Doug Martin's Letter to the Indiana State Board of Education, July 8, 2014

Dear State Board of Education:

As you seek to dismantle public education and democracy, I want to remind you of my book, Hoosier School Heist, which is becoming quite popular.  Although it's hard to determine (since I don't have billionaires behind me to pay for someone to track the data), my educated guess is at least 250,000 people know about this book. 

The FBI even reads Hoosier School Heist. 

ABC Nightline is working with me and others on a possible show about a rightwing free-market Christian school highlighted in my book that Governor Pence's associate Mark Terrell now runs.  You can see the movie, Kidnapped for Christ, about this school on Showtime on Thursday, so mark your busy calendars. 

But I am not the only voice. 

Things are looking up in the arena of truth here in Indiana.  A strong movement to expose the corporate-theocratic assault on Indiana public schools, kids, and teachers is spreading across the state from Elkhart to Evansville. 

I know.  I have been travelling, and so has the pro-public education movie Rise Above the Mark.  Justin Oakley's Just Let Me Teach radio show draws thousands of listeners every live show.

There are now pro-public education leaders and groups sprouting up everywhere.  I am proud of them.  They are my friends.  Because we speak truth to power, we can sleep well at night, hearing the words of the real Hoosier hero Eugene V. Debs: "Our cause is just, the great public is with us, and we have nothing to fear."

I urge you to use some of that Hoosier "common sense" the Walmart/DeVos/hedge fund politicians in this state like to brag about, and leave Glenda Ritz alone.

Sincerely,  Doug Martin

 

Steve Hinnefeld Reviews Hoosier School Heist: Unions Unite NOW

by Doug Martin

Steve Hinnefeld has posted a review of my book Hoosier School Heist on his blog, School Matters.  Please read his review and check out his other pieces, too. 

Here is an excerpt from Steven's review: 

"Martin has a Ph.D. in literature, has taught in universities and published a book of Walt Whitman criticism. He can turn a phrase, and he can bring out the drama in a right-vs.-wrong narrative. Now working as a behavioral aide at a Vigo County, Ind., public alternative school, he grew up near Terre Haute, which may explain a lot. Maybe it’s the legacy of Eugene V. Debs or the memory of coal-field union wars, but Western Indiana progressives say what they think. Martin’s give-‘em-hell approach reminds me of United Mine Workers members I met while writing about coal strikes 30 years ago."

Oddly, Steve didn't know at the time of his writing that my father was a member of the United Mine Workers of America and participated in the strikes that Steve mentions.  I remember the strikes well.

As labor professor Patrick Hill has been telling audiences across Indiana, it is time all of the unions join together and fight off the billionaires.  So true.  Check out Patrick and  Randy Obenchain's (read his piece here) radio show The Workers' Voice coming every Saturday at 9am to Indiana Talks.