In Case You Missed It – October 21, 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.

2024 Candidate pledge from the Indiana Coalition for Public Education website.

QUOTE OF THE WEEK

"[Candidate for Indiana Governor, Jennifer McCormick]...wants to place limits on the state’s private school voucher initiative: The program grew to encompass more than 70,000 children in 2023-24, a 31% increase from the year before. The state allocated $439 million in tuition grants to private parochial or non-religious schools last year — up from nearly $312 million the year before.

McCormick said the program, which might have been intended for lower-income children, is often utilized by white suburban families and is too expensive." -- Quoted in Diane Ravitch's blog, Indiana: Vote for Jennifer McCormick for Governor

ELECT PRO-PUBLIC EDUCATION CANDIDATES

Vic’s Statehouse Notes #389 – Candidate Pledge

Ask your local candidates to sign the Public Education Pledge from the Indiana Coaltion for Public Education.

From Vic Smith, Indiana Coalition for Public Education

This election could determine the survival of public education in Indiana. The plan to give ESAs to all parents in a “universal voucher” system has already been presented by Senator Mishler. The disastrous consequences of universal ESAs were detailed in the previous Statehouse Notes #388.

To survive, public education must have strong support from more legislators. This fact is the focus of a recent opinion piece written by ICPE board member, Dr. Tony Lux.

A “Candidate Pledge” to support public education is found on the website of the Indiana Coalition for Public Education.

JENNIFER MCCORMICK FOR GOVERNOR

Indiana: Vote for Jennifer McCormick for Governor

Jennifer McCormick wants to protect Indiana's public schools.

From Diane Ravitch

Jennifer McCormick was the last elected state superintendent of schools. She switched parties because of the Republicans’ hostility to public schools.

She is running for Governor of Indiana against Senator Mike Braun, who is a far-right Republican. Braun and his running mate, an evangelical extremist, want to get rid of public schools.

The 74 reports:

U.S. Sen. Mike Braun, a conservative Republican, is still ahead in the state’s gubernatorial race but his lead among Indiana voters over Democrat Jennifer McCormick has shrunk in recent weeks.

Polling released this week by the Democratic Governors Association shows Braun just three points in front of McCormick, 44% to 41%. That’s a dropoff from the Sept. 17 results of an Emerson College Polling/The Hill voter survey that had Braun with roughly 45% of the vote and McCormick with 34. Libertarian candidate Donald Rainwater also picked up more support but less dramatically so, going from 5.8% to 8%.

Indiana has not elected a Democratic governor since 2000 and Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump holds a comfortable 14 percentage point lead, 57% to 43%, over Democrat Kamala Harris, according to an ActiVote poll released Tuesday.

PUBLIC DOLLARS GOING TO RELIGIOUS SCHOOLS

Only One True God: How Religious Schools Use Taxpayer Dollars to Promote Their Extremist Ideology

How our tax dollars are used...

From Thom Hartmann in Milwaukee Independent

Five Republican-controlled states are in the process of letting vouchers ghettoize their entire public-school systems. As The Washington Post noted:

“Billions in taxpayer dollars are being used to pay tuition at religious schools throughout the country, as state voucher programs expand dramatically and the line separating public education and religion fades.”

Meanwhile, the Speaker of the House of Representatives, Mike Johnson, flies an “Appeal to Heaven” flag outside his official congressional office that, since 2013, has been the semi-official logo of a militant arm of charismatic Christianity involved with January 6th. Supreme Court Justice Sam Alito flew a similar flag outside his summer home.

Another man flying that flag is outspoken Catholic evangelist Leonard Leo, who now controls over a billion dollars and helped run the process that selected Trump’s picks for the Supreme Court as well as hundreds of federal bench nominees. As ProPublica pointed out in a story about the man that remade the American judicial system:

“Leo is a major supporter of the [Catholic Information Center], and its unabashed projection of political power aligns with the central role of religion in Leo’s political project.”

LOCAL NEWS

Fort Wayne Community Schools seeks buyer for vacant southwest parcel

From the Fort Wayne Journal Gazette**

Fort Wayne Community Schools is seeking potential buyers for land it has owned for more than 20 years on the city’s southwest side.

The board agreed Monday to sell the vacant property at the northwest corner of Sandpoint Road and Ardmore Avenue to the person with the highest and best qualified offer.

The district doesn’t anticipate any future need for the site, which is smaller than an acre and requires ongoing maintenance, officials said.

Online property records indicate the district bought the land for $85,000 in March 2003. At that time, the tract was immediately north of Elmhurst High School, which closed at the end of the 2009-10 academic year. FWCS sold that site for $600,000 seven years ago to Hanson Aggregates Midwest, which operates nearby Ardmore Quarry.

Dolly Parton’s Imagination Library coming to Allen County; ACPL fundraising goal met

From WANE.com

After just a few months, a campaign to bring Dolly Parton’s Imagination Library to local kids has brought in enough funds to move forward with the reading program.

The Allen County Public Library announced Monday it has met its $100,000 fundraising goal for the campaign, which was launched in June. That means the Imagination Library could be implemented in the coming months.

The country music icon’s program provides free books to children up to age 5, encouraging literacy starting at a young age. Kids around the globe who are registered in the program get books in the mail each month.

There are already over 1,500 children on the waiting list for Allen County’s program. Families can join the list on the Imagination Library website.

Indiana marching bands are heading to the 2024 BOA Super Regional. Find out who'll compete

From IndyStar

THE LATEST: See who made finals at the Indianapolis Super Regional here.

For the next few weeks, it's marching band season at Lucas Oil Stadium (except when it's Taylor Swift season, that is).

Marching bands in Indiana competed last week for a spot in the ISSMA Semi-State competition, which takes place Oct. 26. This week, there's a two-day Bands of America Super Regional bringing high school performers from around the region (and a few from beyond) to the stadium.

More than 110 bands also will come to downtown Indy in mid-November for the 2024 Bands of America Grand National Championships.

**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 – August 26, 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.

NOTE: NEIFPE's "In Case You Missed It" will not be published next week. We'll be back with more updates on September 9, 2024. Thanks for supporting Public Education.

QUOTE OF THE WEEK

"Privatization is a kind of reverse social contract: it dissolves the bonds that tie us together into free communities and democratic republics. It puts us back in the state of nature where we possess a natural right to get whatever we can on our own, but at the same time lose any real ability to secure that to which we have a right. Private choices rest on individual power… personal skills… and personal luck. Public choices rest on civic rights and common responsibilities, and presume equal rights for all." -- The late political theorist, Benjamin Barber, quoted by Jan Resseger in Parents’ Rights Activists, Privatizers, and Project 2025 Conspire Against Public Schooling

REJECT PROJECT 2025

Part 2: Parents’ Rights Activists, Privatizers, and Project 2025 Conspire Against Public Schooling

We must protect our vulnerable students and reject Project 2025 (no matter what it's called now) and the people who support it.

From Jan Resseger

...Project 2025 would:

• promote universal school choice (universal private school tuition vouchers);
• eliminate the Head Start program that serves preschoolers in poverty;
• discontinue Title I, that provides federal funding to schools serving low-income children;
• rescind federal civil rights protections for LGBTQ+ students;
• undercut the federal capacity to enforce civil rights law; and
• “reduce federal funding for students with disabilities and remove guardrails designed to ensure these children are adequately served by schools.”

Five of these Project 2025 proposals threaten hard won political victories for justice accomplished since 1960. All of these protections for vulnerable groups of children are threatened today by political efforts to elevate the rights of particular parents to protect their children from “woke” policies or from peers the parents consider undesirable in public schools. The sixth—universal school privatization—would, of course, also create the opportunity for parents to remove their children, at public expense, to private educational institutions that can insulate those children from experiences and peers that threaten their parents’ values. In his commentary, Harris elaborates on the ways publicly funded school privatization permits schools to discriminate: “While private schools cannot legally discriminate based on race because of the Civil Rights Act, they can discriminate on most other dimensions, including religion, gender, gender identity, sexual orientation, class, income, and disability status. Moreover, the protections against racial discrimination are stronger in public schools, with additional avenues for recourse available to public school students through the U.S. Department of Education’s Office for Civil rights.”

A GOOD DAY FOR FLORIDA

Florida: Moms 4 Liberty Lose Key School Board Races!

Make sure you're registered to vote...make sure your driver's license (or other identification) hasn't expired. Be ready to vote for those who support public schools.

From Diane Ravitch

The extremist culture warriors in Florida flopped at the ballot box on Tuesday. Not even Governor DeSantis’s endorsement helped them in their crusade to ban books, censor history, and sugarcoat what children may learn.

DeSantis quite deliberately set out to take control of Florida’s education system, including its schools and public colleges. He believes that as Governor, he is authorized to shape the curriculum to match his extremist agenda. He has poured billions into charter schools and vouchers for all, no income limits. He has grabbed control of the boards that oversee public colleges, and he has handpicked college presidents from his circle of cronies. The state’s sycophant legislature gives him whatever he wants, including the elimination of tenure in higher education and the ideological takeover of the state’s highly regarded progressive college, New College, which has been transformed into a conservative outpost that values athletics more than philosophy and that abhors gender studies and other “woke” courses.

Scott Maxwell of the Orlando Sentinel wrote about the voters’ rebuff to “Moms for Censorship,” err, “Moms for Thought Control, err, “Moms for Liberty.” Voters in most school districts rejected the right wingers endorsed by DeSantis.

Folks, this was a good day for the students and teachers of Florida.

INDIANA AND LOCAL NEWS

Vic’s Statehouse Notes #387 – Indiana Governor must prioritize public education

Jennifer McCormick will support public schools in Indiana.

From Vic Smith at Indiana Coalition for Public Education

Our public education students and schools need a Governor who will protect their funding.

Candidate Mike Braun has proposed a cut in property taxes which solves the property tax problem on the backs of public school funding and local government funding. Under current law, public schools fund vital services with property tax money: bus transportation, maintenance and repairs, debt service for new buildings and referendum funding.

Mike Braun could have presented a plan that replaced the money that would be cut from schools with state sales or income taxes, but he didn’t. He didn’t even release a fiscal analysis showing the amount public schools would lose.

This has happened before. When property tax caps were put into the Indiana Constitution, public schools and local government lost funding. “Replace, don’t erase” was the rallying cry to resist the loss of public school funding. Replacement of lost funding is again the issue that leaves public schools wondering how to maintain current programs for public school students.

Mike Braun is not protecting public education students, but Jennifer McCormick’s new property tax plan issued August 15th aims to do so, offering “targeted relief to those who need it most without cutting essential police, fire and school services to Hoosiers,” according to a fact sheet released by her campaign team about the complex plan. She also found a way to provide a fiscal estimate of her plan, which Mike Braun did not do.

It Wasn’t Always Like This in Indiana...

After second draft released, questions linger over Indiana’s proposed diploma changes

The new high school graduation requirements must be approved by the end of the year, but so far, some details are still up in the air.

From Indiana Capital Chronicle

A revamped high school diploma model proposed by Indiana education officials appears to have earned approval from the state’s higher education institutions and several school advocacy groups, but others around the state — including parents, teachers, business owners and lawmakers — say they still have questions about the plan.

Many said their support hinges on unreleased — or uncertain — details about post-graduation outcomes, financial impact, and the feasibility of widespread work-based learning.

“While parts of the proposal appear to be a step in the right direction, this updated diploma proposal remains a major change that high school students, educators and counselors must adjust to,” said Rep. Cherrish Pryor, D-Indianapolis, in a Tuesday statement.

“There are still many unanswered questions about the work-based learning requirements,” Pryor continued. “For example, who will pay for student transportation? How will school counselors handle the increase in workload in the midst of a counselor shortage? At the end of the day, this is an unfunded mandate that will unfairly burden our chronically underfunded public schools.”

Northwest Allen County Schools lands 'strategic' 35 acres

From the Fort Wayne Journal Gazette**

The Northwest Allen County Schools board agreed Monday to buy about 35 acres of land near Carroll High School for $1.2 million without knowing how the district might use it.

“The fact that that’s connected to the high school gives you a lot of options,” said Brandon Basham, chief financial officer.

The sellers are the Barrett family, who have previously sold land to NACS. Basham told the board the parents always wanted their children to sell the land to the school if they didn’t want it, and the children are honoring those wishes.

The purchase price – $1,222,000 – is the average of two appraisals.

“The Barrett family could have a lot of options for that land, so we really appreciate what they’re doing for the school district,” Basham said.

He added that NACS has been preparing for this potential land purchase for a while.

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 – January 30, 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 to be informed when our blog posts are published.

THIS WEEK

Some of the most popular items on our social media feed this week were for events or legislative deadlines that have passed. One way to keep up is to follow us on Facebook, Twitter, and on Post (a new Twitter-like platform). This is especially important during the yearly legislative sessions. Many of our posts are for immediate calls to action and waiting for the weekly summary is too late.

Today we have two posts by Vic Smith of the Indiana Coalition for Public Education. The Indiana General Assembly is continuing its years-long attack on public education. They are attempting to politicize school boards, and, as usual, expand the state's voucher program. For more information visit the ICPE website.

If you live in Indiana please contact the legislators listed in the posts below and let them know your opinions and your support of public education.

INDIANA LEGISLATIVE SESSION NEWS

Vic’s Statehouse Notes #370 – A radical plan

From the Indiana Coalition for Public Education

The Indiana Senate Education Committee approved a bill Wednesday that would freeze out community members, taxpayers and even state leaders from any influence over what the students of Indiana study. It would mark the end of state standards.

Yes, you read that correctly. Only parents would control the curriculum of their student if they opt for an Education Scholarship Account (ESA). Taxpayers who pay approximately $7000 a year for each student would have no voice.

• The Governor wants schools to prepare students for the workplace. ESA parents could ignore him.
• Those who love democracy want students to prepare for citizenship. ESA parents could ignore them.
• Those who love the arts want students to experience the arts. ESA parents could ignore them.

This radical plan to fund home schools and micro schools through accounts available online to any parent who applies could dissolve public education in Indiana in a few years.

Senate Bill 305 was approved in the Senate Education Committee by a vote of 8-5.

If you object to ending public education by way of universal ESA’s, send letters of opposition to the Senate Appropriations Committee, the next committee to review the bill.

Vic’s Statehouse Notes #371 – Partisan School Boards

From the Indiana Coalition for Public Education

Breaking long Hoosier traditions, Senate Bill 188 would change school boards from non-partisan to partisan. It’s time to contact Senators before the bill is heard on Monday to express your strong opposition to this damaging change to our public schools.

Making school boards partisan is a bad idea. It would further divide our state into partisan camps and create partisan controversies and ill-will in the boards running public schools that serve all children.

This proposal comes from the same Republican party that in 2017 and again in 2019 passed bills to appoint rather than elect the State Superintendent of Public Instruction, an elective office for 166 years, saying at the time that politics should be taken out of K-12 education.

How quickly they forget.

What bad consequences would this change bring?

Share these concerns with legislators:

• Changing to partisan school boards will make a bad teacher shortage even worse. This change will be so repulsive to many non-partisan teachers that it could be their last straw to consider leaving the state or the profession. Teachers in training are deciding whether to stay in Indiana or to teach in surrounding states. Knowing that public schools are run by partisan school boards will discourage young teachers from beginning their career in Indiana.
• Many highly qualified school board candidates would run in a non-partisan election but would not get involved if they have to run in a partisan election as members of a party.
• Political bosses who are not on the school board could control school board actions when school board members know that they owe their board seat to party politicians.
• Party slates would soon become part of every election, allowing state and local political bosses to control who gets to run for school board.
• The partisan majority on the school board would soon establish a partisan test for selecting a superintendent.
• A partisan superintendent may set up partisan tests for hiring administrative staff members or even teachers in the district.
• Since the legislature voted eight years ago to remove the requirement that superintendents must earn a superintendent’s license, a politically partisan school board could hire any politically connected individual to be the superintendent, whether or not they were qualified based on knowledge of schools.
• A regular dose of partisan arguments in local school board meetings will soon sour local communities on the very concept of public education.
• A change to partisan school boards would allow the party in power to control school board reactions to legislation in the General Assembly as the supermajority year by year brings bills which lead to their ultimate goal of universal vouchers: to end public education and educate all students in a marketplace of private schools.
• This proposal reverts to our history prior to the 1959 school consolidation reform law when some township trustees who ran the schools used political tests for hiring teachers.

VOUCHERS

Utah: House Passes Voucher Bill, Despite Voters Decisive Rejection in 2007

Remember when Indiana voters approved any of the expansive voucher bills the Indiana General Assembly keeps passing? No? Neither do we!

From Diane Ravitch

Utah’s House passed a voucher bill, even though the state voted against them by 62-38% in 2007. Republicans in Utah are determined to bypass a referendum, as they are in other states, because voters have never passed one. Voters don’t want to defund their public schools.

You can bet that 70-80% of the students who get vouchers are already enrolled in private religious schools. That’s the proportion reported in every state that has vouchers. The small number who ask for vouchers will lose ground academically and eventually return to their local public school. The research is unequivocal: vouchers do NOT improve academic achievement. They are a gift to parents whose kids are already in private schools.

ALLEN COUNTY SCHOOL NEWS

Carroll revamp price tag learned

From the Fort Wayne Journal Gazette**

Renovating and expanding Carroll High School to accommodate 500 additional students could cost $46.3 million under preliminary plans shared this week with district officials.

The Northwest Allen County Schools board - which is also considering projects to address overcrowding at the middle schools and central office - will likely dedicate time for public input at a February or March meeting, board President Kent Somers said Monday.

"This is obviously a major undertaking," he said. "It'd be important to get feedback. We can't wait until the strategic planning discussions are done."

**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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Vic’s Statehouse Notes #369 – January 19, 2023

Vic Smith provides more details on why the General Assembly should reject SB 305. 

1. Public schools would lose an average of $7000 per ESA student.
2. More than 30,000 homeschool parents would get an ESA totalling more than $250 million.
3. Taxpayers who are paying the bills would have no say in what was taught. No elected school board would be there for fiscal and educational oversight.
4. In an era when extremist ideology from the left and from the right is a major concern, there is no protection in SB305 from funding home schools run by extremist parents.
5. Parents getting the ESAs are not required to meet any standards except to take the ILEARN test, however, there are no consequences for their students who fail ILEARN.

Write or call members of the education committee before Wednesday, January 25. Email addresses are included, below.

For more details on these reasons and links to the members of the education committee, continue reading Vic's Statehouse Notes #369, below.

Vic Smith writes the Statehouse Notes for the Indiana Coalition for Public Education. Statehouse Notes are an important source of information about education-related bills in the Indiana General Assembly. Subscribe to the Statehouse Notes and become a member of ICPE. You can join by clicking HERE.

Number 369- January 19, 2023

Vic's Statehouse Notes By Dr. Vic Smith

Dear Friends, We have until next Wednesday, January 25, to convince Senate Education Committee members that Senate Bill 305 would fatally wound public education.  Will you help defend public education?

The Threat to the Existence of our Community Public Schools Fifty years ago the economist Milton Friedman proposed a plan to end government involvement in public schools. His followers have brought his plans to life one step at a time. Senate Bill 305 would give the parent of every student an Educational Savings Account via an online application to the Indiana Treasurer. The ESA (Education Scholarship Account) would be equal to 100% of the money now given to the public school district, an increase from the current 90%.  Public schools would lose an average of $7,000 per ESA student. The parent would have full control of approximately $7,000 to direct to private providers of their choice, providers approved by the Indiana Treasurer. It’s a formula that would strangle the funding for our public schools in just a few years, as more and more home school parents and independent micro school parents take the diverted money. This is a watershed bill for public education. This is a test of whether public schools will survive and thrive in Indiana or instead will enter a death spiral.

No one mentioned Milton Friedman in Wednesday's hearing on Senate bill 305. Fourteen testified against the bill and thirteen testified for the bill. The charge that the bill would bankrupt our budget when some 37,000 home school parents get an ESA at a total cost of $259 million was deflected by the bill sponsor, Senator Buchanan. He said the costs would be capped by the Appropriations Committee in the budget, as they are capped now at $10 million for the special education ESA’s. He repeated two different times that he would be happy with a new $10 million cap for SB 305. When pressed on who would get the ESA’s if the budget is capped, he said it would be decided by “first come, first serve.” This obviously implies that future budgets will have higher and higher caps. Several of those testifying for the bill were parents currently getting an ESA for their special education student. They clearly don’t realize that if the bill passes, opening the gates to all students on a “first come, first serve” basis, some of them will lose their current ESA if they are not quick to apply. The bill does not set aside dollars to fund previous ESA parents, and they could lose out.

The Threat to our Democracy Taxpayers who are paying the bill would have no say in what is taught in the home schools or micro schools of ESA students. The new required civics course would be ignored. When the debate about vouchers for private and religious school tuition heated up in 2011, Senator Brent Steele sent a letter to every legislator alerting them to his deep concerns that school tuition money might go to private schools teaching extremism. He authored an amendment that to apply for tuition vouchers, schools must agree under penalty of perjury to follow the same civic education statutes supporting democracy that public schools are required to follow. Those provisions in the voucher law still stand today, but they are not included in the ESA bill, SB-305.  In an era when extremist ideology from the left and from the right is a major concern, there is no protection in this ESA plan from funding home schools run by extremist parents using your tax dollars. The opening to discrimination and to teaching prejudice is clear. This is a real threat to our democracy.

The End of Standards in Indiana    Parents getting an ESA are not required to meet any standards except to take the ILEARN test. There are no consequence for failing the ILEARN. There is no requirement to study specific subjects. All a parent needs to do to get the money that normally goes to schools is to fill out a simple online application saying they will spend “part of the money” so their student studies “reading, grammar, mathematics, social studies or science.” Note the “or” in that sentence. No art, no music, no foreign language will be required.  After two decades of exhaustive work, the high standards Indiana has adopted for its students will be gone. Businesses thinking about moving to Indiana will not be impressed that we are allowing state standards to be ignored.

The vote will be during the Senate Education Committee meeting Wednesday, January 25, 2023 at 1:30 p.m. Senate Education Committee members need to hear from hundreds of public school advocates that Senate Bill 305 is wrong!  Giving education money directly to unaccountable parents instead of to public schools run by public school boards is wrong for Indiana! It would undermine all that has been done to build up our public schools over the last 170 years as the centers of our communities and the cornerstone of our democracy. You can copy these e-mail addresses and paste them into the "TO" field of your email: Senator.Hunley@iga.in.gov; Senator.Bassler@iga.in.gov; Senator.Buchanan@iga.in.gov; Senator.Crane@iga.in.gov; Senator.Dernulc@iga.in.gov; Senator.Donato@iga.in.gov; Senator.jdford@iga.in.gov; Senator.Leising@iga.in.gov; Senator.Qaddoura@iga.in.gov; Senator.Raatz@iga.in.gov; Senator.Rogers@iga.in.gov; Senator.Deery@iga.in.gov; Senator.Johnson@iga.in.gov; Senator.Yoder@iga.in.gov   Write or call committee members before Wednesday, January 25! Thank you for your active support of public education in Indiana!

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. We need all ICPE members to renew their membership if you have not done so. Our lobbyist, Joel Hand, represents ICPE extremely well. We need your memberships and your support to continue his work in 2023. 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! Click the button below to visit ICPE’s website at www.indianacoalitionforpubliced.org for membership and renewal information and for full information on ICPE efforts on behalf of public education. Thanks!

Vic Smith is a lifelong Hoosier and began teaching in 1969, serving 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. Vic received a Distinguished Alumni Award from the IU School of Education, he was named to the Teacher Education Hall of Fame by the Association for Teacher Education and received the 2018 Friend of Education Award from the Indiana State Teachers Association.

Vic’s Statehouse Notes #368 – January 16, 2023

Senate Bill 305 will be heard in the Senate Education Committee at 1:30 PM on January 18, 2023. SB305 is a universal ESA bill, which makes Educational Savings accounts available to all students in Indiana. What's wrong with ESA's?

1. No public oversight: public tax dollars could be spent without any elected school board oversight.
2. No student standards for accountability: The approximately $7000 per student ESA would be given without any requirement for standards accountability.
3. No protection from extremism.
4. No criminal background checks.
5. No funding relief for public schools.

For more details on these reasons and links to the members of the education committee, continue reading Vic's Statehouse Notes #368, below.

Vic Smith writes the Statehouse Notes for the Indiana Coalition for Public Education. Statehouse Notes are an important source of information about the education-related bills in the Indiana General Assembly. Subscribe to the Statehouse Notes by becoming a member of ICPE. You can join by clicking HERE.

Number 368 - January 16, 2023

Vic's Statehouse Notes By Dr. Vic Smith

Dear Friends, ALL HANDS ON DECK! The Senate is throwing the big one at public education in the first education committee meeting. Today it was announced that Senate Bill 305, which carries the seeds to completely unravel and privatize public education in Indiana, will be heard in the Senate Education Committee on Wednesday, January 18, 2023 at their 1:30 meeting in the Senate Chamber. Senate Bill 305 is the universal ESA bill, that is, making all students eligible for Education Savings Accounts (ESA’s) through the office of the Treasurer. Currently, only special education students are eligible for ESA’s due to language passed in the 2021 budget. About 100 special education students applied for ESA’s so parents, with no accountability, could get taxpayer money and make all decisions about providers. Now, Senate Bill 305 would allow all parents, without accountability, to get taxpayer money for a home school or an independent school. Taxpayers who are paying the bill would have no say in what is taught.  By Wednesday morning, Senate Education Committee members need to hear from hundreds of public school advocates that Senate Bill 305 is wrong!  Giving education money directly to unaccountable parents instead of to public schools run by public school boards is wrong! It would undermine all that has been done to build up our public schools over the last 170 years as the cornerstone of our democracy.

What are ESA’s? For those who would privatize our public schools, the goal is in sight. Followers of Milton Friedman in Indiana have long had a plan to undercut our public schools and give tax dollars for K-12 education directly to parents rather than to our public schools. The mechanism is called Education Scholarship Accounts.  The 2021 General Assembly, despite vigorous opposition, already approved ESA’s for special education students by attaching the proposal to a popular budget. Now, SB305 proposes to expand ESA’s to all students, known as universal Education Scholarship Accounts, the holy grail of school privatizers.   What is wrong with ESA’s? Simply put, ESA’s would bring the demise of public schools in Indiana. The flaws are compelling: NO PUBLIC OVERSIGHT. Public taxpayers would be paying for home schools or independent schools but would have no way to influence or oversee what is taught or how they are run. Instead of giving education money to a publicly chosen board to run schools for the entire community under the transparent rules of democracy, ESA’s would give money with no public input to parents who would pick all providers, including those without strong credentials, to teach their children or in their independent school.  NO STUDENT STANDARDS FOR ACCOUNTABILITY. The law sets no standards at all for ESA parent grants. Under the current radical ESA plan, all a parent needs to do to get the money (approx. $7000) that normally goes to schools is to fill out a simple online application saying they will spend “part of the money” so that their student will study “reading, grammar, mathematics, social studies or science.” No art, no music, no foreign language will be required. The high standards Indiana has adopted will be gone. Businesses thinking about moving to Indiana will not be impressed that we are allowing state standards to be ignored.  NO PROTECTION FROM EXTREMISM. In an era when extremist ideology is a major concern, there is no protection in this ESA plan from funding home schools run by extremist parents using your tax dollars. The opening to discrimination and to teaching prejudice is clear. This is a real threat to our democracy.  NO CRIMINAL BACKGROUND CHECKS. While teachers and even school volunteers must pass criminal background checks to work with students, parents of eligible students can get approximately $7000 of taxpayer money for their home school with no criminal background checks regarding previous child abuse, neglect or fraud charges. The potential for fraud is an obvious problem. NO FUNDING RELIEF FOR PUBLIC SCHOOLS. Every time a student signs up for an ESA, the $7000 or so the local public school used to get will disappear from the school budget.  Poorly funded programs will start a death spiral for the community public schools. Schools serving both low income and high income areas will feel the funding pinch.   Write Committee Members Before Wednesday Morning!   Let your Senator and the following Education Committee members know about your strong opposition to SB305: You can copy these e-mail addresses and paste them into the "TO" field of your email: Senator.Hunley@iga.in.gov; Senator.Bassler@iga.in.gov; Senator.Buchanan@iga.in.gov; Senator.Crane@iga.in.gov; Senator.Dernulc@iga.in.gov; Senator.Donato@iga.in.gov; Senator.jdford@iga.in.gov; Senator.Leising@iga.in.gov; Senator.Qaddoura@iga.in.gov; Senator.Raatz@iga.in.gov; Senator.Rogers@iga.in.gov; Senator.Deery@iga.in.gov; Senator.Johnson@iga.in.gov; Senator.Yoder@iga.in.gov   Our public schools that have served as the backbone of our democracy for 170 years deserve our protection from this radical scheme.   Thank you for your active support of public education in Indiana!

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. We need all ICPE members to renew their membership if you have not done so. Our lobbyist, Joel Hand, represents ICPE extremely well. We need your memberships and your support to continue his work in 2023. 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! Click the button below to visit ICPE’s website at www.indianacoalitionforpubliced.org for membership and renewal information and for full information on ICPE efforts on behalf of public education. Thanks!

Vic Smith is a lifelong Hoosier and began teaching in 1969, serving 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. Vic received a Distinguished Alumni Award from the IU School of Education, he was named to the Teacher Education Hall of Fame by the Association for Teacher Education and received the 2018 Friend of Education Award from the Indiana State Teachers Association.