Wednesday, January 28, 2015

WHERE IS THE OUTRAGE?



Where is the outrage?! Where are the 1.3 million voters who elected Glenda Ritz now?! We cannot sit back and allow the GOP to continue their assault on PUBLIC education by stripping power from the only Democrat elected to state office, just because their golden boy Tony Bennett lost. This is their blatant attempt to bring Bennett back to continue the destruction he started. Get fired up, become outraged, stand up, and be heard! There is NO time to wait!!!!

As early as election night 2012, when Tony Bennett fell to the mighty Ritz Army, Mike Pence and his corporate GOP cronies started planning for the perfect time and manner to throw out 1.3 million votes and oust the ELECTED Superintendent of PUBLIC Instruction.  Their attempts have been futile, to say the least.  They have gone after her in so many ways from a variety of directions, but she has remained strong in her convictions to serve the electorate and the children of Indiana.  

It is time once again for the Ritz Army to stand up, be heard, and be counted.  We must make calls, write letters, and send the message that 1.3 million voters cast their ballots for many reasons to Elect SUPERINTENDENT Ritz.  Those votes were not just as a referendum of Tony Bennett and his misguided reforms.  Those votes sent a message that Hoosiers want what is best for our children and their education.  The message was to step back the reforms, back down from the corporate push of Mitch Daniels, and to rise above the greedy profiteers of so called "reform".  The Ritz Army marched to the polls and declared freedom from ALEC, Bennett, Daniels, and from the corporate profiteering of the GOP campaign backers.  Now we must lace up our marching boots and take back control of our children's education by becoming even louder than Election night 2012.  

As you go through the next few days, take the time to rattle a few cages.  Make some noise and apply some pressure.  Call your legislators, call committee members, call the Governor's office, write letters to newspapers, talk to all your family and friends, and make every effort to inform the public around you what is happening and how it needs to be addressed.


Remember, Glenda Ritz IS the Indiana Superintendent of Public Instruction

Tuesday, January 13, 2015

Indiana's PUBLIC School Teachers "Snubbed" by Governor Pence?

Was there an intentional "snub" of Hoosier educators tonight?


Did any one notice the "snub" of 40 thousand plus educators tonight as ISTA appeared absent during Governor Pence's State of the State Address? Hoosier Voices for Public Education founder, Philip Arnold, did. He posed the following question to ISTA President, Teresa Meredith, after the address.

"Where was ISTA tonight, didn't the G
overnor invite the leaders of the mass majority of Indiana's educators?"

President Meredith replied, "I was not invited, however ISTA and its members are committed to making sure our voices are heard this session, on behalf of our colleagues and all of the students we serve every day."

With so much emphasis coming out early in the new session regarding teachers, attacks on PUBLIC schools, increased high-stakes testing, further expanding vouchers, funneling more tax payer monies to charters, and the attempts to dismantle the DOE by removing powers of elected Superintendent Glenda Ritz, shouldn't educators have been at the table? Shouldn’t the ones who are in the trenches daily have been represented in this process. Was this an intentional snub by the Governor to appease the Koch brothers, the tea party, and wealthy campaign contribtors to pad the coffers for the 2016 bid for the White House?

It is time Hoosiers raise their voices as they did in 2012 and prove the value of our PUBLIC schools by standing up and being counted once again. It is time to call legislators non-stop and demand our teachers, their representatives, and those who support our PUBLIC school children be invited back to the table and given a role in making realistic efforts to see our children into a successful future.