For this post of the “Legislative Lunchbox”, I chose to pack a lunch for Senator Ed Charbonneau (R-Valparaiso) and for State Representative Todd Huston (R-Fishers).
Senator Ed Charbonneau received a good apple in his lunchbox for authoring SB 416 which "voids the administrative rule that establishes the A to F designations of school performance". The bill then establishes criteria for the State Board of Education to follow when establishing designations of schools. The bill also requires the State Board of Education to give a report to the General Assembly on the school designation criteria. Sen. Charbonneau, the Hoosier Mom has found the A to F system of accountability to be completely ridiculous; it doesn't even measure my kid's academic progress through school! The designations are completely non-sensical, with some schools obtaining a higher ranking one year, a low ranking the following year. The grading system currently measures student growth of a group of children (say - third graders) against their peers the next year. That means the third grade class in 2010 is compared to the 3rd grade class in 2011, instead of using standardized criteria to compare student growth of a third grader as a measure of academic achievement. This bill sounds great on the surface, but the fact is this bill hasn't even had a hearing yet in committee. Senator Charbonneau and everyone who reads this blog, we need to figure out how to at least get this bill heard in committee. I am going to send an email to every member of the Senate Committe on Education and ask this bill get a hearing next week.
Representative Todd Huston received a bad apple in his lunchbox for introducing HB 1357 which removes the requirement for a School Superintendent to hold a teacher's license or a superintendent's license. It also allows School Board to require Superintendent's to live within the school district while repealing the requirement that a County Superintendent of schools have at least 5 successful years of teaching experience. Rep. Huston, your "No Experience Necessary" attitude when it comes to the education of the children of Indiana , just doesn't make common sense. All this bill will accomplish is the continued deprofessionalization of the teaching profession. No need to have learned through education and experience, how to administrate and lead a school. What happened to respecting the minimum standards of excellence that a profession beleives necessary to maintain the quality of the profession? So many State Superintendents, Principals, Teachers, and Parents - like the Hoosier Mom, believe this bill needs to go the way of the do-do bird. Yet, the fact remains - this bill actually was heard and made it out of committee. When this bill is read and discussed in the House, you can bet that the parents and educators around this State will show up and let you know how bad an idea this is for public education.
The Hoosier Mom hopes all the readers will spread the word about the Legislative Lunchbox. Feel free to email me with suggestions for next week’s lunch: for whom should I pack lunch and why?
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