How did Ritz win in Indiana

Ritz supporters' 'subterranean' tactics

The Governor, Governor-elect, some members of the legislature, and the rest of the pro-"reformers" in Indiana can't admit that Glenda Ritz, the Superintendent of Public Instruction-elect was elected because of dissatisfaction with the pro-privatization status quo which includes 1) a massively invasive testing program stealing time from students' instruction, 2) a voucher program which is stripping Indiana's public schools of funds, 3) pro charter and privatization initiatives from the superintendent's office, 4) the dismantling of the profession of teaching in Indiana, and 5) the takeover of local schools and the threatened takeover of entire school corporations. Instead they blame an imaginary misinformation campaign.

In a meeting with The Journal Gazette editorial board today, Gov. Mitch Daniels continued to insist voters' rejection of state Superintendent Tony Bennett was not a rejection of the aggressive education agenda they shared, but instead the result of underhanded campaign tactics.

GOP firm despite education coup

If the idea of a misinformation campaign doesn't convince you, then how about this? The Speaker of the Indiana House claims that it was simply a personality clash between teachers and outgoing superintendent Tony Bennett.

“This is not an indictment in any way of reforms,” [GOP House Speaker] Bosma said. “Some of the education reform controversy deals with the tone and presentation of the reforms and how it’s explained. Occasionally the discussion moved into arenas that teachers found offensive.”

Did Bennett Really Lose in Indiana?

Still not convinced? Bennett himself said it was the fault of the state teachers union...and the enemies of reform who don't want the common core standards.

The reason, Bennett said, is that he knew the Indiana teachers' unions would be "formidable foes" in any election fight, and that his policy initiatives in the last four years would generate strong opposition from some in the state education establishment. Bennett is a big national voice on issues prioritized by so-called "education reform" advocates, but his education stardom wasn't enough to satisfy Hoosier voters, who gave Ritz 52 percent of the vote and Bennett 48 percent...

Excuses!

Let's get this straight...Glenda Ritz, who got more votes than Governor-Elect Pence, won the office of State Superintendent because 1) voters were misinformed, 2) Tony Bennett has an unpleasant and abrasive personality and 3) the state teachers unions influenced enough people to cross party lines and vote for a Democrat in this race (but not the race for Governor).

I don't think so.

What's more likely is that a coalition of teachers, parents, and concerned citizens participated in a grass roots campaign which educated people around the state about the pro-privatization and anti-public education policies of the current administration. The excuses from the privatizers are just that...excuses. The Republican leadership in Indiana doesn't want to admit that they were beaten on the issues. They would rather pretend that something else happened...an anomaly...cheating...misinformation...anything to explain away their loss after spending 4 times as much money ($1.5 million, much of it from out of state) as their opponent.

Maybe they don't want the grass-roots success of Glenda Ritz to catch on...maybe they don't want the citizens of Indiana to realize the power they have to change things.

Diane Ravitch has an explanation...

How Did David Beat Goliath in Indiana?

...teachers, principals and superintendents were angry, but that would not be enough to beat him.

The unions were angry, but that would not be enough to beat him.

Parents were angry at the avalanche of testing. There are lots and lots of parents. That would matter.

Hoosiers who graduated from public schools, who loved their teachers, who respect the importance of public education figured out that he was doing his best to turn it over to entrepreneurs.

Maybe that’s what did it.

Ritz ran on a platform of less testing and more teaching, public money going to public schools, local control (which I always thought was a Republican talking point!) and an end to the privatization of public schools. Daniels, Pence, Bosma, et al, ought to join the grass-roots effort to change the direction of public education in Indiana before the people turn on them.

Other comments from around the web...

LETTER: Ritz win a blow to bullies

This letter writer scolds the "bullies" who are claiming that Ritz's election is not a mandate for change from the "putting private schools first" agenda of the state.

The election of Glenda Ritz was an enormous victory for our public schools. The "Putting Private Schools First" agenda and those who developed it were sent a strong message that our teachers know what is best for education in Indiana. The voters who crossed party lines to remove the thorn in the side of public schools should be commended and their voices not silenced. To say that you will continue the current reform efforts and downplay the significance of the defeat of its poster boy does not seem like a wise choice. I would expect a person in the highest position in the state to listen to the experts in the field, not direct them to the sidelines and show your backside.

Glenda Ritz: I knew I was going to be elected

She knew it all along...

We organized grassroots coalitions and energized people through the social media. It just got broader and broader to the point where when you put a message on Facebook that says, “Take your signs to the polling places,” and people just do it. We only had 2,500 yard signs statewide. It got to the point where we said, “Call 25 of your friends,” and they’d call 50. Whatever we put out, people went and did. I knew a month out that I was going to be elected. I was traveling all over the state and it was energized. It was exciting. Our Facebook page visits have gone up tremendously since the race. My husband was posting at 6 a.m., before school, about what I was doing each day and we’d get lots of hits instantly. We’re still doing that. I knew the base was huge. I would have been shocked if we lost. I was telling people for weeks I was going to win and they were like, “yeah, right.”

Can Glenda Ritz Work With A New, Pence-Appointed State Board?

One of the biggest challenges facing state superintendent-elect Glenda Ritz is the fact that the governor's office, the state school board and the legislature are all against her and her policies. How will she handle that challenge?

In the early stages of her campaign, state superintendent-elect Glenda Ritz knew that defeating well-funded and highly-visible incumbent Tony Bennett would only be her first challenge.

The next challenge — barring fellow Democrats retaking Indiana’s General Assembly or governorship — would be winning over the State Board of Education, the executive panel charged with overseeing Ritz’s work.

Republican Governor-elect Mike Pence, who opposes Ritz’s stances as much as Bennett, appoints the members of that board.

Governor Daniels, Governor-elect Pence, the Indiana state legislature: Honor our 1,300,000 votes for Glenda Ritz

The grass-roots movement hasn't quit...here's a petition on change.org asking the Republican leadership to accept the fact that Ritz's victory was a victory for a change to the "reformer's" status quo.

Indiana voters elected Glenda Ritz as our new Superintendent of Public Instruction by a large margin. She received roughly 1,300,000 votes--about 100,000 more votes than the governor-elect, Mike Pence. Now, however, Governor Daniels refuses to acknowledge that our election of Glenda Ritz sent a clear message on the direction of school reform, saying instead: "The consensus and momentum for reform and change in Indiana is rock solid." Governor-elect Mike Pence is also choosing to interpret the election results as a "strong affirmation on the progress of education reform in this state," (Journal Gazette 11/8/12). On the contrary: when Indiana voters elected Glenda Ritz as superintendent, we rejected the top-down, corporate reform model imposed by the state. We embraced Ritz's platform and her research-backed proposals to support and improve our public schools.

More...

Mapping The ‘Campaign In A Box’: How Glenda Ritz Won Indiana

Ritz upsets Bennett in Indiana superintendent race

Glenda Ritz wins surprise state superintendent victory over incumbent Republican Tony Bennett

Glenda Ritz Wins Superintendent Job In Indiana, Upsetting Republican Incumbent Tony Bennett

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Readers from Indiana, did you vote for Glenda Ritz?

Let Governor-Elect Pence and the Indiana Legislature know that we voted for her because we rejected the top-down, corporate reform model imposed by the state. We embraced Ritz's platform and her research-backed proposals to support and improve our public schools.

Click here to sign the Petition!

1.3 million signatures by Thanksgiving!!

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Stop the Testing Insanity!

Sign the National Resolution on High Stakes Testing!

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We All Benefit From a Healthy, Educated Citizenry

In the grand American tradition of pontificating about things you don't understand, movie critic Roger Ebert takes on American education. Since he's not rich like Bill Gates, or doesn't have billionaire friends like Arne Duncan, Ebert's comments will not be the basis for the next "reform" movement. However, he makes some sense and his article...a letter to President Obama telling him what we need to do to "fix" education...is worth reading.

Hello, Mr. President? It’s me, Roger Ebert

The first thing he says displays his lack of knowledge about the the current state of American public education.

I would ask the president for an emergency education program. Our students at every level are below American historical norms and global standards.

This is wrong. Our students "at every level" are not below American historical norms. American students today are achieving at or above where they were in the past. Diane Ravitch gives the data.

American students are at their highest point in history, as recorded on the only longitudinal measure of performance, the federal test called the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP).

Our students "at every level" are not below "global standards" -- if by global standards he means how we score on international tests. Stephen Krashen says,

Studies show that middle-class American students attending well-funded schools outscore students in nearly all other countries on these tests.

Like most people who get their information from the daily newspaper or the "reformers," Ebert either ignores, or doesn't know that there's a high correlation between achievement and poverty. And, since the US has the highest level of child poverty of all advanced nations, our average achievement is lower. What to do about this? Ebert's solution is to lower class sizes and pay teachers more.

What I think we need are smaller classrooms, better pay for teachers and an emphasis on fundamentals rather than frivolity. Although I am in favor of physical education, I believe most school sports foster a flawed culture. The news that Allen, Texas, has constructed a high school stadium costing $60 million filled me with incredulity. What does that have to do with education? I was much cheered by the new documentary “Brooklyn Castle,” about how a team from an inner-city junior high school won the national high school chess championship, and didn’t need a stadium at all. They were coached by a couple of great teachers.

Agreed! I believe that the public schools must keep sports programs for the "body smart" among our children. Some kids will only stay in school because the athletic program (or the arts program, or the music program) gives them something they can excel in. We can't, and shouldn't do away with those programs. They're essential to a complete education. He's right, however...$60 million for a new stadium for a high school shows seriously misplaced priorities...unless of course, millions for academic resources and the arts are also available.

So, I agree that we should spend money to support our public schools, but I think the basis for his opinion...that America's public schools are failing, is faulty. The "reformers" have done their job of convincing the American people, and Ebert specifically, of the big lie of failing schools. The failure is, in actual fact, a failure of the politicians, pundits and policy makers to come up with ways to reduce child poverty. Instead of supporting our struggling schools and the students within them, we reduce their funds, fire their staffs and close them down. The children who are living in poverty end up being shuffled somewhere else and the cycle repeats itself.

One of the comments to Ebert's article...by DMichael...struck me as being right on target. We need to focus on helping all students achieve.

...I don't know why people don't understand this: there are 2 things we could do, almost immediately, to dramatically improve both life in the US in general, and our ability to compete in the world at large. In both cases, we're falling behind.

Universal health care, universal education.

Note that I did not say *free* health care or education. Everybody who pays taxes pays into our health and education. And what do we get as a nation, in return?

We get healthy citizens. People whose income doesn't stop them from preventative treatment, which keeps them out of the emergency room for a headache. People who don't wander the streets shouting at their shoes, until they snap and pick up a semi-automatic.

We get a work force that is in excellent health, in better physical condition, and producing much healthier children in the process.

We get healthy citizens, who are able to be educated to the limits of their intelligence and ability. That might mean being a great mechanic, or the woman who grew up in poverty but who finds the universal cure for cancer—because she was smart enough not rich enough to attend the best schools.

We, as a society, benefit from a health[y], educated citizenry. We do NOT benefit when people are sick, or undereducated, or dying—just because they are not financially well off.

There is no way we do *not* benefit. Healthier people in general means insurance risks are lower, which lowers the cost of health care—even while covering more people.

Public education that is of the same high quality, whether you're living in the inner city or a gated community, benefits every single American in the long run, with a more educated work force, higher quality products, and much less reliance on foreign brain power.

[Other wealthy nations have] figured it out. It's time for us to join the 21st century.

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Readers from Indiana, did you vote for Glenda Ritz?

Let Governor-Elect Pence and the Indiana Legislature know that we voted for her because we rejected the top-down, corporate reform model imposed by the state. We embraced Ritz's platform and her research-backed proposals to support and improve our public schools.

Click here to sign the Petition!

1.3 million signatures by Thanksgiving!!

~~~

Stop the Testing Insanity!

Sign the National Resolution on High Stakes Testing!

~~~

Don't Major in Education?

Valerie Strauss printed an excerpt from 60 Minutes -- an interview with historian David McCullough. See Historian David McCullough: No ‘professional teacher should major in education’

She wrote,

Everyone’s a critic about the teaching profession. That includes award-winning historian David McCullough, who was profiled on CBS’ “60 Minutes” on Sunday by correspondent Morley Safer. Along with talking about teacher education, he noted that young Americans are “historically illiterate” — and it’s not just the fault of teachers, but parents too.

What makes McCullough an expert on public education? He's America's Greatest Historian, according to his publisher, but I don't see any experience in his bio to indicated any experience in education, primary or secondary. He's apparently well respected in his field, but I don't understand why that gives him the expertise to pontificate about education training. I might have opinions about how to write a history book, or interpret an event in history, however, those of you who read this blog regularly (anyone? anyone?) will note that I don't write about history...and especially don't write about how historians should be trained or educated.

Here's what McCullough said which upset me...

David McCullough: ...I don’t feel that any professional teacher should major in education. They should major in a subject, know something. The best teachers are those who have a gift and the energy and enthusiasm to convey their love for science or history or Shakespeare or whatever it is. “Show them what you love” is the old adage. And we’ve all had them, where they can change your life. They can electrify the morning when you come into the classroom.

This is just another instance of not respecting teachers. Arne Duncan claims that advanced degrees don't matter -- perhaps because he doesn't have one. McCullough takes it one step further and claims that education degrees don't matter.

And here's the comment I left on the web site. I've edited it a bit in order to correct a couple of things, but it's essentially the same.

In my district elementary teachers usually teach all subjects...which, I believe, is fairly common around the country. It's the norm for an elementary teacher in our district to teach 6-8 different subjects...English, Reading, Writing, Spelling, aka Language Arts, along with Math, Science, Health and Social Studies.

Are we supposed to major in 5 different fields in order to teach a class of first graders?

It seems to me that McCullough, as well as many others, confuse content area knowledge learned through degree programs with educating students. I agree that a high school history teacher (or math teacher, or science teacher etc.) who teaches 120-160 kids the same (or similar) subject all day every day needs to have specialized training in their subject area, but McCullough's comment that no professional teacher should major in education is just plain ignorant. An education degree, if it's done right, includes teaching methods, child development, child psychology, curriculum development and a myriad of other things that subject area specialists, like professional historians, don't get exposed to. Educators don't fill up students with knowledge. They teach children how to learn.

If he's talking ONLY about secondary teachers then let him say so...instead of ignoring the millions of pre-k to grade 5 teachers. On the other hand, I'm not sure I agree with him even if he IS talking only secondary.

One of the problems in the public debate over education is the proliferation of experts...seemingly everyone who attended school - except teachers - Bill Gates, Arne Duncan, and now David McCullough.

Increase content requirements for subject area teachers if needed, but don't blame teachers for anecdotal lack of content knowledge. I wonder how long a history major would last in a class of 40 kindergartners in the Chicago Public Schools...

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Stop the Testing Insanity!

Sign the National Resolution on High Stakes Testing!

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Petitions to Support Public Education in Indiana

Some folks have started a petition to ask the governor and legislature to acknowledge that Glenda Ritz, the Superintendent of Public Instruction-elect was elected to change the plan which Tony Bennett has been pushing in Indiana.

Click HERE to sign the petition.

Here's the content:

Indiana voters elected Glenda Ritz as our new Superintendent of Public Instruction by a large margin. She received roughly 1,300,000 votes--about 100,000 more votes than the governor-elect, Mike Pence. Now, however, Governor Daniels refuses to acknowledge that our election of Glenda Ritz sent a clear message on the direction of school reform, saying instead: "The consensus and momentum for reform and change in Indiana is rock solid." Governor-elect Mike Pence is also choosing to interpret the election results as a "strong affirmation on the progress of education reform in this state," (Journal Gazette 11/8/12). On the contrary: when Indiana voters elected Glenda Ritz as superintendent, we rejected the top-down, corporate reform model imposed by the state. We embraced Ritz's platform and her research-backed proposals to support and improve our public schools.

Petition Letter

Dear Governor, Indiana Legislators and D.O.E. Board,

Indiana voters elected Glenda Ritz as Superintendent of Public Instruction by a large margin. She received roughly 1,300,000 votes--about 100,000 more votes than the governor-elect, Mike Pence. We call upon Governor Daniels, future governor Mike Pence, the D.O.E. Board, and our legislature to respect voters' clear message on the direction of public education in Indiana. We affirm our support for our candidate and her platform:

"More time to education, less time to testing" The use of high-stake testing to judge children, schools, and communities harms the process of teaching and learning.

"More control to local school districts to implement state and federal standards" Local schools need resources and support, not rigid dictates.

"Clear the barriers to quality vocational education" Schools must be given the flexibility to support a vibrant curriculum for high school students' vocational interests.

"Make teacher licensing and evaluation standards top in the nation" All children should be taught by qualified instructors. Effective teacher preparation programs are vital, and teacher licensing should be based upon comprehensive, effective teacher preparation.

"Stop the flow of public tax dollars to private education companies running take-over schools"

We believe public tax dollars belong in public schools. All school districts in Indiana deserve equitable funding.

The vote for Glenda Ritz is a mandate for the protection of the child's constitutional right to a free, high-quality public education as articulated in Article 8, Section 1 of the Indiana State Constitution, funded by tax dollars.

Sincerely,
[Your name]

And here's another one which seems to be specifically directed at supporters of Mike Pence, the Indiana Governor-elect.

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Stop the Testing Insanity!

Sign the National Resolution on High Stakes Testing!

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