Phyllis Davis, President 260-403-3550
Dear Allen County Retired Educators,
Our second of four 2022-2023 annual meetings will be held on WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER
26, 2022 at Coyote Creek Golf Club, 4935 Hillegas Rd, Ft. Wayne 46818. We will begin our luncheon at 11:00 a.m. Please arrive by 10:30 – 10:45 a.m. to check in and pay for your lunch and meet with friends and colleagues.
Most of you are receiving this meeting notification via email. As we discussed at the last
meeting, we cannot continue to print and send letters due to excessive costs. We
appreciate your understanding as we use email to save our limited funds.
RESERVATIONS: Please make your reservations with MARY JO PURVIS at 260-492-6992
or mpurvis1111@gmail.com by WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 19th . Your lunch will cost $20.00 payable when you arrive (cash or check made out to AREA).
PROGRAM: Lorelei VerLee, founder of “Creative Women of the World” will share how
she assists women from around the world with entrepreneurial resources to develop
sustainable businesses and access income for their families.
DUES: This October meeting is the 2nd meeting of the 2022-2023 AREA year. For those of
you who paid your dues at the August meeting, thank you. Our treasurer will collect
$20 dues from those of you who are paying at this meeting. In addition, if you need to
change your personal information or add an email for the AREA directory, please send
any changes to Pam George at 260-471-5952 or pamgeorgeph@comcast.net. She also
has information regarding IRTA (Indiana Retired Teachers’ Association) membership.
You might consider automatic dues deduction from your TRF pension to join IRTA.
Membership is $35/year. Membership support is greatly needed to impact state
retirement benefits and education change.
EYEGLASSES: Bring your used eyeglasses to any meeting and they will be forwarded to
the Lions Club by Nancy Caryer.
FUTURE 2022-2023 MEETINGS:
Tuesday, April 25, 2023, at Pine Valley Country Club, 10900 Pine Mills Rd., Ft. Wayne, IN
Monday, June 26, 2023, TBD
Thursday, October 6, 2022
Wednesday, June 22, 2022
President's Letter - June 2022
Dear Allen County Retired Educators,
Thirty-three members attended our Welcome Back meeting in April. It was great to be together and see familiar faces and some new ones. We want to reach out to retirees from the years we didn't meet in 2020 and 2021. You can help us by passing on the information in this letter to anyone who retired during those years. We now have 2022 retirees to welcome to AREA, too.
Our next meeting/luncheon is Monday, June 27th at
4010 W. Jefferson Blvd
Fort Wayne, IN
Arrive at 11:15 to check-in and pay for your lunch ($20). Jackie Gruesbeck, our treasurer will also be collecting dues $20. Your dues cover printing expenses of the agenda, treasurer and secretary minutes, postage expenses, honorarium for our presenters, and projects AREA supports like Gift of Books.
RESERVATIONS: Please make your reservations with Mary Jo Purvis at 260-492-6992 or mpurvis1@frontier.com by Monday, June 20th. If you are unable to attend after reserving a spot, please cancel with Mary Jo Purvis so someone else can attend and you won't be charged.
PROGRAM: What's new with Promenade Park in 2022?
MEMBERSHIP: Any questions on membership contact Pam George at 260-471-5952 or pamgeorgeph@comcast.net. She also has IRTA (Indiana Retired Teachers' Association) information. You might consider automatic dues deduction from your TRF pension to join IRTS. IRTA dues are $35/year. A membership year is July 1 through June 30th. Support is greatly needed to impact state retirement benefits and education change.
EYEGLASSES: Bring your unused eyeglasses to any meeting and they will be forwarded to the Lions Club.
FUTURE 2022-23 MEETINGS:
August
October
April
June
Monday, April 19, 2021
Vic’s Statehouse Notes #356 – looming threats and flaws
From Indiana Coalition for Public Education's Vic Smith...
Click here to read the rest and share. You can find your state legislators by clicking here.
Dear Friends,Threats include no standards for ESA parent grants, no protection against extremist curriculum, and no background checks for where tax payer dollars will go.
With only three days left in this General Assembly session, a dangerous threat to our state remains to be fixed. Education Scholarship Accounts are still in the budget bill, and the bill language does not protect Indiana from extremists, from criminals or from the sudden elimination of all standards and accountability.
Will you send messages today and tomorrow to your legislators and to party leaders who are deciding what will go into the budget about these looming threats and flaws that could be fixed with last minute additions to the bill language?
Fix the Flaws!
What are the glaring problems that have still not been fixed in the current budget bill language on Educational Scholarship Accounts?
Click here to read the rest and share. You can find your state legislators by clicking here.
###
If you follow us by email - UPDATE
Google is going to end the use of the Feedburner email widget.
In order to follow us by email you'll need to resubscribe. Use the *new* Follow us by Email box in the right hand column. Enter your email address, and respond to the email you get. Thanks.
In order to follow us by email you'll need to resubscribe. Use the *new* Follow us by Email box in the right hand column. Enter your email address, and respond to the email you get. Thanks.
###
Friday, March 5, 2021
Vic’s Statehouse Notes #353 – March 4, 2021
Dear Friends,
Milton Friedman, the famous economist who passed away in 2006, wanted to end public schools and get the government out of education. He proposed to just give tax money directly to parents to let them pay for their child’s education from vendors or schools in a competitive private marketplace.
He didn’t see public education as a public benefit to teach about democracy to each student in each new generation. He wrote in Free to Choose (1980):
The parent grants to be given out through an online portal estimated to cost $5 million and run by the Indiana Treasurer are now called Education Scholarship Accounts (ESA’s).
Eligible students in House Bill 1005 include special education, activity military, and foster students. The real goal pursued for years by Friedman’s wealthy followers who have spread campaign cash across Indiana and the United States is to give ESA’s to all parents and to end public education.
In HB 1005, the ESA camel’s nose is under the tent.
The House Vote
The vote was 61-38. While 9 Republicans opposed this caucus-priority bill, it was not enough to stop it. The roll call is listed below. Now it must be stopped in the Senate.
Representative Behning, the author of HB 1005, cleverly mixed the radical Friedman plan into the bill alongside a “traditional” expansion of payments for current private school vouchers. Most of those who testified for the bill wanted to see bigger voucher payments, and that section of the bill is what the media has focused on. Bigger voucher payments would cost over $60 million over the next two years.
The real danger, though, is giving money to the parents of eligible students (approx. $7000 plus up to $9100 for special education students) with no regard to their support of extremist ideologies or their support of the U.S. Constitution. Parents can get these public funds simply by applying online but the flaws are obvious:
Bipartisan Opposition and Partisan Support
Those voting against HB 1005 in the House represented a bipartisan opposition:
Republicans Voting to Oppose HB 1005
Democrats Voting to Oppose HB 1005
Those voting to support HB 1005 in the House were all Republicans:
The 9 Republicans and 29 Democrats who opposed HB 1005 and stood up for public education deserve messages of thanks from public school advocates.
What Can You Do to Protect our Democracy from ESA’s in the Second Half of the General Assembly
Bills now switch Houses for consideration, so House Bill 1005 will be considered by the Senate. Write the Senators on the Senate Education Committee to let them know of your strong opposition to the flawed and dangerous threat to our democracy, House Bill 1005.
House Bill 1005 is not currently on the committee agenda for March 10th but could be heard in committee as early as Wednesday, March 17th.
Let the Senators on the committee know you oppose the dangerous concept of Education Scholarship Accounts and the expensive expansion of the current voucher system, especially when teacher pay has not been addressed. The committee members (click on the name for email addresses) are:
Senator Jeff Raatz
Senator Scott Baldwin
Senator Brian Buchanan
Senator John Crane
Senator Stacey Donato
Senator J.D. Ford
Senator Dennis Kruse
Senator Jean Leising
Senator Eddie Melton
Senator Fady Qaddoura
Senator Linda Rogers
Senator Kyle Walker
Senator Shelli Yoder
In the final days of the first half of the session, Senate Bill 412 was not passed out of committee. Senate Bill 413 was amended to reduce voucher expansion to only one element: foster students would become eligible for Choice Scholarships. It passed 32-15 and now goes to the House. Your messages certainly helped tamp down these flawed Senate bills.
Thank you for your active support of public education in Indiana!
Best wishes,
Vic Smith
“Vic’s Statehouse Notes” and ICPE received one of three Excellence in Media Awards presented by Delta Kappa Gamma Society International, an organization of over 85,000 women educators in seventeen countries. The award was presented on July 30, 2014 during the Delta Kappa Gamma International Convention held in Indianapolis. Thank you Delta Kappa Gamma!
ICPE has worked since 2011 to promote public education in the Statehouse and oppose the privatization of schools. We need your membership to help support ICPE lobbying efforts. As of July 1st, the start of our new membership year, it is time for all ICPE members to renew their membership.
Our lobbyist Joel Hand is again representing ICPE in the new budget session which began on January 3, 2017. We need your memberships and your support to continue his work. We welcome additional members and additional donations. We need your help and the help of your colleagues who support public education! Please pass the word!
Go to www.indianacoalitionforpubliced.org for membership and renewal information and for full information on ICPE efforts on behalf of public education. Thanks!
Some readers have asked about my background in Indiana public schools. Thanks for asking! Here is a brief bio:
I am a lifelong Hoosier and began teaching in 1969. I served as a social studies teacher, curriculum developer, state research and evaluation consultant, state social studies consultant, district social studies supervisor, assistant principal, principal, educational association staff member, and adjunct university professor. I worked for Garrett-Keyser-Butler Schools, the Indiana University Social Studies Development Center, the Indiana Department of Education, the Indianapolis Public Schools, IUPUI, and the Indiana Urban Schools Association, from which I retired as Associate Director in 2009. I hold three degrees: B.A. in Ed., Ball State University, 1969; M.S. in Ed., Indiana University, 1972; and Ed.D., Indiana University, 1977, along with a Teacher’s Life License and a Superintendent’s License, 1998. In 2013 I was honored to receive a Distinguished Alumni Award from the IU School of Education, and in 2014 I was honored to be named to the Teacher Education Hall of Fame by the Association for Teacher Education – Indiana. In April of 2018, I was honored to receive the 2018 Friend of Education Award from the Indiana State Teachers Association.
Milton Friedman, the famous economist who passed away in 2006, wanted to end public schools and get the government out of education. He proposed to just give tax money directly to parents to let them pay for their child’s education from vendors or schools in a competitive private marketplace.
He didn’t see public education as a public benefit to teach about democracy to each student in each new generation. He wrote in Free to Choose (1980):
- “compulsory attendance laws are the justification for government control over the standards of private schools. But it is far from clear that there is any justification for the compulsory attendance laws themselves.” and
- “The possibility exists that some public schools would be left with the dregs.”
The parent grants to be given out through an online portal estimated to cost $5 million and run by the Indiana Treasurer are now called Education Scholarship Accounts (ESA’s).
Eligible students in House Bill 1005 include special education, activity military, and foster students. The real goal pursued for years by Friedman’s wealthy followers who have spread campaign cash across Indiana and the United States is to give ESA’s to all parents and to end public education.
In HB 1005, the ESA camel’s nose is under the tent.
The House Vote
The vote was 61-38. While 9 Republicans opposed this caucus-priority bill, it was not enough to stop it. The roll call is listed below. Now it must be stopped in the Senate.
Representative Behning, the author of HB 1005, cleverly mixed the radical Friedman plan into the bill alongside a “traditional” expansion of payments for current private school vouchers. Most of those who testified for the bill wanted to see bigger voucher payments, and that section of the bill is what the media has focused on. Bigger voucher payments would cost over $60 million over the next two years.
The real danger, though, is giving money to the parents of eligible students (approx. $7000 plus up to $9100 for special education students) with no regard to their support of extremist ideologies or their support of the U.S. Constitution. Parents can get these public funds simply by applying online but the flaws are obvious:
- the parent “must agree that” they “will use part of the money” for the “student’s study in the subject of reading, grammar, mathematics, social studies, or science” or the student’s “individualized education program”. These quotes are directly from HB 1005.
- That’s all! It’s the lowest standard imaginable, and no one will monitor even this parent responsibility because the bill specifically bans curriculum oversight by the state.
- Criminal background checks, required for teachers, are not required for parents to get their ESA money. Parents with records of neglect or abuse or fraud are not excluded by HB 1005. No restrictions on parents are included in the bill!
Bipartisan Opposition and Partisan Support
Those voting against HB 1005 in the House represented a bipartisan opposition:
Republicans Voting to Oppose HB 1005
What Can You Do to Protect our Democracy from ESA’s in the Second Half of the General Assembly
Bills now switch Houses for consideration, so House Bill 1005 will be considered by the Senate. Write the Senators on the Senate Education Committee to let them know of your strong opposition to the flawed and dangerous threat to our democracy, House Bill 1005.
House Bill 1005 is not currently on the committee agenda for March 10th but could be heard in committee as early as Wednesday, March 17th.
Let the Senators on the committee know you oppose the dangerous concept of Education Scholarship Accounts and the expensive expansion of the current voucher system, especially when teacher pay has not been addressed. The committee members (click on the name for email addresses) are:
Senator Jeff Raatz
Senator Scott Baldwin
Senator Brian Buchanan
Senator John Crane
Senator Stacey Donato
Senator J.D. Ford
Senator Dennis Kruse
Senator Jean Leising
Senator Eddie Melton
Senator Fady Qaddoura
Senator Linda Rogers
Senator Kyle Walker
Senator Shelli Yoder
In the final days of the first half of the session, Senate Bill 412 was not passed out of committee. Senate Bill 413 was amended to reduce voucher expansion to only one element: foster students would become eligible for Choice Scholarships. It passed 32-15 and now goes to the House. Your messages certainly helped tamp down these flawed Senate bills.
Thank you for your active support of public education in Indiana!
Best wishes,
Vic Smith
“Vic’s Statehouse Notes” and ICPE received one of three Excellence in Media Awards presented by Delta Kappa Gamma Society International, an organization of over 85,000 women educators in seventeen countries. The award was presented on July 30, 2014 during the Delta Kappa Gamma International Convention held in Indianapolis. Thank you Delta Kappa Gamma!
ICPE has worked since 2011 to promote public education in the Statehouse and oppose the privatization of schools. We need your membership to help support ICPE lobbying efforts. As of July 1st, the start of our new membership year, it is time for all ICPE members to renew their membership.
Our lobbyist Joel Hand is again representing ICPE in the new budget session which began on January 3, 2017. We need your memberships and your support to continue his work. We welcome additional members and additional donations. We need your help and the help of your colleagues who support public education! Please pass the word!
Go to www.indianacoalitionforpubliced.org for membership and renewal information and for full information on ICPE efforts on behalf of public education. Thanks!
Some readers have asked about my background in Indiana public schools. Thanks for asking! Here is a brief bio:
I am a lifelong Hoosier and began teaching in 1969. I served as a social studies teacher, curriculum developer, state research and evaluation consultant, state social studies consultant, district social studies supervisor, assistant principal, principal, educational association staff member, and adjunct university professor. I worked for Garrett-Keyser-Butler Schools, the Indiana University Social Studies Development Center, the Indiana Department of Education, the Indianapolis Public Schools, IUPUI, and the Indiana Urban Schools Association, from which I retired as Associate Director in 2009. I hold three degrees: B.A. in Ed., Ball State University, 1969; M.S. in Ed., Indiana University, 1972; and Ed.D., Indiana University, 1977, along with a Teacher’s Life License and a Superintendent’s License, 1998. In 2013 I was honored to receive a Distinguished Alumni Award from the IU School of Education, and in 2014 I was honored to be named to the Teacher Education Hall of Fame by the Association for Teacher Education – Indiana. In April of 2018, I was honored to receive the 2018 Friend of Education Award from the Indiana State Teachers Association.
###
Friday, February 5, 2021
Need Fast Help For Legislation
Dear IRTA Members:
Our bill, HB 1227, that will give us a 13th check with a $50 supplement is well on its way through the House of Representatives. The Legislative Committee is asking you to send a note to your representative, asking him or her to please vote for HB 1227 when it comes to the House floor for the final vote. This will happen soon so emails need to go out asap. An email should go to h__@iga.in.gov. (Fill in the blank with your house district number.)
If you need to look up your district and the representative, go to the Indiana General Assembly's “Find my Legislator” page at iga.in.gov/legislative/find-legislators/. Fill in your address and the House member’s picture and the district number will be on the screen that comes up.
These notes only need to be a few sentences, but if you can include a story about how the 13th check really helps in some specific way, that would be good. We want to flood the House membership so that we will have their support when the bill goes to the Senate. We are concerned that we’ll face some difficulty there.
I know we can rely on you to help us get this bill passed. If you have any questions, email me at tols2528@aol.com.
Thank you for the support,
Nancy Tolson, IRTA Legislative Committee chair
Our bill, HB 1227, that will give us a 13th check with a $50 supplement is well on its way through the House of Representatives. The Legislative Committee is asking you to send a note to your representative, asking him or her to please vote for HB 1227 when it comes to the House floor for the final vote. This will happen soon so emails need to go out asap. An email should go to h__@iga.in.gov. (Fill in the blank with your house district number.)
If you need to look up your district and the representative, go to the Indiana General Assembly's “Find my Legislator” page at iga.in.gov/legislative/find-legislators/. Fill in your address and the House member’s picture and the district number will be on the screen that comes up.
These notes only need to be a few sentences, but if you can include a story about how the 13th check really helps in some specific way, that would be good. We want to flood the House membership so that we will have their support when the bill goes to the Senate. We are concerned that we’ll face some difficulty there.
I know we can rely on you to help us get this bill passed. If you have any questions, email me at tols2528@aol.com.
Thank you for the support,
Nancy Tolson, IRTA Legislative Committee chair
Tuesday, February 2, 2021
Vic’s Statehouse Notes #350 – February 2, 2021
Dear Friends,
Shock and awe!
Public education in Indiana is truly under attack.
In a late move that I did not hear about until this morning, the Senate Education Committee has also scheduled their version of the Education Savings Accounts bill to be heard on the same afternoon as the House version. The Senate Education Committee begins tomorrow (Feb. 3) at 2pm, and the House Education Committee begins at 3:30pm.
The Senate version in Senate Bill 412 differs from the House version in House Bill 1005 in several ways:
Senate Bill 412 would also authorize the Indiana Treasurer to set up an online portal costing, according to the non-partisan Legislative Services Agency, as much as $11 million to let parents take the money that now goes to schools (approximately $7000 per student) so the parents can run unsupervised home or independent schools. The Treasurer can hire a bank to do the work and can keep 3% (instead of 1%) of every account for the trouble.
Senate Bill 412 makes 186,000 students eligible for these grants, 60,000 less than the House Bill. Again, the ultimate goal of Milton Friedman and his followers in the Indiana Senate is to make all students eligible for grants and let parents spend all education money without state supervision.
This is the Milton Friedman path to end public education in Indiana.
SB 412 is scheduled for a hearing this Wednesday, Feb. 3 at 2:00 in the Senate Education Committee.
You’re getting much practice in contacting legislators. Can you contact Senators about SB 412?
This is clearly the most serious attack on public education that I have ever seen.
Let Senators on the Education Committee listed below know that you support public schools and oppose bills that hurt public schools.
Email Senators on the Education Committee by Wednesday Afternoon
Here is the list:
Senator Jeff Raatz Senator.Raatz@iga.in.gov
Senator Scott Baldwin s20@iga.in.gov
Senator Brian Buchanan Senator.Buchanan@iga.in.gov
Senator John Crane Senator.Crane@iga.in.gov
Senator Stacey Donato Senator.Donato@iga.in.gov
Senator J.D. Ford s29@iga.in.gov
Senator Dennis Kruse Senator.Kruse@iga.in.gov
Senator Jean Leising Senator.Leising@iga.in.gov
Senator Eddie Melton Senator.Melton@iga.in.gov
Senator Fady Qaddoura Senator.Qaddoura@iga.in.gov
Senator Linda Rogers Senator.Rogers@iga.in.gov
Senator Kyle Walker s31@iga.in.gov
Senator Shelli Yoder Senator.Yoder@iga.in.gov
SB 412 contains Milton Friedman’s Plan to End Public Education. Please send your objections!
My testimony seen below has been sent to Senate Education Committee members. Feel free to use points from this and then add your own.
-----
Testimony on SB 412 submitted by Dr. Vic Smith, Indianapolis RE: Hearing on February 3, 2021
I strongly oppose SB 412. Personalized Education Grants are the same as Education Savings Accounts, Milton Friedman’s method of ending public education, and will open the door to giving public education money to unsupervised and unaccountable parents instead of to accountable and transparent schools. Under SB 412:
The concept of “Personalized Education Grants” for special education and 504 students and foster students included in SB 412 is so detrimental to high educational standards, so dismissive of maintaining accountability with public tax money, and so potentially dangerous to our democracy that it should be rejected outright as soon as possible.
Why would Personalized Education Grants, as known as Education Savings Accounts, be so detrimental to education in Indiana?
This concept of Personalized Education Grants, also known as Education Savings Accounts, is too radical and potentially damaging for any further consideration. The Senate turned down this concept in the 2017 session, and they should do so again.
Thank you for considering these major concerns.
-----
Thank you for your active support of public education in Indiana!
Best wishes,
Vic Smith
“Vic’s Statehouse Notes” and ICPE received one of three Excellence in Media Awards presented by Delta Kappa Gamma Society International, an organization of over 85,000 women educators in seventeen countries. The award was presented on July 30, 2014 during the Delta Kappa Gamma International Convention held in Indianapolis. Thank you Delta Kappa Gamma!
ICPE has worked since 2011 to promote public education in the Statehouse and oppose the privatization of schools. We need your membership to help support ICPE lobbying efforts. As of July 1st, the start of our new membership year, it is time for all ICPE members to renew their membership.
Our lobbyist Joel Hand is again representing ICPE in the new budget session which began on January 3, 2017. We need your memberships and your support to continue his work. We welcome additional members and additional donations. We need your help and the help of your colleagues who support public education! Please pass the word!
Go to www.indianacoalitionforpubliced.org for membership and renewal information and for full information on ICPE efforts on behalf of public education. Thanks!
Some readers have asked about my background in Indiana public schools. Thanks for asking! Here is a brief bio:
I am a lifelong Hoosier and began teaching in 1969. I served as a social studies teacher, curriculum developer, state research and evaluation consultant, state social studies consultant, district social studies supervisor, assistant principal, principal, educational association staff member, and adjunct university professor. I worked for Garrett-Keyser-Butler Schools, the Indiana University Social Studies Development Center, the Indiana Department of Education, the Indianapolis Public Schools, IUPUI, and the Indiana Urban Schools Association, from which I retired as Associate Director in 2009. I hold three degrees: B.A. in Ed., Ball State University, 1969; M.S. in Ed., Indiana University, 1972; and Ed.D., Indiana University, 1977, along with a Teacher’s Life License and a Superintendent’s License, 1998. In 2013 I was honored to receive a Distinguished Alumni Award from the IU School of Education, and in 2014 I was honored to be named to the Teacher Education Hall of Fame by the Association for Teacher Education – Indiana. In April of 2018, I was honored to receive the 2018 Friend of Education Award from the Indiana State Teachers Association.
Shock and awe!
Public education in Indiana is truly under attack.
In a late move that I did not hear about until this morning, the Senate Education Committee has also scheduled their version of the Education Savings Accounts bill to be heard on the same afternoon as the House version. The Senate Education Committee begins tomorrow (Feb. 3) at 2pm, and the House Education Committee begins at 3:30pm.
The Senate version in Senate Bill 412 differs from the House version in House Bill 1005 in several ways:
- SB 412 calls the money taken from schools and given to parents “Personalized Education Grants” instead of “Education Savings Accounts.”
- SB 412 makes no changes in the income tiers of Choice Scholarships.
- The Legislative Services Agency says SB 412 will cost $112 million over two years for the “grants”, less than the $202 million price tag over two years for HB1005. This reflects the omission of extra money in SB 412 for expanded Choice Scholarships.
Senate Bill 412 would also authorize the Indiana Treasurer to set up an online portal costing, according to the non-partisan Legislative Services Agency, as much as $11 million to let parents take the money that now goes to schools (approximately $7000 per student) so the parents can run unsupervised home or independent schools. The Treasurer can hire a bank to do the work and can keep 3% (instead of 1%) of every account for the trouble.
Senate Bill 412 makes 186,000 students eligible for these grants, 60,000 less than the House Bill. Again, the ultimate goal of Milton Friedman and his followers in the Indiana Senate is to make all students eligible for grants and let parents spend all education money without state supervision.
This is the Milton Friedman path to end public education in Indiana.
SB 412 is scheduled for a hearing this Wednesday, Feb. 3 at 2:00 in the Senate Education Committee.
You’re getting much practice in contacting legislators. Can you contact Senators about SB 412?
This is clearly the most serious attack on public education that I have ever seen.
Let Senators on the Education Committee listed below know that you support public schools and oppose bills that hurt public schools.
Email Senators on the Education Committee by Wednesday Afternoon
Here is the list:
Senator Jeff Raatz Senator.Raatz@iga.in.gov
Senator Scott Baldwin s20@iga.in.gov
Senator Brian Buchanan Senator.Buchanan@iga.in.gov
Senator John Crane Senator.Crane@iga.in.gov
Senator Stacey Donato Senator.Donato@iga.in.gov
Senator J.D. Ford s29@iga.in.gov
Senator Dennis Kruse Senator.Kruse@iga.in.gov
Senator Jean Leising Senator.Leising@iga.in.gov
Senator Eddie Melton Senator.Melton@iga.in.gov
Senator Fady Qaddoura Senator.Qaddoura@iga.in.gov
Senator Linda Rogers Senator.Rogers@iga.in.gov
Senator Kyle Walker s31@iga.in.gov
Senator Shelli Yoder Senator.Yoder@iga.in.gov
SB 412 contains Milton Friedman’s Plan to End Public Education. Please send your objections!
My testimony seen below has been sent to Senate Education Committee members. Feel free to use points from this and then add your own.
-----
Testimony on SB 412 submitted by Dr. Vic Smith, Indianapolis RE: Hearing on February 3, 2021
I strongly oppose SB 412. Personalized Education Grants are the same as Education Savings Accounts, Milton Friedman’s method of ending public education, and will open the door to giving public education money to unsupervised and unaccountable parents instead of to accountable and transparent schools. Under SB 412:
- Partisan extremists could use state home school money to teach their children to disobey the U.S. Constitution. They will get public money, but no civic education about our democracy is required.
- Racist parents could use state money to teach racist ideology in their home or independent school. SB 412 bans any state supervision of independent school curriculum.
- Parents of special education students could spend state money on therapy that does not work. There is no evaluation of student progress required.
- The State Treasurer would be required to promote the tax advantages of the Personalized Education Grants as an incentive to get parents to leave their school districts and sign up for the program. Every student in the grants program takes about $7000 out of the budget of the student’s public school district. This would obviously hurt the public schools that educate 90% of our students. The State Treasurer gets to keep 3% of the grants for their work.
The concept of “Personalized Education Grants” for special education and 504 students and foster students included in SB 412 is so detrimental to high educational standards, so dismissive of maintaining accountability with public tax money, and so potentially dangerous to our democracy that it should be rejected outright as soon as possible.
Why would Personalized Education Grants, as known as Education Savings Accounts, be so detrimental to education in Indiana?
1) The grants would give public money on a debit card to parents who sign an agreement to educate their child in “reading, grammar, mathematics, social studies or science.” That’s all! The bill actually says “or” in this list, so studying just one subject would fulfill a parent’s obligation. It’s an unregulated and narrow education. No art, no music, no health, no vocational subjects. This would absolutely lower standards for students just as standards for public school students in recent years have been raised.If this Education Savings Account concept is not decisively rejected, it will confirm the theory that all of the standards and testing regulations heaped upon our public schools in the past decade have just been techniques to make privatized vouchers and grants look attractive to individual parents, giving them an incentive to leave the public schools in order to run home schools or independent schools with taxpayer money. This concept is taken from Milton Friedman’s plan to end community public schools. It should be totally and promptly rejected.
2) The plan includes no obligation for annual testing or public accountability except for students who enroll in schools giving ILEARN. No accountability is required of students in home or micro schools.
3) The bill would give 100% of ADM money (more than a 90% voucher) to high income parents of special education and 504 students and foster children. It would even allow wealthy parents who are already paying private school tuition to get a grant and put it in a Coverdell college fund.
4) The bill would give the entire amount of public money for eligible students directly to parents, paving the way in a few years for the real goal to give the entire amount of public money to parents of all students on a debit card. These bills to privatize schooling would immediately divert money away from our public school students and over time would undermine funding for all students in both public schools and private voucher schools. This bill undermines the very concept of schools.
5) The bill would allow parents to home school their child with public money, paying for an approved provider, for a tutor and for textbooks. Public school parents would surely like to have the state pay for their textbooks as well, but public school parents must pay their own textbook rental.
6) The bill would give public money to parents with very weak provisions for fraud protection. Parents with past records of felonies or neglect or child abuse are not excluded.
This concept of Personalized Education Grants, also known as Education Savings Accounts, is too radical and potentially damaging for any further consideration. The Senate turned down this concept in the 2017 session, and they should do so again.
Thank you for considering these major concerns.
-----
Thank you for your active support of public education in Indiana!
Best wishes,
Vic Smith
“Vic’s Statehouse Notes” and ICPE received one of three Excellence in Media Awards presented by Delta Kappa Gamma Society International, an organization of over 85,000 women educators in seventeen countries. The award was presented on July 30, 2014 during the Delta Kappa Gamma International Convention held in Indianapolis. Thank you Delta Kappa Gamma!
ICPE has worked since 2011 to promote public education in the Statehouse and oppose the privatization of schools. We need your membership to help support ICPE lobbying efforts. As of July 1st, the start of our new membership year, it is time for all ICPE members to renew their membership.
Our lobbyist Joel Hand is again representing ICPE in the new budget session which began on January 3, 2017. We need your memberships and your support to continue his work. We welcome additional members and additional donations. We need your help and the help of your colleagues who support public education! Please pass the word!
Go to www.indianacoalitionforpubliced.org for membership and renewal information and for full information on ICPE efforts on behalf of public education. Thanks!
Some readers have asked about my background in Indiana public schools. Thanks for asking! Here is a brief bio:
I am a lifelong Hoosier and began teaching in 1969. I served as a social studies teacher, curriculum developer, state research and evaluation consultant, state social studies consultant, district social studies supervisor, assistant principal, principal, educational association staff member, and adjunct university professor. I worked for Garrett-Keyser-Butler Schools, the Indiana University Social Studies Development Center, the Indiana Department of Education, the Indianapolis Public Schools, IUPUI, and the Indiana Urban Schools Association, from which I retired as Associate Director in 2009. I hold three degrees: B.A. in Ed., Ball State University, 1969; M.S. in Ed., Indiana University, 1972; and Ed.D., Indiana University, 1977, along with a Teacher’s Life License and a Superintendent’s License, 1998. In 2013 I was honored to receive a Distinguished Alumni Award from the IU School of Education, and in 2014 I was honored to be named to the Teacher Education Hall of Fame by the Association for Teacher Education – Indiana. In April of 2018, I was honored to receive the 2018 Friend of Education Award from the Indiana State Teachers Association.
###
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)