Hey Taxpayers!

Shirley Deckard was one of our Everyday Advocates in October. She currently lives in Indianapolis, is a retired English/Psychology teacher and serves on the MSD Wayne Township School Board. She posted the following on her Facebook page. We've reprinted it with her permission.

Hey, Taxpayers!

Your property value probably took a nose-dive today and you paid to make this happen!

If your school district is one of many in Indiana that will receive a lowered grade based on a ridiculously flawed test, your property value WILL drop. People just don't want to buy houses in an area that has less than an "A" school system. Many realtors will not even show houses in a "C" or lower area, taking prospective buyers to the next closest "A" school.

And what's really funny? You paid for this fiasco!

You see, while you (and many, many more taxpayers) were not paying attention, your state legislators and Governor insisted that the children in your community take a cobbled together ISTEP test, based on the new standards which were also insisted upon, before the new standards were vetted/studied/thoroughly taught.

Then, the Governor/legislator-controlled State Board of Education set arbitrary "cut scores," based on scores that they already knew, to decide who passed the ISTEP, and who didn't. Now your district's school scores will be based on these scores. (There is a sliver of a chance that your school scores can go up...there is a "growth" factor in this equation. However, someone is going to have to figure out how each child's "growth" from a totally different score from the test taken a year ago compares to this year's new test! Care to decipher how that will be done, because it can't! You will pay for those manhours, too!)

Multiple millions of dollars have been poured into this mess, because our Governor and our Legislators want to perpetuate the lie that our public schools are failing. They do this even in the face of the only national test which scores state against state, the NAEP, which shows that Indiana almost at the top of the list, and one of the few states to show across-the-board growth!

Why are they spending your money so needlessly (recklessly?)

Because....because....because...they have been bought and paid for by hedgefunders, corporate big shots, and other very wealthy people who would love nothing better than to have Public Education fail. Then, they can all buy a part of privatized education for their portfolio!

When your school is run for a profit, don't expect to be paid back for all the tax money you have put into this racket...THEIR profit will be the only goal.

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