Julie Storbeck and Don Briggs
Public education in Indiana is at risk.
Indiana's school systems struggle in the aftermath of Republican Governor Mitch Daniels' $300 Million cut last year. We have postponed maintenance and repairs on our school buildings. We have eliminated many art, music, and other programs. We have fired teachers and other staff. We have closed entire schools.
But, this is just the beginning.
Last year, with a Democratic majority in the State House, Daniels waited until after the legislative session ended to impose his cuts on education.
But in November 2010, the Republicans took the State House, too. Now, they are waging class warfare openly. One goal: privatize public education step by step. Public education has always been America's path of upward mobility for the poor and middle-class. Under the Republicans, that path upward will become a bottleneck.
The supply-side front: funnel taxpayer money from public education to the private sector.
Under the guise of "providing more options" to parents, Republicans have proposed new laws that would give out gift certificates worth up to 50% off private school tuition, paid for by our public schools.
These vouchers will favor wealthier families who can afford the other half of the tuition. The charter and other privatized schools still will be able to pick and choose which students to admit. Our community schools will have to make do with even less funding and the rest of us will be left behind. Even some elected Republicans see the perils of giving taxpayer money to unaccountable privately run schools.
"Blame the victims" front: attack teachers
Of course, the Right-Wing Message Machine has been bawling about "powerful teachers unions." They say the unions protect bad teachers and overcharge taxpayers.
Who ever said, "I became a teacher to get rich"? In our cash-strapped schools, it has become commonplace for teachers in middle-class or poor school districts to buy classroom supplies from their own pocket, at the rate of a few hundred dollars per year or more. Teachers are not the enemy. (Nor are policemen or firefighters.) Generally, our teachers are good neighbors, actively committed to our communities.
The demand-side front: load public schools with unfunded mandates.
Under the guise of rewarding successful teachers and improving learning environments, the Republicans have introduced Indiana SB-1.
A Look At SB-1
The Democratic Alliance of Northwest Indiana (DANI) provided a forum for Stand for Children to discuss SB-1 and explain why they support it. Indianapolis Organizer Matt Impink gave an engaging presentation.
Proponents of Indiana SB-1 focus on a select few parts. Teacher pay would be based on a mix of tenure and merit, as determined by intensive new evaluation procedures, and student performance on standardized tests. Some teachers would be mentored by others, and the mentors would be eligible for higher pay. Principals and superintendents would have broad latitude to hire and fire. But, SB-1 provides no money to school districts for teachers' pay raises, and none for the evaluations.
Everything Matt said about SB-1 sounded great. But, Matt came up short when we asked how these policies would work out in practice. He said that SB-1 was "a start," and that some issues would need more attention later.
Stand for Children supports SB-1. After hearing Matt Impink and reading the current draft, we do not.
SB-1 clearly is another unfunded mandate that will further cripple our already overburdened public schools. It does nothing to restore the $300M already lost or to protect public education from additional cuts.
SB-1 would force our principals and superintendents to fire some better-paid experienced teachers, so they can hire more low-wage entry-level teachers. That will cram all our teachers and school staff into a meat grinder.
Defending Public Education
Democracy cannot thrive without an informed electorate, and a strong nation needs a strong public school system. Our Indiana House Democrats understand this. They are fighting back for the middle class and against the radical Republican agenda . They have won some key concessions in their boycott. We support them and join their resistance.
SB-1 fails to solve the real problems of our present policy, and introduces new problems of its own. It's not real reform. It's a looming battle in this class war.
Julie Storbeck and Don Briggs, co-chairs, DANI