We have been hosting a Statehouse Day of Action ever since 2012. Gathering folks from all walks of life to express their love and support and defense of public schools has always been an inspiring and affirming experience for all. The backbone of this event has always been our ICPE co-founder and vice president, Marilyn Shank. We took a few moments at this year’s event on Presidents Day to honor our friend.

With friends and family cheering her on, Marilyn accepted our award from ICPE board member, Jennifer McCormick. Jennifer gave her usual rousing remarks, but turned to Marilyn and said, “Some folks go that extra mile. They serve on boards; they show up at events when there aren’t that many friendly faces and they are staring back at you. They understand what’s at stake and they are fighting year after year for generations of our kids. It’s with my great, great honor to Ms. Marilyn Shank.” The crowd gave Marilyn a grand applause and standing ovation. 

ICPE Co-Founder, Dr. Vic Smith, sent us his tribute to Marilyn as he could not be there on that day. Here is what he wrote: 

Marilyn Shank has a servant’s heart. To our good fortune, she has dedicated her service for years now to supporting the students and staff in the public schools of Indiana. She has been a cornerstone of the Indiana Coalition for Public Education.

I have worked directly with Marilyn since 2011 when she joined the board of ICPE in its initial year when public education first came under attack. The voucher bill was pending in the Indiana General Assembly, and ICPE formed to give a voice to all members of the general public to say that our schools must not be privatized and that public money should go to public schools. She just showed up at a board meeting in early 2011 to join the fight, and she has never gone away.

Her skills to communicate, to write press releases, to write newsletters, to organize membership lists, to solicit memberships, to plan rally after rally are legendary within our board. She and her husband David saved ICPE during the pandemic by providing Zoom services for our board meetings. Serving as our board vice-president for over a decade, her contributions never end. When meeting deadlines during sessions of the General Assembly, no time was too late or too early for her to answer the phone to prepare alerts to our members.

Marilyn, for all the late nights, for all the early mornings, for all the time on task making charts and graphs and spreadsheets, we say thanks! We can’t thank you enough!

It is more than appropriate that we take time to honor and thank a talented and willing servant dedicated to the cause of public education, Marilyn Shank.

It was an inspirational moment to pause and focus on Marilyn, an amazing public education advocate. If all of us could give as much as she does for our communities and public schools, we would be in a much better place. Thank you, Marilyn. 

A bit of history…

Back in the 1960s when she was a student at public IPS Shortridge High School and operated the control board of W-I-A-N radio, Marilyn Shank probably never ever thought she’d be recognized as a volunteer leader in protecting public education in Indiana. 

Fast forward to the 1970s when she and her husband, David, moved to Colorado after graduating from Indiana University. About the same time, a “controversial” amendment to the U.S. Constitution was making the rounds of legislatures around the country – it was the Equal Rights Amendment. She and their young son Brendon, who was less than a year old, demonstrated at the Colorado Statehouse supporting the ERA. We have the picture from the Denver Post to prove it, including Marilyn changing his diaper in a statehouse hallway. Eventually the Colorado ERA passed by about a 2-1 margin. Brendon now has two sons in Philly. 

Fast forward again to the mid-80s when their now two sons were elementary students in Wayne Township Schools on the Indianapolis west side. For the next nearly two decades, she held top leadership positions at Chapelwood Elementary, Fulton Jr. High and eventually, Ben Davis High School PTAs. Ask her what it’s like working the concession booth at Ben Davis football games. In one season you suffocate and then freeze as you hand out gallons of soft drinks and limitless popcorn bags.

Marilyn and David started their globally recognized public relations firm in the late 1980s. Using her inside-the-school-building wisdom, assisting Hoosier public school districts with community referenda became a major service category for her and their company. She counseled and organized dozens of successful referenda programs for Hoosier public school districts at the grassroots level. 

She also worked with the architecture firm assigned to renovate Indianapolis Public Schools in the 1980s. In 1987, she got a call from the District’s head of public relations who said she wanted Marilyn to meet a gentleman who shared their concern about public education…even back in the late 1980s. 

Marilyn later met with him and found out he was an IPS principal, who later became an important leader at DOE and whom we now know and love as the author of ICPE’s own critical thinking “Vic’s Notes.” Our own Vic Smith.

More meetings with Vic and they saw the need for a public education advocacy group. And so, the essence of the Indiana Coalition For Public Education was born! 

We are sure Marilyn and Vic always thought ICPE would be a positive, proactive source of information and action to enhance our Indiana Constitution required public education system. We are also betting they never envisioned how critical ICPE would become as a major information source and ultimate defender of public education as we know it today. Why would we ever have to defend public education? Well, we sure know now.

With Marilyn’s and Vic’s leadership ICPE, has grown to an aggressive not-for profit institution we celebrate here today.