Did you realize that Governor Mitch Daniels and State Superintendent of Public Instruction Tony Bennett are selling the public a false bill of goods? They are telling us what a wonderful thing it is to spread public money around to private and charter schools.Do you realize that private and charter schools aren't held to the same stringent standards as public schools? Did you know that charter schools are not required to hire licensed teachers? They can hire anyone who has had two years of college with good grades. They don't have to have any preparation to actually teach in a classroom. Did you know private and charter schools can choose not to enroll any child because of ability, etc.? Do you realize that public schools teach all children, no matter what ability or problem a child may or may not have? Did you know that you are seeing test scores from this select population of private and charter schools compared to public schools that teach all students with many different abilities and challenges? Did you know that in most cases public school test scores are higher or equal to most charter and private school test scores? Did you know that charter and many private schools are run for profit? Did you know that many charter schools have claimed bankruptcy after opening their doors and taking money from parents and the public who never got that money back? Do you want to send your hard earned public money to help support these businesses? Do you realize how fortunate we are to have a public education system that takes in all children of any race, religion, and ability? Why would we want to take money away from public schools and give it to schools who do none or very little of that?
One of the great strengths of our country lies in the public education system. It gives an equal opportunity to all children to get an education. When private and charter schools take responsibility for themselves they can be a good thing. Why would we want to take money away from a public school and give it to a business that is just making money from our hard-earned dollars when they are not being held to the same standards? This law would make the gap between the "haves" and the "have nots" bigger, not smaller.
How can it be fair to evaluate a teacher who may have many students with handicapping conditions against another teacher who has mostly high-ability students and expect them to all make the same amount of progress? Why would teachers and administrators want to continue working in a state that is trying to kill public education? We need to fight for public education, teachers, and administrators or we are going to lose something we in Indiana should be very proud of.
