Legislative Lunchbox v. 8

"Do legislators deserve the same apples teachers get for their efforts in education? Every Friday, "The Hoosier Mom on Politics" makes that decision, giving two legislators a good or bad apple, depending on their support of Public Education and Indiana’s children. Check back every Friday at lunchtime to see what the Hoosier Mom packs in the Legislator Lunchbox for the week!

For this post of the “Legislative Lunchbox”, I chose to pack a lunch for State Senator Luke Kenley (R-Noblesville) and to the State legislators collectively.

All the State legislators received a good apple today for unanimously sending Senate Bill 465 to the Governor's desk. In the current legislative educational environment, getting legislators to work together and pass a bill as essential and critical as this one, required someone to have moved a mountain. Senate Bill 465 re-prioritizes the importance of Indiana's career-readiness vocational education program in the State through the creation of vocational curricula. The bill allows creation of regional "Indiana Works Councils" where business and education leaders will come together to define and establish mutually beneficial educational and career objectives. The grossly visible decline in support for vocational education in recent years has been blinding, and the State has struggled economically as a result. My one concern lies in the likelihood that this bill is nothing more than a pie-in-the-sky idea that legislators will not actually fund. That bright and shiny-eyed idealism that actually believes it can solve problems by thinking them away is not going to work here. Teachers, tools, supplies, support-systems, infrastructure, and more are essential to accomplish this goal. In many ways, the funding cuts in recent years have hit vocational education hard and heavy and this bill should require action to fix that problem.

Senator Luke Kenley received a bad apple today for not knowing how to stand behind his own rationale. It is simple - either one supports something because it aligns philosophically, or one is just doing another's political dirty-work; probably someone else who actually leads. Last week, Senator Kenley claimed that HB 1003 was questionable since: the current voucher system lacked data-driven accountability measures for private schools, factual evidence must be gathered to support the notion that vouchers are solving this "failing school" problem prior to expanding voucher funding. The changes Kenley approved Wednesday do not resolve these issues in any way, shape, or form. Nor does it resolve the critical issue of a year-stay in public school, which the bill lacks. Now the Senators want to tie voucher transfers to the A to F grading scale of public schools. This is ridiculous at best! These are the same Senators who little over 4 weeks ago passed a measure to remove the A to F grading scale from existence. Now - all the sudden - the Senators have decided the grading scale works and is an excellent measurement tool for vouchers? This is absurd! Moreover, why are we giving voucher funds to any family that has income above the federal income guidelines for aid to dependent families? If vouchers are to help low-income families, then we need to use the same income measures for low-income families across the board through all government programs. So either increase the income requirements for aid to dependent families or decrease income requirements for vouchers. Our legislative actions must first and foremost make sense: and to put it bluntly, the voucher program just does not align. The fact is, a group of wishy-washy scared people who can't stand behind their own convictions - let alone what is right to do by Hoosier children (if they even know the difference) - are the ones playing political games. This isn't a political recreation sport, it is our children's education. My hope is that some one can get behind their convictions and stay there. Mr. Kenley - is your character strong enough to do that?

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?