Monday, February 22, 2021

In Case You Missed It – February 22, 2021

Here are links to last week's articles receiving the most attention on NEIFPE's social media accounts. Keep up with what's going on, what's being discussed, and what's happening with public education.

Be sure to enter your email address in the Follow Us By Email box in the right-hand column to be informed when our blog posts are published.

VOUCHER PUSH IN LEGISLATURES

Legislatures around the country have been pushing voucher programs. The Indiana General Assembly has several bills expanding the state's already expansive voucher program. It's not too late to write to your state senators and tell them to vote NO on the expansion of vouchers. Read about the bills below, and about states where the voucher plans were blocked by public school advocates.

Bill lavishes more money on favored private schools

From the Fort Wayne Journal Gazette**

Hoosiers should demand to know the justification for handing millions in tax dollars to high-income households and private and parochial schools. How many more ways can GOP lawmakers find to take money from the schools serving 90% of Indiana's students, including the neediest?

Vouchers cost taxpayers $172 million last year alone. Overlooked are the costly programs created to lay the groundwork. It began with charter schools ($85 million in misspent public funds by Indiana Virtual School and Indiana Virtual Pathways Academy, according to state auditors).

Two programs were then created to win voucher support from wary non-public school families. The first established Scholarship Granting Organizations ($59.6 million in tax credits since 2010, according to the Indiana Department of Revenue). It served the dual purposes of creating a voucher eligibility pathway and funneling millions of dollars to private and parochial schools. The tax credit was capped at $2.5?million a year when it began, growing quietly and steadily to $16.5 million this year.

In the 2019 tax year, 3,372 taxpayers were awarded just over $9 million in tax credits, at an average credit of $2,670. In some cases, donations are carried over because they exceed the taxpayer's tax liability, or the cap on allowable credits has already been met.

But that's not all...

House passes voucher expansion

From the Fort Wayne Journal Gazette**

House Bill 1005 would increase the amount of money families can make to be eligible for vouchers and also increase the awards themselves.

And the measure creates new Education Scholarship Accounts in which state money would be deposited for families to choose how they want to educate their children. It is open only to special education students and children of active military.

The cost of the bill is more than $65 million over the biennium.

Rep. Renee Pack, D-Indianapolis, said "expanding voucher eligibility is just not appropriate and "encourages families to withdraw from our schools."

She added that the legislature needs to stand up for the more than 90% of students in public schools.

What Is at Stake when ALEC, the State Policy Network, The Buckeye Institute and EdChoice Lobby for Vouchers?

From Jan Resseger

As we begin 2021, there has been troubling coverage about new voucher programs popping up in state legislatures. This is despite that Betsy DeVos is gone and that President Joseph Biden is a strong supporter of the institution of public schools. And in states like Indiana, and Ohio, where privatized school vouchers have been in place for decades, we can also watch pressure for their expansion.

Earlier this week, Bill Phillis, Ohio’s longest and best informed proponent of public schools and the executive director of the Ohio Coalition for Equity and Adequacy of School Funding, sent around a troubling article from the Fort Wayne Journal Gazette describing a bill being considered by the Indiana House Education Committee for the radical expansion of an already enormous publicly funded private school tuition voucher program in Indiana, Ohio’s neighbor...

Good News from New Hampshire: Legislature Postpones Voucher Bill to Next Year

Hoosiers have never directly approved a voucher program yet our legislators keep increasing the amount of money diverted from your tax dollars to private schools. It won't stop until we either 1) overwhelm our legislators with demands to quit taking tax dollars away from public schools, or 2) elect different legislators!

Either way, we need "strong opposition" here in Indiana.

From Diane Ravitch

As a result of strong opposition, Republicans who control the New Hampshire legislature decided to postpone consideration of their “number one priority,” school vouchers. Under consideration was the most sweeping voucher bill in the nation. Thousands of people signed up to testify against the legislation.

Arizona: CEOs Criticize Voucher Expansion

Arizona, it seems, wants to duplicate the mistakes made in Indiana. Some CEOs are objecting...

From Diane Ravitch

Jim Swanson and John Graham, both CEOs in Arizona, wrote a stern warning against the legislature’s proposed voucher expansion, which would make almost all students in the state eligible for public funding to spend in a private or religious school. One of the authors is on the Arizona State Board for Charter Schools. Arizona is a state that likes low taxes; it does not fund its public schools adequately or equitably. Under the leadership of Governor Doug Ducey (who promised the Koch brothers a few years ago that he would drive taxes down as low as he could), the state is offering choice instead of adequate funding to its schools. Arizona has consistently underfunded its public schools and pretends to “reform” them by offering charters and vouchers.

INDIANA GENERAL ASSEMBLY TARGETS STUDENTS IN POVERTY

How Indiana has cut funding for students in poverty, hurting urban schools

Hoosier schools and children in poverty are hurt by Hoosier legislation.

From Chalkbeat Indiana*

Even though the state boasts an increased education budget each year, Indianapolis Public Schools receives $15 less per student today in basic state funding than it did seven years ago.

That’s because IPS’ gains in funding for each student have been eaten up by a sharper decline in state support for students in poverty, district officials say.

In recent years, Indiana lawmakers have prioritized across-the-board increases for schools over support for disadvantaged students, favoring budget strategies that buoy more affluent districts while higher-poverty schools say they’re left without enough resources to serve disadvantaged students.

POLITICIANS DISRESPECT TEACHERS

Educational Mansplaining

From Live Long and Prosper

By now it should be no secret why teachers are "mansplained" about education -- aka treated with less respect than other professionals. Teaching is still seen as "women's work" and those who hold control of the funding in education are mostly men.

In a field so dominated by women, it's not surprising that, in our patriarchal society, teachers are devalued and disrespected. Women still earn less than men. Women still have trouble reaching the highest levels of societal status (outliers notwithstanding). And women are still objectified in popular culture.

Money and status are still the most reliable paths to respect in our culture. The relatively low pay of the teaching profession and the fact that women make up the majority of educators tend to lower the status of teaching when compared to other professions.

In societies where education is more successful teachers are paid more and afforded higher status.
Now, the next time you hear a politician talk to a teacher or a group of teachers (or the general public) about "...what's wrong with education in this country" you'll know what's really going on.

WHAT WILL IT LOOK LIKE WHEN ALL THE TEACHERS ARE GONE?

You’re Going to Miss Us When We’re Gone – What School May Look Like Once All the Teachers Quit

Steven Singer penned this dystopian tale about school privatization gone wild...Read it all!

From Gadfly on the Wall Blog

DeShaun just sat there looking at his cracked phone.

Was this really all he had to look forward to, he thought.

He missed school.

He missed teachers.

He missed everything that used to be.

*Note: Financial sponsors of Chalkbeat include pro-privatization foundations and individuals such as Bloomberg Philanthropies, the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative, EdChoice, Gates Family Foundation, The Walton Family Foundation, and others.

**Note: The Fort Wayne Journal Gazette has changed its online access and is now behind a paywall. Digital access, home delivery, or both, are available with a subscription. Staying informed is important, and one way to do that is to support your local newspaper. For subscription information go to fortwayne.com/subscriptions/

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Monday, February 15, 2021

In Case You Missed It – February 15, 2021

INDIANA LEGISLATORS WANT TO EXPAND VOUCHERS

Indiana legislators are working overtime to privatize the state's public schools. The House votes Monday, Feb. 15, on a budget that will increase money for vouchers and charters while ignoring the increase in child poverty and its impact on public education. Public schools will get an increase of less than 3% each year for the next two years, while vouchers will increase by 20% and 23%. Despite promises over the last two years, there is no increase in teacher pay in the budget.

Once again, the Indiana General Assembly shows its preference for privatization.

House budget expands vouchers: Republican plan differs from governor's on key points

From the Fort Wayne Journal Gazette**

House Republicans unveiled a budget Thursday that would give less money to traditional public schools than Gov. Eric Holcomb's proposal, while also funding several one-time grant programs to energize the economy.

The governor proposed $377 million in tuition support – which is then distributed to school districts using a complex formula. The total equates to 2% growth in the first year and 1% in the second year of the biennial budget.

The House Republican budget has $378 million in new tuition support – 1.25% in the first year and 2.5% in the second year.

But their total includes an expansion of the voucher program that will send an additional $65 million to private schools over the biennium. That program would increase by 23% the first year and 20% in the second year.

Holcomb did not include a voucher expansion and, in his State of the State address, expressed concern about expanding choice at the expense of public schools.

Indiana House budget would expand vouchers, limit poverty aid for schools

From Chalkbeat*

At a time when many Hoosier families are in financial distress because of the pandemic, the Indiana House Republicans’ draft budget would cap the state aid for educating children in poverty and at the same time fund a significant expansion in private school vouchers for middle-class families.

The budget proposal, which was presented to and passed by the House Ways and Means Committee Thursday, would increase state funding for K-12 education by $378 million over the next two years — a 3.8% boost from this school year. The state would spread that increase across all Indiana public schools and a host of contentious education priorities while limiting funding to districts where poverty surges because of the pandemic.

The draft is an early step in the state’s budget development process. The Senate will produce its own budget proposal before the two chambers negotiate a final agreement.

Thursday’s proposal omits any substantial increase for teacher raises that a state panel recommended last year.

FWCS resolute against vouchers: Board, teachers oppose legislators' expansion bill

Kudos to FWCS Board of School Trustees and the Fort Wayne Educators Association for publicly coming out against the increase of vouchers. Public money should go to public schools.

Disclosure: FWCS school board President Anne Duff is a member of NEIFPE.

From the Fort Wayne Journal Gazette**

Fort Wayne Community Schools leaders formalized Monday their opposition to proposed legislation that would expand Indiana's voucher program.

“The public schools educate 90% of the students, and why we are catering to the small 10% is beyond me,” school board President Anne Duff said.

Lawmakers are considering expanding the current Choice Scholarship program, in which the state pays vouchers for private education. They also are considering creating new Education Scholarship Accounts, giving parents control of schooling dollars. The latter is limited for special education students, foster children and children of active-duty military members.

FWCS and the Fort Wayne Education Association make clear their opposition to House Bill 1005 and Senate Bills 412 and 413 in a joint resolution to be shared with legislators.

“There is no urgency to pass this measure during a pandemic that is already imposing severe financial constraints on public schools, as parents in Indiana already have an array of state-funded options,” the resolution states.

Options for Hoosier families include traditional public schools, charter schools, virtual schools, Choice Scholarships and tax credits and deductions for private and home-school education, the resolution adds.

“What the General Assembly is considering is fiscally irresponsible,” board member Steve Corona said. “They have not demonstrated the oversight ability to follow the dollars that have been given previously.”

Corona had an example to support his claim – the alleged $68 million in fraudulent spending by virtual charter schools.

NO MORE SCHOOL GRADES?

Indiana lawmakers could overhaul accountability, end school takeovers

Now that private schools and charter schools have learned that high poverty is the major cause of low student test scores, the pro-privatization legislature is considering ending school takeovers and school grades. When the punishment was only for public schools, it wasn't a concern.

Note also that the Chair of the House Education Committee (and school privatization consultant), Bob Behning, no longer thinks "accountability" is necessary.

From Chalkbeat*

Indiana lawmakers are considering a plan that would put the final nail in the coffin of the state’s aggressive efforts to take over schools with chronically low test results.

A proposal winning early support in the House would eliminate many of the consequences for poor test performance that typically loom over Indiana public schools. District schools with failing grades would no longer face the threat of state seizure or the steps that precede it, such as a requirement that districts attempt to improve schools by replacing personnel, giving them new resources, or working with outside experts.

Under the proposed law, charter schools with low grades would be able to seek renewals without special permission from the state. And even if they receive low marks from the state, private schools would be able to receive vouchers for new students.

SMART ALEC

A Smart ALEC Threatens Public Education

This is an old article (2012) but a reminder that ALEC is knee-deep in voucher expansion

From Education Week

A legislative contagion seemed to sweep across the Midwest during the early months of 2011. First, Wisconsin legislators wanted to strip public employees of the right to bargain. Then, Indiana legislators got into the act. Then, it was Ohio. In each case, Republican governors and Republican-controlled state legislatures had introduced substantially similar bills that sought sweeping changes to each state’s collective bargaining statutes and various school funding provisions.

What was going on? How could elected officials in multiple states suddenly introduce essentially the same legislation?

The answer: The American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC). Its self-described legislative approach to education reads:

Across the country for the past two decades, education reform efforts have popped up in legislatures at different times in different places. As a result, teachers’ unions have been playing something akin to “whack-a-mole”—you know the game—striking down as many education reform efforts as possible. Many times, the unions successfully “whack” the “mole,” i.e., the reform legislation. Sometimes, however, they miss. If all the moles pop up at once, there is no way the person with the mallet can get them all. Introduce comprehensive reform packages. (Ladner, LeFevre, & Lips, 2010, p. 108)

PUBLIC SCHOOLS LOSES LEADER

Legendary former Chicago Teachers Union President Karen Lewis has died. ‘She was a fighter and a treasure for this city.’

Public schools lost a strong leader with the death of former Chicago Teachers Union President, Karen Lewis.

From the Chicago Tribune

Karen Lewis, the firebrand former Chicago Teachers Union president who led a seven-day strike and nearly ran for mayor, has died at 67.

Details of her death were not immediately available, but Lewis was diagnosed with cancer in October 2014. The news came a day after the union, whose current administrators have said “will always and forever be the house that Karen built,” announced a tentative reopening deal with Chicago Public Schools and Mayor Lori Lightfoot that, if approved through a union vote, would avert a strike.

Lewis’ tenure as CTU president was marked by an unprecedented number of school closings, teacher layoffs, charter school expansion, crumbling school finances and rancorous contract talks with the city’s Board of Education.

In September 2012, she led the city’s first teachers strike in a quarter-century and stood at the helm of demonstrations that underscored smoldering national debates over public education reform. That gave her the political muscle to consider a run for mayor against then-incumbent Rahm Emanuel, a man she once described as the “murder mayor.” Lewis said in a later interview that once doctors told her of a malignant brain tumor detected near the surface of her frontal lobe, she knew her plans to take over City Hall were finished.

TESTING DURING THE PANDEMIC: STILL A WASTE OF TIME AND MONEY

A Teacher in California: The Madness of Test Obsession

From Diane Ravitch

A teacher in California, who must remain anonymous to protect her job, wrote this post. CAASP testing is the Common Core test produced by the Smarter Balanced Assessment Consortium (SBAC).

“We are 100% virtual, and teachers just had to sign an affidavit regarding CAASPP testing. I cannot believe they are STILL going forward with this. They expect that kids will 1) be in a quiet place with no distractions, 2) have their cameras on at all times, 3) not be using any other materials except pencil/paper, 4) that kids will have earbuds/headphones so they can hear the audio portion, 5) that kids won’t talk about the test content with ANYBODY.

And then, teachers are 1) supposed to simultaneously monitor 20+ students’ cameras and computer screens, 2) write down every time a student looks away or commits some other infraction, 3) keep every kid from unmuting their microphones (impossible).

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Monday, February 8, 2021

NEIFPE 2020 Year in Review

Year in Review 2020

[Click here to download a pdf copy of our Year in Review 2020.]

Like everyone else, Northeast Indiana Friends of Public Education (NEIFPE) looked forward to the start of a new decade and its continued advocacy for public education. The thought of a Presidential election and other national, state, and local elections meant informing the public of candidates’ stances on public education.

As we all know, three months into the new year and the arrival of COVID-19 brought about swift change and turmoil for our country and the world.

Within those first three months, NEIFPE focused on attending events where state and local legislators met with teachers and concerned citizens to address public education concerns.

NEIFPE also met with area candidates for political office to provide information on public education issues.

Of course, NEIPFE in-person meetings quickly gave way to Zoom meetings and/or socially distanced meetings in parks.

While the work NEIFPE accomplished in that short time span was important, it paled in comparison to the work done by all those on the front lines of the pandemic.

Once again public school teachers—and all of those entrusted with the education of our students --- did what they always do: doing what’s best for their students. Facing the most dire circumstances, teachers and everyone involved in keeping our public schools going worked nonstop to adapt and develop methods to provide instruction and guidance and well-being for their students.

Even as the 2020 Spring term ended, teachers began to prepare for the 2020-21 school year and whatever it might bring.

We have all read about and seen all the heroic measures that those involved in public education have taken for their profession, colleagues, and most importantly, their students. It does indeed take everyone to get the job done. Thank you so very much for all that you have done and continue to do to make public education so important.

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In Case You Missed It – February 8, 2021

INDIANA REPUBLICANS WANT TO EXPAND VOUCHERS

HB 1005 -- an expansion of vouchers that will take even more money from public schools and launder it through parents to unaccountable private schools that can (and do) discriminate -- has passed out of the House Education Committee and is now scheduled to be heard by the Ways and Means Committee on Tuesday, February 9.

Meanwhile, Fort Wayne Community Schools, made up of real public schools, has to work around cuts in complexity funding (which is based on students and families in each district receiving welfare or food stamps or caring for foster children).

Three articles about HB 1005 on our Facebook page received a lot of attention last week.

Indiana voucher supporters, opponents spar at Statehouse

From Chalkbeat*

A set of Statehouse proposals that would vastly expand public funding for private school education in Indiana inspired a marathon of impassioned testimony Wednesday, from both supporters and opponents of the controversial bills.

The legislature is considering opening the state’s existing private school voucher program to thousands of families who currently make too much money to qualify and increasing the stipends for middle-class students. The proposals would also create education savings accounts, which would give stipends to parents of children with special needs for their schooling.

The House Education Committee made several changes to the bill in bid to bring down the price tag to about $34 million in the first year, from the initial projection of over $100 million. A House Republican priority, the bill was approved by a vote of 8-4, and it will head to the Ways and Means Committee next.

The next two articles about HB 1005 were posted before the House Education Committee approved the legislation.

Betsy DeVos is gone — but ‘DeVosism’ sure isn’t. Look at what Florida, New Hampshire and other states are doing.

Indiana is only one of several states where privatization is occurring. There is a blitz of privatization articles now pending in Republican controlled state legislatures.

From the Answer Sheet

Indiana

House Bill 1005 would greatly expand the state’s voucher program by allowing families with incomes up to $145,000 a year to participate. That amount is near twice the median income of families in the state and provides taxpayer assistance to families who can already comfortably afford to send their child to a private school. According to an estimate from the Legislative Services Agency, it could increase the number of students receiving state stipends by about 40 percent in 2021-22.

Some 12,000 students already attending such schools would be eligible for state funding — costing taxpayers $100 million in the first year alone. In addition, the bill would add a new “Education Savings Accounts,” which would be made available to parents with students with special needs.

FWCS leader: Call your legislator: Tells parents bill to grow school choice detrimental

House Bill 1005 would expand Indiana's school choice program and create a more generous education savings account system. It has an estimated cost of $202 million over the next two years alone.

From the Fort Wayne Journal Gazette**

House Bill 1005 would expand Indiana's school choice program and create a more generous education savings account system. It has an estimated cost of $202 million over the next two years alone.

THE PROBLEMS WITH EDUCATION SAVINGS ACCOUNTS

Six Big Problems With Education Savings Accounts

In this post, Peter Greene writes about the problems with Education Savings Accounts which are included in Indiana's HB 1005. Among the problems he sees are the fact that parents can choose multiple unaccountable and unqualified vendors. There's also the problem of choice. Private schools -- or in this case, educational vendors -- can choose which students to accept and which to deny. Education Savings Accounts are just another step in the move from education as a common good to education as a commodity.

From Peter Greene at Forbes

No Oversight or Accountability

Most ESA programs have little or no accountability in place to determine just how the money is being spent. In Arizona, an audit found that parents had spent $700K of ESA money on beauty supplies and clothing. In Florida, where voucher-receiving schools openly discriminate against LGBTQ students, a new bill proposes that audits be performed only every three years. Kentucky’s new ESA bill proposes audits after the state has found evidence of mis-use of funds, which seems like a rather late shutting of the barn doors. And the bill that the Iowa senate just fast-tracked in order to establish ESAs includes no call for any audits or oversight at all. (That may be in part why the Iowa Satanic Temple has announced their intention to establish the Iowa Satanic School.)

PRIVATIZATION MEANS LESS PUBLIC OVERSIGHT

John Thompson: Oklahoma’s Disastrous Efforts to Privatize Everything

Shouldn't taxpayers have a say in how public dollars are spent? With vouchers and ESAs, there is no public oversight of public tax dollars.

From Diane Ravitch

Speaking of school privatization, this week the Epic Charter Schools board “accepted the resignation of 11-year member Mike Cantrell.” This occurred as the State Department of Education continued efforts to “recoup” $11.2 million of inappropriately spent state money. Cantrell still claims, “They don’t have a right to look at a private company’s records.” He calls the auditing process a “sham,” and speculated that maybe the auditor should be impeached.

NEW ED SECRETARY, MIGUEL CARDONA

Two articles about nominee for Secretary of Education, Miguel Cardona

Carol Burris: Cardona Is a Public School Guy

From Diane Ravitch

“Most parents want to send their children to their neighborhood school. It is important to support all schools, including the neighborhood schools that are usually the first choice for families in that community.”

That statement gives me hope. Cardona did not fall into the trap of using the term “traditional public schools,” a term coined by the charter community.

“Traditional public schools” is and was always meant to be a disparaging term. Cardona’s innovative elementary school was not “traditional.” The high school I led that had an enriched, challenging curriculum for all where support and racial integration of classrooms and activities were the highest priority was not “traditional.”

Cardona deliberately chose the term–“neighborhood” to describe public schools. Unlike his predecessors he did not use “traditional” to distinguish them from charters. And he stated that they are, as our friends at Journey for Justice remind us, “usually the first choice for families in that community.”

Cardona: Testing is important, but ‘I don’t think we need to be bringing students in just to test them’

Will Indiana follow federal advice about testing?

From Chalkbeat*

Miguel Cardona sent mixed messages Wednesday morning on how he would approach federally required standardized testing this year, in the likely event that he is confirmed as education secretary.

“If the conditions under COVID-19 prevent a student from being in school in person, I don’t think we need to be bringing students in just to test them,” Cardona said in response to a question from Sen. Richard Burr during his confirmation hearing. But he suggested he still believes testing could be useful this year.

“If we don’t assess where our students are and their level of performance, it’s going to be difficult for us to provide targeted support and resource allocation in the manner that can best support the closing of the gaps that have been exacerbated due to this pandemic,” he said.

Burr followed up by asking whether states should be able to make their own decisions.

Cardona responded: “I feel that states should not only have an opportunity to weigh in on how they plan on implementing it and what’s best for their students, but also the accountability measures and whether or not those assessments should really be tied into any accountability measures.”

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Tuesday, February 2, 2021

Vic’s Statehouse Notes #350 – February 2, 2021

Dear Friends,

Shock and awe!

Public education in Indiana is truly under attack.

In a late move that I did not hear about until this morning, the Senate Education Committee has also scheduled their version of the Education Savings Accounts bill to be heard on the same afternoon as the House version. The Senate Education Committee begins tomorrow (Feb. 3) at 2pm, and the House Education Committee begins at 3:30pm.

The Senate version in Senate Bill 412 differs from the House version in House Bill 1005 in several ways:

SB 412 calls the money taken from schools and given to parents “Personalized Education Grants” instead of “Education Savings Accounts.”

SB 412 makes no changes in the income tiers of Choice Scholarships.

The Legislative Services Agency says SB 412 will cost $112 million over two years for the “grants”, less than the $202 million price tag over two years for HB1005. This reflects the omission of extra money in SB 412 for expanded Choice Scholarships.

Still, both bills take the fiscal cost right out of the tuition support budget, increased in the Governor’s budget by $377 million, but now reduced substantially by either of these two bills.

Senate Bill 412 would also authorize the Indiana Treasurer to set up an online portal costing, according to the non-partisan Legislative Services Agency, as much as $11 million to let parents take the money that now goes to schools (approximately $7000 per student) so the parents can run unsupervised home or independent schools. The Treasurer can hire a bank to do the work and can keep 3% (instead of 1%) of every account for the trouble.

Senate Bill 412 makes 186,000 students eligible for these grants, 60,000 less than the House Bill. Again, the ultimate goal of Milton Friedman and his followers in the Indiana Senate is to make all students eligible for grants and let parents spend all education money without state supervision.

This is the Milton Friedman path to end public education in Indiana.

SB 412 is scheduled for a hearing this Wednesday, Feb. 3 at 2:00 in the Senate Education Committee.

You’re getting much practice in contacting legislators. Can you contact Senators about SB 412?

This is clearly the most serious attack on public education that I have ever seen.

Let Senators on the Education Committee listed below know that you support public schools and oppose bills that hurt public schools.

Email Senators on the Education Committee by Wednesday Afternoon

Here is the list:

Senator Jeff Raatz Senator.Raatz@iga.in.gov
Senator Scott Baldwin s20@iga.in.gov
Senator Brian Buchanan Senator.Buchanan@iga.in.gov
Senator John Crane Senator.Crane@iga.in.gov
Senator Stacey Donato Senator.Donato@iga.in.gov
Senator J.D. Ford s29@iga.in.gov
Senator Dennis Kruse Senator.Kruse@iga.in.gov
Senator Jean Leising Senator.Leising@iga.in.gov
Senator Eddie Melton Senator.Melton@iga.in.gov
Senator Fady Qaddoura Senator.Qaddoura@iga.in.gov
Senator Linda Rogers Senator.Rogers@iga.in.gov
Senator Kyle Walker s31@iga.in.gov
Senator Shelli Yoder Senator.Yoder@iga.in.gov

SB 412 contains Milton Friedman’s Plan to End Public Education. Please send your objections!

My testimony seen below has been sent to Senate Education Committee members. Feel free to use points from this and then add your own.

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Testimony on SB 412 submitted by Dr. Vic Smith, Indianapolis RE: Hearing on February 3, 2021

I strongly oppose SB 412. Personalized Education Grants are the same as Education Savings Accounts, Milton Friedman’s method of ending public education, and will open the door to giving public education money to unsupervised and unaccountable parents instead of to accountable and transparent schools. Under SB 412:

Partisan extremists could use state home school money to teach their children to disobey the U.S. Constitution. They will get public money, but no civic education about our democracy is required.
Racist parents could use state money to teach racist ideology in their home or independent school. SB 412 bans any state supervision of independent school curriculum.
Parents of special education students could spend state money on therapy that does not work. There is no evaluation of student progress required.
The State Treasurer would be required to promote the tax advantages of the Personalized Education Grants as an incentive to get parents to leave their school districts and sign up for the program. Every student in the grants program takes about $7000 out of the budget of the student’s public school district. This would obviously hurt the public schools that educate 90% of our students. The State Treasurer gets to keep 3% of the grants for their work.

LSA puts the fiscal cost of SB 412 at $112 million for two years. SB 412 says on p. 26 that this money will come from the tuition support budget. That means that Gov. Holcomb’s proposed tuition support increase of $377 million for two years is actually only $265 million, clearly not enough for all the rest of the K-12 schools.

The concept of “Personalized Education Grants” for special education and 504 students and foster students included in SB 412 is so detrimental to high educational standards, so dismissive of maintaining accountability with public tax money, and so potentially dangerous to our democracy that it should be rejected outright as soon as possible.

Why would Personalized Education Grants, as known as Education Savings Accounts, be so detrimental to education in Indiana?

1) The grants would give public money on a debit card to parents who sign an agreement to educate their child in “reading, grammar, mathematics, social studies or science.” That’s all! The bill actually says “or” in this list, so studying just one subject would fulfill a parent’s obligation. It’s an unregulated and narrow education. No art, no music, no health, no vocational subjects. This would absolutely lower standards for students just as standards for public school students in recent years have been raised.
2) The plan includes no obligation for annual testing or public accountability except for students who enroll in schools giving ILEARN. No accountability is required of students in home or micro schools.
3) The bill would give 100% of ADM money (more than a 90% voucher) to high income parents of special education and 504 students and foster children. It would even allow wealthy parents who are already paying private school tuition to get a grant and put it in a Coverdell college fund.
4) The bill would give the entire amount of public money for eligible students directly to parents, paving the way in a few years for the real goal to give the entire amount of public money to parents of all students on a debit card. These bills to privatize schooling would immediately divert money away from our public school students and over time would undermine funding for all students in both public schools and private voucher schools. This bill undermines the very concept of schools.
5) The bill would allow parents to home school their child with public money, paying for an approved provider, for a tutor and for textbooks. Public school parents would surely like to have the state pay for their textbooks as well, but public school parents must pay their own textbook rental.
6) The bill would give public money to parents with very weak provisions for fraud protection. Parents with past records of felonies or neglect or child abuse are not excluded.

If this Education Savings Account concept is not decisively rejected, it will confirm the theory that all of the standards and testing regulations heaped upon our public schools in the past decade have just been techniques to make privatized vouchers and grants look attractive to individual parents, giving them an incentive to leave the public schools in order to run home schools or independent schools with taxpayer money. This concept is taken from Milton Friedman’s plan to end community public schools. It should be totally and promptly rejected.

This concept of Personalized Education Grants, also known as Education Savings Accounts, is too radical and potentially damaging for any further consideration. The Senate turned down this concept in the 2017 session, and they should do so again.

Thank you for considering these major concerns.

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Thank you for your active support of public education in Indiana!

Best wishes,

Vic Smith

“Vic’s Statehouse Notes” and ICPE received one of three Excellence in Media Awards presented by Delta Kappa Gamma Society International, an organization of over 85,000 women educators in seventeen countries. The award was presented on July 30, 2014 during the Delta Kappa Gamma International Convention held in Indianapolis. Thank you Delta Kappa Gamma!

ICPE has worked since 2011 to promote public education in the Statehouse and oppose the privatization of schools. We need your membership to help support ICPE lobbying efforts. As of July 1st, the start of our new membership year, it is time for all ICPE members to renew their membership.

Our lobbyist Joel Hand is again representing ICPE in the new budget session which began on January 3, 2017. We need your memberships and your support to continue his work. We welcome additional members and additional donations. We need your help and the help of your colleagues who support public education! Please pass the word!

Go to www.indianacoalitionforpubliced.org for membership and renewal information and for full information on ICPE efforts on behalf of public education. Thanks!

Some readers have asked about my background in Indiana public schools. Thanks for asking! Here is a brief bio:

I am a lifelong Hoosier and began teaching in 1969. I served as a social studies teacher, curriculum developer, state research and evaluation consultant, state social studies consultant, district social studies supervisor, assistant principal, principal, educational association staff member, and adjunct university professor. I worked for Garrett-Keyser-Butler Schools, the Indiana University Social Studies Development Center, the Indiana Department of Education, the Indianapolis Public Schools, IUPUI, and the Indiana Urban Schools Association, from which I retired as Associate Director in 2009. I hold three degrees: B.A. in Ed., Ball State University, 1969; M.S. in Ed., Indiana University, 1972; and Ed.D., Indiana University, 1977, along with a Teacher’s Life License and a Superintendent’s License, 1998. In 2013 I was honored to receive a Distinguished Alumni Award from the IU School of Education, and in 2014 I was honored to be named to the Teacher Education Hall of Fame by the Association for Teacher Education – Indiana. In April of 2018, I was honored to receive the 2018 Friend of Education Award from the Indiana State Teachers Association.

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Vic’s Statehouse Notes #349 – February 1, 2021

Dear Friends,

Is this the end of public education in Indiana?

Is Indiana following Milton Friedman’s playbook to give education money to parents and not to the schools?

House Bill 1005 would authorize the Indiana Treasurer to set up an online portal costing, according to the non-partisan Legislative Services Agency, as much as $11 million to let parents take the money that now goes to schools (approximately $7000 per student) so the parents can run unsupervised home or independent schools. The Treasurer can hire a bank to do the work and can keep 1% of every account for the trouble.

House Bill 1005 makes 246,000 students (about a quarter of all Hoosier students) eligible for these accounts, which are called Education Savings Accounts (ESA’s). Obviously the ultimate goal of Milton Friedman and his followers in the Indiana House of Representatives is to make all students eligible for ESA’s and let parents spend all education money without state supervision.

This is the path that ESA’s provide to end public education in Indiana. I oppose ESA’s and House Bill 1005.

HB 1005 is scheduled for a hearing this Wednesday, Feb. 3 at 3:30 in the House Education Committee.

This is the moment.

All who support public schools should contact the members of the House Education Committee to express your opposition. HB 1005 has been made a priority bill by the Republicans in the House. This is the most serious attack on public education that I have ever seen.

Will you send a note of opposition to HB 1005?

It need not be as long as my written testimony that I sent today, which you can read below. Just put in your own words what would happen if our state no longer had strong public schools.

Instructions for Submitting Written Testimony by Wednesday Afternoon

Here are the instructions from Joel Hand about submitting written testimony against HB 1005 before the House Education Committee hearing on Wednesday, Feb. 3rd:

If you really want your testimony to be sent to the committee members, you will need to email it directly to each of them.

Here is a list of the legislators on the House Education Committee and their email addresses:
Chairman, Robert (Bob) Behning (R) h91@iga.in.gov
Vice Chairman, Jack Jordan (R) h17@iga.in.gov
Martin Carbaugh (R) h81@iga.in.gov
Edward Clere (R) h72@iga.in.gov
Tony Cook (R) h32@iga.in.gov
Michelle Davis (R) h58@iga.in.gov
Chuck Goodrich (R) h29@iga.in.gov
Jake Teshka (R) h7@iga.in.gov
Jeffrey Thompson (R) h28@iga.in.gov
Ranking Minority Member, Vernon Smith (D) h14@iga.in.gov
Ed Delaney (D) h86@iga.in.gov
Sheila Klinker (D) h27@iga.in.gov
Tonya Pfaff (D) h43@iga.in.gov

If you wish to testify in person, you must fill out an appearance form. The form is available at this link:

Appearance Form

HB 1005 contains Milton Friedman’s Plan to End Public Education. Please send your objections!

My testimony seen below has been sent to House Education Committee members. Please send your own thoughts to the email addresses above.

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Testimony on HB 1005 submitted by Dr. Vic Smith, Indianapolis RE: Hearing on February 3, 2021

I strongly oppose HB 1005. Education Savings Accounts, Milton Friedman’s method of ending public education, will open the door to unacceptable practices. We all lose when children are not well educated. Under HB 1005:

Partisan extremists could use state home school money to teach their children to disobey the U.S. Constitution. They will get public money, but no civic education about our democracy is required.
Racist parents could use state money to teach racist ideology in their home or independent school. HB 1005 bans any state supervision of independent school curriculum.
Parents of special education students could spend state money on therapy that does not work. There is no evaluation of student progress required.
The State Treasurer would be required to promote the tax advantages of the Education Savings Account program as an incentive to get parents to leave their school districts and sign up for the program. Every student in the ESA program takes about $7000 out of the budget of the student’s public school district.

The first part of the bill lifts voucher payments to give to high income parents who are already able to afford private school tuition, giving these parents a $65 million windfall but not teachers who need better pay.

LSA puts the fiscal cost of HB 1005 at $202 million for two years. HB 1005 says on p. 32 that this money will come from the tuition support budget. That means that Gov. Holcomb’s proposed tuition support increase of $377 million for two years is actually only $175 million, clearly not enough for all the rest of the K-12 schools.

The concept of “Educational Savings Accounts” for special education students and other groups included in HB 1005 is so detrimental to high educational standards, so dismissive of maintaining accountability with public tax money, and so potentially dangerous to our democracy that it should be rejected outright as soon as possible.

Why would Education Savings Accounts be so detrimental to education in Indiana?

1) ESA’s would give public money on a debit card to parents who sign an agreement to educate their child in “reading, grammar, mathematics, social studies or science.” That’s all! The bill actually says “or” in this list, so studying just one subject would fulfill a parent’s obligation. It’s an unregulated and narrow education. No art, no music, no health, no vocational subjects. This would absolutely lower standards for students just as standards for public school students in recent years have been raised.
2) The plan includes no obligation for annual testing or public accountability except for students who enroll in schools giving ILEARN. Students in home or independent schools have no accountability.
3) The bill would give 100% of ADM money (more than a 90% voucher) to high income parents of special education and 504 students, children of active duty military and disabled veterans, and foster children.
4) The bill would give the entire amount of public money for eligible students directly to parents, paving the way in a few years for the real goal to give the entire amount of public money to parents of all students on a debit card. These bills to privatize schooling would immediately divert money away from our public school students and over time would undermine funding for all students in both public schools and private voucher schools. This bill undermines the very concept of schools.
5) The bill would allow parents to home school their child with public money, paying for an approved provider, for a tutor and for textbooks. Public school parents would surely like to have the state pay for their textbooks as well, but public school parents must pay their own textbook rental.
6) The bill would give public money to parents with very weak provisions for fraud protection. Parents with past records of felonies or neglect or child abuse are not excluded.

If this Education Savings Account concept is not decisively rejected, it will confirm the theory that all of the standards and testing regulations heaped upon our public schools in the past decade have just been techniques to make privatized vouchers and savings accounts look attractive to individual parents, giving them an incentive to leave the public schools in order to run home schools or independent schools with taxpayer money. This ESA concept is taken from Milton Friedman’s plan to end community public schools. It should be totally and promptly rejected.

I oppose all parts of HB 1005. In particular, the Education Savings Account concept is too radical and potentially damaging for any further consideration, so at the outset, I urge you to delete pp. 25 to 38 (Chapters 1-6) of the bill regarding Education Savings Accounts.

Thank you for considering these major concerns.

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Grassroots support of public schools makes all the difference. Thank you for your active support of public education in Indiana!

Best wishes,

Vic Smith

“Vic’s Statehouse Notes” and ICPE received one of three Excellence in Media Awards presented by Delta Kappa Gamma Society International, an organization of over 85,000 women educators in seventeen countries. The award was presented on July 30, 2014 during the Delta Kappa Gamma International Convention held in Indianapolis. Thank you Delta Kappa Gamma!

ICPE has worked since 2011 to promote public education in the Statehouse and oppose the privatization of schools. We need your membership to help support ICPE lobbying efforts. As of July 1st, the start of our new membership year, it is time for all ICPE members to renew their membership.

Our lobbyist Joel Hand is again representing ICPE in the new budget session which began on January 3, 2017. We need your memberships and your support to continue his work. We welcome additional members and additional donations. We need your help and the help of your colleagues who support public education! Please pass the word!

Go to www.indianacoalitionforpubliced.org for membership and renewal information and for full information on ICPE efforts on behalf of public education. Thanks!

Some readers have asked about my background in Indiana public schools. Thanks for asking! Here is a brief bio:

I am a lifelong Hoosier and began teaching in 1969. I served as a social studies teacher, curriculum developer, state research and evaluation consultant, state social studies consultant, district social studies supervisor, assistant principal, principal, educational association staff member, and adjunct university professor. I worked for Garrett-Keyser-Butler Schools, the Indiana University Social Studies Development Center, the Indiana Department of Education, the Indianapolis Public Schools, IUPUI, and the Indiana Urban Schools Association, from which I retired as Associate Director in 2009. I hold three degrees: B.A. in Ed., Ball State University, 1969; M.S. in Ed., Indiana University, 1972; and Ed.D., Indiana University, 1977, along with a Teacher’s Life License and a Superintendent’s License, 1998. In 2013 I was honored to receive a Distinguished Alumni Award from the IU School of Education, and in 2014 I was honored to be named to the Teacher Education Hall of Fame by the Association for Teacher Education – Indiana. In April of 2018, I was honored to receive the 2018 Friend of Education Award from the Indiana State Teachers Association.

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Monday, February 1, 2021

In Case You Missed It – February 1, 2021

Here are links to last week's articles receiving the most attention in NEIFPE's social media. Keep up with what's going on, what's being discussed, and what's happening with public education.

Be sure to enter your email address in the Follow Us By Email box in the right-hand column to be informed when our blog posts are published.

ACTION ALERT - HB 1005

Please write the House Education Committee before Wednesday! HB1005, the most dangerous bill to public education, will be read and voted on this Wednesday. Please write every member of this committee to let them know you oppose the use of public dollars going to private schools, further weakening the dollars that go to public schools. Over a two year period, this increase to vouchers would cost taxpayers 2,000,000 dollars. Is this fiscally responsible at this moment when we are in the midst of a pandemic? Is it wise to funnel money to schools where only 10% of students attend?

You can read more about HB1005 at Vic’s Statehouse Notes #348

Email the House Education Committee at Indiana Legislative Education Committees

SCHOOLS SHOULD BE SAFE BEFORE THEY OPEN

School Police Can Sign Up For The COVID Vaccine. Teachers Still Can't

The CDC recommends that teachers should be vaccinated along with other essential workers. That's not happening in Indiana.

From Indiana Public Media

The limited supply of COVID-19 vaccines is causing tension as states roll out plans for who should get shots first, and school advocates in Indiana are pressing for more access for teachers.

The Indiana Coalition For Public Education and state's largest teachers union are urging Gov. Eric Holcomb and State Health Commissioner Kris Box to revise the state's plan and prioritize educators in earlier phases of vaccine rollout.

In a letter sent to Holcomb and Box this week, ICPE urged them to adopt the same guidelines shared from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, that prioritize educators alongside first responders. It's a change the Indiana State Teachers Association has also called on them to make.

Teachers and the Toll of Disinterest

From Curmudgucation

We have known now for a year that it would take an extraordinary investment to re-open school buildings safely. We didn't do it, and it's hard to attribute that to anything other than indifference and disinterest and the oldest education motto in the world ("We could do the right thing, but it would hard").

So as was the case after Sandy Hook and Parkland, teachers have to contemplate that part of the population (including, it should be said, some of their professional peers) that says, "Yeah, some of you may have to die, and we'd rather you stopped whining about it and just got back to work." It's not just the possibility of death or illness that takes its toll; it's the realization that this is how some people see you--a servant who just doesn't deserve all thart much concern.

Look, these are hard times with a surfeit of really noisy data and no attractive choices. But if teachers appear to be a bit shell-shocked by some expressions of disinterest in their lives and work, know that a snappy pep talk is not going to fix it.

SPRING TESTING

Biden administration urged to allow states to cancel spring standardized testing

NEIFPE is one of the "70 local, state and national organizations" which has signed on to the letter discussed in this article.

From the Answer Sheet

The letter says in part:

“It does not take a standardized assessment to know that for millions of America’s children, the burden of learning remotely, either full- or part-time, expands academic learning gaps between haves and have nots. Whenever children are able to return fully to their classrooms, every instructional moment should be dedicated to teaching, not to teasing out test score gaps that we already know exist. If the tests are given this spring, the scores will not be released until the fall of 2021 when students have different teachers and may even be enrolled in a different school. Scores will have little to no diagnostic value when they finally arrive. Simply put, a test is a measure, not a remedy.”

FAREWELL TO THE SAT?

Farewell to the SAT! We Hope.

Some colleges and universities have stopped using the SAT as an "entrance exam."

From Diane Ravitch

The SAT is in trouble. Its business model is threatened by the more than 1,000 colleges and universities that no longer require it for admission. Many more higher education institutions dropped the SAT due to the pandemic. The SAT is big business. It collects more than $1 billion each year in revenue. Its CEO, David Coleman, was architect of the Common Core standards, with a background at McKinsey. His salary is about $1 million a year. He achieved notoriety when he promoted the Common Core and came out against personal essays; he told an audience of educators in New York State that when you grow up, no one “gives a sh—“ about how you feel. They want facts. His Common Core curriculum insisted on the study of more non-fiction, which drove down the teaching of literature.

BOOK REVIEW: LIFE IN THE CLASSROOM

John Thompson: A Hilarious Novel about Life in the Classroom Today

From Diane Ravitch

Who knew that “adequate yearly progress” and “accountability” could be the subject of a comic novel? John Thompson just read that novel and he reviews it here.

Roxanna Elden’s Adequate Yearly Progress is a hilarious, satirical novel that nails the very serious truths about the real world effects of corporate school reform. Although Elden’s humor spectacularly illuminates the reformers’ often-absurd mindsets, she also reveals the good, bad, and the ugly of a diverse range of human beings.

THE 1776 COMMISSION REPORT: SIMPLISTIC AND WRONG

Education And The Necessity Of Confusion

Education is not quite as simple as the former President's 1776 Commission believes.

From Peter Green in Forbes

The 1776 Commission’s short, ignominious life produced a report that was widely reviled1 (and apparently a cut and paste job). It took less than a month to create the report, and just about three days to banish it from the official government web (some hard-right fans have preserved the text elsewhere). One commissioner has indicated that the group intends to continue plugging away. Good luck with that.

Beyond the historical distortions and hard-right baloney, the report contained some ideas about what education is supposed to do and how it is supposed to work. Those are worth looking at, because they really capture one of the central debates of education that underlies so many others. The commissioner’s ideas are wrong, but illuminating.

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Northeast Indiana Friends of Public Education

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