The Mind Trust in Indiana Gives $800,000 to Charter Operator, Ignoring Lawsuits, Multiple Financial Scandals and Fake Resume | Diane Ravitch's blog

The Mind Trust in Indiana Gives $800,000 to Charter Operator, Ignoring Lawsuits, Multiple Financial Scandals and Fake Resume | Diane Ravitch's blog

The Mind Trust in Indiana Gives $800,000 to Charter Operator, Ignoring Lawsuits, Multiple Financial Scandals and Fake Resume

The Mind Trust in Indianapolis has been the central engine of charter creation in that city and holds itself up as a model charter authorizer.

Until it was “deceived” by a would-be charter operator with a rosy vision, according to this story by Stephanie Wang in Chalkbeat Indiana.

She begins:

To launch a “transformational” middle school in an overlooked eastside neighborhood, Indianapolis charter advocates turned to a man students call Coach T.

For two decades, Tariq Al-Nasir ran his Stemnasium enrichment programs with a mission of helping Black and brown students realize their “superpowers” in science, technology, engineering, and math. With a resume boasting advanced degrees from MIT and Stanford, Al-Nasir put forward a vision of education in which hands-on lessons in coding, flying drones, and tinkering with robots could change children’s lives.

Calling him “brilliant” at working with students, the influential charter incubator The Mind Trust gave Al-Nasir a two-year, $800,000 fellowship last summer to develop CONTINUE READING: The Mind Trust in Indiana Gives $800,000 to Charter Operator, Ignoring Lawsuits, Multiple Financial Scandals and Fake Resume | Diane Ravitch's blog

More Money, More Privatization | Live Long and Prosper

More Money, More Privatization | Live Long and Prosper

More Money, More Privatization

INDIANA’s NEW BUDGET BILL — MORE PRIVATIZATION

The Indiana General Assembly has passed the 2021 budget bill, and once more, the Republican super-majority has done its best to line the pockets of religious schools with a large increase for unaccountable school vouchers.

This year, they have added money to the privatization piggy bank in the form of Educational Scholarship Accounts (ESAs), a plan fraught with fraud possibilities (and actualities) that have already been tried in various states across the country. ESAs allow parents to purchase unaccountable “educational services” from essentially anyone who says, “Here, buy my educational service” with no accountability for how the money is spent. Meanwhile, public schools must account for every penny of the public dollars they spend.

In order to pacify the Indiana State Teachers Association (ISTA) with the increase in vouchers, the legislature included a substantial pay increase for teachers. In their report, ISTA mentions the increase in vouchers without editorial comment but focuses on the pay issue. They also share the “positive” CONTINUE READING: More Money, More Privatization | Live Long and Prosper

In Which I Think of Ways to Respond to My Legislators | Live Long and Prosper

In Which I Think of Ways to Respond to My Legislators | Live Long and Prosper

In Which I Think of Ways to Respond to My Legislators

Indiana is ready to add more public money to the state voucher program for private — mostly religious — schools.

House Bills 1001 and 1005 would give nearly a third of the state’s increase in education funding to the 5% (10% if you count charters) of the students who go to private schools. I had written to my local state rep, Dave Heine, but received no reply. He voted to approve the increase along with all of his Republican friends in the state House of Representatives. The bills are now before the state Senate, so I wrote my state senator, Dennis Kruse (IN-S14), and asked him to vote against increasing the vouchers.

I received responses from Senator Kruse this week. I’ll send a reply to his emails, though I doubt it will change anything. Here is what he wrote (different paragraphs are from his response on House Bill 1001 or House Bill 1005) CONTINIUE READING: In Which I Think of Ways to Respond to My Legislators | Live Long and Prosper

2021 Medley #4 – Indiana Still Hates Public Ed | Live Long and Prosper

2021 Medley #4 – Indiana Still Hates Public Ed | Live Long and Prosper

2021 Medley #4 – Indiana Still Hates Public Ed

School “reform” in Indiana

In April of 2019, I wrote,

This year, just like in the past, the state of Indiana, ruled by one party with a supermajority in the legislature, has worked to disrespect public schools and public school teachers. The only way to fight this, aside from the daily grind of contacting legislators about every single damaging piece of legislation, is to elect people who don’t hate public schools and public school teachers.

One would think we’d be able to get the teachers, themselves, on board with this…

Sadly, nothing has changed and my fellow Hoosiers, including many of my former public school colleagues, continue to send the same anti-public education folks to Indy. In this year’s session of the Indiana General Assembly the Republican supermajority, like Republican legislators across the country (see here, and here, for example) are doing everything they can to damage the public schools of the state.

They are attempting to divert more money for the state’s already expansive voucher program…despite the studies that have shown that vouchers don’t improve education. They will likely succeed. The state, of course, hasn’t looked CONTINUE READING: 2021 Medley #4 – Indiana Still Hates Public Ed | Live Long and Prosper

Indiana Vouchers Set to Expand Again | Live Long and Prosper

Indiana Vouchers Set to Expand Again | Live Long and Prosper

Indiana Vouchers Set to Expand Again

FOLLOWING IN THE FOOTSTEPS OF DANIELS, BENNETT, AND PENCE

Ten years ago the Indiana General Assembly established the state’s voucher program to “provide children who attend failing schools grants to attend a school of choice.” At that time, the state provided tuition help for low-income students to attend religious schools (it’s actually “private” schools, but nearly all are religious). Families earning more than $60,000 were not included. The inflation rate over the last ten years has been about 16% so that $60,000 cap would be about $70,000 today. The General Assembly, however, wants to double that and the Indiana House will vote on the bill tomorrow (February 15).

We’ve spent more than half a billion dollars on vouchers since 2011. Has it helped poor students? Has it improved learning? Has it improved public schools as voucher proponents claimed it would? The state has yet to evaluate the program for anything other than political contributions. As with other voucher CONTINUE READING: Indiana Vouchers Set to Expand Again | Live Long and Prosper

DeVos Still Haunts Indiana | Live Long and Prosper

DeVos Still Haunts Indiana | Live Long and Prosper

DeVos Still Haunts Indiana

ADVANCEMENT OF GOD’S KINGDOM

Betsy DeVos is gone…and her boss will be gone in less than a week, but that doesn’t mean that the party of low taxes for the wealthy has forgotten what Princess Betsy stood for…the advancement of God’s Kingdom in the battleground of “educational reform.”

The Indiana General Assembly for the 2021 session already has thirty-seven bills dealing with “school.” Most notable among them is House Education Committee chair, Bob Behning’s HB 1005 which would…

…create state-funded Education Savings Accounts that certain K-12 students could use for various educational services, including private school tuition.

Just a reminder…in Indiana “private school tuition” means parochial schools more than 99% of the time. Advancing God’s Kingdom, indeed.

Remember when Governor Mitch Daniels told us that it was important for anyone using vouchers to attend a public school for at least a year? Remember when Governor Mitch Daniels told us that vouchers were for poor kids to CONTINUE READING: DeVos Still Haunts Indiana | Live Long and Prosper

Steve Hinnefeld: Indiana Legislators Preparing to Expand Failed Voucher Program | Diane Ravitch's blog

Steve Hinnefeld: Indiana Legislators Preparing to Expand Failed Voucher Program | Diane Ravitch's blog

Indiana Legislators Preparing to Expand Failed Voucher Program

Steve Hinnefeld warns that Republican legislators in Indiana are laying the groundwork to expand the state’s failed voucher program. The research on vouchers in many states has been consistent: Students who use vouchers fall behind their peers in public schools. Those who continue to push vouchers are either ideologues, religious zealots, or paid to do so. We know that they don’t help students. Increasingly the students who take vouchers already attend religious schools or planned to, and they are getting public money to pay private tuition.

Indiana legislators like to fund failure.

Don’t be surprised if lawmakers try to expand Indiana’s already generous private school voucher program in 2021. They’re signaling their intention with the issues surveys they send to constituents.

At least eight House Republicans include this question in their surveys, which are posted on their internet sites: “Do you support increasing the income eligibility for Indiana’s CONTINUE READING: Steve Hinnefeld: Indiana Legislators Preparing to Expand Failed Voucher Program | Diane Ravitch's blog

Indiana: Public Schools Lose $100 Million due to Pandemic | Diane Ravitch's blog

Indiana: Public Schools Lose $100 Million due to Pandemic | Diane Ravitch's blog

Indiana: Public Schools Lose $100 Million due to Pandemic

Enrollments declined in public schools across Indiana, due to the pandemic. And when enrollments decline, schools suffer financial losses.

Blogger Steve Hinnefeld estimates that public schools across the state will lose at least $100 million due to enrollment declines.

This is a story that is happening in districts across the nation. DeVos must be thrilled.

He writes:

Indiana school districts stand to lose over $100 million in state funding this year because of reduced enrollment attributable to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Fall 2020 enrollment in traditional public schools declined CONTINUE READING: Indiana: Public Schools Lose $100 Million due to Pandemic | Diane Ravitch's blog