Achievement
  • High-stakes standardized testing must be the most resilient phenomenon ever to exist on the planet. Joining high-stakes standardized testing in that (dis)honor would be the persistent but misleading claim that test scores are primarily achievement (and a growing future candidate for this honor is the claim that test scores by students, labeled “achievement,” are also credible metrics for “teacher quality”).


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Monday, March 10, 2014

It Takes More than Tests



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Saturday, March 8, 2014

Vic’s Statehouse Notes #176 – March 8, 2014

Dear Friends,

The “Replace Don’t Erase” Coalition has invited all who can make it to the Statehouse on Monday, March 10th to share the view that dollars cut from school budgets and local government to reduce the business property tax must be replaced with state dollars.

If you can come on Monday, link up with Mayors and other municipal and county officials to protect local property tax funding needed for vital local government and school services.

While you are there, ask your legislators to delete Sections 10 and 11 from the preschool bill to break the link between helping preschoolers and a major expansion of K-12 private school vouchers which would further damage public education.

Where the Business Tax Reduction Now Stands

The latest Senate proposal has reduced the fiscal impact to units of local government and schools from $54 million to $6.5 million. This includes a $2 million reduction in school revenue and $2.4 million less for cities and towns. These provisions would take effect in FY 2016.

While Governor Pence has said he favors using state dollars to replace this revenue loss, there is no provision in the current proposal to do so. While the magnitude of revenue loss has been reduced by the Senate, the latest reduction in business property tax would mean less revenue for local government and schools and a property tax shift to homeowners.

“Replace Don’t Erase”

The “Replace Don’t Erase” Coalition is a coalition of 22 statewide local government and school associations, including the Indiana Coalition of Public Education. The coalition has been led by the Indiana Association of Cities and Towns, representing 470 Hoosier cities and towns, which issued the invitation to come to the Statehouse on Monday. In a statement issued on March 6th, the IACT said that the Senate’s latest proposal demonstrates “great movement” and then commented on the county by county option to eliminate the property tax on new equipment which originated in the House:

“In terms of remaining areas of concern, IACT continues to be intensely opposed to the county by county option to eliminate the tax on new equipment being pushed in the House. We continue to raise the red flag that this provision leaves too many cities, towns, counties, schools, libraries, townships and other local units with little to no voice in a decision to eliminate a relied upon source of revenue. What’s being considered is NOT a local option and represents a serious step backwards for economic development and growth in our state. The language in this proposal represents the beginning of a complete phase out of the tax as counties will be gradually pressured into elimination and old equipment ages out and is replaced. It’s a slippery slope and is certainly the most detrimental piece of PPT legislation still alive.”

The Indiana Association of Cities and Towns invited their 470 members to the Statehouse in the following words:

"Please come to Indianapolis on Monday, March 10 and make one-on-one contact with your legislators. We are working to make one final push to inform lawmakers of our concerns regarding PPT reform. While there has been significant evolution on this matter since the beginning of session, there is still much to say and saying it in person is how you can be most effective for your community."

IACT then added talking points, which along with the talking points provided in yesterday’s ICPE newsletter can guide your discussions with and messages to legislators. The key points prepared by IACT that I would pass along are as follows:
  • "All Hoosiers support the ideas of a great business climate and lower taxes. At the same time any changes to the current system must be well thought out in cooperation between the State, local governments and business so that any change in tax burdens is fair and both permits the local governments that generally provide significant incentives to business to continue to be competitive and, at the same time, to provide the services, infrastructure and education that all the members of the community embrace and desire.
  • Supporters maintain that the elimination of business personal property is necessary in order to attract business to Indiana, although the IEDC's website proclaims that Indiana already has the "Best Business Environment" and the "Top Tax Climate," ranking first in the Midwest in "business tax climate." If Indiana already has the "best business environment" and the "top tax climate" why is this necessary?
  • The top rankings for business climate are not true for Indiana's ranking in education, college graduation, high school graduation, nor is it true for the condition of Indiana's roads, bridges, water and wastewater facilities, its parks, or many of the other factors business and industry look at when deciding where to locate.
  • Prior to 2010, under Indiana's "frozen levy" system of property taxation, a decision to provide tax abatement simply shifted the property tax liability to residential taxpayers and to other business taxpayers. Since the enactment of the property tax caps, a decision to provide tax abatement shifts the property tax liability to other taxpayers until the caps are reached; at that point, the schools and local governments must forego tax revenues in order to provide the tax abatement. A further loss of those tax revenues also means Hoosiers forgo quality of service, infrastructure and education.
  • The decision to provide tax abatement is based upon the local government's determination that the benefit the new investment and new jobs would bring to residents, other taxpayers and to the state and local government outweighs the added costs, including increased property taxes and decreased quality of services, infrastructure and education, to our citizens. It is not clear what, if any additional benefits from the current proposals will outweigh the additional costs imposed on homeowners, other taxpayers, schools and local governments. If there is less assessed value, tax rates increase, causing tax bills to all other taxpayers to be higher and circuit breaker tax credits to be higher as well, thus reducing revenues for local governments.
  • A decision to exempt all new business personal property from property taxes affects all taxing units and all non-business taxpayers. What public process protects residential taxpayers, schools and others that do not benefit from, and may be harmed by, the exemption?"
It is amazing that public school revenues are again under attack. Public school educators don’t need this headache. If you can come to the Statehouse to join in one-on-one discussions with your legislators on Monday or even on Tuesday, please do so. Please do what you can in this final week of the session.

Thanks for contacting your legislators and for your active support of public education!

Best wishes,

Vic Smith

ICPE has worked since 2011 to promote public education in the Statehouse and oppose the privatization of schools. The 2014 session of the General Assembly is now past the half way mark in its deliberations. We need your membership to help support our hard working lobbyist Joel Hand. Many have renewed their memberships already, and we thank you! If you have not done so since July 1, the start of our new membership year, we urge you to renew by going to our website.

Although ICPE entered this session of the General Assembly in better financial shape than in any previous session, we still need additional support to fund the commitments our board has made for our lobbying efforts. We are counting on your financial help during the session.

We have raised the needed money in past sessions, and we must do so again. We need additional members and additional donations. We need your help and the help of your colleagues who support public education! Please pass the word!

Go to www.icpe2011.com for membership and renewal information and for full information on ICPE efforts on behalf of public education. Thanks!


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.
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Wednesday, March 5, 2014

Vic’s Statehouse Notes #175 – March 5, 2014

Dear Friends,

Public school advocates need to send one more set of messages to their favorite legislators or to all legislators to delete the major expansion of K-12 vouchers in the preschool bill, House Bill 1004. The message is this:

If legislators heed the plea of Governor Pence to resurrect the preschool pilot program in the Conference Committee, they should delete Sections 10 and 11 which expand K-12 vouchers by giving every preschooler who gets as much as $500 in preschool help a guaranteed private school K-12 voucher, even when family income goes up past the income guidelines during their 13 years of schooling.

It is a way around Governor Daniels’ policy to “try public school first.”

Since the Conference Committee on HB 1004 could start any time now, please send your message to your legislators right away. They need to hear from a large number of advocates saying: no more expansion of K-12 vouchers.

Conference Committee on House Bill 1004 – Preschool Scholarships


Representative Behning filed a dissent on the Senate version of HB 1004, and a conference committee has been appointed to reconcile the House version and the Senate version. Conference committee members include:

Rep. Behning (R)–House Conferee

Rep. VanDenburgh (D)- House Conferee

Sen. Pete Miller (R)– Senate Conferee

Sen. Rogers (D)– Senate Conferee

Rep. Thompson (R)– House Advisor

Rep. Sullivan (R)– House Advisor

Rep. Vernon Smith (D)– House Advisor

Sen. Kenley (R)– Senate Advisor

Sen. Broden (D)– Senate Advisor

Sen. Kruse (R)– Senate Advisor

Sen. Yoder (R)– Senate Advisor

Your messages to break the link between preschool scholarships and K-12 vouchers should be sent to these members of the Conference Committee along with other legislators you may want to contact.

The House Version

The House passed their version with lightning speed on January 16th by a vote of 87-9, just one week after the initial committee hearing on January 9th. The bill provided for a pilot program in five counties, giving scholarships of $6800 for full day and $3400 for half day programs and establishing provisions for assessments and accountability.

I and many others have advocated for preschool funding for over a decade, but the Governor has crafted a bill that not only funds preschool scholarships but also guarantees private school K-12 scholarships for those preschoolers for the next 13 years. The bill doesn’t need to link preschool and K-12 vouchers. Deleting Sections 10 and 11 of the House version would break that link, keeping the bill focused on preschool and out of the controversy of our generation, whether to privatize our public schools by funding more and more K-12 private schools with public money.

The rationale often heard for linking a preschool voucher with a guaranteed lifetime K-12 voucher is to allow parents who choose a private preschool to keep their child in the same school for kindergarten, but this bill does not say that. It has no language about continuity of schools. It says that if children get at least $500 for preschool, they along with their siblings become eligible for a state-funded voucher from kindergarten through high school even if family income goes up beyond the voucher income rules.

Thus, a student going to a preschool in a public school could go to a religious school using a K-12 voucher.

That is far more than a continuity rule. That is a pipeline to K-12 vouchers for every low-income preschooler.

The House bill was never sent to the House Ways and Means Committee, which apparently aligns with Representative Behning’s statements that the program would not start this year but would start next year after money was allotted to it in next year’s budget. This is a controversial move. The General Assembly seldom chooses to pass programs which obligate the next General Assembly to provide funding.

Confusion remains about the funding issue. Speaker Bosma said at the outset of the session that 1000 scholarships would be provided, after Governor Pence called in December for funding for 40,000 scholarships. Now Representative Behning says that no scholarships would be funded this year, but the detailed CECI report on HB 1004 issued in February stated that $650,000 would be needed this year even before the new budget to pay for staff work to get the framework of the program in place and ready to begin when the General Assembly funds money for the scholarships.

Clearly, this confusing funding sequence has raised many fiscal concerns as Senators reviewed the bill.

The Senate Version

HB 1004 was amended in the Senate by a final vote of 44-5 to establish a prekindergarten and early learning study commission. It prescribes ten topics for study this summer. Senator Kenley said in committee that this study would clarify a framework for the program that could then be considered for funding alongside all the other programs that will seek funding in the next budget.

One of the ten topics says the commission will “study the appropriate state agency or entity to oversee and develop early learning accountability standards.” The House version puts the administration of the preschool program in the hands of the child care section of the Family and Social Services Administration (FSSA). Senator Kenley pointed out in committee that standards and assessment issues have always been handled by the Department of Education and the State Board of Education. In testimony on HB 1004, I and several others called for the program to be administered by the Indiana Department of Education to coordinate the P-16 plan adopted by the Roundtable several years back. This is a key point for review.

On February 25th, the Governor announced plans to resurrect the preschool pilot in the House version by making an appearance at the Shepherd Community Center preschool which is affiliated with the Horizon Christian School, a voucher school making a D in the state’s grading system last year and teaching a creationist curriculum. All this was well documented by Karen Francisco in an insightful Fort Wayne Journal Gazette column on Feb. 26th entitled “Feeding the creationist pipeline.”

The lingering question here is: Does the Governor care more about saving the preschool provisions or saving the K-12 voucher expansion? He would get a lot more support if he would decouple Sections 10 and 11 from the pilot program and thus break the link between much needed support for preschool and the next major expansion of K-12 vouchers.

Let the members of the Conference Committee know that however the bill is crafted in the Conference Committee, Sections 10 and 11 expanding K-12 vouchers for preschool scholarship students should be deleted. This is an important message that House and Senate leaders and indeed all legislators need to hear from all parts of the state.

Thanks for contacting your legislators and for your active support of public education!

Best wishes,

Vic Smith

ICPE has worked since 2011 to promote public education in the Statehouse and oppose the privatization of schools. The 2014 session of the General Assembly is now past the half way mark in its deliberations. We need your membership to help support our hard working lobbyist Joel Hand. Many have renewed their memberships already, and we thank you! If you have not done so since July 1, the start of our new membership year, we urge you to renew by going to our website.

Although ICPE entered this session of the General Assembly in better financial shape than in any previous session, we still need additional support to fund the commitments our board has made for our lobbying efforts. We are counting on your financial help during the session.

We have raised the needed money in past sessions, and we must do so again. We need additional members and additional donations. We need your help and the help of your colleagues who support public education! Please pass the word!

Go to www.icpe2011.com for membership and renewal information and for full information on ICPE efforts on behalf of public education. Thanks!


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.
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What Does Testing Mean for Your Children - Part 3


For Further Reading:
  • Test Today, Privatize Tomorrow: Using Accountability to "Reform" Public Schools to Death
  • Of the many schools and districts that are obviously struggling, how many have received the resources they need, at least without a court order? If conservatives are sincere in saying they want more testing in order to determine where help is needed, what has their track record been in providing that help? The answer is painfully obvious, of course: Many of the same people who justify more standardized tests for information-gathering purposes have also claimed that more money doesn’t produce improvement. The Bush administration’s proposed budgets have fallen far short of what states would need just to implement NCLB itself, and those who point this out are dismissed as malcontents. (Thus Bennett and Finn: “Democrats are now saying that Republicans are not spending enough. But that is what they always say – enough is never sufficient for them when it comes to education spending.”)
  • Indiana school grades align with poverty
  • The 2013 grades, approved recently by the Indiana State Board of Education, track pretty closely with the percentage of children who qualify for free and reduced-price school lunches. The fewer poor kids, the higher the grades, and vice versa.
  • Education Isn't Broken, Our Country Is
  • We don't have an education problem in America. We have a social disease. It is as though we are starving our children to death and trying to fix it by investing in more scales so we can weigh them constantly.
  • What Are Tests Really Measuring?: When Achievement Isn't Achievement
  • High-stakes standardized testing must be the most resilient phenomenon ever to exist on the planet. Joining high-stakes standardized testing in that (dis)honor would be the persistent but misleading claim that test scores are primarily achievement (and a growing future candidate for this honor is the claim that test scores by students, labeled “achievement,” are also credible metrics for “teacher quality”).


Keep up to date on Public Education issues.

Follow us every day on Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and Pinterest. Or sign up for email alerts whenever this blog is updated. Fill in the FOLLOW US BY EMAIL box in the right hand column.

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Tuesday, March 4, 2014

Network for Public Education National Conference

If you missed last weekend's Network for Public Education national conference in Austin, Texas fear not. There are videos of sessions and keynote addresses.

Diane Ravitch's keynote address can be found (in two parts) at http://www.schoolhouselive.org/

Keynote addresses by John Kuhn and Karen Lewis are at http://www.schoolhouselive.org/npe-video-on-demand.php

Several sessions are at

http://www.schoolhouselive.org/third-floor-breakouts.php

and

http://www.schoolhouselive.org/npe-breakouts-two.php

Join the Network for Public Education.

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Monday, March 3, 2014

Public Education: Part of the Community



Keep up to date on Public Education issues.

Follow us every day on Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and Pinterest. Or sign up for email alerts whenever this blog is updated. Fill in the FOLLOW US BY EMAIL box in the right hand column.

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Sunday, March 2, 2014

Rise Above the Mark -- February 28, 2014, Butler University

A few NEIFPE members (who weren't at the NPE Conference in Texas) attended the screening of Rise Above the Mark at Butler University in Indianapolis on February 28, 2014.

The following videos, taken by our friend Clyde Gaw [Indiana Art Education Advocacy Action Blog], is of the discussion after the film.







Featured in the film along with other educators and parents, are...

Diane Ravitch, educational historian and co-founder of The Network for Public Education, author of Reign of Error: The Hoax of the Privatization Movement and the Danger to America's Public Schools
Karen Francisco, editorial writer, Fort Wayne Journal Gazette
Linda Darling-Hammond, Professor of Education at the Stanford Graduate School of Education, author of The Flat World And Education: How America's Commitment to Equity Will Determine Our Future
Pasi Sahlberg, visiting Professor of Practice at Harvard University’s Graduate School of Education, author of Finnish Lessons
Marc Tucker, CEO, National Center on Education and the Economy, author of Tough Choices or Tough Times
Jamie Vollmer, former business executive, author of The Blueberry Story and Schools Cannot Do It Alone

Diane Ravitch with NEIFPE co-founder Donna Roof and Stephanie Bush.


For further information...

Rise Above the Mark

Ravitch tangles with school reformers on Butler panel

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