In Case You Missed It – August 5, 2024

Here are links to last week's^† articles receiving the most attention on NEIFPE's social media accounts. Keep up with what's going on, what's being discussed, and what's happening with public education.

Be sure to enter your email address in the Follow Us By Email box in the right-hand column of our blog page to be informed when our blog posts are published.

QUOTE OF THE WEEK

"Studies of student performance under school voucher programs not only showed that they don’t help them, but that they could actually have harmful effects. Results from a 2016 study of Louisiana’s voucher program found “strong and consistent evidence that students using an LSP scholarship performed significantly worse in math after using their scholarship to attend private schools.” In Indiana, results also showed “significant losses” in math. A third study of a voucher program in Ohio reported that “students who use vouchers to attend private schools have fared worse academically compared to their closely matched peers attending public schools.”

We aren’t against private schools. But we are against taxpayer money going to private schools at the expense of public schools." -- The Governors of North Carolina and Kentucky quoted in Diane Ravitch's blog post, Governors Roy Cooper and Andy Beshear: Real Democrats Support Real Public Schools! (emphasis added)

VOUCHERS CHIP AWAY AT PUBLIC EDUCATION

Governors Roy Cooper and Andy Beshear: Real Democrats Support Real Public Schools!

By the time you read this, Vice President Harris may have already chosen her running mate for the upcoming presidential election, but it's good to remember that there are some Democrats who are still fighting for public education.

From Diane Ravitch

Voucher programs chip away at the public education our kids deserve

This is their strategy: Start the programs modestly, offering vouchers only to low-income families or children with disabilities. But then expand the giveaway by taking money from public schools and allowing the wealthiest among us who already have children in private schools to pick up a government check.

CITIZENSHIP BUILDING IS A CORE PURPOSE OF PUBLIC EDUCATION

I am a Patriot

Public schools serve all our students -- those with a variety of religious beliefs, Christians, Muslims, and others, and those with no religious beliefs. That is the value of having a First Amendment protecting the right to free exercise of religion and prohibiting the state from establishing one religion over another. Nancy Flanagan writes about the error made by the State Superintendent of Public Schools of Oklahoma and others who would impose their beliefs on others.

From Nancy Flanagan in Teacher in a Strange Land blog

I love the idea that it took decades of discourse for the early, 18th century Rebels (by no means a majority) to organize in resisting colonial rule, fighting the imposition of taxation without representation (which still resonates today). I think all children in America should know the truth about our Founding Fathers, and their multi-racial legacies. I think elementary schools should hold mock elections and HS Social Studies teachers should organize voter registration drives. I think flying the national flag—right side up—is everyone’s prerogative.

I also think the Superintendent of Schools in Norman, Oklahoma, who declared “We’re not going to have Bibles in our classrooms”—after a memo from Ryan Walters, their moronic State Superintendent specifying that all OK classrooms will offer Bible-based instruction—is a patriot.

A patriot who understands our foundational principles–the separation of church and state, for example. Perhaps even a patriot who sees citizenship-building, not just job training, as a core purpose of public schools.

TRAINING YOUR SCHOOL BOARD UNDER PROJECT 2025

The Heritage Foundation Wants to Train Your School Board.

The Heritage Foundation's Project 2025 has directions for school board members. Would you want your school system run by people who want to destroy public schools?

From deutsch29: Mercedes Schneider's Blog

Given the Heritage Foundation’s push for outsized, ubiquitous influence in casting America in its own far-right-conservative image, it should come as no surprise that the Heritage Foundation even offers its own “school board training”:

The status quo in your school system wasn’t working. You saw the need for new leadership with a different vision for education. You stepped up to the plate and ran for school board—and you won! Now your role as a school board member brings a new set of challenges and opportunities—and the learning curve can be steep. But you don’t have to navigate this new territory alone.

The Heritage Foundation is pleased to offer training designed especially to help you succeed in your new role as a school board member. Experienced schoolboard leaders and education policy experts from across the country have teamed up to share the knowledge and information you need for immediate effectiveness. Designed for busy board members and parents, this training is available on demand so that you can learn at your convenience and at your own pace.

Okay.

So, who’s instructing these “on-demand” lessons on behalf of the Heritage Foundation?

STATE AND LOCAL NEWS

‘Back to school’ brings new education laws to Indiana classrooms

Most of the new policies took effect July 1, though some changes are still a year or two out from full implementation.

From Indiana Capital Chronicle (emphasis in original)

IREAD and third grade retention
Among the most debated legislation of the 2024 session, Senate Enrolled Act 1 seeks to remedy Indiana’s literacy “crisis” by requiring schools to administer the statewide IREAD test in second grade — a year earlier than previous requirements — and direct new, targeted support to at-risk students and those struggling to pass the exam.

But if, after three tries, a third grader can’t meet the IREAD standard, legislators want school districts to retain them. That number could reach into the thousands, according to 2023 data. New IREAD results for tests taken in Spring 2024 are expected to be released next month...

...Religious instruction
Although an option previously existed for Hoosier students to receive religious instruction during regular school hours, House Enrolled Act 1137 requires schools to approve parental requests for students to leave class during the day.

The change tightens previous Indiana law that permitted students to leave school for up to 120 minutes a week for voluntary religious instruction, as long as it takes place off school property, and private transportation is provided.

Purdue president: New Indiana high school diplomas won’t meet admission requirements

Herein lies the danger of having legislators, the vast majority of whom are non-educators, micromanage our state's school curriculum.

From WFYI (Indianapolis)

Purdue University’s president says Indiana’s proposed changes to high school diplomas do not meet the school’s admission standards in math, social studies and world languages.

In a letter sent to top state education leaders last week, President Mung Chiang said several changes to the diplomas do not meet what have been the entry criteria at the Big Ten university.

High school curriculum is an important factor in college admission, Chiang said in the letter.

“Not all students will attend college,” Chiang wrote. “However, all students should clearly understand college admission requirements and be offered the coursework needed to be admitted to and succeed in college.”

See also: Indiana's new high school diplomas spark concerns among university leaders


East Allen County Schools administrators gather as new year nears

EACS and FWCS prepare for the new school year.

From the Fort Wayne Journal Gazette**

East Allen County Schools expects to begin the academic year with no unstaffed bus routes – an achievement that had the superintendent smiling Monday as administrators gathered for a back-to-school tradition.

Marilyn Hissong also announced at the annual Administrators Academy that the district has only two new administrators, both of whom were promoted from other roles.

“That’s an exciting year, not to have the turnover – to have our people all back,” Hissong said.

About 50 district and school leaders – including principals, department directors and central office staff – gathered at the EACS Annex in New Haven for the annual professional development session held days before classes begin Aug. 7.

Hissong said the tradition is an opportunity to work on leadership skills and ensure that all administrators have the same information as they prepare for a new academic year.

“We also unveiled our strategic plan for the district,” Hissong said. “This one contains curriculum, community, culture – all of that.”

FWCS to have weapon detection systems in high schools for upcoming year

From 21Alive News

Last school year South Side High School took on a pilot program for the Open Gate Weapon Detection systems.

Now with data collected from the school, officials with FWCS are ready to implement the system into other schools.

JOIN US

An Evening with Jennifer McCormick

NEIFPE is proud to co-sponsor this event featuring Jennifer McCormick, candidate for Governor of Indiana. We hope you can attend.

Click HERE to register for the September 25th event:





**Note: The Fort Wayne Journal Gazette is behind a paywall. Digital access, home delivery, or both are available with a subscription. Staying informed is essential; one way to do that is to support your local newspaper. For subscription information, go to fortwayne.com/subscriptions/ [NOTE: NEIFPE has no financial ties to the Fort Wayne Journal Gazette]

^†Note: NEIFPE's In Case You Missed It is posted by the end of the day every Monday except after holiday weekends or as otherwise noted.

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In Case You Missed It – June 17, 2024

Here are links to last week's^† articles receiving the most attention on NEIFPE's social media accounts. Keep up with what's going on, what's being discussed, and what's happening with public education.

Be sure to enter your email address in the Follow Us By Email box in the right-hand column of our blog page to be informed when our blog posts are published.

QUOTE OF THE WEEK

"The expansion in voucher programs is part of a broader move in some states toward more government-sponsored religion inside public schools. New laws allow schools to hire chaplains for counseling…. In West Virginia, a new law allows teachers to discuss alternative theories to evolution. Seven states have passed measures mandating elective courses focused on the Bible… In Oklahoma, the state Supreme Court in April considered what would be an unprecedented step toward the mingling of church and state in education, weighing whether the state could directly fund what would be the nation’s first religious charter school." -- Washington Post writers, Laura Meckler and Michelle Boorstein quoted in Erasing the Line that Separates Church and State in Education

SEPARATING CHURCH AND STATE IN EDUCATION

Erasing the Line that Separates Church and State in Education

The Indiana voucher plan is essentially a money laundering scheme for religious schools. The state supreme court claimed that since the tax money used for vouchers really belongs to the parents of children, there is no conflict between church and state. However, the parents don't see the money from the voucher. The so-called "money from the parent" goes directly from the state treasury to the private school.

From Jan Resseger

It has become acceptable for states to award tax funded tuition vouchers to private schools that teach religious doctrine. In recent decades, the U.S. Supreme Court has ignored the First Amendment Establishment Clause and declared that if states permit private schools in general to accept state funded tuition vouchers, the state’s exclusion of religious private schools would violate the free exercise of religion.

The shifting legal prioritization of the Free Exercise Clause over the Establishment Clause has not happened by accident. Activists have worked with far-right legal firms to bring a succession of legal challenges, with each lawsuit designed to shift the Supreme Court’s interpretation a little farther away from protecting the separation of religion and government. In an earlier report this spring, Meckler laid out some of this history: “In recent years, religious activists have succeeded in tearing down what had been a clear delineation between public funding and religious education. In three (of the most recent) significant rulings, the U.S. Supreme Court found that religious institutions may not be excluded from taxpayer-funded programs that were available to others. In a 2017 case, the high court ruled that a church-run preschool in Missouri was entitled to a state grant that funded playgrounds. In 2020, the court ruled that Montana… include religious schools in a program giving tax incentives for supporting private-school tuition scholarships. And last year, the court said that a Maine voucher program that sent rural students to private high schools had to be open to religious schools.”

Peter Greene: Putting Chaplains in Schools is a Very Bad Idea

The current majority on the Supreme Court seems to deny that the First Amendment contains an "Establishment Clause."

From Diane Ravitch

Peter Greene describes the new movement to place chaplains in schools to act as mental health counselors. The politicians behind this demand want Protestant evangelical chaplains, no doubt, but the schools will have requests for all sorts of religions. Not only from the myriad Protestant sects, but from Catholics, Muslims, Jews, Mormons, Unitarians, Buddhists, Hindus, and many others. There would certainly be a need for three Jewish chaplains: Reform, Conservative, and Orthodox. And every other religion will have divisions that must be addressed. Will there also be mental health counselors for kids who don’t want a chaplain?

CHARTER DISTRICT FAILS

All Charter District Opens Public School

Just because you went to school doesn't mean you know how to teach. Just because your community had a school doesn't mean that you know how to run a school. There is a reason that educators are trained in schools of education.

From Tom Ultican at Tultican

Desires of New Orleans residents were ignored. Neoliberal billionaires were in charge. In all the excitement, few noticed that these oligarchs had no understanding of how public education functions. They threw away 200 years of public school development and replaced it with an experiment. The mostly black residents in the city were stripped of their rights.

Thousands of experienced black educators were fired and replaced by mostly white Teach For America teachers with 5 weeks of training. Instead of stable public schools, people were forced into unstable charter schools. Instead of professional administration, market forces drove the bus!

Clearly, the all charter school system is a failure.

TAX MONEY, MY MONEY

Whose Money Follows The Child?

"...everyone in the country benefits from sharing space with educated co-workers, neighbors, and pretty much everyone else we have to deal with. Everyone shares the cost..." Everyone reaps the benefit.

From Peter Greene at Curmudgucation

The suggestion that vouchers are simply a means of giving parents back their own money to spend on education as they see fit--that's absurd. Our entire public education system is funded on the theory that everyone in the country benefits from sharing space with educated co-workers, neighbors, and pretty much everyone else we have to deal with. Everyone shares the cost.

It's odd that so much of the voucher crowd is also the "taxation is theft" crowd, because voucher funding requires the voucher holders to take tax dollars from their neighbors while stripping those neighbors of any say in the kind of education those dollars will be spent on. That includes spending my neighbor's tax dollars on a school that would forbit, bar, eject, and demonize those neighbors and their children.

Your money should follow my child.

"Just give us back our tax money, and I'll get my kids the education I want and everyone else can get the kind of education they want," is top-grade bullshit. The only people who it even sort of works for is the folks living in very expensive houses. For everyone else, the end result is some kind of lower tier cheap crappy school--or getting your neighbors to chip in.

Your money should follow my child.

Or maybe we could pool all our money and set up a system to take care of all the children.

LOCAL NEWS

Fort Wayne Community Schools board begins interviews to fill vacancy

Rohli Booker gave up her seat on the FWCS school board to claim a City Council seat. The FWCS board is interviewing for her replacement.

From the Fort Wayne Journal Gazette**

The Fort Wayne Community Schools board Tuesday began interviews with four candidates seeking to serve the remainder of former member Rohli Booker’s term.

Antonette Payne was the only applicant for the open District 4 seat to be publicly interviewed Tuesday night...

SACS board responds to questions about proposed superintendent contract

From 21 Alive

Southwest Allen County Schools is one of the largest districts in our area and the SACS Superintendent is a high-profile job.

Tuesday night, leaders moved one step closer to filling that critical position.

**Note: The Fort Wayne Journal Gazette is behind a paywall. Digital access, home delivery, or both are available with a subscription. Staying informed is essential; one way to do that is to support your local newspaper. For subscription information, go to fortwayne.com/subscriptions/ [NOTE: NEIFPE has no financial ties to the Fort Wayne Journal Gazette]

^†Note: NEIFPE's In Case You Missed It is posted by the end of the day every Monday except after holiday weekends or as otherwise noted.

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In Case You Missed It – February 5, 2024

Here are links to last week's^† articles receiving the most attention on NEIFPE's social media accounts. Keep up with what's going on, what's being discussed, and what's happening with public education.

Be sure to enter your email address in the Follow Us By Email box in the right-hand column of our blog page to be informed when our blog posts are published.

QUOTE OF THE WEEK

"'The primary role of chaplains is to provide pastoral or religious counseling to people in spiritual need,' the American Civil Liberties Union of Indiana said in a statement. 'Allowing them to assume official positions — whether paid or voluntary — in public schools will create an environment ripe for religious coercion and indoctrination of students.'

"Without any oversight to prevent chaplains from imposing their own religious viewpoint on the children they counsel, HB 1192 and SB 50 could undermine the religious freedom of students of all faiths and no faith." -- the Fort Wayne Journal Gazette** editorial board.

INDIANA GENERAL ASSEMBLY, 2024

Faith-based school chaplains would test First Amendment

We included this article from last week's In Case You Missed It again this week. It continues to be read and spread through social media. And now the Senate has passed their version of the bill.

Contact your state representative to stop this bill before it goes any further. We need trained counselors in our public schools, not religious indoctrination. Indiana taxpayers already fund sectarian religious instruction through school vouchers. No more.

From the Fort Wayne Journal Gazette**

Indiana’s student-to-counselor ratio ranks worst in the nation, according to the 2023 State of the Indiana Girl Report published in September.

Two bills introduced in the General Assembly — one in the House, the other in the Senate — seek to fill the counselor void, but critics say their solution is unconstitutional and could end up further harming some children’s emotional and mental health.

...Proponents of HB 1192 and SB 50 likely will tout the proposals as remedies to the mental health needs of Hoosier students.

Chaplains are trained and certified to provide spiritual and emotional support. Lawmakers should leave mental health care services to the professional school counselors qualified to do that job.

Allen County school districts react to bill aiming to address 3rd graders who fail state reading exam

Does retention even work?

"Tamyra Kelly, a public information officer for East Allen County Schools, said they’re in favor of any extra support for students learning to read.

"'In our experience, retention would not be the answer. A bill that could fund earlier intervention and supports would be most favorable to schools and their students,' Kelly said."

From WANE.com

School district leaders in the greater Fort Wayne area are reacting to a state bill that focuses on making sure students can read proficiently by the end of 3rd grade.

Senate Bill 1 would support holding back students who fail the Indiana Reading Evaluation and Determination assessment (IREAD-3), a grade three reading assessment developed in accordance with state legislation, while also requiring schools to give remediation to students at risk of not passing.

The bill was written by Sen. Linda Rogers (R) and 30 other GOP lawmakers. Once referred to as the “retention bill” by some, Senate Bill 1 has been amended to contain more efforts before getting to retention, with that being more of a last resort.

CHILD TAX CREDIT EXPANSION

U.S. House Passes Child Tax Credit Expansion. Bill Heads to Senate.

Children learn best when they are safe, well-fed, and well-cared for. The tax credit expansion will help.

From Jan Resseger's Blog

For a long time, the needs of poor children have not been much of a motivator for American social policy reform.

Many of us remember Bill Clinton “ending welfare as we know it” in 1996, but we have very likely forgotten the title of the bill that ended welfare: the Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act, a law whose name specifically blamed the poor for a lax attitude about bettering themselves through work. The American Rescue Plan generously expanded the Child Tax Credit and made it fully refundable. That COVID relief bill, passed in March of 2021, reduced child poverty in the United States by 40 percent during that year, but Congress allowed it to expire at the beginning of 2022, when Joe Manchin and the majority of Congressional Republicans said the modest cash payments were discouraging parents from working. This month, the Washington Post reported another example of politicians punishing children for the supposed sins of their parents: Republican governors in 15 states have rejected a new, federally funded program to give food assistance to hungry children during the summer when school is not in session. Nebraska’s governor said: “I don’t believe in welfare.”

While a lot of politicians have shown themselves willing to overlook the well documented needs of millions of U.S. children, last night the U.S. House of Representatives passed a bipartisan compromise tax bill that combines business tax breaks and significant expansion of the Child Tax Credit. The bill will now move to the U.S. Senate.

FORT WAYNE AREA NEWS

Southwest Allen County Schools begins strategic plan process

From the Fort Wayne Journal Gazette**

Small-group conversations Wednesday among Southwest Allen County Schools stakeholders – including students, parents and teachers – marked the beginning of a four-month effort that should end with a roadmap for the district.

School board President Jennifer Bennett expects the final product – a strategic plan – will ensure that district leaders are basing decisions on a cohesive vision.

“I’m excited to get this process going,” she told about 40 people gathered at the transportation conference room for the first of four strategic planning sessions.

Along with collecting feedback from invited participants, SACS will seek input from the broader community via an emailed survey, Superintendent Park Ginder said.

Bidding closes for NACS construction projects

From WANE.com

Northwest Allen County School Board Members approved maximum price amendments for three construction projects in the district.

Bids for the Carroll High School additions and renovations, Willow Creek Middle School, and Central Office construction are closed as contracts with Weigand Construction were approved Monday.

The guaranteed maximum price amendment for the three projects adds up to approximately $130 million. They will be funded through lease financing which will keep the community’s tax rate the same. Wayne Barker, Superintendent of NACS, said the costs are less than what they expected.

Groundbreaking nears for Northwest Allen County Schools construction projects

From the Fort Wayne Journal Gazette**

Northwest Allen County Schools expects to celebrate groundbreakings next month as three projects totaling $130 million in construction costs get underway.

“Countless hours have been spent to get us to here,” Superintendent Wayne Barker told the board Monday, adding that contractors could start moving dirt next week. “It won’t come soon enough because we have students to educate, and they keep coming. So that’s a very good problem.”

The board agreed last spring to address increasing enrollment by building a third middle school and by expanding and renovating Carroll High School. The elected leaders also approved construction of a central office because it has outgrown its space at Perry Hill Elementary School. That project includes renovations to Perry Hill.

Board action Monday addressed the projects’ guaranteed maximum price. Willow Creek Middle School will cost about $73.5 million; the Carroll improvements will cost about $41.1 million; and the new central office and Perry Hill renovations will cost about $15.8 million.

**Note: The Fort Wayne Journal Gazette is behind a paywall. Digital access, home delivery, or both are available with a subscription. Staying informed is essential; one way to do that is to support your local newspaper. For subscription information, go to fortwayne.com/subscriptions/ [NOTE: NEIFPE has no financial ties to the Fort Wayne Journal Gazette]

^†Note: NEIFPE's In Case You Missed It is posted by the end of the day every Monday except after holiday weekends or as otherwise noted.

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In Case You Missed It – January 29, 2024

Here are links to last week's^† articles receiving the most attention on NEIFPE's social media accounts. Keep up with what's going on, what's being discussed, and what's happening with public education.

Be sure to enter your email address in the Follow Us By Email box in the right-hand column of our blog page to be informed when our blog posts are published.

QUOTE OF THE WEEK

"'The primary role of chaplains is to provide pastoral or religious counseling to people in spiritual need,' the American Civil Liberties Union of Indiana said in a statement. 'Allowing them to assume official positions — whether paid or voluntary — in public schools will create an environment ripe for religious coercion and indoctrination of students.'

"...Chaplains are trained and certified to provide spiritual and emotional support. Lawmakers should leave mental health care services to the professional school counselors qualified to do that job." -- Editorial in the Fort Wayne Journal Gazette**

SCHOOL CHAPLAINS INSTEAD OF COUNSELORS?

Not content with diverting tax dollars meant for public schools to religious and private schools, Indiana Republicans are now trying to open the door to religious proselytization in public schools. Write or call your local legislators and tell them NO! to chaplains in public schools.

Bills to employ school chaplains, allow religious instruction move forward in Indiana legislature

From Indiana Capital Chronicle

Lines between church and state blurred at the Indiana Statehouse on Wednesday as lawmakers gave the go-ahead for two education bills that seek to increase students’ access to faith leaders and religious instruction.

One proposal, House Bill 1137, would require schools to approve parental requests for students to leave school during the day for religious instruction. A separate measure, Senate Bill 50, could bring paid chaplains into Indiana’s public schools. Both bills advanced from their assigned committees and now head to the respective chambers for further consideration.

Faith-based school chaplains would test First Amendment

From the Fort Wayne Journal Gazette**

Indiana’s student-to-counselor ratio ranks worst in the nation, according to the 2023 State of the Indiana Girl Report published in September.

Two bills introduced in the General Assembly — one in the House, the other in the Senate — seek to fill the counselor void, but critics say their solution is unconstitutional and could end up further harming some children’s emotional and mental health.

House Bill 1192 and Senate Bill 50 would allow public and charter schools to employ chaplains, or approve them as volunteers, to counsel students and staff. Though school chaplains wouldn’t be required to divulge privileged or confidential communications, the bills are written to invite skepticism as to the ultimate goal of allowing pastoral care.

The Senate version, authored by Sen. Stacey Donato, R-Logansport, says a chaplain may only provide secular assistance, unless the student (or their parent or guardian) gives consent for religious advice, guidance and support services. The House proposal of Rep. Doug Miller, R-Elkhart, does not include such language.

“The primary role of chaplains is to provide pastoral or religious counseling to people in spiritual need,” the American Civil Liberties Union of Indiana said in a statement. “Allowing them to assume official positions — whether paid or voluntary — in public schools will create an environment ripe for religious coercion and indoctrination of students.”

Without any oversight to prevent chaplains from imposing their own religious viewpoint on the children they counsel, HB 1192 and SB 50 could undermine the religious freedom of students of all faiths and no faith.

KINDERGARTEN FOR KINDERGARTENERS!

Nancy Bailey: It’s Time to Take Back Kindergarten!

Play is children's work...for better health, better learning, and happier children!

From Diane Ravitch

Nancy Bailey is a retired educator who has seen the damage wrought by No Child Left Behind, Race to the Top, and the nonsensical grandchild called Every Student Succeeds Act. We can say now with hindsight that many children were left behind, we did not make it to the Top, and every student is not succeeding.

Nancy knows that the greatest casualty of these ruinous federal laws and programs are young children. Instead of playing, instead of socializing, instead of living their best lives as children, they are being prepared to take tests. This is nuts!

Nancy explains in this post (originally from 2021 but nothing has changed) why the status quo is harmful to small children and how it should change...

INDIANA POLITICS

NPE Action endorses Jennifer McCormick for Governor of Indiana.

Jennifer McCormick, former Indiana State Superintendent of Public Instruction, gets NPE-Action's endorsement for Indiana Governor.

From the Network for Public Education Action

The Network for Public Education Action gives its strongest endorsement to Jennifer McCormick for Governor of Indiana. Jennifer is a lifelong educator and native of Indiana. 

Jennifer is a former teacher, principal and school superintendent. She served as State Superintendent of Public Instruction from 2017 to 2021. During that time she took on the legislature, eventually changing political parties. 

Jennifer told us that as governor, she “will focus on aggressively funding the expansion of quality and affordable childcare as well as universal PreK so all children have the foundational skills necessary to succeed in the K12 environment. She said she “will appoint a Secretary of Education and members of the state board of education that understand the ever-evolving needs of Indiana students and implement programs that develop the skills critical to thrive in a changing world and prepare Hoosier kids for careers, college, and life after high school.”

FORT WAYNE AREA NEWS

We have lots of news from Allen County and Fort Wayne this week. See the link to subscribe to the Fort Wayne Journal Gazette at the end of this post.

Implications are imposing for education overhaul bills

From the Fort Wayne Journal Gazette**

Lawmakers are throwing everything at the wall to see what sticks in their quest to educate more Hoosiers — whether through job training or traditional college.

But some of the discussions carry concerning consequences. Two major proposals this year deserve in-depth examination that a short session likely can’t provide.

First up is an effort by House Republicans to allow key higher education scholarships and grants to be used for job training instead of toward full-time college credits.

The legislation impacts the 21st Century Scholars program, Freedom of Choice Grant and the Higher Education Award. Collectively, the current budget includes about $330 million annually in state funding for that aid.

Each program has slightly different rules, but generally there are GPA and credit completion requirements. And all specify that students must be attending a two-year or four-year program on a full-time basis...

...The second major proposal is Senate Bill 8, which will blur the line between two- and four-year degree institutions that was set up 20 years ago.

At that time, under Gov. Mitch Daniels, a study by the Government Efficiency Commission recommended establishing Ivy Tech as a true community college system, and phasing out associate degree programs at other campuses.

That’s because it would be cheaper to earn an associate degree at Ivy Tech the first two years then transfer to a traditional four-year school for bachelor’s and graduate degrees.

Indiana education secretary says schools can get started on proposed literacy initiatives

From the Fort Wayne Journal Gazette**

Will Hoosier schools have the funds to launch new literacy mandates proposed by state lawmakers? Indiana Secretary of Education Katie Jenner this week maintained they do – at least for now.

She said Thursday the Indiana Department of Education has enough holdover dollars to roll out additional reading tests and expanded summer school options laid out in Senate Bill 1, which is under consideration at the Statehouse.

And more state funds are expected to be requested in the 2025 budget session.

FWCS to offer employees child care stipend with $750,000 grant

From the Fort Wayne Journal Gazette**

Fort Wayne Community Schools will use $750,000 in state funding to help employees pay for child care.

The program’s implementation should provide the district with information it doesn’t have about its 4,050 workers, said Mitch Sheppard, philanthropy director.

“If you were to say, ‘What do our employees need? How severe is the child care need?’ We really don’t know,” she told the school board Monday.

The one-time grant from the Family and Social Services Administration will be distributed on a reimbursement basis to employees using state-licensed child care facilities. The program will launch as soon as possible, Sheppard said.

Remote learning challenges: What school officials in Allen County are considering

From WANE.com

Area school district officials told WANE 15 Tuesday they are learning as they go as winter weather challenges have led to more remote learning days.

WANE 15 spoke with Mark Daniel, superintendent of Fort Wayne Community Schools (FWCS), and Park Ginder, superintendent of Southwest Allen County Schools (SACS), and Tamyra Kelly, the Public Information Officer at East Allen County Schools (EACS) to see how remote learning days have gone so far...

...At FWCS, Daniel said there’s a lot of room for improvement. He said they want students more engaged and interactive.

“Remote learning days are not the same as being in school in person,” Daniel said. “So we know that we’re trying to be flexible, but at the same time, we need our students and our parents and our staff to fully engage.”

Each school year, each district gets 3 e-learning days where students work independently, but remote learning days that require students to Zoom with a teacher are unlimited.

Daniel said if things don’t improve, there could be changes.

Northwest Allen County Schools sees challenges due to property tax cap

From WANE.com

Northwest Allen County Schools (NACS) is seeing the effects of a property tax cap passed by the Indiana General Assembly in 2023.

House Bill 1499 capped property taxes at 4% to provide relief for homeowners as home values were skyrocketing over the past few years. That cap has resulted in less money than anticipated being funneled into Indiana schools. Most districts are faring well because their growth in student population is stable. But NACS is an outlier, said Superintendent Wayne Barker.

According to Barker, the rapidly growing district is losing out on around $1.2 million in tax money over two years due to this cap. As the more people move into the district limits, the district needs more buses, drivers, faculty and staff. All of that requires money. This means other projects will have to wait, Barker said.

FWCS board accepts $500,000 for $14.7 million early learning center, more fundraising expected

From the Fort Wayne Journal Gazette**

A formal campaign should be announced soon for a $14.7 million early learning center benefiting teen parents in Fort Wayne Community Schools, the district’s philanthropy director said.

About $4 million in contracts and soft commitments has been raised so far, Mitch Sheppard told the school board Monday while presenting a $500,000 Early Learning Indiana grant for approval.

“We’re bringing this one forward because the donor has asked us to get the grant on the books,” she said. “You’ll be hearing a lot more about (the project) soon as we’ll have some donations of land and significant additional fundraising to back it up.”

Southwest Allen County Schools receives Juul settlement payments

From the Fort Wayne Journal Gazette**

Southwest Allen County Schools’ participation in a nationwide lawsuit against electronic cigarette giant Juul Labs Inc. has started paying off.

The district’s nine traditional schools received a collective $43,193 boost from the settlement’s first installment. The school board approved the distributions Tuesday as part of its consent agenda.

SACS, Fort Wayne Community Schools, East Allen County Schools and Northwest Allen County Schools were among entities nationwide that accused Juul of designing and marketing its products to appeal to youth.

Fort Wayne Community Schools to limit students' access to cellphones

From the Fort Wayne Journal Gazette**

Fort Wayne Community Schools leaders agreed Monday to spend $120,864 on equipment limiting students’ access to their cellphones during the school day.

The district will pilot the use of magnetic lock-and-release student phone pouches at four middle and high schools beginning this academic year, although the exact timing is unknown, said Jack Byrd, chief systems officer.

The sealed magnetic devices will allow students to keep their phones in their possession throughout the school day, but the phones will be inaccessible until they can be unlocked by specialized magnets.

**Note: The Fort Wayne Journal Gazette is behind a paywall. Digital access, home delivery, or both are available with a subscription. Staying informed is essential; one way to do that is to support your local newspaper. For subscription information, go to fortwayne.com/subscriptions/ [NOTE: NEIFPE has no financial ties to the Fort Wayne Journal Gazette]

^†Note: NEIFPE's In Case You Missed It is posted by the end of the day every Monday except after holiday weekends or as otherwise noted.

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In Case You Missed It – May 22, 2023

Here are links to last week's^† articles receiving the most attention on NEIFPE's social media accounts. Keep up with what's going on, what's being discussed, and what's happening with public education.

Be sure to enter your email address in the Follow Us By Email box in the right-hand column of our blog page to be informed when our blog posts are published.

QUOTE OF THE WEEK

"Believing with you that religion is a matter which lies solely between man and his God, that he owes account to none other for his faith or his worship, that the legislative powers of government reach actions only, and not opinions, I contemplate with sovereign reverence that act of the whole American people which declared that their legislature should 'make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof,' thus building a wall of separation between church and State." -- Thomas Jefferson

THE WAR AGAINST ACADEMIC FREEDOM

Florida: DeSantis Continues His War Against Academic Freedom

Formerly "small government" Republicans are now using the government to prohibit certain "academic speech."

From Diane Ravitch

Ron DeSantis signed three bills into law today that tighten his control over higher education and restrict the curriculum to conform to his ideology. If a professor does not agree with DeSantis’ views on race, gender, culture, and history, he or she must change what they teach or find a job in another state.

There are two major contradictions in DeSantis’ approach:

1. He claims that state control over acceptable and intolerable views equates to “freedom.” If you share his views, you are free to teach them. If you don’t, your freedom is extinguished. Freedom for some is not freedom.

2. He claims that Florida intends to focus on “the classical mission of what a university is supposed to be.” But at the same time, he wants the state’s colleges and universities to become “number one for workforce education.” Is that the “classical mission” of universities? Those who know more about higher education than DeSantis would say that “the classical mission” of the university is to teach and deepen students’ knowledge of great literature, history, science, foreign languages, mathematics, philosophy, and the arts. These are not workforce studies; they do not provide “employable” skills. They are probably what DeSantis sneers at as “zombie studies.”

The Miami Herald reports...

VOUCHER HISTORY

Resistance to The Brown Decision Launched the Voucher Movement

The history of vouchers is part of the history of segregation and discrimination.

From Diane Ravitch

...The present movement for vouchers, which is strongest in Republican-dominated states, will not move us closer to the egalitarian goals of the Brown Decision. Vouchers are inherently a divisive concept. They encourage people to congregate with people just like themselves. Heightened segregation along lines of race, religion, social class, and ethnicity are a predictable result of vouchers.

The voucher movement began as a hostile response to the Brown decision, led by racist governors, members of Congress, legislatures, White Citizens Councils, parents who did not want their children to attend schools with Black children, and white supremacists who wanted to protect their “way of life.” They refused to comply with the Supreme Court decision. They called Earl Warren a Communist. They engaged in “massive resistance.” They quickly figured out that they could fund private academies for whites only, and some Southern states did. And they figured out that they could offer “vouchers” or “scholarships” to white students to attend white private and religious schools.

FIGHT TO SAVE PUBLIC EDUCATION

The Fight to Save Public Education: Lessons from the Field

Join the Alliance to Reclaim our Schools for a discussion on June 1, 2023.

From the Alliance to Reclaim Our Schools (AROS)

Join us for an exciting discussion on the fight to save public education, and the importance of vibrant public schools for a multiracial democracy. We'll hear from the educators and community organizers in Chicago who won big in the recent elections, as well as Tennessee organizers on the front lines of the fight against both privatization and censorship. This event is co-hosted by the NEA Strategic Campaign Institute for Community Schools, the AFT Powerful Partnerships Institute, HEAL Together, Race Forward, and the Alliance to Reclaim Our Schools (AROS).

When - June 1st, 4:00-5:30 PM PST, 7:00-8:30 PM EST

Where - Zoom - register to receieve the link!

LESSONS IN FREE SPEECH

After School Satan Clubs Are Teaching Public School Districts an Important Lesson in Free Speech

When you tear down the wall separating church and state you get threats of violence. The Founders understood the importance of keeping the government out of religion, which is why the First Amendment states that "Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof..."

From Gadfly on the Wall Blog

Be careful what you wish for – you just might get it.

That seems to be the lesson public school districts across the country are being forced to learn from an unlikely source – Satan.

Thousands of districts in the US allow religious organizations and clubs to operate on public school property, especially after classes are over.

So The Satanic Temple (TST) – an organization that’s not really Satanic or a temple – goes around proposing After-School Satan Clubs at the same districts – and all Hell breaks loose.

Keep in mind none of these districts need open their grounds to religious organizations. They could simply cite the Separation of Church and State and be done with it.

The first clause in the Bill of Rights states, “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion.” This has been interpreted to mean that the government shall neither support nor prohibit religious expression.

Our right-leaning Supreme Court has chipped away at this notion allowing all kinds of government support – however logic and consistency still mean something.

Districts apparently CAN ignore the Church/State conundrum – BUT – if a district is going to violate this tenant for one organization, it has to be willing to do so for all.

And that is why TST is making this point.

Unlike the Church of Satan, a religious institution founded in the 1960s that literally worships the Biblical devil, TST is a non-theistic organization which uses hyperbole and humor to protest the Religious Right and authoritarianism. The organization says it strives to “provide a safe and inclusive alternative” to Christian-based groups that may seek to “convert school children to their belief system.”

SACS SEEKS COACH

Southwest Allen County Schools seeks coach as it builds 'a better community'

From the Fort Wayne Journal Gazette**

The Southwest Allen County Schools board should decide next month whether the district will work with a national nonprofit to address diversity and inclusion efforts, an issue students pushed to prominence with demonstrations in February.

If approved June 6, the district’s work with Rise would begin next academic year, Superintendent Park Ginder said after Tuesday’s board meeting, during which the potential partnership was discussed.

“In our case, they’re going to come in and walk alongside us and coach us as we build a better community,” Ginder said.

The 7,800-student district is seeking outside guidance as it navigates diversity, equity and inclusion concerns that escalated Feb. 9 in demonstrations and discussions that disrupted classes at Homestead High School.

**Note: The Fort Wayne Journal Gazette is behind a paywall. Digital access, home delivery, or both are available with a subscription. Staying informed is important, and one way to do that is to support your local newspaper. For subscription information, go to fortwayne.com/subscriptions/ [NOTE: NEIFPE has no financial ties to the Fort Wayne Journal Gazette]

^†Note: NEIFPE's In Case You Missed It is posted by the end of the day every Monday except after holiday weekends or as otherwise noted.

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