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2011 General Assembly &
Governorship (Pg. 1)

2012 General Assembly & Governorship (Pg. 1 - Index) (Pg. 2 - Funding Effects)

2011 General Assembly & Governorship (Pg. 1 - Index) (Pg. 2) (Pg. 3 - Bills) (Pg. 4 - Commentary...) (Pg. 5 - Vic's Updates) (Pg. 6 - Effects) (Pg. 7 - Voting)

2010 General Assembly & Governorship (Pg. 1 - Index) (Pg. 2) (Pg. 3) (Pg. 4) (Pg. 5 - School Impact) (Pg. 5.1 - School Impact) (Pg. 6 - Local Gov't Impact)       
(Pg. 7 - Referenda) (Pg. 8 - Competing)                                                                                                          

2009 General Assembly & Governorship (Pg. 1) (Pg. 2)

2008 General Assembly & Governorship (Pg. 1) (Pg. 2)

Governor Daniels + State Superintendent Bennett + Republican Control Of Indiana House Of Representatives = Watch Out Education! (retitled, Indianapolis Business Journal, 10/20/10)
(This article by J.K. Wall, originally titled "Daniels Hoping GOP Victory Will Pave Way For Education Reform" was originally published October 19, 2010. Bold type and highlighting have been added by the Webmaster.) 

Gov. Mitch Daniels’ dreams for education reform are on the ballot all across the state this November—even though Daniels himself isn’t.

Daniels and public schools chief Tony Bennett have major legislative changes they want to make—but to do it they need their Republican Party to regain control of the Indiana House of Representatives, putting them in control of the entire legislative process.

“The chance to transform education in this state is right there in front of us, and it is so overdue,” Daniels told a group of young professionals volunteering for Republican campaigns during a meeting in August. But, he added, “We cannot get to first base let alone home plate on those reforms, unless we do have a success in the House of Representatives.”

Daniels declined to be interviewed about his dreams for education until after the election. Following suit, Republicans on the campaign trail have been quiet on the details of what they would do to change K-12 schools—largely so Democrats can’t “pin anything on us,” as one GOP legislator described it.

But that’s not to say Daniels, Bennett and Republican lawmakers haven’t made their views known. By reviewing their speeches, comments during meetings of education leaders, and by conducting interviews with politicians, lobbyists and policy advisers, IBJ put together a list of the most likely proposals Republicans will make—should they win the House. They are:

• Change collective bargaining rules to create a system of performance-based pay for individual teachers, based mostly on their students’ year-to-year improvement on standardized tests.

• Increase the number and funding of charter schools, and allow more low-income students to obtain tax credits for private school scholarships.

• Rewrite the state’s funding formula for public schools to make state funding follow quickly each student to whichever school he or she attends.

• Encourage and perhaps require schools to take steps to reduce administrative spending and increase classroom spending.

• Strengthen the state’s main school accountability law, perhaps by allowing state education leaders to intervene more quickly in failing schools.

Daniels & Co. have two things going for them: a pro-Republican tide that’s evident throughout the country, including in Indiana, and strong momentum for education reform created by President Obama.

Its president, Nate Schnellenberger, said he dropped his support for Indiana’s Race to the Top application in part because of the 51-percent requirement. He then supported Indiana’s application for a different federal grant to start a performance-based program with a smaller percentage of teacher evaluations based on test scores.

In addition, Schnellenberger would prefer that performance-based pay be awarded to the schools or school districts that perform best, rather than to individual teachers.

“We think teachers should be evaluated on multiple levels, one of which could include test scores,” he said.

As for Bennett’s plan, he added, “The competitive nature of it makes it something that teachers don’t really want. They don’t want to be pitted against each other for money.”

But that’s clearly the way Bennett and the Republicans are heading. Bennett’s Department of Education is already preparing a matrix that would at least guide—if not de facto mandate—local school corporations on how to implement performance-based pay for teachers.

Changing funding formula

For school administrators, the biggest issue in next year’s session will be further shortening or possibly even eliminating the “de-ghoster” policy, which steps down funding for a school district over three years when a student departs for another district and steps up funding gradually when a student moves to a growing district.

The policy ends up paying declining urban districts much more per student than their fast-growing suburban peers.

It’s why three school districts in the Indianapolis suburbs have sued the state to force a change in the formula.

“The growing school, we’ve born the brunt [of the funding formula] on a per-pupil basis,” said Mark Keen, superintendent of Westfield Washington Schools, contrasting his district with shrinking urban districts like IPS.

Daniels has not spent much political capital on the time-worn debate over the funding formula, but he has clearly expressed that he wants to change it. In his very first State of the State address in January 2005, Daniels said the state’s funding formula is “broken and indefensible.”

“It is time for a system the average citizen can understand, one based on clear, fair principles,” he said. “That system should begin with equal dollars per child, adjusted for the special care we must provide to children of poverty, or with genuine disabilities, to any kid on whom life has placed a special burden. I ask this assembly to replace today’s Rube Goldberg formula.”

Daniels also called in that speech—and many since—for school districts to stop spending so much money outside the classroom—roughly 40 cents on every dollar in funding goes toward administration, transportation and buildings.

This rhetoric—and Daniels’ moves to greatly restrict districts’ ability to raise local property taxes for building projects—have earned him the ire of superintendents around the state.

“The percentage of dollars going to the classroom is a flawed discussion,” said Keen. He said growing schools need to spend more on transportation and buildings to accommodate new students, which then makes them look bad in Daniels’ calculation.

But expect Daniels to start the discussion again. After he gave a speech in May on Indiana’s economy to the Economic Club of Indiana, Daniels responded to a question about education with a deck of 10 PowerPoint slides, showing that Indiana ranks third in the nation for school spending per student, when adjusted for the cost of living, and yet ranks in the bottom 10 for percentage of funding spent on instruction.

House Republicans already have prepared a series of proposals to help—or even require—school districts to trim their administrative costs, such as by joining the state health insurance pool.

Expanding school choice

Republicans also will pursue the conservative dream of greater school choice.

That means getting more charter schools launched and expanding the private school scholarship tax credit program, which launched this year by providing a 50-percent tax break on scholarships given to low-income students to attend private schools.

Charter schools receive public funding for students they enroll but are freed from many restrictions traditional schools must follow. Since charter schools were first allowed in 2001, 49 have been authorized by either Ball State University or the mayor of Indianapolis.

Republicans want to increase the number of entities authorizing new schools, perhaps by creating a state board that would do so or by enticing other universities—who already are allowed to sponsor new charters—to begin doing so.

They also want to increase funding for charters, which now do not receive any funds for transportation or building costs, as traditional public schools do.

“We’re looking at ways to make sure there are more options. We want to limit the obstacles,” said Behning, the ranking Republican on the House Education Committee. “We want charters to do as well or better than traditional public schools, but we don’t fund them at the same level.”

Both charter schools and tax credits for private schools have been controversial, with public school leaders saying they sap students—and therefore funding—from public schools, hurting the educations of those students who remain in traditional public schools.

Interestingly, both charter schools and scholarship tax credits were approved when Democrats controlled the House of Representatives—not when Republicans were in control.

That’s an indication that the politics around education are not a simple party fight, said Derek Redelman, an education lobbyist for the Indiana Chamber of Commerce, which supports Daniels’ and Bennett’s reforms.

When the debate heats up over performance-based pay, expansion of school choice and, especially, overhauling school funding, Redelman expects many Republicans to feel heat from their local district school leaders to reject Daniels’ and Bennett’s ideas.

“We’ve always had problems with some number of Republicans with every effort that we’ve pursued in education,” he said. “I don’t think anything is going to be a slam dunk if the Republicans get a majority in the House.”

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Indiana Schools Face Reform And Competition, School Boards Association Director Says (retitled, IED, 10/26/10)

HUNTINGBURG — State education leaders told area school officials Monday that several education issues will be influenced by the direction of the economy and the outcome of November elections.

The next state officeholders might decide issues such as how much of the state’s limited financial resources will go to schools, school corporation consolidation, how general fund referendums are handled and a later school start date, Frank Bush, executive director for the Indiana School Boards Association, said during the organization’s fall regional meeting at the Huntingburg Event Center.

Bush said working with lawmakers will require educators to balance mandated and needed reform with protecting programs that have worked for years and making sure that schools aren’t making reforms for the sake of change.

Reform and competition will be among the most common themes for schools in the next couple of years, mostly because there’s not a lot of money to go around, he said.

The increasing number of charter schools in the state and the practice of awarding state money based on enrollment means that schools have to work harder than ever to keep their students, especially when the state government will probably reduce general fund contributions again for 2011, Bush said.

“Public schools are going to be expected to rise up to the level of being more competitive than you ever have before,” he said.

Terry Enlow, superintendent for Southwest Dubois School Corp., said the meeting dealt with the same bad news for schools that he hears every day and addressed legislation that might or might not pass, but he’s always interested in legislation that affects school funding.

Enlow said students should go to schools in the communities in which they live, and having tuition money follow students if they attend neighboring school corporations will cause competition among school corporations. That might be part of the appeal for legislators who think competition among schools causes schools to consistently improve, he said.

It will also decrease the funding available for public schools if the state increases funding available to charter schools, Enlow said.

“In the end, you see what comes out of Indianapolis, and you deal with it,” he said.

All of the financial issues could combine to make school corporations seek unforeseen solutions, Enlow said.

“Although I think consolidation will not be legislated, I think it will be financially forced on us,” he said.

Bush said he wouldn’t be surprised if state officials considered school corporation consolidation as a way to stretch state money, and he encouraged educators to talk to their state representatives if they don’t want that to happen.

Corporations have the option of holding local referendums for school general funds, and several have taken place across the state. If the referendums increase in use, Bush said, he’s worried that lawmakers might impose new regulations, such as not allowing corporations to campaign in the 60 days before an election, That would greatly hinder corporations’ ability to get the word out about their needs, he said.

Another possible piece of legislation for 2011 is a revival of the plan to push school start dates past Labor Day, he said.

Jerrill Vandeventer, superintendent for Greater Jasper Consolidated Schools, doesn’t want to see legislation passed regarding a school start date because he thinks that would reduce local control of schools.

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Daniels' Legislative Priorities - Teachers: "He'll Seek Merit Pay For The Best Teachers And The Freedom To Dump The Worst" (retitled, Ind'pls Star, 11/6/10)
(This article by Mary Beth Schneider, originally titled "Gov. Daniels Is On A Legislative Mission" was originally published in The Indianapolis Star on November 5, 2010. Bold type and highlighting have been added by the Webmaster.) 

"The best teachers could get paid more, the unemployed get paid less and every taxpayer get a refund if the state ever has more money than it needs...he is focusing on reforms, both to local government -- a wish-list retread that has largely eluded him in past legislative sessions -- and to education. Daniels said he'll seek merit pay for the best teachers and the freedom to dump the worst; more options for parents to move their children out of failing schools; and the repeal of laws and regulations that tie the hands of school officials. New to his list: letting students who have fulfilled their high school graduation requirements leave and pocket the money the state otherwise would have spent on them, as long as they use that cash for educational experiences...Other issues on Daniels' agenda -- such as creating a balanced budget without raising taxes -- are going to be hard to do but easy to pass once the math is figured out..."

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Technology Puts Indiana House In Your House (IED, 11/28/10)

INDIANAPOLIS | Northwest Indiana and the Indiana Statehouse soon will be only a mouse click apart.

House Speaker Brian Bosma, R-Indianapolis, plans to have every House committee room wired for video and audio and will broadcast every committee meeting over the Internet, starting Jan. 5.

"Every action of every committee will be observed by the public," Bosma said. "We're going to create unprecedented transparency in the Indiana House."

Meetings of the full House and Senate already are webcast when the chambers are in session. Two large House committee rooms also are wired for webcasting, but several smaller rooms are not, forcing representatives, reporters, lobbyists and the public to cram into tiny basement rooms to hear testimony on legislative proposals...

...One peril of the Indiana system is state lawmakers must push a button on their committee room microphone when they speak, otherwise their comments won't be webcast. Despite posted reminders in the committee rooms and oral reminders from committee chairs, lawmakers often forget to push their microphone button, making it impossible for anyone outside the committee room to hear what they say.

In the House and Senate chambers, each party has a single microphone at the front of the room from which members address the body... (more)

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Public School Reformers Lack Proof (Gary Smith, 12/2/10)
(This article by Gary Smith, with the above title and minor editing, was published in the Logansport Pharos~Tribune on November 28, 2010. The article is printed here as provided by Smith who is a resident of Logansport and in his 39th year of teaching at Caston Schools.)

Not one change to the Indiana's system of public education that the administration is touting has been proven to work.   There is little data suggesting that their proposals will improve our public education system. They have, however, successfully gained control of the minds of the media and public in general through their unquestioned usage of the words “reform” and "failed system." Where's the rigorous data that you'd hope right-thinking individuals could produce before perhaps endangering an entire state's most precious resource?  Our children will be the guinea pigs in an unproven experiment.  Will the state legislature have the courage to call Messrs. Daniels and Bennett to task and ask for proof before they cause irrevocable damage?

Privatization as our salvation?  The group of choice for chronically failing schools, Imagine Schools, is in plenty of hot water in other states, and its CEO has a long history with our governor.   Incompetent vetting or cronyism?   Scary, isn't it?   Additionally, Indiana's Department of Education recently gave Marian University, a private institution, $500,000 to run the state's Leadership Academy for future principals.  Marian college employs Mr. Bennett's wife, who also has charter school interests.  Where is the proof that Marian can do better than a funded state institution?  Where's the transparency?  Where are the admissions of conflict of interest?  

Charter schools have not proven to be the panacea they'd have you believe.  No data suggests that they are any better than regular public schools (oh, but they are much easier to privatize and franchise). Ironically, these small charter schools fly in the face of Mitch Daniels's argument that small schools need to be dissolved.  The November 2 edition of Newsweek reported that all Indiana's schools with fewer than a thousand students, on average, perform better than all other-sized schools in the state.   Why do we only get that from a national magazine?  You know why: proof isn't going to stand in the way of a governor's aspirations.

Experienced teachers are being pitted against younger teachers.  So the (again) unproven argument goes, “these teachers aren't energetic enough, not as technologically minded, and are stealing the jobs of bright young teachers, (and we can pay them less) so let's get rid of tenure.” Where's the proof?  There is none. Tenure isn't a “life sentence of entitlement,” but a guarantee that due process will be followed.  Tenure is a buffer that deters administrators, school board members, the powerful in the community from going after teachers who, daily, have to often make unpleasant decisions regarding discipline and grades without regard to who a student's parents might be.  Good administrators should be expected to use the tools already provided by the state and weed out ineffective educators.  But remove that buffer, and you'll see discipline and grading standards deteriorate in an attempt to please those with power over those who have none. 

Merit pay?  There's no (notice a pattern?) hard data that it does anything except erode employee teamwork and trust.  Actually, the only significant study done shows that merit pay has no merit. Beyond basing merit partially on test scores, has anyone even seen any documents that detail how merit will be determined?  Undoubtedly, there will be a limited pool of money to be fought over in support of just a few employees.  Who really believes that "dog eat dog" competition in your school will cause hardworking, dedicated teachers to retain their high ideals?  One has to wonder if this isn't more about dollars than sense.  When Mitch Daniels ties his tenure to the state of Indiana's economy, we'll know he truly believes in the merits of merit pay. 

Shouldn't the state's universities' schools of education be piloting projects across the state to determine in head-to-head comparison what shows promise and what doesn't?  Shouldn't Indiana be investing in Head Start and preschool programs that have documented positive educational results?  Why aren't they?  Parent outreach programs have proven to show promise.  Why aren't we demanding evidence before we jump into programs touted by people who have little experience with success (look at Mr. Bennett's last position's Average Yearly Progress, or former superintendent of the failing Chicago school system, Arne Duncan)? 

I'm all for actual reform, but it must be based on empirical evidence, not the claims of snake oil salesmen who have their own agenda, and won't be around when its damage is finally recognized.   Will the state of Indiana produce the human equivalent of the toxic industrial waste sites abandoned by industries who made their profits and moved on?   I challenge our representatives to grow a backbone, demand proof, and challenge motives rather than blindly condemn our state to an untested (aren't we all about testing?) agenda.

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