Indiana

Indiana?s Education Reformation

By Abdul Hakim-Shabazz

Let the school reform begin!  That?s all I could think of when I heard Indiana Governor Mitch Daniels State of the State address Tuesday night.  Daniels spoke for about 32 minutes and half that time was spent outlining his plans to reform education in Indiana.

In a nutshell, here is what the Governor wants to achieve?

• Create more school choice by permitting a portion of school funding to follow current public school students to attend accredited private schools.
• Create more charter schools by creating a new statewide charter school authorizer and allow charters easier access to unused school facilities.
• Evaluate and compensate teachers based on student performance by assessing teachers annually using locally developed evaluation tool and free schools to build their own salary schedule and compensate teachers based on effectiveness.
• Modernize collective bargaining contracts limiting the scope of union contracts to wages and wage-related benefits, contracts can only be set for the known budget cycle and give schools more freedom to set personnel policies.
• Authorize the State Board of Education to grant schools more waivers.
• Permit high school students to graduate a year early and receive a $3,5000 which could be used toward attending any Indiana postsecondary education institution.

I can already here the moaning and gnashing of teeth from the ESQUE (Education Status Quo Establishment).  My counterpart Jon Easter blogged this morning about the gloom and doom of education reform.  In all due fairness, I do believe that people, like Jon, have their hearts in the right place, I just can?t figure out where their heads are.

You cannot tell me that abysmal graduation rates are acceptable.  You cannot tell me that a union contract where layoffs occur based on the last four digits of a teacher?s social security number or dictates when a school can hold an open house or what the temperature of the teacher?s lounge must be are acceptable.  And please don?t tell me that keeping poor African-American children in failing schools with no hope for them to get out is acceptable.

If you are going to oppose education reform as laid out by the Governor, that?s fine.  A healthy debate is a good thing.  But like most issues, a debate isn?t a one-way conversation.  Please bring something to the table.  Please bring an idea or a thought.  Bring something to the table that will lead to improving the quality of education of Indiana.

And if you don?t plan to lead or join the education reformation, please be kind enough to get the hell out of the way so grown folks can get some real work done.

The reformation has begun!

Full post as published by Indiana Barrister on January 12, 2011 (boomark / email).