Tuesday Tattler - Post-Election 2016 - What's Dr. McCormick Up To?

So, as I began to recover from the disappointment of election day, I found myself cautiously optimistic with the comments and "campaign speak" of our newly elected Superintendent of Public Instruction.  I thought, "maybe the voters see some type of promise from her experience and her ideas".  It didn't take long for me to realize I was kidding myself.  I went back to her back-peddling statement about changing her mind that "it would be OK for the SPI to be appointed instead of elected".  That comment continued to stick in my head. However, I was calmed by her statements about being non-political, transparent, and open to all stakeholders.

WELL, WELL, WELL...Imagine my surprise when I noticed, while checking post election tweets, that this "non-political - transparent - open to all" Superintendent-elect had blocked the Hoosier Voices Twitter account from following or viewing tweets from the @DrMcCormickIN twitter feed.  What is she concerned about?  She won the election.  Is she afraid we will hold her accountable for her campaign comments?  Does she fear being reminded of her "Plan" for Indiana's schools?  Dr. McCormick blocked the Hoosier Voices twitter account, however, my personal account and those of many other PUBLIC education advocates can still view, follow, re-tweet, and reply to posts from the @DrMcCormickIN account.  There are still many ways for us to keep an eye on her actions and hold her accountable for all of her claims and our expectations.

Dr. McCormick was elected, touting a "plan" that appears to please voters in some way.  Her similarities with Glenda Ritz in most areas were frighteningly confusing.  How could a candidate touted by the GOP establishment, groomed by Tony Bennett, and paid for by Bennett's former donors be anything near to what Glenda Ritz has been as a torch bearer for Indiana's PUBLIC schools.  Is Dr. McCormick just naive enough to think these donors and her GOP "pals" will allow her to do anything other than their bidding to continue destroying Public education here in our state or was she so good in her deceptive nature to persuade voters to believing she would be our new champion? 

Which Dr. McCormick will Hoosiers see once the legislature begins to pull her toward the wishes of the GOP's big "education policy" donors.  With House Education Chair Bob Behning, House Speaker Brian Bosma, Senate President Pro-Tempore David Long, Senate Education Chair Dennis Kruse, and Even Governor-Elect Holcomb all receiving large donations from privatization and voucher supporters like Christel DeHaan, Fred Klipsch, Hoosiers for Quality Education, and the Institute for Quality Education, it appears it would be difficult for Dr. McCormick to go against these Tony Bennett donors and reverse the GOP course of continued robbery of our PUBLIC schools.  Will she be "allowed" to work with ALL stakeholders and do what needs to be done to reverse course and build up our public schools, or will she prove to be another puppet like Tony Bennett and bow to the GOP leadership and their donors to drain our public schools further and allow further demeaning actions toward Indiana's public school educators.

One thing is for certain.  ALL stakeholders need to stay informed, stay alert, and be ready to stand up and be heard at a moment's notice.  We all must hold our elected representatives accountable for our children and the future of our PUBLIC schools.  We at Hoosier Voices WILL NOT GIVE UP! We will continue to fight for high quality PUBLIC education for ALL Hoosiers! We will not give up!

#OrganizeAgitateEducate

Time To March, Ritz Army!

Time To March, Ritz Army - Complacency Is Not An Option

According to the WISH-TV/Ball State Hoosier Survey, Glenda Ritz has a seven point lead over her Republican challenger for Superintendent of Public Instruction.  The poll has Ritz with a 45% to 38% lead.  The poll does not indicate a "margin of error", so this lead may be a bit deceiving.  

This election is an important election statewide, for our children and our PUBLIC schools.  Their are races up and down the ballot that we must all pay attention to locally and statewide, as well as nationally.  We cannot let our guard down for one second and relax, thinking our PUBLIC school supportive candidates are safe from defeat.  Hoosier Voices founder Philip D. Arnold sums it up pretty clearly in a statement about this recent poll.  

Mr. Arnold says, "Ritz Army, we cannot be complacent. Polls don't matter much. VOTES matter. November 8, we must March once again to show Pence and his ponies that we have just begun to fight to take back our PUBLIC schools. Spread the word about the positive strides Glenda Ritz has made in her four years in spite of the GOP partisan politics and attempts to strip our 1.3Million votes. Make you Voices heard once again and vote to re-elect Ritz, give her a Democratic Governor in John Gregg, a pro-public education legislature by electing those supportive of our PUBLIC schools, and vote out those who have passed legislation destructive to public school goals."

After the election of Glenda Ritz in 2012, it became more evident that there were certain players out to "destroy" our traditional public schools in favor of the privatization lobby across the state.  These "Partisan Hacks" have made it a mission to spend their money electing POLITICIANS like Mike Pence, Tony Bennett, Eric Holcomb, and Jennifer McCormick to further advance their goals of shutting down our public schools in favor of the corporate run charter/private school industry to pad their wallets.  You need look no further than their campaign finance reports to see the heavy hitting players in this political game of chess to take tax dollars earmarked for our public schools to fund their corporate buddies in the charter/private school world.  Look for example at Fred Klipsch's Hoosiers for Quality Education and the money they are putting into funding the campaigns of Jennifer McCormick, Speaker of the House Brian Bosma, Senate Presendent Pro Tempore David Long, and others who are determined to do their bidding to wipe out public education as we know it in favor of the charter/private school elite.

We must actively participate to help candidates like John Gregg and Glenda Ritz win the "top of the state ballot" races, while electing local candidates in Senate and House races to take the politicians out of the game and out of our public schools.  We need to support candidates like Speaker Bosma's challenger, Dana Black, and Senator Long's challenger, Juli Dominguez, and a wave of other public education supportive candidates to take away the GOP stronghold on this state and return common sense education policy back to our teachers and public education friendly legislators.  Click the link below to see other PUBLIC school supportive candidates across the state who need our support.

Indiana's PUBLIC Education Friendly Candidates

It is imperative that we make our voices heard once again.  1.3 Million voters put Glenda Ritz in office in 2012 to stop the flawed Mitch Daniels/Tony Bennet reform practices.  Those same voters, forgot that Mike Pence (like the current GOP Gubernatorial candidate) was just another reform puppet to the corporate privatization regime.  We must remember this November that, in order to stop the push of flawed and failed reforms and sloppy destructive legislation, we must give Superintendent Ritz a Governor in John Gregg and legislators who will work WITH her and FOR our public school children and teachers.  This election is so important to the progress of our schools, the mental well being of our over tested children, and the retention of our excellent public school teachers.

Put these 1.3 Million votes to use as a strong voice to the partisan politicians who want to hoist themselves up on the backs of our children and tell them "ENOUGH IS ENOUGH".  Glenda Ritz came into the race in 2012 as a teacher, an educational leader with the knowledge and desire to help our children.  Her challenger claims the same; however, looking at her campaign contributors and her wavering stance on the Superintendent's position she appears like more of a politician ready to pounce to advance herself above being a local school superintendent into a career ready political hack like the rest of her pack.  It's time once again for the Ritz Army to march.  March into your polling place, make your voice heard and make your vote count.  It's time, Ritz Army, to stand up for what you want to do and GO DO IT!

While Indiana partisan hacks play politics, Glenda has developed a plan. Logic and Leadership are Hoosier values that Glenda brings to Indiana and to the Superintendent's office.

Thank you Superintendent Ritz for all you do to ELIMINATE ISTEP!

In Glenda's first 4 years as SPI, she has bridged the aisle between Republicans and Democrats to do what is right for Hoosier students. Let us not forget - she is JUST GETTING STARTED!

You know what they say about women that get things done?! Glenda has faced partisan political opposition head on and still gets things done for Hoosier students. We know there is a better way to measure school accountability than this bogus A-F grading system that is tied to the broken ISTEP test, and at the same time we see how Glenda has done her job in spite of these challenges handed to her.

For 4 years, Glenda has been making it happen with Career & Technical Education in Indiana and she has created positive change for ALL students by ensuring an education system of high quality that provides equity for academic achievement. "The more students can connect their everyday learning to meaningful, real world applications, the more likely they are to value higher levels of learning and persist toward their goals.” - SPI Glenda Ritz. We couldn't agree with you more Glenda and we see the value in all you have done to change CTE for the better in Indiana.  

The time is NOW to share the results of Glenda's leadership with others and re-elect her for another 4 years as Superintendent of PUBLIC Instruction.

CLICK HERE TO VISIT RITZ4ED

WELL, WELL, WEDNESDAY - Who is Dr. Jennifer McCormick, Really?

Over the past several months Hoosier Voices correspondents have researched across the state to find out just who Dr. Jennifer McCormick really is.  We have found interesting comparisons between Tony Bennett and Dr. McCormick.  We shared a series of "He Said-She Said" memes produced by a group called Hoosiers Against Jennifer McCormick showcasing some of the similarities between the two.  The Latest of these memes just came out after McCormick stated her belief that the Superintendent of Public Instruction should be an appointed, not an elected position.

Click here to see the entire series of memes.

Guest blogger, Ben Yoder, wrote a post for us and included a letter he had penned a letter to Dr. McCormick.  We published his post back in June.  In his letter Mr. Yoder found he had many questions about her policies, her interaction with kids, and the buddies she was "rubbing elbows" with.  He concluded with one complimentary observation.  He told her, " I like those boots you wear with most of your outfits.  Classy, yet sassy. Bravo"

Click here to read the post Jennifer McCormick - Faux In Boots

Near the end of September, Jennifer McCormick finally released her education plan, which left some of us confused.  Is she just naive enough to think that after hundreds of thousands of dollars of school reform PAC contributions, her campaign donors will just change their ideological agenda, or is she just that downright deceptive to think she can lie to our faces and have us believe it?

After attempting to decipher the goals and intentions of her plan We posted a blog outlining some questions about the plan and discussed the struggles we had with the manner and location of its original "public" presentation - the headquarters of Hoosiers for Quality Education.  This drew concerns for many reasons.  We grew more concerned with her acceptance of campaign contributions from the "privatization", "school choice", and voucher expansion crowd who strongly supported Tony Bennett through his tenure 2008-2012 and his losing campaign in 2012.  These same contributors have poured large sums of money into campaigns of candidates across the state who are known to have legislative power and pull, who support the very goals of "privatization", "school choice", and voucher expansion.  This lead us to once again draw comparisons between the former Superintendent, Tony Bennett, and his protege, Jennifer McCormick.

Click to read "The McCormick Plan? - or is it  Bennett Plan 2.0

The sources of her campaign contributions brought us back to one of our posts from February 2015 where we asked, WHO ARE THESE "Hoosiers for Quality Education"?  From there we combed through campaign finance reports and found more interesting correlations.  We discovered that candidates from June 2015 to October 2016 who were receiving the majority of H4QE donations were definitely way below the money they were pouring into the McCormick campaign.  McCormick has received $60,000 from the Hoosiers for Quality Education Pack alone ($20,000 more since our most recent post went live yesterday). Their next highest recipients were Speaker of the House, Brian Bosma and Pete Miller who each received $17,500

Click here to view 3rd quarter finance report.

Looking through campaign finance reports from other former Bennett donors we were able to find that, in the past several months, McCormick won another large amount from Christel DeHaan, founder of the network of Christel House charter schools.  DeHaan, whose Christel House Academy was the school whose grade changing fiasco brought Tony Bennett down from his post in Florida, has given the McCormick campaign $125,000 others contributors with Tony Bennett ties include...

Fred Klipsch - CEO/Chairman/Founder Hoosiers for Quality Education $10,000

Betsy Wiley - Head of the Indiana Institute for Quality Education - $1,250

Kevin Brinegar - President of the Indiana Chamber of Commerce - $750

Robert Enlow - CEO of EdChoice - $1,000

Tosha Salyers - Former Bennett Staffer now at H4QE - $50.00

Dr. Jennifer McCormick wants to "distance herself" from comparisons to Tony Bennett by saying, "I am not Tony Bennett, I stand on my own proven leadership".  It's pretty interesting that Betsy Wiley said, "It's important for Jennifer to make it clear...that she is her own person."

So, while McCormick tries to portray herself as "her own person" and convince PUBLIC school supporters that she is not a "clone" of Tony Bennett, doing the math and watching her supporters one must question what they all expect to get from her if she defeats Glenda Ritz.  Jennifer McCormick can rub elbows with Brian Bosma, wear her "sassy" boots, and call Glenda Ritz a "politician", but she cannot distance herself far enough away from the Tony Bennett reformers to comfort us here at Hoosier Voices.  She came out swinging in the Superintendent's debate, but her punches fell short to those of us who truly believe in our traditional PUBLIC schools, their teachers, the students they serve, and our ELECTED Superintendent of PUBLIC Instruction.  We need a leader like Glenda Ritz who will stand up to the legislators, fight for our children, and move obstacles to accomplish PUBLIC education goals for Hoosier children.  The position IS STILL ELECTED.  1.3Million voters put Glenda Ritz in office and have watched as a Governor and GOP controlled legislature attempted to stifle her at every move.  We have been watching and waiting for four years to re-elect Glenda Ritz and give her a Governor and Legislature that will work WITH her to stop the destructive reform policies and money draining vouchers that have plagued our schools too long.  Sorry, Jennifer, but you are much closer to being a Tony Bennett clone than being anywhere near the fighter for public school children that SUPERINTENDENT Ritz has been and WILL CONTINUE to be.

TUESDAY TATTLER : WHO ARE THESE "Hoosiers for Quality Education"? PART 2

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

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!!

The McCormick Plan? - or is it Bennett Plan 2.0?

Jennifer McCormick finally rolled out her “Lesson Plan for Indiana” on September 21.  That plan gives little insight into actual practice, yet draws more comparisons to her GOP mentor, Tony Bennett’s failed and flawed policies and practices.  McCormick said she did back many of the initiatives put in place by Indiana’s Republican-led legislature over the past eight years, such as tougher requirements for teacher evaluations and her “Lesson Plan” seems to be following a political agenda that closely aligns with the former Republican Superintendent, who championed controversial reforms such as the adoption of the Common Core academic standards and state-takeover of chronically failing schools.  McCormick has also previously stated her support for school choice, charters and vouchers.

Dr. McCormick announced her “Lesson Plan for Indiana” at the headquarters of Hoosiers for Quality Education.  Remember, we did a post about H4QE in February of 2015. 

http://hoosiervoices.blogspot.com/2015/02/tuesday-tattler-who-are-these-hoosiers.html

Big Education players for H4QE are veterans of the Daniels and Bennett administrations with strong ties to the education reform movement.

Tony Bennett, Senior Advisor and Consultant

As recently as July 2014, H4QE told potential donors that Bennett was its senior policy advisor. At a February 2 Senate committee hearing, H4QE’s lobbyist testified that Bennett works as its consultant.

Fred Klipsch, Chairman

Klipsch, who after a long career in business and Republican Party politics, started his involvement in education reform with the Educational Choice Charitable Trust by granting scholarships for private schools. This evolved into forming School Choice Indiana, which according to Klipsch, “literally drafted the education reform laws in 2011”. Klipsch served on Gov. Pence’s transition team upon being elected governor and continues to serve as his campaign treasurer.

Tosha Salyers, Director of Communications

Salyers was the director of outreach in the Bennett administration and worked for the corporate education reform group StudentsFirst, before joining H4QE as their spokesperson. StudentsFirst pulled operations out of Indiana in the summer of 2014.

Jennifer McCormick appears to be rolling around in corporate education reform money, the same money that funded Tony Bennett’s campaigns.  A peek at McCormick’s most recent campaign finance report reveals that 90 percent of her campaign contributions have come from donors of former Superintendent Tony Bennett.  As of August, McCormick’s campaign raised $121,478, of which $109,400 came directly from donors to Bennett’s campaign.

The Hoosiers for Quality Education PAC’s total to McCormick, so far, is at $30,000.

Fred Klipsch, donated $10,000 to McCormick at the end of May.

McCormick has also received $75,000 recently from the Tony Bennett grade changing  scandal charter school’s Christel DeHaan.

David Harris, from the Mind Trust, gave McCormick $250

Deborah Daniels, Mitch’s sister, also gave $250

Former  Indiana State Board of Education member Daniel Elsener has given $1,000 so far.

Charter honcho John Bryan has donated $2,500 so far.

These are only a few prominent reformer contributions.  More from other corporate school reform folks have come in throughout the campaign.

“We preach no bullying to the students and I will practice that,” McCormick said in her January campaign announcement. “I will not run a negative campaign.”

However, appearing negative enough to Superintendent Glenda Ritz’s supporters, McCormick announced her run at the Indiana Statehouse surrounded by representatives of interest groups that supported Ritz’s predecessor, Tony Bennett, or who have been critical of Ritz: Stand For Children, the Institute for Quality Education and the Indiana Chamber of Commerce.

Also on hand, in the crowd were several former staff members from Bennett’s education department team.  McCormick may not have mentioned Bennett, but  McCormick and Bennett share more than just donors who support corporate education “reform", however. The two have been linked since Bennett was state superintendent. Then Superintendent, Bennett cited McCormick's work in Yorktown in his final “state of education” address, given just months before he was defeated by Ritz in the 2012 election.

“Yorktown Schools, led by Superintendent Jennifer McCormick and a host of ambitious principals and teachers, have revamped their entire K-12 model based on providing every student a head start on college with a rich selection of Advanced Placement courses,” Bennett said in that speech. “In grade 3, Yorktown students begin an advanced curriculum designed to prepare them for college-level coursework as early as middle school. Yorktown has become one of Indiana’s AP leaders, and their model for college preparation has become an example for forward thinking districts around the state.”

It appears as though voters will ultimately be deciding whether to return to the Tony Bennett era of failed and flawed reforms or give Glenda Ritz another term, with a new Governor, this November.

Jennifer McCormick - Faux in Boots

Where are the kids?

As a teacher in Indiana, I’m very interested in who is elected to run the Department of Education. That person is, in essence, my boss.  I have been impressed with Glenda Ritz and her ability to fight for our students and our teachers through some pretty ridiculous circumstances.  Despite these circumstances she has produced visible results throughout the state and she is to be commended. 

In the interest of fairness (and a bit of curiosity), I decided to take a look at what Dr. Jennifer McCormack had to say.  I checked out her website and looked at her Facebook and Twitter feeds.  After doing that, I decided to write her a letter about what I found.  I posted it to her Facebook wall and I sent it to her campaign’s email address.  Here it is:

Dear Dr. McCormack,

I wanted to make myself more familiar with your platforms and your intentions if elected to become State Superintendent.  I am a music teacher in Central Indiana, so I’m very interested in getting to know a potential “boss.”  I looked at your Facebook page, your Twitter feed and you website.

Here’s the thing…In almost every picture I see you in and almost every post you make, you aren’t in the classroom. You aren’t even in a school.  You are not talking to teachers.  You are schlepping around the state of Indiana attending Lincoln Day dinners and begging GOP delegates to vote for you. 

I looked at your website so that I could find out more about why you think you would be a good superintendent. I didn't find anything other than incoherent whining and grammatical errors. Also, bad website formatting.

For a lady who wants to take the politics out of education, you sure are spending a lot of time hanging out with adults who have nothing to do with teaching. That's curious to me. Maybe slightly hypocritical, too.

I also noticed that the people you surround yourself with used to hang out with Tony Bennett. A word of advice: that's a bad idea in this state. You should know that too, since the school system you currently work for was screwed by Bennett's policies just as badly as most of the rest of us were.

I will give you one compliment: I like those boots you wear with most of your outfits. Classy, yet sassy. Bravo.

Sincerely,

Ben Yoder

I don’t know if she’ll read the letter or not and I really don’t expect her to return any correspondence to me.  She’s probably too busy sucking up every dime that’s not nailed down and rubbing elbows with the GOP trying to mount an attack on Glenda Ritz.  I get that.  After seeing what Dr. McCormick is selling though, I’m not buying.  But I do like her boots.

"But I do like her boots."

About our contributing blogger: Ben Yoder is a middle school music teacher in Central Indiana.  He is a proud Indiana State Teachers Association member and is committed to furthering the cause of public education for students all across the state of Indiana and beyond.

"He said, She said" - comparing Tony Bennett and his crony, Jennifer McCormick

There is a new Facebook page, Hoosiers Against Jennifer McCormick, that is hoping to gain support to keep the GOP's apparent nominee from defeating Superintendent Glenda Ritz in November.  Although Dr. McCormick has not been given the nomination (that has to wait until the convention this summer) she is making the campaign rounds as if the nomination is hers.  This new Facebook page seeks to show voters the commonalities between Dr. McCormick and ousted Superintendent of Public Instruction, Tony Bennett.  

Those of us at Hoosier Voices have noted many details in the McCormick campaign and her education profile that show her to be a female version of Dr. Bennett.  It appears those behind the page have also come across wide ranging comparisons, calling her the "Tony Crony" and pointing out that she is already displaying characteristics of a Bennett "clone".

The new Facebook page has also begun a series of "memes", titled "He said, She said" detailing some very similar quotes by both the ousted Bennett and the wannabe GOP nominee.  With permission from the pages owners, we are going to post their "memes" here as they post new ones.  With the permission to post these "memes" we promise to ask our viewers to check out the page and give it a like.  If you are a true supporter of Indiana PUBLIC schools, our children, teachers, and current Superintendent of PUBLIC Instruction Glenda Ritz, follow the page and share it with your friends and other advocates.  

Visit Hoosiers Against Jennifer McCormick for the latest "memes" before we post them here.

Does Gregg have PUBLIC school interests at heart?

Has Christel DeHann's $50,000 bought her Christel
House Academy another passing A-F grade? 

John Gregg looks to be the Democratic nominee for Governor, barring any last minute challengers entering the Democratic race.  This will set up a re-match of the 2012 Governor's race and call many campaign details into question.  The one hot detail for Indiana's education arena is just how much does/will a Governor Gregg support Indiana Superintendent Glenda Ritz (if she earns re-election) and Indiana's PUBLIC schools.

John Gregg(a supposed FORMER member of ALEC) has received campaign contributions from DFER (Democrats for Education Reform, a group that supports many bogus and destructive reforms similar to those of the Indiana GOP) in the past, and has recently gained the support and a $50,000 contribution from Christel DeHann (Noted Indiana Philanthropist, Freedom Indiana Supporter, and namesake of the Christel House Academy at the center of the Tony Bennett "Grade Changing Scandal". (See Open Letter from Doug Martin to John Gregg)

Bennett changed grades for Dehann's Christel House

Tony Bennett received hefty contributions from DeHann during his campaigns and these contributions have always been rumored to come with strings.  Bennett was defeated by Glenda Ritz in 2012 in Indiana and then left the same post in Florida after the grade changing scandal came to light.

 

Indiana needs a clear cut candidate, openly supportive of PUBLIC schools, clean of campaign contributions from Private and Charter school leaders who give freely with strings attached.  Rumors are that DeHann has contributed to the Gregg campaign to show her support for the LGBT community and the repeal of RFRA.  However, there needs to be a definitive statement from John Gregg as such and a strong statement that he FULLY supports Glenda Ritz, PUBLIC schools, and the end of destructive policies and vouchers.  It is time for a candidate to stand up to the contributors who seek favor from their donations and stand up for the middle class tax payers who pay to fund PUBLIC schools and not continually supplement the voucher seekers and private or charter schools.

 

John Gregg, stand up.  Stop using Glenda Ritz and public schools as photo ops and campaign props.  Say what you truly intend to pursue as Governor for Indiana's school children and stop touting false support in sound bites for the evening news. 

 

Mike Pence MUST GO, but at what further expense to our PUBLIC schools.



TUESDAY TATTLER : WHO ARE THESE "Hoosiers for Quality Education"?

Formerly known as Hoosiers for Economic Growth, this Fred Klipsch group appears to be a false front for Quality Education in favor of stripping true PUBLIC schools of much needed funding in support of vouchers and private corporation profits through their "false advertisement" of being supportive of Indiana's school children.  Hoosiers for Quaility Education sits in the front line of attacks against State Superintendent of Public Instruction Glenda Ritz.  They endorse most all of the attempts of the House and Senate leaders, and Governor Pence, to strip Superintendent Ritz of her powers as an elected official and to siphon more financial support from Indiana's PUBLIC schools into the pockets of private and charter school leaders.  

The Institute for Quality Education, a partner with Hoosiers for Quality Education, has gone so far as to "steal" the Hoosier-Voices title for a section of their website. Both of these groups list Fred Klipsch as their CEO/Chairperson and Founder.  This move blatantly confuses true supporters of Indiana's traditional PUBLIC schools, by leading them to believe Hoosier Voices agrees with these bills and the support of the GOP agenda to further destroy our educational system by over testing, under funding, and stripping the ELECTED Superintendent of the duties and powers 1.3 million plus voters put her in office to see through.

Looking further into this group you find that none other than Tony Bennett, the man who lost to Glenda Ritz, acting as a "consultant" to them on matters of quality education.  Hoosier voters, both Republican and Democrat, saw through his inabilities and together voted him out.  Why would any group claiming to support quality education and the children of Indiana choose this man as a consultant in any manner.

Onto other matters with this group, their name and economic status, there are major questions and issues bordering on legality.  Public School supporter Justin Kuhnle points out...

"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. "

This is the beginning of a series of posts to call out those who claim one thing and then act contradictory to their statements and goals.  This is part one of our mission to point out the discrepancies of this particular group and who they truly are.  There is so much more information to point out there needed to be a starting point.  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!!

#WeAreHoosierVoices

WHERE IS THE OUTRAGE?

Where is the outrage?! Where are the 1.3 million voters who elected Glenda Ritz now?! We cannot sit back and allow the GOP to continue their assault on PUBLIC education by stripping power from the only Democrat elected to state office, just because their golden boy Tony Bennett lost. This is their blatant attempt to bring Bennett back to continue the destruction he started. Get fired up, become outraged, stand up, and be heard! There is NO time to wait!!!!

As early as election night 2012, when Tony Bennett fell to the mighty Ritz Army, Mike Pence and his corporate GOP cronies started planning for the perfect time and manner to throw out 1.3 million votes and oust the ELECTED Superintendent of PUBLIC Instruction.  Their attempts have been futile, to say the least.  They have gone after her in so many ways from a variety of directions, but she has remained strong in her convictions to serve the electorate and the children of Indiana.  

It is time once again for the Ritz Army to stand up, be heard, and be counted.  We must make calls, write letters, and send the message that 1.3 million voters cast their ballots for many reasons to Elect SUPERINTENDENT Ritz.  Those votes were not just as a referendum of Tony Bennett and his misguided reforms.  Those votes sent a message that Hoosiers want what is best for our children and their education.  The message was to step back the reforms, back down from the corporate push of Mitch Daniels, and to rise above the greedy profiteers of so called "reform".  The Ritz Army marched to the polls and declared freedom from ALEC, Bennett, Daniels, and from the corporate profiteering of the GOP campaign backers.  Now we must lace up our marching boots and take back control of our children's education by becoming even louder than Election night 2012.  

As you go through the next few days, take the time to rattle a few cages.  Make some noise and apply some pressure.  Call your legislators, call committee members, call the Governor's office, write letters to newspapers, talk to all your family and friends, and make every effort to inform the public around you what is happening and how it needs to be addressed.

Remember, Glenda Ritz IS the Indiana Superintendent of Public Instruction