TUESDAY TATTLER 8

Former Indiana Governor and new Purdue University President, Mitch Daniels implemented $300 million in education funding cuts in 2010 and 2011 as the recession forced the state to slash its budget across the board: K-12 education, higher education, and unemployment benefits. As the 2012 fiscal year came to a close with nearly $2 billion in reserves, constituent said the surplus should be used to restore funding to programs and budgets that were cut.

Shouldn't any surplus be used to reinstate funding to those programs?  One would think that this idea would make sense, but to the politicians it apparently means nothing.  The legislature has recently set out to continue to destroy Public education in Indiana through bills to strip the power of newly elected Superintendent of Public Instruction, Glenda Ritz, and by attempting to push through a huge fiscally irresponsible voucher expansion bill.

It appears that newly elected Governor Mike Pence has no desire to increase funding for education or reinstate the $300 million that was cut.  Governor Pence has made it clear that he supports voucher expansion, and his budget does not appear to establish any fiscal improvement for Indiana's K-12 PUBLIC education.  Pence is seeking approval of his proposed budget that includes a cut in Indiana's state income tax rate by 10 percent over the next two years.

What appears fortunate for Indiana's Public schools, is the fact that prominent Republican lawmakers in Indiana are lukewarm at best on the new governor's tax cut plan. Some are even on record as wishing to replenish funding to programs the recession forced them to cut and shore up Indiana's budget for the long haul.  Indiana House Speaker Brian Bosma and some other Republican legislative leaders would rather return the budget surplus to the state's public schools.

The current debate is over how much money to restore — and to what programs. Pence's budget would increase K-12 funding by $137 million over the next two years, but this increase only makes up for the gap in  the funding of Indiana's new full-day kindergarten program.  Some Indiana Democrats say Pence's budget falls short of reinstating the education dollars the Daniels administration cut; we're not even halfway there. Speaker Bosma says he'd prefer to restore even more money to public schools, although he declines to say how much and by what means. 

While all this looks good on paper, and while Mitch Daniels laughs from West Lafayette at the debate taking place, Pence's propsed increases in education look to be undercut even more by his push for voucher expansion.  Expanding the state's voucher program looks to rob a significant amount of funding from the very PUBLIC schools still reeling from those $300 million in cuts suffered under the Daniels administration's last budget.  While Daniels secured his future job by appointing the very people who eventually hired him at Purdue, he has set himself up in a comfortable seat to view Pence's battle to make a name for himself in the State House. 

While Pence and Daniels have proven to be on the same page with regard to destroying public education through their "reformist" tactics and vouchers to support their private school cronies and corporate sponsors, it is now time for Hoosier PUBLIC school supporters to continue to stand up to these politicians.  We must push for proper funding for K-12 education to be restored, and for the voucher expansion wagon to be derailed.  It is time for the Daniels era to end and for Pence to understand that the voters sent a loud message in November and will continue to do so throughout his term, which could easily end after 4 years if he continues to scoff at PUBLIC schools as second rate to his precious charter and private schools.  We must let our voices be heard loudly as we procliam that we want funding restored from the previous cuts and more support for PUBLIC education in Indiana.  We must demand our $300 million to be returned to our PUBLIC schools without adding extra unfunded expenses on top.

 

Legislative Lunchbox v. 7

"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 State Representative Heath VanNatter (R - Howard County).

Senator Luke Kenley received a good apple today for his common sense and leadership in the Senate Appropriations Committee hearings on the voucher expansion bill (HB 1003). One of the most expansive voucher programs in the Nation-State, Indiana's fledgling voucher program is being scrutinized in the State Supreme Court on question of its constitutionality. Moreover, the tangible recipients of these public funds are mostly private religious institutions. Student's function in the deal only as a Straw Buyer and to date students have received no documented net tangible benefit (ie: improved educational outcomes as measured on standardized tests). HB 1003 proposes even further expansion to the current voucher program, by eliminating the requirement that students at least finish a year stay in public school. Herein lies the fundamental deal breaker for most Senators, as the year stay language was essential to gaining majority approval of the first voucher bill less than two years ago. The Hoosier Mom believes Senator Kenley showed excellence in reason with the matter when he said,

"This is a pretty, almost, cataclysmic change in the education system.

I wonder if this would make sense to give it a rest for some time, say 5 years, and study it?" 

Senator Kenley, you are absolutely right. There is no reason why we have to expand the voucher program at an Indy Car pace - this isn't some quick and easy means to an end. Quite the contrary, these are our children and the easy come - easy go nature of the reform ideology is not a value I want to cultivate in my children. In fact, until there is more certainty as to the real educational outcomes for Hoosier children as a result of the nascent voucher program, there should be considerable hesitancy on the part of legislators to continue with the existing program. Hoosier children's education, not private religious institution's profit margins, are what should be the top priority.

Representative Heath VanNatter received a bad apple today for watching YouTube during the course of his busy day at work in the State House. Apparently, participation in the civic engagement process by fulfilling his elected role as State legislator just isn't interesting enough for him. So he 'mixes it up'  by watching YouTube while we the taxpayers finance him. What seems even worse is that not even one other legislator or intern or employee saw this behavior as anything out of the ordinary. It would seem that our fine Representative VanNatter must be watching YouTube fairly often for it not to phase anyone around him. Here is the video:

Now, I know there are probably worse things that could - and likely do - happen during the course of the day in the State House; things worse than some random representative watching You Tube. Maybe this just perturbs me personally because Rep. VanNatter reminds me of that young college boy who acts too smart to be bothered with participating in his class, and so uses his laptop to supposedly "take notes" all the while in reality he is busily surfing the internet for the entirety of class. Well, the Hoosier Mom thinks it is time for you to grow up Representative VanNatter: turn the video off and pay attention to the task at hand, please. After all, paying attention is the least you can do for your constituents. Who knows, maybe once you start paying attention you will eventually learn what occurs in the House and become more capable of making an informed decision on current legislation. Stranger things have happened!

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?

Connecting the Dots: ALEC.....to.....Indiana - PART 2



CLICK HERE TO VIEW PART 1

By Heath Johnson

The "Right" to Know:   Think Again

Call me crazy, but it's my belief that we, as constituent voters, should have the right to know if our legislators are attending ALEC meetings, getting free hotel accommodations, reimbursed travel expenses, free drinks, free meals, free cigars, and.... free corporate-crafted legislation.   This legislation impacts our classrooms and our ability to teach, it impacts our students and their parents, and it impacts the community as a whole.   Well, I guess I'm wrong.   According to an email I received (dated 5/15/12) from the chief counsel for the House Republican Caucus, we don't have a right to such information,

"...the Indiana Supreme Court has held that the provisions of the Access to Public Records Act (“APRA”) do not apply to the Indiana House of Representatives.  In Masariu v. The Marion Superior Court No. 1, 621 N.E.2d. 1097 (Ind. 1993), the Indiana Supreme Court determined that it would not intervene in the internal affairs of the legislative branch of government and that it is up to the legislative branch to decide its own internal procedural rules.

In the time between my May 4 response to your email and today, I contacted the Public Access Counselor (“PAC”) to get guidance on the issue, even though the APRA does not apply to the House of Representatives.  I was advised by the PAC that we are not required to create a list to satisfy an open records request.  [See page 25 of the Handbook on Indiana’s Public Access Laws which you can download here:  http://www.in.gov/pac/files/pac_handbook.pdf or I.C. 5-14-3-3(f).]" 

In other words, constituent voters have no right to know if their legislators are engaging in such activities.  In fact, I think this was the email that finally did it for me.   Following this, I made it my mission to expose Indiana's ALEC members, ALEC legislation, and the ALEC "corporate dating service for lonely legislators and corporate special interests" (Wisconsin State Rep. Mark Pocan).  ALEC's DNA Here are some documents that I've found which helped me understand just how extensive ALEC's influence has been with pushing and passing the education reform legislation.

Prior to ALEC Taskforce meetings the "charitable organization" mails out a packet of information to its members.   Referred to as the 35-day Mailer, it includes the model bills, agenda, registration fees, and information about free hotel accommodations and travel reimbursement.   

Linked below is the ALEC Taskforce 35-day Mailer for the December, 2010 Washington D.C. ALEC taskforce "summit".

http://www.commoncause.org/atf/cf/%7BFB3C17E2-CDD1-4DF6-92BE-BD4429893665%7D/ed_35daymailing-dc.pdf

Much of the "model" legislation in this "Taskforce packet" was authored ad sponsored by the Goldwater Institute and much of it was introduced and/or passed in Florida prior to being pushed in Indiana.   The huge model bill in this packet is referred to the  "A-Plus Literacy Act" and it incorporates "model" legislation already adopted by ALEC.   Discussion and voting was sponsored by Matt Ladner, The Goldwater Institute and moderated by Ms. Mickey Revenaugh, Connections Academy, Private Sector Task Force Chair

Page 15 - School A-F grading "model" legislation
Page 18 - School bonus money grant "model" legislation

Page 19 - School choice scholarship "model" legislation

Page 30 - Private school tax credit "model" legislation

Page 36 - REPA II "model" legislation - alternative teacher certification.

Page 38 - I-Read 3 "model" legislation

Page 70 - Parent Trigger "model" legislation (authored by the Heartland Institute)

Page 121 -  Language outlining Taskforce Member free hotel accommodations and reimbursement of travel expenses.

Specifically, the Parent Trigger bill (HB 1358) in the Indiana General Assembly was written by the Heartland Institute. 

This piece of legislation was authored and presented by the Heartland Institute at the December 3rd, 2010 at the ALEC Education Task Force Meeting held at the Grand Hyatt in Washington, D.C.   Discussion and voting on this original model legislation occurred at 5:05 p.m. on December 3rd, 2010.   It was sponsored by Marc Oestreich, Heartland Institute. and moderated by Ms. Mickey Revenaugh, Connections Academy, Private Sector Task  Force Chairman.
The legislation was authored by (page 99 of the pdf):

Joseph Bast, president of The Heartland Institute
Ben Boychuk, managing editor of The Heartland Institute’s School Reform News
Bruno Behrend, J.D., director of the Center for School Reform at The Heartland Institute
Marc Oestreich, legislative specialist on education and telecommunications at The Heartland Institute

AGENDA of this ALEC 35-day Mailing (page 8 of the pdf)
MODEL BILL (page 70 of the pdf)

See Heartland Institute's statement on the 2013 Indiana bill.

http://heartland.org/press-releases/2013/02/13/heartland-institute-education-expert-reacts-indiana-parent-trigger-bill-pa

CLICK HERE TO READ PART 3

Legislative Lunchbox v.4

"Do legislators deserve the same apples teachers get for their efforts in education? Every Friday, "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 Representative Randy Truitt (R-West Lafayette) and for State Representative and House Ways & Means Committee Chair Tim Brown (R-Crawfordsville).

Representative Randy Truitt received a good apple in his lunchbox for having the conviction to stand-up for the best interests of Hoosier Children. He voted no on HB 1358 (known as "The Parent Trigger" bill) which would use the fatally flawed 'A to F' school grading system as an avenue to - literally - allow parents to pull the trigger and shoot down a public school that receives a D or F grade. First of all, as a mother of 2 Hoosier Public School children and as an Aunt of 2 Hoosier Public School Children (going to school just Northeast of Lafayette in a farm community where I grew up), THANK YOU - THANK YOU - THANK YOU - for choosing to apply good ol' Hoosier common sense with your vote! Every mom and dad in this State should be sending you personal "Thank You" notes for your vote and this is why...

This bill is chock full of horrible policy choices. The A to F grading scale is relatively new and pretty much makes absolutely no intelligible sense. It applies grades to public schools nilly-willy, with no method behind the madness. There are some schools that have received a decent grade (A or B) one year, just to be followed up with a D or F the following year, and last year received some other completely random grade. Maybe whomever had the genius idea of implementing this grading system in Indiana could explain to me how exactly this correlates to how well my children learn and excel academically? In the real world, that is what all of us care about - how our kids are doing and what kind of citizens they will grow up to be. The grading system seems like a bunch of red tape and a waste of time and money to me! Now, some in the House are suggesting this flawed and bureaucratic grading system is what can initiate the take-down of a public school? What an absolutely ridiculous notion.

Not to mention that it is the TAXPAYERS who invest in our public schools, it should be the TAXPAYERS - not 51% of parents votes - who make decisions relating to the use of TAXPAYER dollars. The bill as it stands now allows parents to receive a vote for each child they have in the Public School and then a 51% majority of those parent's votes could shoot down a Public Institution and hand it over to a Charter Corporation. Mind you - TAXPAYERS - there is NO voter accountability in Charter Schools. Their Boards are established similarly to a PTO or a PTA, where the volunteering parents at the school run for and are elected to the Board by the other volunteering parents. The TAXPAYERS don't get a say-so in the administration of the Charter Corporation. I ask, where is representative government and accountability in that type of system? What happened to our American philosophy of "no taxation without representation"? Did any of these legislators that wrote and passed this bill go to their History classes on the Founding Fathers and the American Constitution? Representative Truitt, I can't thank you enough for being a true American and having the fortitude and consideration to vote "no" to this garbage bill that does wrong by the taxpayers, makes no common sense, and most importantly will not serve the best interest of Hoosier children academically.

Representative Tim Brown received a bad apple in his lunchbox for leading the committee process on HB 1338 which expands funding of "Virtual" Charter Schools. Current policy allows for Virtual Charter Schools to be funded at 87.5% following a rationale that it is significantly less expensive for a student to "attend" (and I use that word very loosely here) a computerized "clicks and portals" school compared to a real live "bricks and mortar" school. You know, the kind of real live school which TAXPAYERS invest because schools are one of the leading contributors to positive Economic Development within a community. From teaching Hoosier kids hands-on skills to being an anchor for community development, schools - and more accurately - public schools are the #1 source of jobs now and in the future for Hoosiers. 

Rep. Brown decided that Virtual Charter Schools needed more money and his committee heard - then passed - this bill which contains language to expand funding of Virtual Charter Schools by over 14%. Now, I don't claim to be the sharpest tool in the tool-shed, but I can tell you from personal experience - virtual classes are EASY compared to a class to by a real teacher. In fact, they are exceptionally easy which is why I prefer to take virtual classes at the collegiate level in my non-major requirement study, if at all possible. Some people may criticize me for that decision - and that is probably a discussion better had at a different time and place. The fact remains - I don't see how a 7 year old, or an 8 year old is going to really learn much of anything from a virtual class. I don't doubt that they will pass the class, but from my experience there is no way these 6,500 kids that "attend" Virtual Charter Schools are learning at the same level as their peers who attend a bricks and mortar school. And Rep. Brown now wants to give more money to these Virtual Charter Schools that clearly do not have the same expenses as a traditional school? Let's get real here, Rep. Brown. Crawfordsville is a really nice town and with a really great Public School system. Your voters attended that Public School and their kids and grandkids attend it now. Heck, you probably went to that Public School. How can you justify to your constituents a bill like this that will only serve to fund a lesser quality education than what you and your voters know is available? This bill doesn't make any common sense, except for if one's goal is to 'dumb-down' Hoosier kids. Shame on you Rep. Brown for drinking the Huston and Bennet Kool-Aid and doing a disservice to our great State. You should take a lesson from Rep. Truitt on how to stick-up for what is right.


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?