SUPPORT FOR SUPERINTENDENT

Superintendent Glenda Ritz needs our support now more than ever in the form of letters and calls to Governor Pence as well as your Representatives and Senators. Getting her elected was only the beginning, people. Now we must step to the plate and continue to make our voices heard in support of her. Let Governor Pence know exactly what 1.3 million votes sounds like, because he didn't get that many!

It is beginning to look like our 1.3 million votes are making a difference in the Indiana State Senate.  Yesterday, January 23, 2013,  Senator Dennis Kruse (R-Auburn) opened his committee hearing (Senate Education & Career Development) with the following statement:
“We’re not going to hear any bills here in the Senate that reflect in any way against our new superintendent. She has been doing an excellent job so far and getting along with us very well, and I will continue to work with her the best I can"

Then, Senator Kruse publicly invited ISTA lobbyist Roni Embry to work on SB 330 (having to do with the school accreditation process) with Sen. Earline Rogers (D-Gary), and John Barnes (legislative liaison to the Department of Education) to ensure that the Department of Education is appropriately included in the bill.

All of this is very good news for school employees across the state and reflective of your work in sharing with Senators your concerns about bills that have been introduced that appear to seek to diminish the authority of the office of the State Superintendent.

The story appears different in the House of Representatives where Republicans are attempting to gut the authority of the newly-elected State Superintendent of Public Instruction and ignore the will of the Indiana voters! I think it's time for a revolution!

House Bill 1309, filed by House Education Committee Chairman Robert Behning, R-Indianapolis, would dilute the superintendent’s authority over the State Board of Educati...on. It would require the board to elect a vice chairman with authority “to call meetings, set and amend agendas, arrange for witnesses and carry out other administrative functions related to the meetings of the state board.” It also makes the commissioner for higher education the third co-chairperson of the Education Roundtable, currently headed by the governor and state superintendent.

The effect would be to set up a 2-1 advantage for the governor and commissioner for higher education, who is appointed by a panel of 14 gubernatorial appointees.

House Bill 1251, sponsored by Rep. Todd Huston, an Indianapolis Republican who once served as Bennett’s chief of staff, removes the requirement that at least four members of the State Board of Education be licensed educators currently employed in the schools. It also drops the requirement that no more than six members represent the same political party.
 

It is time to continue our MARCH.  We marched to the polls in November and accomplished an upset of historic proportions here in Indiana.  We must continue to march and make sure our 1.3 million "voices" continue to be heard by those who work as OUR representatives in the Indiana state legislature and in the Governor's office.