It’s Not the Citizens, It’s Our Leaders Muncie, Indiana NEWS– I’ve never followed Randi Weingarten, president of the American Federation of Teachers – a labor union representing teachers within our public sector. With private sector unions taking a beating over the past several decades, the public sector has been the last bastion of hope. Education reform […]
Muncie, Indiana NEWS– I met with Dr. Stephen Baule, Superintendent of Muncie Community Schools, and found him to be a transformational leader which is exactly what our school system needs. After thirty minutes with him, I left the meeting with two other gentlemen who were equally impressed and all of us agreed, “Muncie school system […]
MUNCIE, IN –NEWS– Last week, we got the results of Gallup-Healthways wellness rankings showing Indiana slipping into the 48th spot, or slightly healthier than Kentucky and West Virginia – two other states known for polluted air and water. There is no coincidence that we also happen to be “coal loving states”. In Indiana, we depend […]
Rich Hoosiers Meddling in Indiana Education Reform By: Todd Smekens Muncie, Indiana (BLOG)– There will be a march today in the Statehouse Atrium at 2:00 pm to protest the handling of democratically elected Superintendent of Public Education, Glenda Ritz. It’s mainly to protest the stripping of her powers by Governor Mike Pence and the Republican-led […]
MUNCIE, Indiana – Ball State University Trustees have taken an ugly situation and made it even worse by hiring the sister of the then sitting governor who administered over all public universities when the university lost $13.1 million, and then covered it up for three years. This should be an obvious “conflict of interest”, but […]
MUNCIE, Indiana – It’s been a super busy week for Indiana Public Education, and it’s only Wednesday. As long as we have two different visions for public education in this state, we’ll continue seeing power struggles. Hoosiers sent mixed messages two years ago, so the dysfunction of the 2012 election will continue playing out in […]
MUNCIE, Indiana – The annual Team Democrat Banquet was this past week with Sue Errington and featured speaker Glenda Ritz, State Superintendent of Public Instruction, who won a huge election victory last year against the corporate reformer’s chosen pick, Tony Bennett. In attendance were Delaware County office holders such as Sheriff Michael Scroggins, Commissioner Larry […]
Glenda Ritz Discovers Email Planning Her Removal as Chair for SBOE MUNCIE, Indiana – If Mike Pence’s plan was to hang out for four years in the Governor’s mansion earning points from his Tea Party cronies waiting to see if a run for president was in the cards for him in 2016, he might be […]
Education Reformers in Indiana are Poor Role Models MUNCIE, Indiana – The Ft. Wayne Journal Gazette jumped on the ethics bandwagon within Indiana by calling out the lack of ethics surrounding Ivy Tech’s board member Bruce Walkup and Rob Carter, director of the Indiana Department of Natural Resources until he left that post for a […]
Muncie, Indiana – What’s it going to take to wake up Hoosiers? Have we become the most complacent state in the Midwest? We’ve recently learned that Mitch Daniels used his place as governor to attack the academic expression of gifted historian Howard Zinn along with several other educational related breaches of ethics. So far, the […]