Archive for the ‘Education’ Category

When I was on Abdul in the Morning last Friday, four separate callers called in to ask my Democrat counterpart Jen Wagner to name three legislative accomplishments by Barack Obama.  She mentioned three things that she claimed were things that Barack himself usually answers when asked to list accomplishments:

1. Marrying Michelle Obama
2. Being a community organizer
3. Registering record numbers of voters

I kid you not, that’s what she said. Abdul and Chris Spangle can back me up on that.  And frankly, I’d love to post the audio of that.

But since those are far from legislative accomplishments (though I will give credit where credit is due..all are remarkable in their own right), I was able to come across at least one legislative accomplishment…though it was while he was in the Illinois Senate…and he was able to pass comprehensive sex education for (wait for it….) kindergartners.

Right.

[youtube uVLQhRiEXZs]

(H/T - Speechology)

A little piece of news hit yesterday about a family in the Hamilton Southeastern school district that is fighting to get the school system to put their child in both AM and PM sessions of Kindergarten. Many of the fact of the case are reported in the Indy Star today. As a bit of background, this is the world of special education which is a complex combination of Federal requirements, state requirements and local implementation.

This child, in this case, has been identified as a child in need of special services. he has speech, memory, and behavioral problems. The parents would like for him to go through both the AM and PM Kindergarten program. Just to be clear, this is not “full day” Kindergarten–he would receive the exact same instruction twice in the same day. Without knowing the specifics of the child’s situation, this seems to be a very reasonable service plan to me for the Kindergarten year. The school system, while admitting that the child needs services, do not agree that this is the right approach.

Analysis below the fold:
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For all the talk in the liberal blogosphere that Governor Mitch Daniels is now some how weakened because of the loss of Jon Costas at Monday’s convention, they seem to be unaware of the problems within their own party. I understand that when the Governor puts forth a candidate for AG, he would hope that person wins. But when you have two more than qualified candidates for the job, it’s nice to have choices. And the delegates were happy to have that option.

But allow me to say that, Costas’ defeat in the convention, hardly means trouble for Mitch in the fall. If Costas had won, then my guess is, there would have been trouble (but that’s another post for another time). What the liberals don’t understand, is that for all went on over the last few weeks, since Greg Zoeller is our candidate for AG, those who had a beef with Mitch are now mollified. It’s like a family squabble. Now that it’s resolved, we’re back to being a family and willing to move on.

See the Democrats can’t say that. They talk about Mitch Daniels being in trouble with his own party but don’t they have a candidate they didn’t want leading their statewide ticket? Didn’t they have 50%+ of their voting electorate (not just a small number of delegates) that said, “forget what the party told me, I’m voting for Jill!”? Plus, they have a gubernatorial candidate who they hate more than Mitch Daniels. She has more people turning her down to be her LG candidate than a fat Jared did dates before he went on his Subway diet. At this point, she’s probably looking at Town Councilors to be her running mate. And she’s getting no help from the party. Not that she would take it if they offered it to her.

Let’s take this a step further shall we.

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(Kurt Luidhardt originally posted this at Prosper Group Think.  He touches on some very important points as we consider the leadership of Indiana this year and beyond. - Josh)

I had the privilege of sitting down with Indiana L.G. Becky Skillman for an interview last week. There will be more thorough coverage of the interview on Veritas Rex later, but I thought I would provide some commentary here.

It’s clear to me that Skillman is the most underestimated politician in Indiana. Dem blabbermouth Jen Wagner calls her the Lite Guv and there are more than a few Republicans putting together operations for 2012- disregarding Skillman’s intentions to run (or not).

But every time I sit and talk with her I get the strong sense that of anyone in the Guv’s administration, she is the one with a finger on the pulse of the state. She’s got years of experience on a number of levels as a local elected official, State Senator, and now as LG. In addition, she’s not caught up in the Indianapolis-first mentality of so many of our party’s leadership (a key quality considering current controversy). Skillman also has worked hard to build relationships with local Republican officials from across the state. It’s been evident as I travel.

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It’s official. Dr. Suellen Reed is calling it quits after four terms as Superintendent of Public Instruction. Hoosier Access boldly predicted such a move back in February of this year figuring that with announcement that Tony Bennett who is currently Superintendent for the Greater Clark Schools was running for the position, that her time was eventually drawing near.

The Indy Star had this to report:

Indiana Superintendent of Public Instruction Suellen Reed announced this morning that she would not seek a fifth term in office.

Reed was first elected in 1992 in a bruising contest against Stan Jones, who is now the state’s commissioner for higher education. The superintendent of public instruction manages the state department of education and chairs the State Board of Education.
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So far only one candidate has announced their candidacy for the position, Greater Clark County Schools Superintendent Charles “Tony” Bennett, a Republican. No candidate from either party has officially filed paperwork to run for the office.

Party candidates for the state superintendent of public instruction are chosen at the state convention by delegates rather than by voters in the primary election.

Well, I guess this means that the convention may not be as exciting as if there were a floor fight. But we still have the AG’s race brewing.

IU could use a conservative or two on the Board of Trustees. Here is your chance to make that happen.

Dear Conservative and IU Friends,

After some searching I am happy to report that Kelly Burton Smith has stepped forward to run as a conservative candidate in this year’s IU Alumni Trustee race. Anyone who follows the goings on at IU knows that changes are need in the politically correct leadership. From gay culture centers, race-based admissions policies, and a politically one-sided faculty to the banning of Christmas trees, handguns, and academic freedom, things clearly need to change. All this, while tuition rates continue to soar well beyond the rate of inflation. Conservatives must step forward to do something.

Kelly is a graduate of IU School of Law Indianapolis. She is an attorney at Barnes and Thornburg in Indianapolis and lives in Hamilton County. Her conservative credentials are unquestionable and I think she’ll make a good candidate.

In order to get Kelly on the ballot, we need to secure 100 signatures from IU alumni and turn them in with her application by April 1. A petition form is attached as a pdf. Please sign it and get as many IU alumni to sign it as you can. You will need to return the hard copy with original signatures directly to Kelly at the address listed on the form no later than Friday, April 28 in order for Kelly to get it to IU before the April 1 deadline.

This doesn’t give us much time but I know we can do this. Please feel free to forward this message and copy the form as much as you need to. Won’t it be nice to have a candidate we can feel proud to vote for this year?

Thanks for your help.

Jim

A link to the Trustee’s webpage with more information about the Alumni Trustee election can be found at http://alumni.indiana.edu/about/election/index.shtml. Ballots are mailed to IU degree-holders in May.

Download the petition here: iualumnipetition.pdf

The political rumor mill has been churning an awful lot this year and we’re only two months into 2008. But the hottest rumor of all to this point has to be whether four term incumbent Dr. Suellen Reed, Superintendent of Public Instruction, will finally step down or seek another term.

My friends, I’m here to tell you the rumors are true. She will be stepping down. Sources close to Dr. Reed inform Hoosier Access that after 16 years on the job, she’s finally used up all the chalk and setting sail towards retirement. Right now, though, our sources tell us she is working on the appropriate exit plan.

Dr. Reed hasn’t had the best relationship with Republicans over the years especially with the Indiana State Teachers Association in her back pocket. But she has survived the numerous attempts to knock her out at the State Convention by party insiders. As fellow Director Scott Fluhr has said over and over that the “floor of the Indiana State GOP convention is filled with political corpses of those that have tried (and failed) in convention floor fights against Dr. Suellen Reed” Because of this, she has earned a reputation as one of the more powerful elected officials in the state. And who can blame that reputation. She’s outlasted three different governors and is finally stepping down while serving her fourth.

So the question is begged. Who will take her place? No doubt, insiders have been introduced to Tony Bennett who is currently Superintendent for the Greater Clark Schools. He has earned the endorsement of Governor Daniels and is wracking up endorsements from County Chairmen and other political insiders statewide. It’s as if those who have yearned for the retirement of Dr. Reed can finally breathe free and help elect someone who won’t back the teachers union every step of the way. My guess is, if you haven’t seen him at your local Lincoln Day Dinner, you will soon.

That’s not to say that Dr. Reed hasn’t has her fair share of successes, including those that have pleased Republicans. She was able to finally push through (and I do mean push) all-day kindergarten much to the chagrin of many a Republican, but to the pleasure of Governor Daniels. Other than that, I fail to point to anything else, mostly because I haven’t kept up on education issues and all-day kindergarten has been the biggest education issue recently. But needless to say her relationship with her own party has been up and down at best.

So as we bid adieu to Dr. Reed, it is my hope that we can rally around Mr. Bennett as her successor. Because this is about our children’s education and their future and not about lining the pockets of ISTA.

It is said that the floor of the Indiana State GOP convention is filled with political corpses of those that have tried (and failed) in convention floor fights against Dr. Suellen Reed, who has four times been nominated by Indiana Republicans to run for Superintendent of Public Instruction (and she won every time in November by huge margins).

Now, the establishment powers-that-be in Indianapolis have found a new candidate to latch onto in their crusade, a recently-hired school superintendent in Clark County by the name of Tony Bennett.

The Courier-Journal has the story:

INDIANAPOLIS – Less than a year into his job as superintendent of Greater Clark Schools, Tony Bennett plans to seek the Republican nomination for state superintendent of public instruction.

The position is now held by Republican Suellen Reed, who is in her fourth term.

“I have a high amount of respect for the 16 years of distinguished service Dr. Reed has given the state of Indiana,” Bennett, 47, said yesterday. “Given the issues confronting Indiana, I think the Department of Education needs a fresh set of eyes and fresh leadership.”

Reed has not said publicly whether she plans to seek a fifth term. Her office did not return a call yesterday seeking comment.

Bennett was hired as the district’s superintendent last summer. He told the school board about his intention at a meeting Tuesday, board member Bill Halter said.

Bennett can continue in his current post while he campaigns.

Bennett said he decided to run for the state office because of encouragement from community and business leaders.

Encouragement from community and business leaders my rear.

Mr. Bennett looks to me to be an unwitting front-man for the latest in a long series of plots by Indianapolis insiders and establishment types to try and unseat Suellen Reed and replace her with someone that will dance to their tune.

Last time around, Mitch Daniels was willing to stand by Suellen Reed when a lot of the establishment folks that simply hate her were (yet again) plotting her convention downfall.

To their consternation and outrage, the then-candidate Daniels unexpectedly endorsed Reed, causing their plans to fall apart.

These days, Dr. Reed and the Governor aren’t on such good terms, so another endorsement is probably not in the cards.

Last time around, her opponents reportedly spread word far and wide to hint to Dr. Reed that the party thought she had been in office too long and everyone thought she should step down.

The party rank-and-file didn’t think that (they probably still don’t), but the story was nevertheless peddled by her opponents in an effort to try and get her to either step aside or to build support against her.

It didn’t exactly work.

She ran again, and she won again.

Not just on the convention floor, but also in November.

This time around, they are trying the same trick again (probably with similar results).

Anonymous tipsters have told me that Reed’s opponents have retained a certain GOP political consultant from South Bend to canvas for support among Republican insiders across the state and to build a framework of endorsements around which to work toward unseating Suellen Reed in yet another convention floor fight, if a wave of endorsements can’t be used to “psych” her into not running at all.

There is also a move afoot to abolish the position of Superintendent of Public Instruction entirely, and put it under the Governor (as if the Governor of the State of Indiana doesn’t have enough to worry about and to oversee as it is).

This leads to a dual track approach by Dr. Reed’s opponents.

If they cannot unseat her in a floor fight at the convention and install someone who they find more agreeable, then they will try to abolish the position entirely to get rid of her.

Lord knows she’s a proven vote-getter and will probably never be defeated in a general election.

There is no good reason to unseat Suellen Reed; test scores in Indiana have been going up for a decade while she has been Superintendent of Public Instruction:

Statewide results showed a slight uptick across the board.

Overall, 64.7 percent of Hoosier students in Grades 3-10 passed both the math and language arts portions of the Indiana Statewide Testing for Educational Progress-Plus. Higher percentages passed one or the other: 74 percent passed math, 71 percent language arts.

That continued a gradual, decade long increase in ISTEP results, according to the state, with percentages climbing from a low of 56.5 percent in 1997.

“The good news is . . . we have good news,” said Superintendent of Public Instruction Suellen Reed.

It’s sort of hard for me to buy that we need “fresh set of eyes and fresh leadership”, as Bennett spins it, when the current set of eyes and the current leadership is doing such a good job and test scores have been steadily climbing for ten straight years.

Why should Indiana fire someone that has been doing a good job for sixteen years in favor of a basketball coach (and biology teacher; everybody knows where those priorities lie in hiring teachers in Indiana) who has been a school superintendent for less than a single year?
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The following was posted by Beth Murphy on the Indianapolis Star’s Expresso Blog. It’s an interesting concept, but at the same time it is tragic that we have find alternative ways to compel parents to become involved in their children’s lives and their education.

We receive plenty of letters blaming the lack of parental involvement for failing students and schools.

But how do you get parents to become involved? IPS’ School 57 is going to make them sign a contract. It will become the first “fundamental” school in IPS. Fundamental schools, according to the IPS Web site, are showing “impressive results” in other cities, such as Cleveland and Louisville.

Family-oriented schools sound like a good start toward raising expections and sharing responsibility among teachers, students and parents. However, they could become self-fulfilling prophecies, because parents must choose whether to sign a contract promising to do things such as attend monthly conferences and PTO meetings or volunteer in the school. If parents don’t sign a contract by March 3, their children will be assigned to Christian Park School 82.

If you want to know more, there’s a meeting at 7 p.m. Thursday night (Jan. 17) at the Irvington United Methodist Church on the Audubon Circle, just north of Washington Street on the Eastside.

Source: Expresso

Study: Private Schools Show More Gains Than Public Schools
Kate Shepherd, Inside INdiana Business
A study to be released this afternoon by the Milton and Rose D. Friedman Foundation for Educational Choice finds that students in private schools made better academic gains than students in public schools, even after controlling for race, income, parental education and family composition.

The study uses data from the Education Longitudinal Study, a long-term research project sponsored by the U.S. Department of Education that tracks individual data on thousands of students.

The study also finds that private schools improve the academic outcomes of public schools, provide better special education services, do a better job of inculcating civic participation and tolerance for the rights of others and produce large fiscal savings for both state budgets and local public school districts.

Source: Inside INdiana Business

Hat Tip: VarvBlog
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Gary says regarding his latest drawing:

“If we had just increased spending on education back then, we wouldn’t still be getting the same results today. Right? Huh? . . . You mean, we did spend more money on education? . . . Uh, perhaps all of us taxpayers should start wearing those shirts.”