Bully Pulpit Fails - Education, 6-16-2010

 

 [I looked at the manuscript for this post last night and thought it had not aged well. Who will recall either Mitch Daniels or Tony Bennett twelve years later? Then from The Indiana Capital Chronicle arrived this morning with Only half of Indiana school referendums get voter approval

District leaders at Brown County Schools, Delphi Community School Corporation, Medora Community School Corporation and Wabash County School Corporation could not persuade their communities to support an increase to their property bills, according to unofficial results reported by county election offices.

The four rural districts warned that failed referendums would lead to staffing and programs cuts, wage freezes, cuts to athletics, and cramped classrooms, among other consequences.

There remains a failure to lead on education. Without education, our children will not be ready for better jobs or act as citizens. I think the latter does play into the thinking of some of our leaders. Unfortunately, voters care more about current costs than future benefits. You get what you pay for. sch 11-10-22.]

Originally, I intended to rake Mitch Daniels over the coals here. He does not deserve this by himself. Those deserving a raking over the coals include Mitch Daniels, Tony Bennett (Indiana's Superintendent of Education, not the singer), every mayor of every Indiana city, and everyone else of public importance in Indiana.

Why rake them over the coals?

Because none uses their public office to push the importance of education. 

We Hoosiers once had very good public schools. We had parents who taught that education meant upward mobility.

Then came the generations where only enough education to get a factory job was enough education. Then we got generations thinking education was a losing proposition. I am seeing a lot of that crew while in detention. Maybe they hoped to be rap stars.

You can pour money into the schools, that money will do little until parents and kids get it into their heads that an education means a better future. It can only help that Obama is President. There is an example of what education can do. The political elite could use their position to push education without too much cost.

But the Governor and the others have no control over educators! That argument beggars the imagination for its poverty. Doesn't the Governor have an interest in promoting the state and its citizens? Don't the other political leaders have the same interests? If they have these interests, why do they not open their mouths and use their influence to motivate those who have control - Indiana's parents?

A more cynical person might say that this silence results from Indiana politicians wanting Hoosiers educated, but not too educated. Why should Hoosiers put up with the status quo?

sch

[One thing not changed is Hoosiers putting up with the status quo. sch 11/10/22.]