Poison
                  by Teresa Kendall

Poison.  Webster defines it as something such as an idea, emotion or situation that is very harmful. 

Poison has been in the news lately when it was discovered that the public water supply in Flint Michigan had been poisoned by Governor Rick Snyder’s appointees that run the city, decided to switch the water source from lake water from Detroit to river water in Flint.  This heavy-handed administrative policy approved by the Michigan Governor, despite warnings of possible lead poisoning caused by caustic river water, was ignored all for the sake of ideology.  Snyder is one of those reform types of politicians that seem to know what is best for people, provided they are poor and preferably a minority.  Even though he was made aware of the problem in February of 2015, nothing was done to correct the problem despite the cries of numbers of state staffers, the press, along with the Mayor and citizens of Flint.

Rick Snyder finally apologized for the mistake and has declared Flint a “man-made disaster”.  Man-made for the bad ideology based decisions that will take billions of dollars to fix for everything from an entire new water system to the long term care of all of the children who were poisoned- just so a politician could point to his “fiscal responsibility.”

Indiana has its own poison, a man-made disaster that is costing us billions.  Our public education system is being poisoned by the same kind of ideologues – politicians that implement heavy-handed top down mandates based on nothing more than the preferences of their wealthy donors.  The ones poisoning public education stretch from the state house to out of state billionaires looking to make a profit on the tax-payers backs.

The purveyors of this destruction start with Mitch Daniels’ budget cuts to education, and continue on with the Indiana State House Education Committee Chairman Bob Behning who has brought us unlimited private school vouchers that bleed funds from local school districts for students that have never even attended a public school;  and with Dennis Kruse, the Indiana State Senate Education Committee Chairman who along with Behning allowed “reforms” like forgiving loans to charter schools that fail, and changing laws that take away the powers of the elected State Superintendent.  And we can’t forget how much damage Mike Pence has brought to Indiana’s education system by loading the State Board of Education with charter school administrators and relatives of Republican House members, all so he can increase the number of charter schools that can be profit makers for his wealthy donors.  Pence brought the public school destruction to a new level by making ISTEP the “dumpster fire” that has been a complete waste of time and $24 million by insisting that the state continue with a flawed test that is no longer valid and will only brand schools and communities with a failing label that do not deserve. 

There is a long list of elected state officials that are leading the charge to take down our public schools such as Pence, Behning, and Kruse.  But there many Republican legislators along with a few Democrats that are responsible for enabling the destruction.  Legislators that pass laws to allow a private charter school company to take ownership of a public school building for one dollar; representatives that find it acceptable to cut educational funding for public schools, and then take even more from the public education budget to finance private schools.   State Senators that insist the state spend millions on testing but refuse to provide enough funding to allow public school kids to have art and music classes. 

Since Mitch Daniels started his destruction there have been 111 new laws passed that have poisoned public education.  It’s time we look at the damage and hold people responsible.  While both parties have had a hand in the reforms, the GOP has been the leader and they have to own it.  With low voter turnout, and uncontested elections, the Republican’s tight grip on the Statehouse will continue unless voters decide to stand up and make a change.  

It could take billions of dollars and decades to recover from the damage caused by these ideologues.  Let’s vote Pence, Behning and Kruse out of office.  Stop the poison.