Local community leaders meet to discuss Ind. education

The Indiana Coalition for Public Education of Monroe County and South Central Indiana  and the League of Women Voters of Bloomington-Monroe County teamed up
Monday for an informational meeting for citizens concerned about the state of
education.

Wendy Marencik described ICPE as passionate about the world of
education.

The coalition has formulated action groups to help implement their ideals. These groups include Parents Advocating Local Schools, Publicity Group-Supporting Public Education and Kids, Data Information Group, Membership Organization, Recruitment and Enhancement Group and Online Resource Group.  

A sign-up sheet was passed around for those interested to get involved.

“This is a way that you can make a difference,” Marencik said.

Much of the night focused around guests Scott Reske, executive director of government and public affairs at the Indiana Departmant of Education, and Sen. Mark Stoops, D-Bloomington, who discussed education issues with the audience.
Reske said Ritz and her team are still very young and described her situation as “interesting,” because Ritz is a Democrat and both the Indiana House and Senate have Republican super majorities.

He said Ritz hoped to find common ground with Congress quickly. Ritz explained to the legislature the impact in the classroom of the laws they had passed during the last few years and mentioned alternatives to these laws that Reske said some congressional members had never heard of.

“I think a lot of them were surprised,” he said.

Reske said Ritz is an advocate of more teaching and less testing, more local control, higher teaching standards and safer schools.

Reske also said Ritz hopes to switch away from pass/fail tests because with this method, it is difficult to assess how a child may have progressed over the school year.

He specifically said the IREAD-3 program will possibly be changed to a non-pass/fail format.  

He also emphasized Ritz’s initiative to keep public money in public schools, stating she is the superintendent of “public” instruction.

Reske said there has been some fraud involved with the voucher program. Stoops said Indianapolis Public Schools have lost $7 million to private schools, because the private schools were getting paid for voucher students they didn’t have.

Stoops also said public schools had a large budget cut two years ago. Gov. Mike
Pence said he wants to increase funding for public schools, but Stoops said the proposed amount is about $240 million short of how much was cut.

Reske said the attorney general has proposed a bill that would give schools more funding for resource officers. He said Indiana currently has some of the safest schools in the country. Each school corporation is required to have a safety specialist and is a
leading state in school resource officers.

With superintendents from different parties, League Co-President Linda Shanks said Bennett and Ritz have very different views on education.

“People need to understand we are looking at a total pivot, possibly,” Shanks said.