In Case You Missed It – Jan 13, 2020

Here are links to last week's articles receiving the most attention in NEIFPE's social media. 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 to be informed when our blog posts are published.

TEACHER PAY IN THE NEWS

Teacher pay touted, testing derided at education forum

At a local education forum last week, some local legislators encouraged the state to increase teacher pay. Let's see how they vote when the time comes.

From the Fort Wayne Journal Gazette

“Teacher salaries are set at the local level. ... It is a local decision on how many of those dollars actually go into the classroom,” Brown said.

Abbott said legislators should consider reducing or removing “unnecessary burdensome regulations” imposed by the state that add to school expenses.

GiaQuinta said, “We need to keep putting more money into the system, in my mind, for traditional public schools.”

The General Assembly has increased public education spending by $1 billion in the last three years, Kruse said, “and I think we need to keep doing that. I think it's not good that our teachers are not getting a starting salary of at least $40,000. I think there's still some schools where you're making $32,000 or $33,000 ... (for) a beginning teacher, which I think is too low.”

Panel chooses $291 million for university projects, not teacher pay hike

From the Fort Wayne Journal Gazette

Legislators gave initial approval Tuesday to spending $291 million in cash on six university projects despite Democratic attempts to push the money to teacher pay.

The House Ways and Means Committee passed House Bill 1007 by a party-line vote of 13-7 with Republicans supporting the measure and Democrats against.

Indiana governor changes stance on teacher pay action

Indiana Governor Holcomb continues to postpone any decision on teacher pay. Meanwhile, Indiana schools are experiencing difficulty finding teachers, pay for Indiana teachers is lower than surrounding states and lower than the national average, and schools are working with funding which still hasn't caught up to pre-2008 funding (when adjusted for inflation).

From Indiana Business Journal

Republican Eric Holcomb has said he would wait for recommendations later this year from a teacher pay commission he appointed in February, but he told reporters Monday—on the first day of the legislative session—that might change with state tax revenues growing faster than expected.

SANDERS - JUST SAY "NO" TO ANNUAL STANDARDIZED TESTS

Bernie Sanders Calls for an End to Annual Standardized Testing

From Diane Ravitch

Presidential candidate Bernie Sanders was one of the few members of the U.S. Senate to vote against No Child Left Behind when it was approved by Congress in 2001.

Today is the anniversary of the signing of that law.

Sanders writes that the federal mandate for annual testing in grades 3-8 has been an expensive failure.

In this article in USA Today, Sanders calls for an end to the NCLB mandate...

BLOOMBERG CONTINUES HIS PRO-CHARTER WAYS

Mike Bloomberg Announces Centerpiece of His Education Agenda: Charter Schools Galore!

Is there something about being uber-rich that leads one to support public school privatization? Why do folks like Bill Gates, Eli Broad, and now Mike Bloomberg, consistently support the defunding of public education?

From Diane Ravitch

So pleased was Bloomberg with his charter policy [as mayor of New York City] that it is now the centerpiece of his national education agenda.

He doesn’t care about the nearly 90% of kids who are enrolled in public schools.

He believes in privatization.

MELTON DROPS OUT OF RACE FOR IN GOV

Melton cancels run for governor

From WPTA21.com

A Gary Democrat who had launched a campaign to challenge incumbent Indiana Gov. Eric Holcomb in 2020 has withdrawn from the race.

In a statement released Monday, State Sen. Eddie Melton said he will instead file for re-election in his current office.

"Over the past six months, I have had the privilege of traveling our state and engaging with thousands of Hoosiers, hearing their concerns about educational funding, economic mobility, draconian laws oppressing women’s ability to make their own health care decisions, and failure to honor our Veterans' sacrifices," he said. "The ability to engage my fellow citizens in frank conversations has been a true privilege and honor.

"But, unfortunately politics today require way too much of a candidate’s time being spent on the phone chasing dollars."

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In Case You Missed It – Jan 21, 2019

Here are links to last week's articles receiving the most attention in NEIFPE's social media. 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 to be informed when our blog posts are published.

LEO HIGH SCHOOL LAWSUIT SETTLED

EACS reaches settlement in Gay Straight Alliance lawsuit

From WANE.com

According to the ACLU, under the terms of the settlement, EACS has agreed to allow Leo Pride Alliance to change its name to Leo GSA (Gay Straight Alliance), and to provide the organization with all meeting, communication and fundraising opportunities provided to other groups.

ACLU suit alleging EACS bias is settled

From the Fort Wayne Journal Gazette

EACS denied the allegations but agreed to allow the group to change its name to Leo GSA, according to a statement from the ACLU. A judge on Friday dismissed the case with prejudice, meaning it can't be filed again.

“The student led Gay Straight Alliance group at Leo High School must be treated in the same manner that all other student groups are treated,” the ACLU said in a news release announcing the settlement. “We are pleased that East Allen County Schools agreed to the equal treatment of the group, relieving these students of any unwarranted burdens.”

DRUG TESTING STUDENT ATHLETES CALLED FOR

Indiana lawmaker calls for random drug tests for high school athletes

From WANE.com

A state lawmaker has introduced a measure calling on random drug tests for high school athletes.

Republican state Sen. Jean Leising wants to send a strong message to students across the state: "If you want to play on your school's athletic team, you have to be willing to take a drug test."

The Republican from Oldenburg said she has heard parents share instances of student-athletes doing drugs.

KRUSE PUSHES GOD, CREATIONISM

Indiana State Senator Wants To Require ‘In God We Trust’ Posters In Classrooms

From Huffington Post

...Republican state Sen. Dennis Kruse’s bill, introduced last Thursday, seeks to place a poster reading “In God We Trust” in every public and charter school classroom in Indiana...

...The bill would also allow public schools to teach creationism and offer a survey course on world religions. Curriculum for the survey course must be “neutral, objective and balanced” and not “promote acceptance of any particular religion,” according to the legislation, but it only lists the Bible as a specific text to be studied.

BANNING LGBTQ SCHOOL HIRES K. PENCE

Karen Pence, America’s second lady, is teaching at Virginia religious school that bars LGBTQ students and employees

A surprise to no one.

From The Answer Sheet

Karen Pence, the wife of Vice President Pence and the nation’s second lady, is now teaching art at a local Christian elementary school that reserves the right to reject LGBTQ students and employees, according to documents on its website.

TEACHER PAY

The big talk in the legislature and from the governor this past week was over teacher pay. Four articles had a high rate of engagement.

Teacher pay proposal a surprise

From School Matters

Gov. Eric Holcomb dropped a surprise Tuesday in his State of the State address, and it was a good one. He called for tapping Indiana’s budget surplus to add $70 million to funding for K-12 schools each of the next two years.

That’s a little less than a 1 percent increase, but it’s something. And it’s on top of a 2-percent-per-year school funding hike in Holcomb’s budget proposal.

It was a surprise because the Republicans who control both the House and Senate had signaled that Indiana’s $1.8 billion surplus was off the table in this budget-writing session. If the GOP governor says it’s not off the table, then it’s not.

Holcomb talks teacher pay

From the Fort Wayne Journal Gazette

Gov. Eric Holcomb proposed freeing up $140 million in funding for teacher pay during his third State of the State Address on Tuesday.

It was the lone surprise in a speech to Indiana lawmakers that delivered a strong statement on hate crimes and focused on a strong economy.

“We simply cannot just maintain our course. Instead we must throttle up,” he said.

Indiana to tap reserves to free up $140M for teacher pay, Holcomb promises

From Chalkbeat

Indiana plans to free up $140 million over two years for schools with the goal of increasing teacher pay, Republican Gov. Eric Holcomb pledged Tuesday night in his State of the State address.

The state will tap into its $2 billion in reserves to pay down a pension liability for schools, Holcomb said, reducing schools’ expenses so more money could go to educators.

“Just like paying off your mortgage frees up money in your personal budget, this state investment will save all local schools $140 million over the biennium with continued savings thereafter,” Holcomb said.

FWCS upset by funding proposal: Shaming schools 'ridiculous' idea

From the Fort Wayne Journal Gazette

Fort Wayne Community Schools leaders had a few choice words Monday – “ridiculous,” “asinine,” “cruel” – about proposed legislation that would publicly shame districts transferring more than 15 percent of state funding to operations rather than classroom expenditures.

“It's cruel, almost, because you're painting the picture that all of us have been irresponsible,” FWCS Superintendent Wendy Robinson said at Monday's board meeting. “... With what we have, we are constantly trying to find other resources.”

House Bill 1003 is an attempt by state Republicans to increase teacher pay without adding new state dollars. Instead, legislators want schools to use more existing dollars on salaries.

“We do need to pay teachers more,” board President Julie Hollingsworth said. “It's obvious in Indiana that teacher pay is falling behind, so the question is how to do it. We have other academic staff in our buildings that serve students. They deserve a raise, too.”

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In Case You Missed It – Jan 14, 2019

Here are links to the articles receiving the most attention in NEIFPE's social media. 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 to be informed when our blog posts are published.

THE GOVERNOR LEFT OUT TEACHER PAY

Melton responds to governor’s budget, omission of teacher pay

From Indiana Senate Democrats

On Thursday, the governor presented his budget requests to the State Budget Committee. State Senator Eddie Melton (D-Gary) noticed the governor’s omission in asking for additional money to fund teacher salary increases.

“Governor Holcomb neglected to request necessary funding to provide teachers across Indiana with a pay raise. The entire Republican supermajority is boasting they support teacher pay, but the proof is in the pudding -- why aren’t they proving their support by adequately funding education to make teacher salary increases a reality? Without new money, there is no way to ensure that teachers will actually receive a raise.

CHALKBEAT HIGHLIGHTS PRIVATIZERS

Mind Trust gets $24 million to fund innovation and charter school expansion, new teacher recruitment

The Mind Trust has been influential in charterizing Indianapolis Public Schools. It's not surprising that Chalkbeat would highlight them given that many of Chalkbeat's financial supporters are part of the economic backbone of the privatization movement. The entire list of supporters can be found here. Some of the more obvious school privatizers among Chalkbeat's supporters are...

• Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation
• Chan Zuckerberg Initiative
• EdChoice
• Gates Family Foundation
• The Anschutz Foundation
• The Joyce Foundation
• The Walton Family Foundation

From Chalkbeat

A nonprofit that is one of the chief backers of Indianapolis Public Schools’ partnerships with charter managers announced Friday it received $24 million in new grants.

The largest grant given to The Mind Trust, $18 million from The City Fund, will help fund startup grants and training for charter and innovation school leaders. The money will also help pay for ongoing training of school staff and community engagement.

CHARTER INSTABILITY

Arizona: 100 Charter Schools in Financial Trouble, at Risk of Closing, Says Report from Watchdog Group

For school stability, choose public education.

From Diane Ravitch

Arizona has celebrated its role in the charter gold rush and is often considered “the wild west” of chartering. The laws are lax, the schools are deregulated, and there is little or no oversight.

A new report by the Grand Canyon Institute says that as many as 100 charter schools in the state are at risk of closing.

POST ELECTION BULLYING

New research finds link between districts that voted Trump and racist bullying post-election

From Chalkbeat

The study offers some hard evidence that the post-election months were a more fraught time in many schools — backing up the stories of individual teachers and students. But the effects were not spread evenly: In communities favoring Trump, reports of bullying were 18 percent higher than in communities that voted for Hillary Clinton, the study found. Reports of peers being teased or put down because of their race or ethnicity were 9 percent higher in those places.

SUPERINTENDENT KILLION: PAY TEACHERS MORE. CUT TESTING AND VOUCHERS

Op-ed: Increase teacher salaries without increasing school funding in Indiana?

From West Lafayette Community Schools Superintendent Rocky Killion, in the Fort Wayne Journal Gazette

1. Quit spending over $100 million on standardized testing...
2. Quit spending over $10 million on IREAD-3 testing...
3. Quit spending over $70 million on student vouchers for students who have never attended a public school...

Spending goes both ways. If legislators want school districts to spend differently, then they too should be willing to spend differently. The aforementioned ideas are only three ideas in which they can do so. I am hopeful they will listen to their own advice.

KRUSE: FLAGS, GOD, AND CREATIONISM

SB 373 – Flags & God in Public Schools

From Masson's Blog

Sen. Kruse has introduced SB 373 concerning flags and god in public schools. He wants to mandate that a framed picture of a U.S. flag, a state flag, and the words “in God we Trust” be placed in every public school library and classroom. The entire display must be at least 14 x 17 inches with the motto being at least 4×15 and each flag being 5×5.

The bill also amends the current legislation permitting schools to offer a survey of religion class by specifying that the survey may include the study of the Bible as one of the permissible documents that may be studied in the survey. It does not specify any of the holy texts of other religions as eligible for study (although, under current law, the Bible and all of those other documents are already eligible for study.) The bill also states that a school corporation may mandate the teaching of creation science as one of the “various theories concerning the origin of life.”

TEACHER SALARY INCREASES WITHOUT ANY FUNDING INCREASE?

Lawmakers: Raise teacher pay by cutting elsewhere

From School Matters

Indiana legislators want to give educators a raise, but they don’t want to pay for it. Their plan: Shame school districts into cutting spending elsewhere so they can target dollars to teachers.

Their tool for doing this is House Bill 1003, unveiled this week by House Republicans and presented Wednesday to the House Education Committee. It would “strongly encourage” districts to spend at least 85 percent of their state funds on instruction; it would subject them to public scrutiny if they don’t.

Indiana StatehouseThe assumption behind the bill is that schools have plenty of money, but they waste it on bloated administrative expenses and frills. But the data don’t support that claim.

KRUSE: CITIZENSHIP TEST FOR STUDENTS?

Kruse proposes citizenship test for Indiana students

From the Fort Wayne Journal Gazette

Indiana students would have to pass a 100-question citizenship test to graduate under a bill heard by a Senate panel Wednesday.

"There is a deficiency in government and civics knowledge and it's getting worse," Sen. Dennis Kruse, R-Auburn, said.

That's why he brought Senate Bill 132 to require students pass the same test that those becoming new citizens have to, starting in the 2020-2021 school year.

FWCS HELPS STUDENTS EARN AUTOMOTIVE TRADE SKILLS

Students sign on to learn trade at Kelley

From the Fort Wayne Journal Gazette

Paperwork, pens and Kelley Automotive Group hats awaited five high school students Tuesday at Tom Kelley Buick GMC, one of two dealerships where they will soon regularly work.

The Fort Wayne Community Schools Career Academy students – Nolan McKuras, Enrique Trujillo, Jacob Maggart, Keagan Snaufer and Jose Cortez – successfully completed an extensive vetting process for a paid service technician internship. They will be paired with an experienced automotive service technician.

INDIANA'S SUPERINTENDENT OF PUBLIC INSTRUCTION

Vic’s Statehouse Notes #329 – January 7, 2019

From ICPE and Vic Smith

Quick Notes from Vic Smith...

The Governor wants to speed up a law that would allow him to replace the State Superintendent of Public Instruction with an appointee who is not required to have experience as a K-12 teacher or a K-12 administrator.

Democracy took a hit in the 2017 session. The Indiana General Assembly passed a flawed law taking away the power of voters to choose the K-12 leader and leaving a loophole to allow appointment of someone without K-12 experience.

In the historic final vote on April 18, 2017, the power of voters to elect the State Superintendent of Public Instruction was ended after 166 years. The power taken away from voters was given to the Governor starting in 2025.

Now the Governor and legislative leaders want to take power away from voters sooner, starting in 2021. Identical bills to do this have been filed in the House (HB 1005) and the Senate (SB 275).

This is a bad idea...

If you are concerned about who leads our K-12 school system in this unprecedented makeover of K-12 school leadership in Indiana, contact your legislators to say you oppose HB 1005 and SB 275. Tell them two things...

For all the details, read more from Vic Smith of ICPE.

NO MORE MONEY FOR SCHOOLS

Indiana Republicans suggest schools cut costs to raise teacher pay

It's too bad the voting public doesn't understand that the legislators could easily increase funding to the public schools if they would quit throwing money away on charters and vouchers.

From Chalkbeat

Indiana’s Republican leaders want to give state teachers a raise — but they don’t necessarily want to give schools and districts more money to do it.

Schools would have to cut costs in other areas to push more dollars into teacher salaries, under part of House Republicans’ education plan for 2019. The goal for school districts would be to use 85 percent or more of their state funding for instruction-related costs, such as teacher salaries.

The proposal, which comes amid a groundswell of support for teacher pay bumps, shifts the responsibility to schools to trim budgets from areas that lawmakers say aren’t as influential on student learning, such as administrative costs, transportation, or food service.

INDIANA GENERAL ASSEMBLY SESSION

Short list for a long session

From the Fort Wayne Journal Gazette

House Speaker Brian Bosma set low expectations for the Indiana General Assembly when he suggested the state's financial needs already exceed its available revenue.

“It's going to be an extraordinarily difficult budget year,” Bosma said last month. “I told my team that everyone will try to sell whatever it is they want as the budget solution. ... People want to do this, they want to do that – it's the worst way to make policy.”

Granted, there's no silver budget bullet to be found in a tax increase, legalized sports gambling or any other legislation sold as remedy for the revenue shortfall. But there's much lawmakers can do to improve Hoosiers' economic prospects and well-being. Some involve investments in areas too long neglected or shortchanged; some require no money at all.

THE JOY OF READING

How School Reform, Including Common Core, Has Devastated Children and Their Joy of Learning to Read

From Nancy Bailey

School reform has taken a toll on children starting in kindergarten (even preschool). There’s little doubt that children are being forced to learn to read earlier than ever before. The reading gap likely reflects the developmental differences found in children when they are forced to read too soon.

Why are schools doing this? Forcing kindergarteners to read before they’re ready means that many will fail.

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In Case You Missed It – Nov 12, 2018

Here are links to the articles receiving the most attention in NEIFPE's social media. 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 to be informed when our blog posts are published.

KRUSE RESIGNS AS CHAIR OF ED COMMITTEE

Kruse Resigns As Education Committee Chair, Raatz Takes Over

From Indiana Public Media

Dennis Kruse (R-Auburn) resigned Friday as the chairman of the powerful Education & Career Development Committee. He said in a statement the position is rewarding, but it has also been demanding for him and his family.

He led the committee for 10 years, during which he oversaw huge changes in the state’s education policy, including the teacher evaluation system and private school vouchers.

Controversy surrounded Kruse in 2013 when he introduced a bill that would allow reciting the Lord's Prayer at public schools each day.

Sen. Jeff Raatz (R-Centerville) will become the new committee chairman in the 2019 General Assembly.

IPS SCHOOL BOARD UPSETS

How backlash to big changes in Indianapolis Public Schools fueled board upsets

A community “votes back” against reform that has wasted tax dollars and diverted resources from students.

From Chalkbeat

Two outsiders who have been critical of the Indianapolis Public Schools board defeated incumbents Tuesday, a change that could prove pivotal for a district that has garnered a national reputation for its partnerships with charter schools.

For over three years, Indianapolis Public Schools has offered a blueprint for an approach to education that blurs the line between charter schools and traditional public districts by launching and rapidly expanding schools run by charter or nonprofit operators but that remain under the district’s umbrella. This year, more than one in four district students attends one of those 20 innovation schools, as the district calls its hybrid model.

But those policies face mounting resistance. Two newly elected school board members could, for the first time, pump the brakes on the dramatic changes the current board has supported.

The results show that “the community is not happy with where IPS is going,” said Dountonia Batts, executive director of the IPS Community Coalition, a grassroots group that got funding from a national teachers union. People, she said, “believe that the community does have power at our public schools, and they don’t want to see that power slip away.”

SCHOOL LETTER GRADES

How many Indiana schools got As in 2018? Depends if state or feds are doing the grading.

Chalkbeat says, "The two grades illustrate differences in priorities..."

The two grades also illustrate the futility of trying to "grade" schools using a single letter grade. In the end the grades are determined by parental income levels. Where are the grades for the legislators from whose failed policies "F" schools originate?

From Chalkbeat

In the upcoming annual release of A-F grades, Indiana schools are receiving not one, but two ratings — and for many of those schools, the two grades are not the same, a sharp contrast that could cause confusion over how well schools are serving students.

One set of grades from the state’s rating system gave higher marks to about one-third of schools, a state presentation shows. The other set, based on new federal standards of the Every Student Succeeds Act, gave far fewer top ratings to schools.

The two grades illustrate differences in priorities — and in politics. Some national experts say the federal standards are tougher on schools than Indiana’s model because they require schools to count more students, such as those in remedial programs, and include other data not pulled from state tests, such as students who are chronically absent or the fluency of those learning English as a new language.

GARY SCHOOLS EMERGENCY MANAGER

New emergency manager for Gary schools is former Griffith superintendent

From The Chicago Tribune

Former Griffith Public Schools school chief Peter Morikis is the new emergency manager for Gary Community School Corp., replacing Peggy Hinckley who announced her retirement Thursday.

EARLY SCHOOL YEAR START

SACS approves earlier school year start

From The Fort Wayne Journal Gazette

The first day of school will come earlier for Southwest Allen County Schools students beginning in 2020.

In a narrow vote – and against input from nearly 2,500 staff, students, parents and community members – school board members on Tuesday approved a 2020-21 district calendar that begins Aug. 5 in exchange for a weeklong fall break in October.

ARIZONA VOUCHERS

Arizona: Ducey, Koch Brothers, and DeVos Are Already Scheming to Bring Vouchers Back from the Dead

From Diane Ravitch

“Gov. Doug Ducey may have gotten a second term but he also took a powerful punch to the gut as his plan for a massive expansion of school vouchers was killed.

“Arizona voters didn’t just defeat Proposition 305. They stoned the thing, then they tossed it into the street and ran over it.

“Then they backed up and ran over it again.

“Voters defeated Ducey’s voucher plan by more than 2-1."

Carl Sagan: November 9, 1934 - December 20, 1996. Still Teaching from the Grave. 

DEVOS REJECTED

Good News in Michigan: Voters Reject DeVos Agenda!

From Diane Ravitch

"...By electing Whitmer, voters repudiated the DeVos agenda of defunding and decimating public schools in favor of the for-profit schools that took root in Michigan and failed to help kids. Whitmer will champion expanded healthcare and safe drinking water, and will fight for decency and fairness to put a check on President Trump’s cruel and inhumane agenda. I was proud to spend Election Day campaigning for Whitmer, and AFT members look forward to a governor who will work with us to make life better for Michiganders.”

ED-"REFORM" DAMAGES PUBLIC SCHOOLS

Public schools' struggle correlates directly to state voucher support

From The Fort Wayne Journal Gazette

• Since 2010, the total state budget has risen 17 percent.

• Since 2010, the consumer price index (cost of living) has risen 17 percent.

• Since 2010, the education budget has only risen 10 percent.

• Vouchers cost $150 million a year, and the cost is diverted from public school funding, resulting in an actual 7 percent increase in public school funding. (More than half the Indiana voucher recipients never attended public schools.)

• Without vouchers, every public school would get an additional $150 per student.

• Property tax caps have resulted in millions of dollars lost for many school districts.

• Public schools in poor communities annually experience a 10 percent to 60 percent property tax shortfall, equaling tens of millions of lost dollars for some.

• Remedies for lost revenue are no longer provided by the state. Districts now depend on local referendums.

• Lost property taxes that pay for school debt, construction and transportation must be replaced from state dollars intended for student instruction.

• A portion of state tuition support called the “complexity index” provides special funding to meet the needs of the poorest students. Not only has the complexity index dollar amount been decreased to “equalize” the dollars per student among all schools, but the state has decreased the number of students qualifying – for some schools – by half.

• Forbes magazine points out that Indiana is ill advisedly attempting to fund three systems of schools – traditional public, charters and vouchers – with the same budget it once used for only traditional public schools.

• The “money follows the student” mantra for charter school students creates a loss of school funding that is significantly and disproportionately more damaging than the simple sum of the dollars. If a district loses 100 students, the loss can be spread over 12 grades. A classroom still needs a teacher if it has 25 students instead of 30, but the district has lost $600,000 in funding.

• Of the 20 schools or districts receiving the highest per-pupil funding, 18 are charter schools, none of which are required to report profit taking.

• Since 2010, teacher salaries have dropped 16 percent.

CHARTER-LOVING BILLIONAIRES DUMP MONEY INTO ELECTIONS

From South Carolina to California, charter school-loving billionaires are plowing money into midterm local and education races

From The Answer Sheet
Written by Carol Burris and Diane Ravitch

The objective could not be clearer — influence districts to expand their charter sector until eventually all, or nearly all, schools are privately operated and managed. Those district offices that remain could be filled not by educational leaders but by managers and technicians hired to ensure that buses run on time, schools are opened, closed or transferred to other operators, enrollment is managed, and funding is distributed. Public voice is stifled. Schools become publicly funded businesses.

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Vic’s Statehouse Notes #277 – February 17, 2017

Dear Friends,

Five updates on public education in the Statehouse:

UPDATE #1: Join us in the Statehouse this Monday on Presidents’ Day (Feb. 20th) for “A Celebration of Public Education”! We need your voice and the voices of your family and friends on issues updated below!

Lunch (if pre-registered) at 12:30. Choirs at 1:30. Speakers at 2:00 in the North Atrium.

The League of Women Voters has joined the list of sponsoring organizations:

AFT Indiana

American Association of University Women

Concerned Clergy

Indiana Coalition for Public Education

Indiana Parent Teacher Association

Indiana Small & Rural Schools Association

Indiana State Teachers Association (lunch & display sponsor)

Indiana Urban Schools Association

League of Women Voters

Northeast Indiana Friends of Public Education

Speakers at 2:00 pm in the North Atrium are being coordinated by the Indiana Coalition for Public Education, and Joel Hand will serve as MC.

Displays on the 3rd and 4th floor will highlight a sampling of great things happening in public schools.

Bring new and gently used classroom supplies for ISTA ReSupply and book donations to celebrate Read Across America.

I hope to see you as we celebrate public education!

UPDATE #2: Senator Kruse announced Wednesday before the hearing that SB 534 (Education Savings Accounts for Special Education) would not advance. It is dead for this session. Senator Kruse deserves your thanks for stopping this bill!

He went ahead with the hearing on the bill after announcing its fate. An expert from the Foundation for Excellence in Education in Florida, funded by Jeb Bush and the Gates Foundation, extolled the virtues of Education Savings Accounts, which as I have written would undermine the entire concept of public education. No doubt we will fight this fight again in the future.

UPDATE #3: The Senate bill to expand pre-kindergarten programs (SB 276) passed the Senate Education Committee on Wednesday with no link to a lifetime K-12 voucher such as that passed in House Bill 1004. SB 276 now goes to the Appropriations Committee. In its present form, it deserves the full support of public school advocates!

UPDATE #4: Both bills to make the State Superintendent of Public Instruction into a secretary of education appointed by the Governor are ready for a final vote on as early as Monday. If you oppose taking power from the voters to select our State Superintendent, this is your last weekend to appeal to your Senator or House member to oppose Senate Bill 179 and House Bill 1005. Both bills require no experience in Indiana and, unbelievably, no experience in education! Since they are identical, they could be signed into law very soon.

UPDATE #5: It appears that the Indiana House is sending a message to our K-12 students that they can’t give them adequate support this year because our roads are bad!

The House budget released Wednesday gives even less for tuition support than did the Governor’s meager budget released in January.

• The Governor asked for $70 million the first year (1.0% increase) and $210 in the second year (2.0% increase above the first year) or a total of $280 million new dollars.

• The new House budget invests $77 million in the first year (1.1% increase) and $196 million in the second year (1.7% increase above the first year) or a total of $273 million new dollars.

• In 2015, the final budget invested $157 million in the first year (2.3% increase) and $317 million in the second year (2.3% increase above the first year) or a total of $474 million new dollars. 

Is Indiana so poor this year that the support for public education must slip this much compared to 2015? The latest Consumer Price Index from the federal government showed the annual inflation rate in January 2017 to be 2.5%. Our school programs can’t even keep up with inflation next year when the increase is only 1.1%.

Legislators have not made increased funding for public schools a priority this year. The supermajority is trying to set an expectation that this is all that schools will get, but this is totally inadequate. They need to hear more from public school advocates!

In addition, the House budget would raise the amount for tax credits for private school scholarships from $9.5 million to $12.5 million each year. For the two-year budget, that means an increase of $6 million for private school tuition scholarships. This is the first point that public school advocates should press legislators on, so that at least $6 million could be shifted to shore up the clearly inadequate K-12 funding. If you talk with your legislator in the Statehouse when you come on Monday, this is an important point to make to stop the expansion of taxpayer money going to private schools!


Thanks for your advocacy for public education! I hope you can get to the “Celebration of Public Education” in the Statehouse on Monday!

Best wishes,

Vic Smith

“Vic’s Statehouse Notes” and ICPE received one of three Excellence in Media Awards presented by Delta Kappa Gamma Society International, an organization of over 85,000 women educators in seventeen countries. The award was presented on July 30, 2014 during the Delta Kappa Gamma International Convention held in Indianapolis. Thank you Delta Kappa Gamma!


ICPE has worked since 2011 to promote public education in the Statehouse and oppose the privatization of schools. We need your membership to help support ICPE lobbying efforts. As of July 1st, the start of our new membership year, it is time for all ICPE members to renew their membership.

Our lobbyist Joel Hand is again representing ICPE in the new budget session which began on January 3, 2017. We need your memberships and your support to continue his work. We welcome 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. In 2013 I was honored to receive a Distinguished Alumni Award from the IU School of Education, and in 2014 I was honored to be named to the Teacher Education Hall of Fame by the Association for Teacher Education – Indiana.

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Vic’s Statehouse Notes #276 – February 13, 2017

Dear Friends,

Yet another attack on public education is coming at you.

This is in addition to (1) ending the power of voters to select the State Superintendent of Public Instruction and (2) using the pre-K program as a cover to vastly expand K-12 vouchers.

This new bill would start the process to end public education itself.

The Senate Education Committee will hold a hearing Wednesday afternoon (Feb. 15th) on SB 534 which puts in place Milton Friedman’s blueprint to end public education by giving public money directly to parents on a debit card.

This bill was first filed last year using the deceiving name “Educational Savings Accounts.” This year SB 534 is using the name “Special Education Scholarship Accounts”. It would fund a huge expansion of private school vouchers Indiana for special education and Section 504 students. It would advance the privatization of our educational system in line with the plans of voucher-inventor Milton Friedman, who supported the abolishment of public education.

It is a direct attack on public education. It pushes forward a radical new private school voucher plan. It would be the biggest voucher expansion since Governor Pence’s voucher expansion was enacted in 2013. In the fiscal note on SB 534, the non-partisan Legislative Services Agency has concluded that “the estimated increase in expenditures based on the current formula will be between $144 million and $206 million annually.”

This bill and this concept should be denounced by all public school advocates to any and all legislators, most immediately to the members of the Senate Education Committee before their meeting on Wednesday at 1:30pm in the Senate Chamber.

If you are offended enough by this bill to come speak against the bill yourself, please do so!

The members of the Senate Education Committee to contact are:

Republican Senators Kruse, Raatz, Bassler, Crane, Freeman, Kenley, Leising and Zay

Democratic Senators Melton, Mrvan and Stoops

SB 534 is a Voucher Experiment for Special Education Students

SB 534 is a radical experiment to give public money directly to parents as Milton Friedman wanted.

Using the same concept, HB 1591 has been filed in the House as an experiment for all students and all parents, carrying a fiscal price tag of $344 million to $366 million according to LSA.

These new experiments with our school children would undermine funding and support for the public schools of Indiana, which after five years of school choice have still been chosen by 92.5% of all students and need the support of legislators, not another attack.

Similar damaging bills have been passed in some form in Arizona, Florida, Nevada, Mississippi and Tennessee, all states that perform below Indiana on the National Assessment of Educational Progress, the respected national measure known as “the nation’s report card.”

Senate Bill 534 and House Bill 1591 are right out of Milton Friedman’s plan to take public schools out of our society and leave education to a marketplace of private schools, all funded by the taxpayers but without government oversight.

Both bills give money directly to parents in the amount that the average child gets in their school district. Parents can then pay for private schools or “approved educational services providers” including tutors or other private vendors.

The program is to be run by the Indiana Treasurer, not the Indiana Department of Education. SB 534 even provides for the Treasurer to outsource the program to be run by a bank. Unbelievably, this means they want to privatize management of the privatized voucher program!

It’s simply unacceptable and demoralizing to our hard-working public school teachers and administrators.

Not all Republicans in Indiana agree with the Republican leaders bringing these radical bills forward to further privatize our schools. These bills should not advance. Only grassroots citizens talking to their legislators can stop these bills and the death spiral for public education. It is time to speak up! The loss of funding and instability this would bring to public schools would obviously disrupt their ability to provide long-term quality programs for over one million Hoosier students.

Senate Bill 534 – Special Education Scholarship Account Program

SB 534 is sponsored by Senator Raatz, a first term Senator who formerly served as the principal of a Christian school. Students can already get vouchers to go to Christian schools. This bill would hurt enrollment at public schools and voucher schools alike by allowing the entire amount of public money for a special education student or a Section 504 student to be spent for “an approved educational services provider” which includes “a nonpublic school and a private tutor” with no standards stated for receiving IDOE approval and weak standards for provider fraud.

The bill specifies that approved providers will not be regulated. Thus, the bill wants to give out government money to private providers with absolutely no government control.

The bill would also:

• reduce accountability. Approximately $6000 in public money will be given to parents of special education and Section 504 students with no requirement for annual testing or evaluation or accountability for student progress.

• expand taxpayer-funded vouchers to high income families. SB 534 removes all income limits. Remember how Indiana’s voucher law was pitched and passed in 2011 as a program to help low income families? That rationale has disappeared. Currently, families of disabled students with incomes up to $89,900 are eligible for vouchers. This expansion contributes to the projected fiscal cost of $144 million to $206 million.

• narrow and weaken the curriculum. Education is reduced to “reading, grammar, mathematics, social studies and science” for special education students. It is unacceptable to allow students to be educated under this program with no art, no music, no health, and no physical education. This reduction of the educational curriculum is hard to fathom.

• pay textbook and computer fees for private schools while public school parents get no help with textbooks. SB 534 makes textbooks for private schools or private programs a taxpayer expense.

• allow parents to divert money intended for K-12 education to their 529 college fund. This is an incentive for parents who can afford to pay for their current private school to enroll in the program, take the money intended for K-12 education and put it in a 529 college account instead.

• allow the money to go to parents without strong fraud protection. No penalties are listed when parents commit fraud with their child’s money. After audits of a random sample of accounts, authorities are only given power to suspend or close an account. The bill says nothing about repaying taxpayer money that has been misspent or about fraud. This bill is a recipe for fraud and would require an expensive Educational Bureau of Investigations to root out problems.

• allow parents to sign up for the money without criminal background checks. Teachers are under increased scrutiny for criminal background checks. If parents have a criminal record or a record of abuse or neglect, they should not be given $6000 on a debit card to educate their child. SB 534 does not address this crucial issue.

Troubling Questions

The fact that SB 534 is being given consideration by Republican leaders in the General Assembly raises troubling questions which you should ask your legislators:

1) Does this mean that those advancing SB 534 no longer support public education?

2) Does this new way of giving out vouchers mean they have given up on the current voucher program?

3) With Indiana schools in a crisis over ISTEP testing and assessment, do we really need to stop everything and take time for a battle over more vouchers with less accountability?

Let them know that plunging Indiana into another all-out battle over privatizing our public schools would be damaging to all schools, including the private voucher schools that could well lose students to “providers” in the radical remake of our system envisioned by SB 534 and HB 1591.

SB 534 and HB 1591 should disappear from consideration while all efforts are focused on solving the complexities of Indiana’s assessment problems and the teacher shortage.

Milton Friedman, the inventor of private school vouchers, in a speech to state lawmakers at the American Legislative Exchange Council in 2006 answered his own question of “How do we get from where we are to where we want to be?” by saying “the ideal way would be to abolish the public school system and eliminate all the taxes that pay for it.” SB 534 would help his plan to abolish public schools.

I urge you to contact Senators listed above on the Senate Education Committee by Wednesday afternoon (Feb. 15th) to tell them you strongly oppose Senate Bill 534.

Thanks for speaking up about this radical bill, and thanks for your advocacy for public education!


Best wishes,

Vic Smith

“Vic’s Statehouse Notes” and ICPE received one of three Excellence in Media Awards presented by Delta Kappa Gamma Society International, an organization of over 85,000 women educators in seventeen countries. The award was presented on July 30, 2014 during the Delta Kappa Gamma International Convention held in Indianapolis. Thank you Delta Kappa Gamma!


ICPE has worked since 2011 to promote public education in the Statehouse and oppose the privatization of schools. We need your membership to help support ICPE lobbying efforts. As of July 1st, the start of our new membership year, it is time for all ICPE members to renew their membership.

Our lobbyist Joel Hand is again representing ICPE in the new budget session which began on January 3, 2017. We need your memberships and your support to continue his work. We welcome 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. In 2013 I was honored to receive a Distinguished Alumni Award from the IU School of Education, and in 2014 I was honored to be named to the Teacher Education Hall of Fame by the Association for Teacher Education – Indiana.

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Vic’s Statehouse Notes #239 – January 12, 2016

Dear Friends,

On January 4th, Governor Pence and Republican leaders of both the House and the Senate announced their support for “hold harmless” bills to protect both teachers and schools from the negative effects of the transition to tougher ISTEP tests. Governor Pence, Speaker Bosma and Senate President Pro Tem Long had committed this fall to protecting teacher compensation but had not committed to protecting school letter grades until January 4th.

Thus, the Republican leaders finally agreed with State Superintendent Ritz who called for “hold harmless” protections a year and a half ago both for teachers and for school letter grades.

Then on January 6th, with newly clarified bipartisan support, HB 1003 passed the House Education Committee unanimously removing any impact from the 2014-15 ISTEP transition year on teacher evaluations and teacher bonuses.

In the afternoon of the same day, SB 200 passed the Senate Education Committee 10-1 removing any impact of the 2014-15 ISTEP tests on A-F school letter grades.

Today January 12th, just six days later, HB 1003 passed the House on third reading 95-1, and SB 200 passed the Senate on third reading 48-1.

These bills are the right thing to do in the transition year to new standards and tougher tests. Let your legislators know you support quick approval of both bills as each now moves to the other house.

House Bill 1003

Representative Behning, chair of the House Education Committee, unveiled the final language to protect teacher evaluations and teacher bonuses in Wednesday’s committee meeting (Jan. 6th). State Superintendent Ritz was the first one to be called on for testimony, and she strongly supported the concept.

HB 1003 specifies that after state bonus money is distributed to school districts, it must be distributed to teachers within twenty days.

The bill passed the committee unanimously.

On second reading yesterday (Jan. 11), Representative Delaney tried to add an amendment to say that these discredited ISTEP scores should not be used to qualify new students to be eligible for vouchers because they live in a school attendance area of an F school. His valiant effort went down to defeat on a party line vote, 27-68.

After approval today on a 95-1 vote, it now moves to the Senate Education Committee for consideration tomorrow, January 13th.

Hanging questions have been raised about HB 1003: How complicated will it be to assess both the best set of test scores and the best school letter grade for each and every teacher, especially in large school districts? Will it be possible to do this analysis and distribute the money in twenty days as the bill calls for? Is the mandate to use test scores still in place for this transition year?

Despite the questions, the bill should pass quickly to allow teachers to get their overdue compensation.

Senate Bill 200

Senator Kruse, chair of the Senate Education Committee, presented his bill to hold harmless school letter grades at the first meeting of the committee Wednesday afternoon, January 6th. Under the bill, a school’s letter grade “may not be lower than” the letter grade received in the previous 2013-14 school year.

Despite the strong bipartisan support, the bill was opposed in testimony by the Institute for Quality Education, a well-funded group that lobbies strongly for more private school vouchers. They apparently prefer the plan to see the number of F schools skyrocket in this ISTEP crisis so that students living in the attendance areas of those F schools would automatically become eligible for a private school voucher, even if they have always been attending a private school.

The pro-voucher group opposed SB 200 even though the bill carries a new benefit for voucher schools, reducing the accountability levels for private schools participating in the voucher program. Under current law in IC 20-51-4-9, if a voucher school gets a D or an F two years in a row, the consequences are that new voucher students can’t get a voucher to go to that school, although the students who have been going to the school may keep getting taxpayer-funded vouchers. SB 200 changes this provision for this year, taking away the penalty for getting a D, saying “the department may not apply the consequences unless the school was placed in the lowest category or designation for the 2014-15 school year.”

It is expensive to taxpayers to pay for private school tuition, and the Institute for Quality Education would like to see those costs to taxpayers go even higher, while ignoring the poor quality of the 2014-15 ISTEP letter grade formula. This marks the first time in my memory when Governor Pence and the Institute for Quality Education were not in mutual agreement on a major education bill.

Hanging questions have also been raised about SB 200: Shouldn’t we have a two-year transition to new tests? Shouldn’t those schools currently on the bubble for state intervention get extra consideration since it is not clear they truly deserve another F using this discredited ISTEP?

Senate Bill 200 reflects the bipartisan consensus that has been reached to prevent the transition to tougher standards and tests from lowering school letter grades in the wake of drastically lower passing rates approved by the State Board of Education for the new test.

Fast Track by January 19th

Representative Behning said on the floor of the House yesterday that an agreement has been made to fast track HB 1003 with a goal for passage in both houses and the Governor’s signature by January 19th.

When the General Assembly has the consensus and the will, it can take fast action to pass legislation. Last spring, the bill to fix the RFRA legislation was written, passed and signed into law in about a three day span. Fast action is needed on SB 200 and HB 1003 to get promised bonuses and compensation to teachers and to meet letter grade deadlines.

Fast action was actually needed earlier on Organization Day in November, as some legislators had proposed. If action to “hold harmless” had been taken then, no school reputations would have been sullied when preliminary grades were released and teachers would already have their bonus money.

That said, fast action is needed now, and you can help. Let legislators know you support fast action on HB 1003 and SB 200.

Thank you for your advocacy for public education!


Best wishes,

Vic Smith


“Vic’s Statehouse Notes” and ICPE received one of three Excellence in Media Awards presented by Delta Kappa Gamma Society International, an organization of over 85,000 women educators in seventeen countries. The award was presented on July 30, 2014 during the Delta Kappa Gamma International Convention held in Indianapolis. Thank you Delta Kappa Gamma!


ICPE has worked since 2011 to promote public education in the Statehouse and oppose the privatization of schools. We need your membership to help support ICPE lobbying efforts. As of July 1st, the start of our new membership year, it is time for all ICPE members to renew their membership.

Our lobbyist Joel Hand continues to represent ICPE during the 2016 short session. We need your memberships and your support to continue his work. We welcome 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. In 2013 I was honored to receive a Distinguished Alumni Award from the IU School of Education, and in 2014 I was honored to be named to the Teacher Education Hall of Fame by the Association for Teacher Education – Indiana.

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Vic’s Statehouse Notes #238 – January 5, 2016

Dear Friends,

I had nearly concluded that Governor Pence, Speaker Bosma and Senate President Pro Tem Long were using the crisis of plunging school letter grades caused by tougher ISTEP+ tests to make more students eligible for private school vouchers.

After all, they had pushed through a voucher expansion law in 2013 that gives students living in the attendance area of an F school eligibility for a private school voucher even if the students have always attended a private school. Preliminary school letter grades printed in the Indianapolis Star on December 5th showed a potential leap in this ISTEP crisis from 84 F schools (4%) to 359 F schools (18%).

Then the landscape completely changed yesterday (Jan. 4th), when Senator Kruse and the Republican leadership unveiled Senate Bill 200 and scheduled it for a hearing this Wednesday, January 6th, in the 1:30 pm Senate Education Committee meeting.

This bill deserves the support of all public school advocates. Senate Bill 200 says a school’s letter grade “may not be lower than” the letter grade received in the previous 2013-14 school year.

I urge you to send messages of support for Senate Bill 200 to your Senator and all Senators and also to members of the House, who will need to take quick action on the bill when it passes the Senate. This bill needs to pass quickly in January to keep schools from being unfairly punished in the ISTEP crisis.

Two Issues

There are two issues that could punish teachers and schools stemming from the transition to more rigorous academic standards and ISTEP tests:

1) teacher compensation could be reduced due to the impact of lower ISTEP passing rates on teacher evaluations and on the formulas for performance bonuses; and

2) school letter grades could go down when lower ISTEP passing rates are calculated into the letter grade formula, a formula already rejected by the General Assembly in 2013 legislation but preserved until this final year by actions of Governor Pence’s appointees on the State Board of Education.

Governor Pence declared on Oct. 27th that that first issue should not happen, that teacher compensation should not be reduced because of the tougher standards and tests. Speaker Bosma promised on Organization Day in November that fixing teacher bonuses in the ISTEP transition would be the first order of business in January, but he said revisions to A-F accountability “will take more time to weigh.” (Star, Nov. 18)

Until yesterday, no promise had been made by Governor Pence, Speaker Bosma or President Pro Tem Long to protect school letter grades from the ISTEP changes, the second issue.

Now with Senate Bill 200, the Republican leaders have aligned themselves with State Superintendent Glenda Ritz, who has asked repeatedly for the past year and a half for changes that would hold schools harmless in the transition to tougher ISTEP tests.

Damage Has Already Been Done to School Reputations

To protect schools from the lower passing rates of the ISTEP transition, the corrections should have been in place before preliminary letter grade results were issued for review by schools in late November. No public announcements about letter grades were to be made until mid-January. Instead, the Indianapolis Star received a summary of the preliminary results and published it on the front page on December 5th.

The results of course showed lower grades than ever before. This is an invalid result, but the general public has not followed the nuances, and when quick media stories simply say F schools have gone from 4% to 18%, as I saw on one TV report, the general public starts thinking there is something wrong with our schools.

Instead, as many can see now, the fault lies not with our schools but with our letter grade formula and our testing program. Our schools are actually performing better than ever according to results of the highly respected National Assessment of Education Progress (NAEP) just released in late 2015.

Support Senate Bill 200 and Senate Bill 4

I urge you to send overnight messages of support for Senate Bill 200 to members of the Senate Education Committee, to your Senator and to all Senators. Then send a similar message to members of the House, since this bill needs to quickly move through the process and be signed into law in January.

Senator Stoops has filed Senate Bill 4 which is similar to Senate Bill 200 and also deserves your support. The main difference is that Senator Stoops is a Democrat in a Republican controlled Senate, so his bill will not get much attention. He has worked hard to correct the looming unfair punishments to teachers and schools which have accompanied the ISTEP crisis, and you should let legislators know that you support Senate Bill 4 as well.

I urge all public school advocates to communicate with Governor Pence and with their legislators to say that transition year test scores should not penalize teachers in their performance bonuses and also should not penalize schools in their letter grades. The status of both teachers and schools should be held harmless while new baseline test scores are reset. Senate Bill 200 and Senate Bill 4 both serve this cause.

Thank you for your advocacy for public education!

Best wishes,

Vic Smith vic790@aol.com


“Vic’s Statehouse Notes” and ICPE received one of three Excellence in Media Awards presented by Delta Kappa Gamma Society International, an organization of over 85,000 women educators in seventeen countries. The award was presented on July 30, 2014 during the Delta Kappa Gamma International Convention held in Indianapolis. Thank you Delta Kappa Gamma!


ICPE has worked since 2011 to promote public education in the Statehouse and oppose the privatization of schools. We need your membership to help support ICPE lobbying efforts. As of July 1st, the start of our new membership year, it is time for all ICPE members to renew their membership.

Our lobbyist Joel Hand continues to represent ICPE during the 2016 short session. We need your memberships and your support to continue his work. We welcome 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. In 2013 I was honored to receive a Distinguished Alumni Award from the IU School of Education, and in 2014 I was honored to be named to the Teacher Education Hall of Fame by the Association for Teacher Education – Indiana.

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Vic’s Statehouse Notes #107– January 25, 2013

Dear Friends,

Once again, Senator Kruse announced in Wednesday’s Senate Education Committee meeting that the vote on the voucher expansion bill (Senate Bill 184) would be delayed for a week (until Jan. 30th) at the request of the sponsor, Senator Yoder. This provides more time at “Third House” meetings this Saturday and through emails and phone calls to let legislators hear how public school advocates deeply oppose this bill.

It is indeed unusual for a committee vote on any bill to be delayed for two weeks. I can’t remember a similar delay since Senator Kruse became chair of the committee. Without having any inside knowledge, the delayed vote is a clear indication that the sponsor is still looking for enough support for the bill to pass out of the committee.

Fiscal Cost

This is not the time to let down on contacting Senators. While Governor Pence supported voucher expansion in his State of the State address last Tuesday, many Senators are concerned about the fiscal cost. According to the non-partisan Legislative Services Agency fiscal note on SB 184, the first year of the voucher program moved $15.6 million from public school tuition to private school tuition and the second year diverted $35.9 million. Most of that taxpayer money was going to pay for religious educations. Only 6 of the 289 private schools accepting vouchers are non-religious, non-sectarian schools.

Now with SB 184, a whole new element is proposed: Giving vouchers to students who have never been in public schools, ending the “vouchers save dollars” policy and adding a new fiscal cost to taxpayers. Some students would become eligible for a voucher who have been in private schools for years. It is one more step on the road to a universal voucher, the ultimate goal of voucher proponents, a goal that would eventually undermine and marginalize the non-partisan, non-sectarian public schools that for over a hundred years have brought people from all walks of life together in our communities and have undergirded our democracy with citizenship education and our economy with college and career readiness.

Public education advocates know what is at stake here and should keep up the drumbeat to oppose any expansion of vouchers. The media have casually speculated that voucher expansion would easily pass in this General Assembly, but then the media also speculated that Tony Bennett would defeat Glenda Ritz.

Contact Senators

Let’s go to work one more week to defeat Senate Bill 184, starting with Saturday’s “Third House” and “Crackerbarrel” meetings with legislators in your county.

Again, the Senators on the committee to contact are as follows:

Chair: Sen. Kruse

Republican Members: Senators Yoder, Banks, Buck, Kenley, Pete Miller, Leising and Schneider

Democrat Members: Senators Rogers, Broden, Mrvan, Taylor

Keep up the good work for public education!

Best wishes,

Vic Smith

ICPE is working to promote public education in the Statehouse as efforts are made this week to expand vouchers. We are well represented by our lobbyist Joel Hand, but to keep him in place we need all members from last year to renew and we need new members who support public education.

Go to www.icpe2011.com for membership and renewal information.

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

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