Who are "Hoosiers for Quality Education"? Hoosier Voices originally asked this question in February 2015 when we noticed them using "Hoosier Voices" as a section on their website.
They are NOT Hoosier Voices for PUBLIC Education and they most definitely are NOT true supporters of Indiana's children of traditional public education. We all know too much about their Senior Advisor and Consultant, Tony Bennett. One can only wonder what he is advising them to do. However, we can assume that he is very much in support of all the legislative maneuvers to continue the destruction he left behind and the attacks on Superintendent Ritz. Tony Bennett spent years attacking Indiana's teachers and putting undue pressures on Hoosier students. He set out to destroy our PUBLIC schools in favor of privatization and the padding of the wallets of the rich cronies of the GOP. For example, the CEO/Chairman and Founder of Hoosiers for Quality Education (and the Institute for Quality Education), Fred Klipsch. Let's look at the campaign contributions of Mr. Klipsch and his PAC to see the control H4QE has over the writing and passage of legislative detrimental to Indiana's PUBLIC schools and their hopes to elect a Bennet puppett, Dr. Jennifer McCormick, to replace Glenda Ritz as Superintendent of PUBLIC Instruction.
Below you will find the current campaign finance reports for contributions from the Hoosiers For Quality Education PAC. Here you will see some very familiar names (names of legislators who have lead attacks against PUBLIC education and Glenda Ritz). Take a close look, compare this report of contributions to the lists of Roll Call votes on damaging legislation and make the correlation we have made. H4QE supports charters, vouchers, privatization, and their wealthy stakeholders. They do not support Hoosier Voices or the very PUBLIC school children we all seek to protect and serve.
Contributions from Hoosiers for Quality Education to Indiana Candidates from June, 2015 to October 15, 2016
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| Click here to go to the actual campaign finance report |
When you do the breakdown of their contributions you can get an idea of their motives. You can also get a good glimpse of which candidates they are certain will do their bidding if elected. They hit heavy on contributions to Speaker of the House Brian Bosma, Senate President Pro Tempore David Long, Education committee chairs Behning and Kruse, Chair of House Ways and Means Committee Tim Brown, along with others favorable to their privatization agenda. As you can see they have also poured heftily into the McCormick campaign to unseat Glenda Ritz. Dr. McCormick tries very hard to convince educators, PUBLIC education advocates, and PUBLIC school families that she is not a clone of Tony Bennett and his ideals. However, when you look at her supporters you can see pretty clearly who is lining her campaign coffers to get her to follow their plans. Take a look at the totals for the "BIG WINNERS" of the H4QE Campaign contribution race and see just where they plan to get their mission accomplished.
McCormick for State Superintendent - $40,000
Brian Bosma - $17,500
Pete Miller - $17,500
David Long - $15,000
Senate Majority Campaign Committee - $15,000
House Republican Campaign Committee - $12,500
Indiana Republican State Committee - $10,000
Eric Holcomb (for Governor) - $10,000
Blake Doriot - $6,500
Tim Brown - $2,000
Bob Behning - $2,000
Dennis Kruse - $1,500
Interesting amounts and recipients, don't you think?
As we pointed out in our original post through a quote from (Public School supporter, now Democratic Candidate for State Senate District 13) Justin Kuhnle,"Hoosiers for Quality Education was formally known as a 501(c) group, Hoosiers for Economic Growth, who as of 2013, has contributed over $2.3 million dollars in 7 years to 99.4% of Republican candidates. In that time frame, one lobbyist of interest emerges -- Lindsey Brown. While your group claims in one point to have only spent $274k in the 2014 election, what's troubling, that according to filing, expenditures totaled $338k. What's equally troubling that according to the filings with the Secretary of State's page in Indiana, your group is past due in it's Business Entity Reports. Now, according to some filings, your chairman is Fred Klipsch, who entertains interesting ties to certain groups (Koch Bros. to name one specific.) Wait, isn't he also Pence's treasurer? One particular agenda item of this group is "projects that explore how the principles of free enterprise and classical liberalism promote a more peaceful and prosperous society" and are issued for education grants. What's lost on these groups, is free market, as an economic idea, is lost due to risk mitigation to be used at the expense of the taxpayers, with a potential ultimate goal of increasing standardized testing (with projections of 14 hours 30 minutes this year alone for 3rd graders -- thank you GOP mandated at the state level to let CTN/McGraw do their will unabridged) and when standardized tests don't completely destroy public education, privatization will. So in the end, without releasing all your little secrets, Hoosiers for Quality Education, you are promoting this agenda under the guise of a new, "cheerier" name. "
In closing the original post we promised to call out those who claim one thing and then act contradictory to their statements and goals. This post is a continuance of our mission to point out the discrepancies of this particular group and who they truly are. Now we must continue to alert true "friends" and "supporters" of Indiana's PUBLIC schools as to who these characters are and what their ultimate purposes include. We must stand up to, not only our legislators and Governor, but also to these "false support" groups and make sure our PUBLIC schools and our children are no longer harmed by their desire to make money for their friends and cronies across the country.
WE ARE HOOSIER VOICES FOR PUBLIC EDUCATION. THERE IS NO OTHER!!
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