Education culture shock

Indiana’s new superintendent of public instruction, Tony Bennett, probably thought he picked the right crowd when he spoke at an IU College Republicans meeting three weeks ago.

As the Republican candidate for his position, many of the conservative activists in attendance probably played a role in his campaign last fall. But there were clearly some skeptics there, too.

Bennett stuck to his usual talking points of creating a “statewide culture of academic excellence.” At the meeting he claimed, “If it is not about making the lives of children better, the Indiana Department of Education does not talk about it.”

However, while he got predictable applause from lines like “I have no interest in the teachers’ union,” I gathered that some in attendance wish he would have spent less time talking about the need for “passion and leadership” and more about details.

One man, identifying himself as a teacher of more than 30 years, spoke of his problems with student attendance with a wariness suggesting he had heard promises of change before.

Another older attendee pointed out that if Bennett could offer up more concrete ways to change Indiana education, students would give him all the passion and leadership he needed.

Bennett recently revealed that by 2012 he wants Indiana to have a graduation rate of 90 percent, which would be the nation’s highest.

The state’s current level is only 74 percent.

Bennett pointed out at the College Republicans meeting that, even in this recession, Indiana won’t be cutting its K-12 education budget, unlike most other states. But with inflation, the spending freeze proposed by Gov. Mitch Daniels is a de facto cut. Daniels also wants to put off investments in full-day kindergarten.

Financial pressures make real reform even more necessary if Indiana is to meet Bennett’s goals. So far, a bill designed to protect teachers trying to maintain classroom order from frivolous lawsuits has made it through the Indiana Senate. The Indiana State Board of Education adopted deregulatory reforms to remove mostly archaic rules requiring students to spend 250 minutes per week in class to get credit and requiring certain ratios of teachers, administrators and counselors to students.

These proposals, along with another to close loopholes in the state’s requirement of 180 school days currently being challenged by the Democrat-controlled Indiana House of Representatives, are good starts.

But Bennett needs more ambitious proposals to match his ambitious rhetoric.

At the College Republicans meeting, Bennett said “government schools will either get better or get out,” but only after facing some pointed questions. Vouchers for private schools are controversial and House Democrats are trying to cap charter schools.

Bennett claims he is fighting this. He needs to fight harder.

Indiana’s education chief could also convince skeptics of his planned cultural shift by looking at a report from the National Council on Teacher Quality.

The council gave Indiana a “D” when it came to firing ineffective teachers, citing that the state requires only one formal evaluation a year for new teachers and fails to use student assessment data in them.

If Indiana can’t afford to pay good teachers what they deserve, Bennett should at least focus on getting rid of the bad ones.