Dear Friends,

The Indiana Coalition for Public Education board members have endorsed Jennifer McCormick for Governor.  

Jennifer McCormick endorsed Terry Goodin for Lieutenant Governor, and he easily won the nomination at the state convention less than two weeks ago. 

They will make a great team to protect public education from critics who would diminish support for public schools and attempt to privatize the entire schooling system. Jennifer McCormick and Terry Goodin, both former public school superintendents, would do everything they could do to keep public schools public and stop the rush to privatize schooling in Indiana.   

Jennifer McCormick will speak at the annual ICPE all-member meeting on August 24, 2024. 

Mark your calendars and join us!

All who support public education are welcome on August 24th.  The meeting starts at 2pm at the Washington Township Community and Education Center, 86th and Woodfield Crossing, Indianapolis.

Click here to see all the meeting details on our website. 

Maintaining Accountability

Jennifer McCormick and Terry Goodin need grassroots support, with public school advocates talking to their families and their neighbors about the problems with ESAs – Education Scholarship Accounts – the mechanism proposed by many Republican leaders to give education funding dollars to parents, and not to schools as we do now.  Senator Mishler, the chief Senate budget writer, introduced a bill on January 18, 2024 which would give ESAs to all parents who want them, saying his bill would guide the 2025 school funding budget.

You read that right: The ESA program actually gives control of the state money for each student – approximately $6000 – to the parent, not the school.

The gaping hole in this plan is that once parents get control of the money to pay for their unsupervised homeschool, THERE IS NO ACCOUNTABILITY. Taxpayers pay for these homeschools but have no say in what the Indiana students in the program learn. Homeschools are unregulated, unaccredited and unaccountable.

I watched twenty-five years of wrangling to bring accountability to our schools starting in 1999 with Public Law 221, school improvement plans, and school letter grades. Now, all of that could be pitched out as parents are given control of education money with no accountability.  

The intense drive for accountability that dominated a quarter century of Statehouse squabbles is apparently over. The Republican leadership instead wants to privatize schools. How quickly accountability for taxpayer dollars has been forgotten.

This Is a Radical Proposal That Would Damage Our Public Schools

I wrote the words below eight years ago. They foretold the story of how Indiana is now on the brink of losing its community public schools: 

Excerpt from Vic’s Statehouse Notes #249 dated February 21, 2016

End of quote from 2016. The only change in the plan from 8 years ago has been to have the Indiana Treasurer prepare an online account for every student instead of a debit card.  

This Election Will Determine the Future of Public Education 

This is the year to prevent the universal voucher and to keep public education from entering a death spiral. It is all done through the ballot box.   

I appeal to all public education supporters to do your part with your family and friends. Tell them of the danger to our public schools if all parents can withdraw funding for public schools to use for their unsupervised homeschool. Tell them to vote for candidates that recognize the danger to our public schools, candidates that strongly support public education.

Candidates like Jennifer McCormick and Terry Goodin.

Thank you for your active support of public education in Indiana!

Best wishes,

Vic Smith      vic790@aol.com 

About Vic’s Statehouse Notes and ICPE…

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 rely on memberships to help support ICPE lobbying efforts and outreach across the state. Our lobbyist Joel Hand represented ICPE extremely well in the 2024 short session. We need all ICPE members to renew their membership if they have not done so. We also welcome new members and general donations. We need your help and the help of your colleagues who support public education! Please pass the word!

Visit ICPE’s website at www.indianacoalitionforpubliced.org/join 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.