$340K - What Does It Look Like to Buy Ed Soliday In The 11th Hour?

$340,000...That is all it took to earn buy Ed Soliday's vote for the next 2 years. Just like any other situation where one purchases an object, the purchaser needs to know exactly what they are getting. This is what Bosma, Behning, and the well-monied House Republican Campaign Committee (HRCC) PAC lobbyists will get from Soliday...

More destruction of PUBLIC Education - Soliday has consistently aligned his vote with the school privatization lobby and why would he change over the next two years with so much money coming his way to guarantee he will vote the party line instead of what is best for his constituents. Christel DeHaan (think Christel Charters), Hoosiers For Quality Education(think religious zealots bent on publicly funding private religious education), and a PAC that passes money through for the Koch Bros - that is who is buying Soliday. Get the picture?

He established policy that allows more charter authorizers, and more charter schools to set up shop in Indiana on the taxpayers dime. He established policy that created the voucher system which siphons money right off the top of public education. He established policy that disregarded the will of the voters and marginalized the role of the Superintendent of Public Instruction, Glenda Ritz, by removing her constitutional authority to preside over the SBOE  - and he did this without even putting the issue to public question.

Well, the proof is in the pudding folks, and tonight we are serving pudding for dessert. 

Here is the campaign contribution report showing how Soliday received $340,000 from the House Republican Campaign Committee in the 11th hour, literally just days before election day.

Here is a link to the campaign finance report showing where the House Republican Campaign Committee received their $$$$. I would attach an image, but it is over 110 pages long, so yeah...

http://campaignfinance.in.gov/PublicSite/SearchPages/FilingAmendmentSelect.aspx?FilingID=59939

Take a look at these records and follow the $$$ back to the original source, and you too will see how the school privatization lobby has created a wicked web of deception by purchasing politicians for play during assembly, then filtering the money multiple times to cover their tracks.

Indiana Legislators That Voted To Rob Public Schools

Here are images of the final roll call votes from the Indiana State House and the Indiana State Senate for HB 1003 that passed in 2011 and HB 1005 that passed in 2016.

HB 1003 (2011) established the voucher system that siphons funding from public schools and sends it to private - mostly religious - schools. HB 1005 (2016) siphoned even more money from public schools and expanded the voucher program to become the largest in the country.

Should taxpayer dollars be going to support private religious institutions? I am certain that this is not what was meant in the 1st amendment where it mentions "separation of church and state". Before 2011, Indiana had never used public dollars to pay for private schools. 

FED UP YET?

HB 1003 (2011) Representatives Roll Call

HB 1003 (2011) Senate Roll Call

HB 1005 (2016) Representatives Roll Call

HB 1005 (2016)  Senate Roll Call

Sure Ed, You Are Still "Working On It"

Thank you Representative Ed Soliday, for picking up the phone and clarifying your position on the SSCA charter app specifically and for clarifying your position on charter schools in general.

Hoosier Voices discovered today that Valparaiso community advocates were able to make contact with Rep. Ed Soliday. These advocates stated that they had tried to talk with Soliday by phone and email since they first heard of the SSCA charter school hearing, but had not received a response from the Representative until they called his office in Indy today and spoke with his office assistant Luke.



From our sources in Valpo:

"ED SOLIDAY RESPONDS (sort of) 

Two weeks after the SSCA charter school matter became public and two weeks after members of our group reached out to Rep. Soliday's office for support, we finally heard from Soliday's through his legislative assisant Luke Wilson. Actually, Luke finally picked up the phone to take our call.

After much stammering we were informed that Rep. Soliday is "still working on a statement" and will respond to "individual constituents through direct mail" i.e. campaign literature.

So in short, while constituents from both parties organized, stood up and spoke out against the SSCA charter, our state represntative DID NOTHING.

Thanks Rep. Ed Soliday for being such a "good friend" of public education and Valpo Schools."

Hoosier Voices has not received a statement from Sen. Ed Charbonneau at the time this published.

#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.