NEIFPE member Kathy Candioto sent this letter to the editor in November. In it she questions the motives for the creation of the Center for Education and Career Innovation.
Actions belie pledge for all children
Published: November 25, 2013 3:00 a.m.
Gov. Mike Pence (Nov. 15) states that he created the Center for Education and Career Innovation to consolidate the education and workforce responsibilities of the governor. I believe this new agency with its $5 million budget was created only to usurp the power of the duly elected Glenda Ritz, superintendent of public instruction.
As co-director of this new agency, Pence appointed Claire Fidian Green, former director of the Indiana Charter School Board. Green attended private schools throughout elementary and high school. She graduated from Brown University with a degree in political science and Russian studies. She worked as a management consultant, financial analyst and grants officer.
So where is her public school experience? Where is her teaching experience?
She never managed a class of rambunctious first graders or unruly and bored eighth graders; she never wrote a lesson plan, never conducted a parent-teacher conference, and never tried to reach even the slowest learner in a class of 25+ students. So why then is Green advising the governor on educational issues?
Public schools and public schoolchildren are not the primary focus of Green or the governor. Green and the governor are both supporters of school choice and taxpayer-funded vouchers to be used in private schools.
With these facts before us, we supporters of public schools and of Ritz cannot believe that the governor has “a sincere desire to work on behalf of all the children of Indiana.”
KATHY CANDIOTO Fort Wayne
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