Former Republican Indiana school chief made sure GOP donor’s charter school got top marks
The Magic of Tony Bennett
A former Indiana school superintendent frantically overhauled a school grading system to ensure a Republican donor’s charter school received an “A” grade.
Emails obtained by the Associated Press showed that former Indiana schools chief Tony Bennett, a Republican, insisted that a new school grading system must give the Christel House Academy charter school top marks.
The Indianapolis charter school was run by Christel DeHaan, who has given more than $2.8 million to Republicans since 1998, according to the Associated Press. Bennett had received $130,000 from DeHaan.
Bennett had promised to hold “failing” schools accountable by implementing the new statewide A-F school grading system. The new grading system had initially given Christel House a “C” grade, because of the school’s poor test scores in algebra.
“This will be a HUGE problem for us,” Bennett wrote in a Sept. 12, 2012 email.
At the urging of Bennett, the grading system was quickly altered so that Christel House ended up with an “A” grade.
Bennett told the Associated Press that he wasn’t trying to tilt the system in favor of Christel House