#RememberInNovember: The Fab 5 State Legislators Bent On Destroying Public Schools, One 'A' District At A Time

Bosma, Charbonneau, Kruse, Soliday, and Behning:

The Fab 5 that made the Indiana charter school mess by authorizing Grace College

Written By: Hoosier Voices For Public Education Blogger

In 2002, the State of Indiana adopted the policy that established the charter school system. It wasn't until former Governor Mitch Daniels' second term of office that charter school legislation burgeoned, in great part due to the financial and political support of wealthy individuals like the Koch brothers, Klipsch, and the Waltons in addition the American Legislative Exchange Council PAC (aka: ALEC).

The initial intended purpose of the 2002 legislation was to address educational need in districts that were struggling with overall academic performance and graduation rates. Slow to grow over the course of those initial 6 years, the Daniels administration and Tony Bennett took it upon themselves to champion the so-called 'school reform' ideology which amped into high gear during the 2010 and 2011 legislative sessions with Indiana becoming known to have one of the most expansive school reform agendas administered into public policy in our country.

In the 'real' reality of today's educational climate, we have strayed significantly from the original intent and purpose of that 2002 charter authorizing legislation, as evidenced most recently through the South Shore Classical Academy (SSCA) charter school application for authorization through Grace College. SSCA purports to provide differentiated instruction not currently available in the local public schools by providing the Michigan based Hillsdale College model of "Classical Education". Not only does the evangelical private Christian school Grace College stand to financial gain from this charter, so does Hillsdale College which was established by Freewill Baptists and in its Mission touts Hillsdale students as being "Grateful to God for Inestimable Blessings".

This leads me to question "how did we ever get here"?  How did we get to the point where a charter school would need to situate itself strategically amongst 3 'A' ranked public schools with diverse school populations, excellent graduation rates, active and engaged parents and community, who have the will and disposition to 'self-fund' through the passage of school funding referenda? How did we get to the point where charter schools are actually glorified private religious schools being funded on the public's dime?

Even if I can't answer the 'how', there is one thing that I know I can answer and that is who brought this chaos to bear? It doesn't take much more than a quick google search to find the answer to that question. And interestingly enough, duplication is easy to find between the legislation that authorized charter school expansion and the list of Community Partners provided by SSCA in their application.

Here is a list of State Legislators listed in SSCA's application on the 'Evidence of Community Support' page, which you can view in full by clicking here.

• Senator Ed Charboneau, Valparaiso

• Representative Ed Soliday, Valparaiso

• Senator Dennis Kruse

• Senator Rick Niemeyer

• Representative Bill Fine

• Representative Tony Cook

• Representative Jim Lucas

• Representative Brian Bosma

• Representative Bob Behning

• Representative Peggy Mayfield

I am not certain if it is common practice for State Legislators to openly serve as 'Community Partners' with charter schools in organization and planning and development of the charter, but I do know there isn't anything more wrong with the process than politicians laying names to support charter applications. If this is going to become common practice with our State Legislators, then there truly is only one way to fix this problem and it requires going to the polls on election day and voting 'representatives' like this out of office. After all, with so-called 'Community Partners' like these, who needs enemies?

To fully understand who got us here, we also have to look at the 2011 'school reform' legislation, that allowed ideological religious institutions like Grace College to myopically approve charter applications while cloistered in secrecy with their Board of Trustees and Senior Administration deciding whether to collect the check or not.

Here is a link to the full HB 1002.

Here is a link to the roll call vote approving the measure in the House.

Here is a link to the roll call vote approving the measure in the Senate.

If you look closely, you will see that both Ed Charbonneau and Ed Soliday voted to APPROVE Grace College as a charter authorizer. These self-proclaimed 'supporters of education' literally laid the ground work for the SSCA charter to come in to Valpo today - their own community. 

You will also see that Dennis Kruse, the SSCA advisory board member, introduced this legislation in the Senate and voted for it while Brian Bosma introduced this legislation in the House and voted for it. One of our personal favorite legislators here at Hoosier Voices, Bob Behning also voted to give Grace authorizer status.

So there you have it: Charbonneau, Soliday, Kruse, Bosma, and Behning are the Fab 5 that created this mess in Porter County and across our Great State. 

Have you emailed the Fab 5? Have you let them know that while you aren't certain if they knew that this is where the 2011 charter expansion legislation would bear fruit, you do know that they created the mess and they need to fix it! Tell them that you expect them to PUBLICLY come out in opposition to this Charter School. Tell them that you expect them to put pressure on the Grace Board of Trustees to turn this charter application down. Furthermore, tell them that you expect them to go back to Indianapolis and fix this policy mess they have created. That is, IF they get reelected.