State schools chief lays out success, future goals

State Superintendant of Public Instruction Tony Bennett said he thinks that Indiana is leading the education space race, and we just need to keep accelerating.

Bennett outlined his educational reform package that was passed in the last legislative session during the second annual State of Education address. Bennett said the reforms have made Indiana “the nationwide leader in education reform.”

Bennett also pushed for new reforms during the next legislative session. He successfully advocated for a wide-ranging education reform package last year, including increased evaluation for school instructors and administrators, a school voucher program, a letter-grade school evaluation system and an expanded charter school system.

Bennett touted all of these as revolutionary successes for Indiana.

“In the future, when teacher reduction happens, it will be based on teacher performance and not on the number of years a teacher has been there,” Bennett said. “And no longer will the least effective teacher in the school be treated as the most effective.”

He also highlighted the school voucher program, which allows parents to send their children to private or religious schools using state money.

"Parents now have better options for their kids,” Bennett said. He cited the case of a woman in the audience, who found her two children were not receiving high-quality education in their public schools, so she used the program to enroll her children in private schools this year.

“But simply having more options is not enough,” Bennett said. Starting next year, the state Department of Education “will now hold charters and private schools to high degrees of accountability.”

Previously, charter and private schools did not have the same accountability requirements as public schools.

Bennett said the state has been vigorous in enforcing accountability for public schools, particularly in under-performing schools.

Referencing state takeovers of four schools and increased involvement in two others, Bennett said, “All students, regardless of their ZIP code and regardless of their race, deserve high-quality education. Demography cannot and will not determine the destiny of our children.”

While Bennett said the state has seen increases across the board in graduation rates, ISTEP scores and students passing Advanced Placement exams, there is still more to be done.

Bennett announced plans to ask the legislature to approve proposals to give entire school districts letter grades, to accelerate the time frame for intervention in failing schools and require all students to take an online course before graduating.

He also asked the legislature to pass a plan to create multiple school count days throughout the year. Count days measure the student population in a school to determine how much state funding the school will receive. Currently, there is only one count day per school year, meaning that if several students move from one school district to another during the school year, the new school will receive no money for its new students.

— Zach Ammerman