"TWITTER STORM" SUPPORTING PUBLIC EDUCATION

Its time for a PUBLIC ED support "Twitter Storm" in light of the Institute for Quality Education's upcoming Quality Education Celebration, celebrating National School Choice Week by celebrating school choice options in Indiana, being held in the Indiana Statehouse Atrium on Monday, January 25.

The "Storm" will run from 4:00pm Sunday, January 24 until 5:00pm Monday, January 25.  During this storm we ask that PUBLIC ED advocates post tweets that include links to great public schools data, the effects of vouchers on public schools, and any highlights of positives of Indiana's PUBLIC schools.

Recently The Institute for Quality Education took a quote from a Chalkbeat article and published it on their twitter account claiming that ISTA President Teresa Meredith "supports" vouchers.  

Here is the actual full quote from the article.

"Clearly the public is unhappy with direction our state has gone and wants to get back to common sense support for students and public schools,” said Indiana State Teachers Association President Teresa Meredith in a statement. “Students’ chances for success should not depend on winning a charter lottery or living in the right zip code.”

Hoosier Voices For Public Education founder, Philip D. Arnold, states that he believes the intention of the quote was to say Public Schools are being robbed by the use of vouchers and "scholarships" being handed out based on geography or affluent status. 

When asked about the quote, President Meredith told Mr. Arnold, "Our government is selling off Public schools with vouchers and 'scholarships'.  No kid should have to have a voucher to get a good education"

Philip Arnold points out information from reviews critical of the Friedman research cited in the Chalkbeat article. An article posted by The National Education Policy Center states, " A recent report from the Friedman Foundation for Educational Choice purports .... But a new review of that report finds it is based on weak underlying research and that it misrepresents findings."  Read full article.

To show our continued support and advocacy for our PUBLIC SCHOOLS, let's flood twitter feeds with our PRO-PUBLIC ED information leading up to, and during, the big I4QED "choice" celebration.  When you tweet or post pro-public education please use #INpublicED along with any other of your "hashtags" and please tweet @i4qed @h4qed and @HoosierVoices along with others you wish to tweet to.  

In recent days Indiana's Public Education Advocates have pushed for positive moves in the current legislative session.  We need to continue our push of support and continue to show that our PUBLIC schools are worth the fight as we take on the volatile and poisonous "reform" minded legislators and the benefactors of their legislative agenda (benefactors like Institute for Quality Education, The Mind Trust, Hoosiers for Quality Education, Charter school operators , Private School financial officers, ALEC, Koch brothers, Friedman Foundation)

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 Governor 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.