Buying Indianapolis Public Schools

Guest Post: John Harris Loflin of the Education-Community Action Team of Indianapolis

Who runs our IPS?

“The crisis is not about education at all. It’s about power.”
~ James Baldwin

Overview:Traditionally, local school board races are nonpartisan. Such elections are supposed to be about grassroots politics and connections made at doorways between candidates and voters. Campaign chests are small: some yard signs, political buttons, and lots of volunteers. As well, school board elections are local--concerned with local issues and influenced by local stakeholders. Those outside a district normally show little concern. Influences from state or national interests are neither necessarily sought nor expected. Why would they be? It’s local politics. Yet, what happened in Indianapolis during our 2012 Indianapolis Public Schools (IPS) school board elections threatens this tradition. Such events raise this issue: Need Indianapolis, Marion County, and Indiana voters realize:  state-wide and national education organizations and individuals with a market reform agenda for public education intend to control your local school boards.

A closer look at the IPS candidates and their campaign finances
To create a perspective, it must be noted that current IPS Commissioner Roof had $2,461 in her 2010 campaign chest. Current Commissioner White had $4,182 in her 2010 campaign chest.For the 2012 election, Commissioner Gore had $2,157 to run against Commissioner Cosby’s $78,326. Cosby got $15,491 from the Stand for Children (SfC) PAC (Oct. 11: $5,000; Oct. 31: $5,000; Dec. 18: $5,491) and $43,867 from Democrats for Education Reform (DfER) PAC (Oct. 12: $3,356; Oct 31: $4,000; Dec.18: $36,511). So, of the total $78, 326, contributions from SfC/DfER equaled $59, 358. However, $55,368 (93%) of this amount was “in-kind.” Thus, she was not the leader in terms of total cash contributions. Commissioner Cosby won, receiving 75% of the votes.“Our staff and volunteers knocked on 17,000 doors and made 39,000 phone calls on behalf of our members' endorsement of Gayle.”    (December 27, 2012 E-mail from Indianapolis SfC’s Mat Impink.)  This does not count the many mailers SfC sent out.Then there was $57,000 campaign chest of Commissioner Odle. His opponent, Larry Vaughn, had zero funds in his campaign chest.   Commissioner Odle received 63% of votes cast.What more compelling is “unpacking” and analyzing Commissioner Hannon $67,438.00. She won 67% of the votes cast. Some of her biggest donations came from out of state:

• David Ritchie, Denver..............................4,000
• Arthur  Rock, San Francisco....................5,000
• Greg Penner, Atherton, CA......................5,000
• Allen/Jennifer Fournier’s, Far Hills, NJ..2,000
• Lydia Callaghan, Palo Alto CA ..............5,000
• Ken Thiry, Cherry Hill, CO ....................3,000
• David Goldberg, Atherton, CA ...............1,000
• Charles Ledley, Boston……… 1,000
• Tim Marquez, Denver ………..1,000
• Geoff  Ralson, Atherton, CA …5,000
• Michael Bloomberg, NYC…...10,000
• Leadership for Educational
• Equity, Washington, DC..........+1,240

$43,240

This means over 64% of Commissioner Hannon’s $67,438.00 came from those who do not live in Indy or Indiana, and most importantly, do not live in the IPS district or send their child/ren to IPS.

Some of these same donors gave to Rep. Mary Sullivan for her 2012 campaign for state senate. She received and accepted money from donors Rock, Ritchie, Callaghan, Penner, and Goldberg.

www.followthemoney.org/database/StateGlance/contributor_details.phtml?c=138306.

$202,764.00 vs. $4,957.00

Adding the donations of Commissioners Odle, Cosby, and Hannon had campaign funds totally $202,764.00. In contrast, their 6 opponents had a total of $4,957.

Were donations to IPS candidates from out-of-state supporters special to Indianapolis?

An IPS family might assume that for some reason folks all around the nation heard about Commissioner Hannon’s campaign and wanted her to have enough to run against Jim Nixon whose campaign was funded by $300 and educator Larry Whiteman who had little or no money donated.

Buying school board seats in Minneapolis and Perth Amboy, NJ

In “So You Wanna Buy a School Board Seat…,” fellow pro-public education blogger, Edushyster, wrote about the situation in Minneapolis,  while another pro-public education blogger Jersey Jazzman wrote a November 4, 2012 essay, “How To Buy a School Board Race 3000 Miles Away,” about the same thing happening in Perth Amboy, NJ (Pelto, 2013).

Jersey Jazzman noted,  “It seems absurd, and yet it's true: four wealthy Californians and one wealthy Coloradan--heavy hitters in the tech, financial, and health care sectors--have contributed tens of thousands of dollars to a slate of candidates running for the school board in Perth Amboy, a city of 50,000 with a majority Hispanic population. It really couldn't be clearer: the ’Better Schools Now!’ slate is being supported by a group of wealthy outsiders who would love to bring a swarm of new charter schools to Perth Amboy.”

Here’s the bio’s of the multi-millionaires Jazzman mentions.  A close look at the profiles of these contributors provides clues as to why they support particular school board candidates.

Greg Penner, Atherton CA: $8,000 donation. Penner is the Founder of Madrone Capital Partners and a well-known conservative activist. Married to Walton fortune heiress Carrie Walton Penner, HE sits on the boards of Teach For America (TFA)  and The Charter School Growth Fund. CSGF invests in charter management organizations around the country, including the KIPP network and Nobel charter schools. CSGF is also an investor in Rocketship Education; see below.

Arthur Rock, San Francisco CA: $8,000 donation. Rock is a well-known venture capitalist who also serves on the board of TFA and is an active funder of KIPP. Rock has invested in the Rocketship Education, a "hybrid" school that features extensive use of computerized instruction and, consequently, has a smaller faculty than regular public schools. Larry Miller found that Rocketship had large student attrition rates and smaller percentages of special needs students than its neighboring public schools (Rocketship responds to Miller here).

David Goldberg, Atherton, CA: $8,000 donation. Goldberg is CEO of SurveyMonkey; his wife is Sheryl Sandberg, COO of Facebook. Both are partners, along with Rock, in Rocketship Education.

Kent Thiry, Cherry Hills, CO: $10,400 donation. Thiry is CEO of DaVita, a dialysis provider; he was previously a consultant for Bain Capital. DaVita has been the subject of several federal investigations (in fairness, the company was recently cleared in one). Thiry has been interested in Colorado's schools and education policy for some time. He donated $33,000 to a slate of "reform" candidates in Denver school board elections last year, who were also endorsed by Democrats for Education Reform and Jonah Edelman's Stand For Children.

Lydia Callaghan, Palo Alto, CA: $8,000 donation. Callaghan is the wife of Adam Weiss, a principal at Scout Capital Management. Weiss has been introduced at investor conferences by Whitney Tilson, founder of Democrats For Education Reform, a group well-known for supporting charter school expansion.

"Any time hedge fund managers...when they walk into the inner city areas and start talking about poor children's education, it's not because they want kids to read and write, it's because they know that the federal government spends $600B on education and they want it and they're going to get it."
~ Chris Hedges

Louisiana

In the October 17, 2012 issue of The Nation, reporter Matthew Cunningham-Cook (2012) noted that for the fall 2011 elections a group of very wealthy billionaires, among them NYC Mayor Michael Bloomberg, turned the races for unpaid positions on the Louisiana school board (BESE) into some of the most expensive in the state’s history. Here, 7 education “reform” candidates for the BESE outraised 8 candidates endorsed by the teacher’s unions by $2,386,768 to $199,878.

In one race, a local Teach for America executive Kira Orange Jones raised $472,382. Her opponent, local New Orleans lawyer Louella Givens, had only $13,815. To support Jones’s campaign against Givens, Eli Broad, billionaire head of the education reform organization the Broad Foundation and a major trainer and placer of school superintendents, chipped in $5,000. Reed Hastings of Netflix kicked in the same. Houston energy hedge fund billionaire John Arnold and his wife Laura gave a total of $10,000, as did Walmart heiress Carrie Walton Penner and her husband Greg. New York City’s second-wealthiest man, Michael Bloomberg, contributed $10,000 as well.

Sound familiar?

This is worrisome: national-level millionaires contributing to IPS school board candidates. It reflects a situation where nation-level big box stores come into a community and use their buying power to lower prices, taking control of the market and causing locally owned businesses to close. Are national-level organizations like DfER and national lobbyists like SfC (along with their local Indiana/Indy franchises) which have given their own large support for local candidates--and the millionaires they have enabled to give even larger donations--influencing the vote of IPS board members? IPS commissioners accepting big money must know there are strings attached. Take note: these millionaires have no direct ties to the families and students living on East 10^th Street, State Street, Warman Avenue, Iowa Street, Boulevard Place, Coffee Street, or 30^th and Broadway.

Questions

• Why would anyone need such amounts of money ($67,000 or $57,000 or $78,000 which equal over $202,000.00) to run for an IPS school board seat (a job paying little) and especially against opponents with practically nothing, and in two instances actually nothing?
• Is this a power grab?
• Are candidates trying to buy school board seats?
• Why is this amount of money coming in from out of town?
• Are school board elections in Pike, Warren, Perry or the other townships next to be flooded with money from millionaires supporting board candidates who will carry out their national agenda?

Now, with the big picture framed by school board elections in New Jersey and Louisiana,  (and Colorado [Marcus, 2011]) we can see why these out-of-state folks contributed to IPS candidates and begin to question why these candidates accepted these thousands of dollars and what the donor expects in return. Do we really want out of state interests running our IPS?

“It’s just an attack by folks [Latinos for Education Reform] who aren’t in this district and can’t vote    
  here and are trying to influence the vote in northwest Denver.”
                 ~Arturo Jimenez, Denver school member whose 2011 campaign raised $68,073, winning
against opponent Draper Carson who raised $177,440.

Campaign Finance Reform:  Taking the money out of school board elections
Do we need a limit put on the amount money school board candidates can collect so that school board elections are about the issues and not who can buy school board seats or who is following agendas of out-of-state interests?

What’s also important is what happens with the monies not used in the campaigns? How can citizens find out? See the financial reports at Indianapolis Public School.

Who is running IPS?

A review of the financial reports concerning the donations to the campaigns of 3 of the 4 recently elected IPS commissioners reveals that if we based the answer to the question, “Who’s running IPS?”on who contributed to their campaigns, the response would be that it’s certainly not these commissioners or the neighborhood IPS families who voted them in.

“Pro-reform coalitions tend to be dominated by business and political elites and supported by       
  neighborhoods with large concentrations of highly educated middle-class professionals.”
~ David Kimball and Lana Stein, “Democracy at Work? School Board Elections and Reform in St. Louis”

A review of Commissioner Odle’s donations show they came from local businesses, developers, attorneys, doctors, politicians, and friends--the degreed people he’s met in his  executive and philanthropic work who live in the suburbs, in the north side Indy neighborhoods, and downtown Indy’s townhouses and the gentrified neighborhoods Kimbal and Stein (2007) refer to.

Most of Commissioner Odle’s contributions came from zip codes in Indianapolis: 46218, 46220, 46228, 46230, 46236, 46239, 46240, 46250, 46254, 46256, 46260, 46268, and 46278.  Other contributions came via supporters from zip codes in Carmel: 46032, 46033, and 46074; Fishers: 46037; and Zionsville: 46077. He did have 2 out-of-state donors, the more significant being NYC Mayor Michael Bloomberg from whom Commissioner Odle accepted big $10,000.00 donation. Remember his opponent (Larry Vaughn) in the November election had no campaign funds. See the links below for more details on Commissioner Odle’s finances. See his 2012-10-12 and 2012-12-31 reports at Odle, Samuel.

Commissioner Hannon’s local donors resided either in north side Indy neighborhoods or suburban areas or towns. Donations came from zip codes in Indianapolis: 46208, 46217, 46220, 46228, 46237, 46240 and 46256.  Other donations came via supporters in zip codes in Carmel: 46032 and 46033; Fishers: 46037; Zionsville: 46077; and, Noblesville: 46062. See Indianapolis Public School.

Are the local so-called “pro-reform” coalitions dominated by local and national business and political elites--and supported by large concentrations of highly educated middle-class professionals of all colors living in neighborhoods north of 38^th Street--trying to control IPS?

Do we actually want a public school system run by donors who perhaps have no child/ren in a regular (non-magnet, non-special program) school where the majority of IPS families send children? Is this the way the system is supposed to work? Are the wealthy supposed to run IPS? Is this the type of democracy we want and tell others around the world to copy?

Finally, the high level of influence of the corporate reform agenda on Commissioners Hannon and Odle is reconfirmed by the fact that Hannon is Network Coordinator for Teach Plus, an organization sharing the same suite (330) as the Mind Trust in public television’s WFYI building at1630 North Meridian Street (http://www.teachplus.org/page/indianapolis-169.html).  As well, in 2011, Odle helped shape and support the Mind Trust’s plan which proposes mayoral control of IPS (Jarosz. 2011).

The Big Picture

To continue to put what is going on locally in perspective, a review of the efforts of national education lobbyists Stand for Children to influence local elections around America is needed.

See “APPENDIX: The Big Picture” below.

Summary

A summary of the information presented in the above pages shows how a national organization, by way of a franchise, localizes its national agenda.  These groups have lots and lots of money, and national political clout (Sawchuk, 2012). They take advantage of the local politics of states like Indiana (also Florida, Louisiana, or Arizona) which have a legislative majority of pro-business or corporate school reform legislators (both Democrats and Republicans) and governors.  These franchises use their advantage to get laws past favoring a national reform agenda, forcing this on local districts.

Conclusion: What does the future hold?

Due to the present amount of monies invested and the amount of return on investments in all aspects of American public education, which has a budget of over $600,000.000.000.00, one could predict that at this rate, investors and/or politicians from India, Germany, Korea, England, or Canada will be contributing to local school board elections and will be expecting things in return.

2013 elections in California: $10,000,000.00 race for 3 spots on LA school board

“The race in [Monica] Garcia's District 2 is expected to be the most expensive. United Teachers Los Angeles reportedly vows to spend $4 million to unseat her. Insiders say Garcia, a close political ally of Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa, will likely raise a similar amount.” ~Barbara Jones “15 candidates file to run for LAUSD school board seats” LA Daily News 12.05.12

In LA, 15 candidates have filed paperwork and the three races are anticipated to cost $10 million, between direct contributions and independent expenditures from labor and reform allies.

Our IPS has a civic, not a private purpose (Resseger, 2012)

What is about to happen in LA is a warning. As more and more money from the private sector (representing corporations and wealthy individuals from outside a school district who favor privatization) continues to influence local school board campaigns, the ante is raised for all candidates. At this pace, school board elections will not be about children, but money and power. This not only corrupts the long standing tradition of grassroots local school board campaigns being about district issues and influenced by district stakeholders, but threatens our democracy. Public schools were not created to meet the needs of private interests. IPS has a public purpose.

John Harris Loflin
johnharrisloflin@yahoo.com
© 2013 Education-Community Action Team

References

Cunningham-Cook, M. (2012, October 17). Why do some America’s wealthiest individuals have fingers in Louisiana’s education system? The Nation.

Jarosz, F. (2011 April 30). Should the mayor have control of Indianapolis' public schools? Indianapolis Business Journal.

Kimball, D. & Stein, L. (2007). “Democracy at Work? School Board Elections and Reform in St. Louis." (pdf)

Marcus, P. (2011, October 17). Denver school board race steeped in politics. Colorado Statesman.

Pelto, J. (2013). Wait, What! Beware! Education Reformers Are Coming for Your School Board.

Resseger, J. (2012). The Public Purpose of Public Education: Message on Public Education 2013 United Church of Christ Justice & Witness Ministries.

Sawchuk, S. (2012, May 14). New Advocacy Groups Shaking Up Education Field: Their sway over policy and politics appears to be growing, especially at the state and local levels. Education Week.

APPENDIX:  The big picture
To continue to put what is going on locally in perspective, a review of the efforts of national education lobbyists Stand for Children to influence local elections around America is needed.
2010 Washington state legislative session Using money and clout, SfC:

• turned out and testified at hearings, met with key legislators and generated 600 calls and 5,325 emails during critical times.
• advocated in local districts distributing 4,000 postcards and attended town hall meetings.
• collaborated with pro-reform organization to have a strong presence in the media with over 30 editorials over the course of the 2009-2010 sessions and recruited the support of 34 superintendents in 2010.
• pushed state senate leadership at a critical moment to Race to the Top—wrote/delivered 327 personal postcards, ran 42 radio ads, sent over 300 emails, made 100 calls and generated 20,000 auto-dial calls to motivated voters.

A look at the 2010-2011 elections

In 2010-2011, SfC has helped elect 19 school board members in: Tennessee (Memphis and Nashville), Colorado (Denver), Oregon (Portland, Reynolds, Salem-Keizer, Lane County, Hillsboro, Central Coast), Washington (Issaquah, Tacoma), and Texas (Houston). In 2010 and 2011, SfC helped elect 41 legislators in CO, OR, and IL.  http://stand.org/national/about/what-weve-done

Illinois
On Oct. 7 2010, SfC Illinois PAC gave $175,000 to legislative candidate Ryan Higgins (R-IL). This was the single largest “outside” legislative campaign check in modern Illinois history. He lost.

According to Illinois Times reporter Rich Miller in an Oct. 21, 2010 article, “Who’s behind SFR?” noted the group contributed $650,000 to rank and file legislative candidates since Oct. 4, 2010.
www.illinoistimes.com/Springfield/article-7903-whorss-behind-stand-for-children.html

In 2011, members of the Chicago Teachers Union critical of Stand for Children's funders held a picket, chanting "Billionaires, billionaires, we're no fools, Stand for Children destroys our schools." http://austintalks.org/2011/04/stand-for-children-illinois-stands-for-billionaires-and-corporations/

Stand for Children’s use of big money to influence the passage of Illinois SB7

In July of 2011, Jonah Edelman, Co-founder of Stand for Children, talked in detail about how SfC came to Illinois with the express purpose to take down the teachers unions. Aided by the millions of dollars they raised from top Chicago corporate executives, SfC was able to influence Illinois state legislators to get Senate Bill 7 (SB7) passed. This landmark legislation severely curtailed teachers’ rights and job security. It has been hailed by Arne Duncan and other corporate reformers as a model for the nation in how to takeover public education: identify and support candidates with pro-SfC education platforms and then get them elect into office at state and local levels.
www.dailykos.com/story/2011/07/09/992927/-VIDEO-How-to-Fool-the-Unions-and-Bribe-Politicians-Aspen-Institute-Bragging-Session

“I’m being quite blunt here, the individual candidates were essentially a vehicle to execute a political objective…” ~ Jonah Edelman on why he used big money to influence the vote on SB7

When Edelman found out his remarks were taped and made public, he soon apologized. http://preaprez.wordpress.com/2011/07/10/jonah-edelman-apologizes-to-my-blog-readers/

A look at the 2012 elections 

Massachusetts SfC endorsed 9 legislators Boston, Worchester & Springfield.

Indiana SfC endorsed 8 house/senate candidates in Indiana.
DfER also backed 15 state legislators and 12 US legislators. In Indiana they endorsed Andre Carson, Tim Delany and Mary Sullivan, and John Gregg. Only Carson won.

Colorado SfC endorsed 11 legislators.

Washington SfC endorsed 24 legislative candidates. SfC endorsed Republican Rob McKenna for governor. Democrat Jay Inslee won.

It’s interesting, not all folks in the state of Washington see SfC as a positive organization.

The Washington American Federation of Teaches filed a complaint against SfC, alleging a deceptive mailer on behalf of candidate Sylvester Cann and saying: SfC, “…uses money from ultra-conservative donors across the country to enact legislation to fund vouchers, de-fund public schools, and expand charter schools…”

Oregon SfC endorsed 38 legislative candidates.

SfC had previously endorsed 3 successful candidates for the Lincoln County Oregon School District Board of Directors in the May 2007 election.

Illinois SfC endorsed 26 legislators.

SfC opened its Chicago chapter in 2012.

Tennessee 
With $200,000 from a single out-of-town source, SfC got 4 of 7 candidates it endorsed for Memphis school board elected to office.

Arizona 
For the November 2012 Phoenix school board election, SfC endorsed 2 school board candidates in the Phoenix Roosevelt School District and 2 in the Murphy School District.

Gov. Pence's Pal, Doden, to Collect Over Half-Million in Ft. Wayne Charter Rent

With permission from Karen Francisco:

Charter school charades

Karen Francisco | The Journal Gazette

That sound you heard Wednesday? That was the sound of the Indiana Charter School Board rubber-stamping a real estate deal to benefit a politically connected Fort Wayne business owner.

How else to explain a 5-1 vote to "replicate" an unproven school that has drawn few students in Indianapolis and met strong resistance from the Fort Wayne community during a public hearing held just 7 business days after local school officials and were notified? The application was approved less than 24 hours after the hearing.

Daryle Doden's Ambassador Enterprises has been looking to draw a charter school tenant to The Summit, its education center at the former Taylor University campus, for more than a year. Another charter school applicant, Sun Academy, proposed leasing space there in a charter school application last year, but withdrew its bid. (Sun Academy has submitted a letter of intent to offer another application this spring, along with Global Village International Inc., so as many as three new charter schools could be opening in Fort Wayne next fall.)

Doden is the father of Eric Doden, a former GOP candidate for mayor and Gov. Mike Pence's newly appointed director for statewide economic development. Daryle Doden and his wife contributed $15,500 to Pence's campaign. Daryle Doden's company will be paid $1,000 per student up to 550 students, plus "associated property costs", for providing space for Carpe Diem charter school.

Claire Fiddian-Green, a former Eli Lilly executive who is now executive director of the state charter board, justified the quick vote on the proposal as part of the "mini application" process required under the board's rules to replicate the charter model in another community -- one in which it was not originally proposed. She said Wednesday the Fort Wayne community is in "tumult."

That's apparently because the community doesn't view the Carpe Diem deal as the great educational opportunity the school's founder tried to sell at Monday's hearing. In fact, testimony at the hearing showed the community knows exactly what the deal is – hundreds of thousands of dollars being sucked out of area school districts as rent paid to Ambassador Enterprises.

To help sell the plan, Carpe Diem officials drove nearly a dozen students round-trip from their Indianapolis building on an icy, wet school night to tell a skeptical crowd how much they love their school.

"We're not IPS," the Fort Wayne audience responded.

The so-called school reform crowd backing charter-school expansion insists there should be no excuses for public schools to improve, but they offer plenty of excuses themselves.

Carpe Diem Meridian drew just 87 students last fall, but the reformers insist it was because of problems finding a location. While the reformers wield standardized test scores as a club to punish traditional public schools, they have none to show for Carpe Diem Meridian. The charter board rushed through the application before students there have taken the standardized state tests.

Jamie Garwood, appointed to the state charter board by President Pro Tem David Long, R-Fort Wayne, voted for the new Fort Wayne school. In an interview after the hearing, she quickly dismissed the strong opposition as limited to FWCS teachers and administrators.

"The general public doesn't really know a lot about this," Garwood said. "They didn't really know a lot about the proposal. I think the general public in Fort Wayne still doesn't really have a handle on what charter schools are, or what the options are, or what a high-performing charter is, or what they look like or how do we, as consumers, find that."

If the Fort Wayne community doesn't know enough about charter schools after more than a decade of hosting them, it apparently should trust Garwood and others to make the decisions about opening them here.

I wrote a story nearly three years ago about the diminishing amount of local control over Indiana schools. It's fair to say now that local control has been almost completely eliminated.

Because of its location, the new school will draw primarily from Fort Wayne Community Schools and East Allen County Schools. But it could also draw students from Southwest Allen, Northwest Allen, Northern Wells, Huntington and Whitley counties, and more. Its online focus and a Monday through Thursday school schedule will inevitably attract some students.

Ambassador Enterprises' proposed contract puts it in the unique position of serving not only as landlord, but also in marketing the school. The more students it draws, the more it collects in rent, given the $1,000 per-head fee.

But each student it draws from a northeast Indiana school means thousands of dollars pulled from an existing school. The loss reduces the ability of the existing schools to offer comprehensive programs – well-stocked libraries, guidance counselors, science labs, drama and music, sports programs and more. Carpe Diem's computer instruction model includes none of those features. The Indianapolis school has only five teachers for grades 6-10. Its Arizona school at one time had one math teacher for 240 students in grades 6-12.

Garwood is correct that people don't really understand charter schools. The reformers have cleverly marketed them as philanthropic or nonprofit endeavors. All are supported almost entirely by taxpayers, with money pulled from existing schools. When traditional schools are closed, as Elmhurst High School was two years ago, the frustrated supporters never seem to grasp the connection between the growing number of new charter schools and the loss of financial support for established districts.

The legislation that created the Indiana Charter School Board two years ago received only one Democratic vote – from Rep. Mary Ann Sullivan, a self-proclaimed education reformer. That's because school reform is about politics, not students.

All of northeast Indiana's GOP delegation voted to approve the state board, a poorly disguised end-run around the stricter standards now being used by Ball State Universityand the Indianapolis mayor's office in their authorization reviews. Those northeast Indiana lawmakers, Sen. David Long included, should explain to their local school districts why it was a good idea.

The ALEC-backed "parent trigger" bill proposed this session is the companion piece to the legislation. It allows charter supporters to collect signatures from parents in demanding a school takeover.

School reformers won GOP support by promising lawmakers that charter schools would be restricted mostly to IPS and Gary. But Fort Wayne's experience this week should make them all very nervous. If a well-connected property owner wants to tap into a steady flow of tax dollars by housing students in one of his buildings, there's nothing locals can do to stop him.

An Indiana Teacher's Close Encounter with "Red Menace" Daniels

Last Tuesday over a thousand teachers and parents showed up to lobby at the Indiana State House in Indianapolis.  Below is a news clip of the event and below that is a testimonial from a 38 year veteran art teacher who had a close encounter with what turned into a bulging-eyed and red-faced menace--Governor Mitch Daniels.



TESTIMONIAL FROM A MEMBER AT WESTERN (HOWARD COUNTY) WHO LOBBIED TUESDAY

On Tues. Jan. 25th, 2011, I went to Indianapolis to help lobby for public schools, their students, and teachers. You see I graduated from public schools, as did my husband, and our 3 children. ( Katie, a public school teacher, Jonathan a lawyer, and Molly a medical doctor, where did I go wrong?)  I have taught art in public schools since 1973. I love my students, my job, and my school.

Enough about me.... as I am walking through the halls of our state capital I see a small group of teachers talking to the governor of Indiana and I join them to hear him speak. One of the first things I heard our Governor say was "You teachers are all making to much money. You are all making 22% more than the taxpayers who are paying your salaries." A lady said her children are on free and reduced lunches and she was a teacher. One teacher did speak up in her defense and said she had 6 years of college. The Governor asked her what kind of a teacher she was and she replied a "very good teacher."

The Governor then said "well the rest of the teachers at her school must not be very good then because not everyone can be a very good teacher." He went on to say that 90% of the teacher evaluations in our state say that the teachers are excellent. And our education is horrible. "One half of our state budget goes to education and that is ridiculous! Our state has the highest amount being paid out to fund education.... and our education is terrible!" the Governor replied.

One teacher said it is not terrible and we are talking about our future, our children. She was ignored. "We have 300 school districts in Indiana and that is ridiculous. We need to cut that in 1/2" the Governor said. A senior student from Taylor High School stepped in. "Sir, I am a 21st Century scholar and I am concerned about the $3500 you want to give to seniors to leave school after their Jr. year. They need that year to figure out what they want to  do and the schools can use that money . You will be hurting the school budgets." The Governor pointed at her and accused her of taking money away from the poor students. She tried to get him to see her side. She was ignored. "Other states are watching us to see what we do with our education programs. I get calls every day" the Governor said.  A very soft spoken teacher replied "Sir, I would like very much to discuss some of these issues with you, how do I go about this?" The Gov. said "You just did!" and walked away.

I stood within 2 feet of our Governor and watched as his eyes bulged as he attacked everything said. I felt his disdain and contempt for public schools and teachers. And I felt the respect that should have been given to these public school teachers and students was non-existent. Several teachers have stopped and asked did I have fun in Indy on Tuesday. We left at 8:00 and returned a little after 5:00. The whole time we were at the statehouse or with ISTA.  None of the other statesman would see us after sending countless notes to them for a few minutes of their time.

I returned to Kokomo tired, more knowledgeable, and feeling very sad about what could happen to our school. But I can't stand by and watch without knowing I could have done something more. I plan on writing another letter, making another call, trying to find a way to let people know what is happening, not only for myself, (I will retire soon) but for my daughter who is only in her 7th year, and for my students, but also for all of you of whom I respect and care for. I encourage you all to do the same or go to the statehouse and see for yourself what we are up against.

Jeanette Sundheimer
Western High School

Mitch Daniels' Red Menace: Public Education

You can tell when the Presidential political season is starting to warm up when the demagoguery contests set in, and this past weekend at CPAC, the would-be Napoleon from Indiana was strutting his stuff and wearing his poker face.  In fact, he'll see Obama a Sputnik Moment and raise him a Red Menace.  Whereas Obama exploits America's golden age of fear to direct a cram-down ed policy, Mitch Daniels uses it to stage an extermination campaign against public services and employees. 

Don't know if Little Mitch has Rove and Luntz on his payroll yet, but this use of metaphor in his CPAC speech is real political genius that goes to the heart of this Koch Brothers Era of American Corporate Politics: the real Enemy, as evil as any dirty Commie Atheist, morphs, as fast as you can say Bolshevik conspiracy, into the myriad incarnations of public spending.  The elimination of the Red Menace requires a war, cold and otherwise, on public spending and those who make their living from it--public employees.  And if we cannot entirely eliminate this class of lice that depend upon free individual citizens to pay their salaries, then we are at least obligated to make them as poor and miserable as the rest of America's workers, whose jobs have been exported along with the American Dream. 

And because public sector employees offer a tangible and, thereby, kickable manifestation of the Red Menace, Daniels declaration has officially opened the hunting season for all the hungry and hate-filled Indiana hillbillies who get lathered up daily watching Fox and listening to Clear Channel hate radio instruct them on whom to resent for their poverty and third world status.

And, thus, as a staging area for a national campaign, the Napoleon from Indiana has declared war on teachers and public schools as a way to focus the hate and to rally the white poor of his State and the Nation who would have signed up with the Klan in earlier days of the other Red Menace. 

It never ceases to amaze how fast the political landscape changes, but even more amazing is how the true political chameleons like Daniels don't miss a beat.  In 2003 when Daniels, as W's Budget Director, was overseeing a $236 billion surplus turn into a $400 billion deficit before his eyes in less than 3 years, he had other fish to fry--or gooses to cook.  This is what he said then about a problem that is now the Red Menace: "a balanced budget is a high priority for this administration; it is not the top or the only priority.”

But as chameleon or plain old political whore, Daniels is going to be hard to match for his slick, pale ferocity that is particularly popular among Yalies with a weakness for well-scrubbed Koch corporate collaborators.  If Daniels and his henchman, Tony Bennett, get their way, public education will become corporate property and teachers will become Walmart-ized like the rest of the Hoosier State.  Bennett has been assigned to keep the NEA bottled up in its spider hole, and so far he's doing a heckuva job.  As if they wanted to come out.

It is obviously going to take some of that Spirit of Cairo to remind this little dictator that there are people out here, rather than speechless pawns he can move around his political chessboard.  I'd say that Indiana parents and teachers need to get with it.

From the AP via Courier-Journal:

By Deanna Martin, Associated Press

INDIANAPOLIS — Indiana Gov. Mitch Daniels' sweeping education agenda has spurred angry protests, hours-long legislative hearings and some of the harshest rhetoric the Statehouse has heard in years.

 

An Indianapolis newspaper headline proclaimed a "war" over Daniels' idea to expand charter schools. Teachers say they are "under attack" from the Republican administration. And House Minority Leader Patrick Bauer, D-South Bend, caused some jaws to drop when he said on the House floor last month that teachers are being "Mitch-slapped" by the governor's aggressive agenda.

The language surrounding the fight over Daniels' proposals — including teacher merit pay, limited collective bargaining and vouchers that send taxpayer money to private schools — reflects how passionately both sides feel about the major changes on the horizon. . . .

Perplexed; Imagine in FL

Recently, the state of Indiana released a list of schools that failed to make AYP.  I'm not going to discuss the (de)merits of AYP; instead, I'm going to point out something that, as the title of this post suggests, has me a bit perplexed.  Two of the four Imagine-run schools in the state made the failing APY list.  Here's the summary provided by the Journal Gazette, which also notes the reasons why the school failed to meet AYP:

Imagine MASTer Academy: English performance overall and by black, Hispanic and white students; English and math performance by special education students; English participation by black and special education students.

Imagine Schools on Broadway: English and math performance overall and by black and low-income students.

And here's what has me scratching my head: Imagine's 2010 annual report, recently posted on their website, ranks both schools an A- based on Imagine's internal measurements of student achievement.  Imagine MASTer Academy is described as "Making Unprecedented Gains!" The school, Imagine claims, "exceeded the authorizer's expectations in student growth in Math, Reading, and Language Usage in 2009-2010," and, "Met the exceeding growth category for all subject areas."  The other school, Imagine Schools on Broadway, is described as having a "Laser-like focus on Academics [that] Led to Significant Growth for All Students."  D'oh!

Meanwhile, in the state with the most Imagine-run schools (Florida - 17 schools), the company is receiving more negative publicity for the way one of their schools, Imagine Schools Land O'Lakes, is doing business.  Here's a snippet from a recent article, courtesy of the St. Petersburgh Times:

The school's enrollment has declined by 50 students — down to 485 — since the fourth week of classes. Its waiting list has shrunk to a fraction of what it was when the charter school first opened two years ago, with seats available in almost every grade level. Its governing board has experienced almost a complete turnover.

Pasco County school district officials found several areas of concern in their recent review of Imagine, including problems with financial reporting, governance, non-profit status, teacher certification and monitoring of student progress. The school's delay in filing one set of papers with the state has jeopardized about $75,000 in funding that was expected to pay for textbooks.

And more concerns (my bolds):

Scowcroft [the district's charter school supervisor] harbors a concern that has aired nationally about the non-profit status of Imagine. The state requires charters to be run by non-profit entities, yet Imagine corporate headquarters in Virginia has yet to secure that status from the IRS.

Also mirroring other complaints about Imagine across the country, Scowcroft notes that the local charter sends nearly 40 percent of its state money to the company rather than putting it into the school. The school has run two years of deficits, meanwhile, covered only by Imagine's corporate coffers, she said.

Moreover, the school's board of directors has what Scowcroft called limited power. Most of the members have turned over in the past year, and the decisions they make are largely controlled by the parent company, she said.

It was just a few weeks ago that another FL district approved a charter for Imagine.

Indiana's Corporate Education Reformers Get An Earful from Educators

Sanity breaks out in Indiana. From WISH-TV reporter, Deanna Dewberry:

. . . .University education leaders say a good teacher must have both a mastery of the subject he's teaching and knowledge of children and how they learn.

That's why university education leaders, those who teach teachers how to teach, say they oppose Dr. Tony Bennett's Proposed Rule Revisions for Educator Preparation and Accountability or REPA. Educators argue the proposed rules will erode the quality of preparation of teachers and administrators.

"Anyone can be a principal without any educational requirements," said Deb Lecklider, Associate Dean of Butler's College of Education.

Opponents argue the revisions greatly reduce the hours needed in education courses and classroom experience. The proposal encourages people from other fields, like business leaders, to become school administrators by granting temporary licenses to those with no education training.

"I think we need to consider the business community and what they have done to the United States of America and where we are with regards to that now and ask ourselves the question, 'Do we really want to turn our children over to these people?'," asked Elise Matthews of the Anderson Community School Corporation.

Matthews' comments were met with thunderous applause at Monday's meeting.

Then, a dramatic moment came late morning.

"We are delivering, as a part of public comment to REPA, 2,480 petitions," announced Jill Shedd of the Indiana Association of Colleges for Teacher Education.

At that point, a half dozen educators carried every petition to the front of the room and stacked them on a table in a dramatic show of what they said is public opposition to the proposals, giving Indiana Department of Education leaders plenty of reading to do.

A few weeks ago Indiana's Governor Mitch Daniels, one of the surviving specimen of the Bush years to successfully find a new political host, was crowing about finishing the work that Bush's old reading czar, Reid Lyon, had dreamed of for so many years--namely, to blow up America's colleges of education, where prospective teachers of the poor are poisoned with democratic dispositions and ethical commitments and caring attitudes and real teaching skills. Here is part of Daniels's rant:

“When the Professional Licensing Board begins starting next week to redefine what is required to get a teaching license in Indiana, the schools of education are going to have to make some major changes of their own. They are not going to need as many people teaching what to me is mumbo jumbo. We’re going to expect students who want to teach spending much more of their time studying the subject they are going to be teaching in the schools.”

Well, it is too early to tell if Indiana's corporate education reformers will prevail, but on Monday they got verbally hammered by a whole bunch of Indiana educators who have some crucial elements of their anatomies and who are no longer afraid to speak the truth to the know-nothing corporate clowns who want to destroy public schools and the teaching profession. From the Courier-Journal:

By Rick Callahan
Associated Press

INDIANAPOLIS — A proposed revamping of Indiana's teacher licensing standards that would reduce the amount of required courses on how to teach drew sharp criticism Monday from educators, with one teacher calling it “a slap in the face.”

The comments came at the last of three public hearings on the plan as more than 250 people filled a hearing room at the Indiana State Library to comment. The proposals by Indiana schools chief Tony Bennett would require elementary education majors to take no more than 30 college credit hours in pedagogy, or how to teach.

Education schools say the Department of Education moved away from dictating the number of classes taken in recent years and should not get back in the business of regulating a college curriculum.

The department says education schools have piled on too many how-to-teach classes and that limits are needed.

Bennett's proposals also would have prospective educators major in a subject area, such as math or English, and earn a minor in education.

Most of the speakers criticized the plan, telling Indiana Department of Education staff members who oversaw the hearing that it had been inadequately researched and would not improve the quality of the state's teachers.

Opponents delivered a foot-high stack of petitions signed by nearly 2,500 teachers, principals and other educators from around the state. They urged the state to hold more public hearings and allow public school stakeholders a chance to help shape the initiative.

Elise Matthews, an Anderson teacher who has taught for 31 years at Anderson Community School Corp., said the proposals, if approved, would leave people without the necessary expertise to teach.

“I think it's another slap in the face. We need to stop slapping teachers in the face,” Matthews said.

Matt Moll, a 10th-grade English teacher at Franklin Community High School, said the state was moving too quickly and without consulting stakeholders in the education community.

“I'm going to tell you the same thing I tell my students who run down the hall: Slow down. Someone might get hurt,” he said.

More than 120 people signed up to speak at Monday's public hearing, which followed hearings that drew hundreds of critics last week in Scottsburg and Rochester.

Bennett has said that elementary education majors need to take more classes in the subjects they'll teach.

But John Ellis, executive director of the Indiana Association of Public School Superintendents, said the proposal was wrongly targeting pedagogy instruction, which he said is crucial.

“You have to know how to teach,” Ellis said. “There are people who are extraordinarily bright, extraordinarily gifted in their areas of specialty but just simply didn't know how to relate to kids.”

Several college educators testified against the proposals, including staff members from Indiana University, Purdue University, Ball State University and Butler University.

Deb Lecklider, associate dean of Butler's College of Education, said many students who are failing classes in Indiana's private, parochial and public schools are low-income, blacks, Hispanics or those with special needs.

“What we don't need are unprepared teachers in our classrooms with that very group of students that need us the most,” she said.

Bennett has said his proposals could save college students money on tuition-based courses.

Department of Education spokesman Cam Savage said the Indiana Professional Standards Board, which would have to approve any changes in the standards, next meets Nov. 18 but will not be voting at that time on Bennett's proposals.

“The board members have indicated that they would like a couple of meetings to discuss possible changes to the proposals,” he said.