Despite a five week Democrat walkout, Governor Daniels was still able to pass a vast legislative agenda.  Consider just the following:

• The education package alone was a historic achievement.  Full funding for kindergarten, the nation’s most expansive voucher program, more charter schools, and rewarding and protecting our teachers based on effectiveness; these programs will have a dramatic and positive impact of generations of Hoosier children.
• Add to that yet another gimmick free balanced budget without tax increases (and with reserves built back up), and Indiana remains a national leader in how to manage a budget during tough times.
• Governor Daniels proposed and delivered an Automatic Taxpayer Refund once reserves get past 10%.  As the economy continues to improve, this will let taxpayers keep more of their hard-earned money, as well as, acting as a brake on the growth of government.
• Even though Indiana continues to be ranked as a “Top State to do Business” and had another record breaking year in job announcements, the legislature was able to enact a job creating lowering of the corporate tax rate, which will make the state even more attractive to job creating companies in the private sector.

During the elections of 2010 and now the legislative session of 2011, Governor Daniels proved once again that showing courage and vision leads to results.

-The Republican majorities in the Indiana House and Senate have crafted a balanced budget, the fourth such budget under the Governor’s leadership. These balanced budgets have ensured that Indiana has remained on stable economic footing, even during a recession that financially rocked other states. 

-The budget bill will leave about $1 billion in reserves at the end of fiscal year 2013 so that the state is prepared to handle an economic downturn, just as it was going into the recent recession.

-The proposed budget also meets the goals of Governor Daniels to balance the budget with no tax increases and no accounting gimmicks. 

-If state reserves reach 10% of operating funds, an Automatic Taxpayer Refund will kick in, which means half of the reserves past 10% will be returned to Indiana taxpayers. This means that the government will return to Hoosiers their hard-earned dollars once the state has collected enough to operate plus a reasonable amount of reserves.

To learn more about this bill, click here. To read about the bill in the Indianapolis Star, click here and in the Evansville Courier & Press, click here.

As this historic legislative session winds down it is clear that the Indiana General Assembly was willing to say “YES” to parents who want choices for their children, “YES” to teachers who want to be rewarded and protected for effectiveness and not just seniority, and “NO” to education special interest and doomsayers who have held back our state’s education system for too long.

The Governor’s education agenda that passed the legislature includes some incredible accomplishments.
* Reforms collective bargaining law to give school leaders the freedom and agility they need to run their schools effectively and also limits collective bargaining to wages and benefits;
* Ends “LIFO” the practice of laying off teachers with less seniority first, regardless of their effectiveness;
* Gives great teachers the opportunity to earn pay increases and professional protection based on their effectiveness—not just on their seniority or the college credits they earn;
* Requires multifaceted evaluations for teachers and principals—based in part on student learning and growth;
* Creates Indiana’s first school voucher program, allowing qualifying families to use a portion of their child’s per-student state allocation to help pay tuition costs at participating non-public schools. When fully implemented, hundreds of thousands of students statewide will be eligible to access a voucher.
* Expands the number of entities that can sponsor charter schools and increases accountability for charters to ensure only the highest-quality options for Hoosier students.
* Will give students who choose to the opportunity to graduate from High School early and use the money that would have been spent on their Senior year for higher education.
* Completes the funding of full-day kindergarten so that more children will have the opportunity to start their educational experience early if their parents want them to.

So many people had a role in making all these improvements to our education policy, from Superintendent Tony Bennett, Senate Pro-Tem David Long, Speaker Brian Bosma, Senator Dennis Kruse and Carlin Yoder, and Representative Bob Behning, not to mention the advocates and the parents who worked so hard to fight the misinformation that was put forth but the defenders of the status quo.

It will take time to see the improvements that these changes will make in educational outcomes for students, and we can count on the adversaries of change to start fighting back and trying to undermine these programs. But unquestionably Indiana is now at the forefront of the education revolution that is taking place all across the country, and Hoosier children will be the first beneficiaries of our new found place the Head of the Class!

See this Indy Star editorial for more thoughts on the Governor’s successful education agenda http://bit.ly/lvUnE9.

Watch our new Web ad to see what K-12 education in Indiana will soon look like and how Hoosier children will benefit:

If ultimately signed into law by Governor Daniels, the new program will allow low and middle-income families all across the state to access state-funded scholarships to send their children to a private school of their choice.  The goal ultimately is to allow children to attend a school not simply based on where they live, but rather based on how that school can best help a child learn and reach their educational potential.

This is truly a transformational policy that will change the way people view education and they way students access it.

For many who are being served well by their existing school, they will continue to thrive there.  But for those children who need something different in order to maximize their educational experience, they will now have the opportunity to access a school that might better fit their needs! 

It’s an idea that has been around for a long time (some New England states have had a version of vouchers for over 100 years), one that was championed by Milton Friedman for 50 years, and a concept that is now being tried with increasing success in 26 different states.

And now Indiana has taken the lead in this effort to transform education by providing an array of educational options for students. 

The vision and determination of leaders like Governor Mitch Daniels, Superintendent Tony Bennett, Senate President David Long, and SpeakerBrian Bosma can not be overlooked.  The defenders of the status quo in education filled the halls of the Statehouse with fear and misinformation, and yet these leaders stood strong in their belief that more educational options for kids was the right thing to do. 

When the bill is signed by Governor Daniels, and more and more low and middle income families realize they have the same choices the more affluent Hoosiers have always had, education in Indiana will be changed forever.

Along with House Speaker Brian Bosma and Senate President Pro Tempore David Long, Governor Mitch Daniels announced that, because of an increased revenue forecast for the state, he was recommending that the current budget proposal include an extra $150 million for K-12 education (read the press release here and watch the press conference here).

A product of years of disciplined spending, the increased funding will allow the state to fulfill Governor Daniels’ long-time desire to extend full-day kindergarten to all Hoosier school districts.  It will also provide the opportunity to pay the state’s best teachers more by rewarding excellence in teaching and not just seniority.

Some other interesting facts came out in today’s press conference:

-As a percentage of total general fund expenditures dedicated to K-12 education in 2010, Indiana spent the most on K-12 education of any state (55.4%).

-While states throughout the country have proposed or actually slashed K-12 education funding (many have already cut funding by more than 10%), Indiana has proposed increasing education funding by 1%.

To see these interesting statistics on the state of education in Indiana, check out this link.

It should be remembered that in the midst of a faltering national economy and rocky times at the state level, K-12 education was the last thing that was asked to sacrifice.  While other functions of state government were being asked to make double-digit budget cuts, K-12 education suffered a much smaller 3% cut.

Now that the economy is starting to recover, K-12 education is the first thing that is receiving a boost.  And rightly so, as educating children well is critical to the state’s future. 

But for all those who look at any proposed changes to the current education system as some kind of plot to “destroy” public education, I hope this news might encourage them to change the assumptions a little. Maybe it will help them realize that the people behind the reform proposals might just share the same goal of getting every child a great education that they do.

– A balanced budget. It is fully anticipated that legislators will vote to ensure that Indiana maintains a solid economic standing by passing a balanced budget. House Bill 1001 is currently in the Senate Committee on Appropriations after passing the House. Included in the budget is the Automatic Taxpayer Refund (ATR), which will return to Hoosiers some of their hard-earned tax dollars through a refundable adjusted gross income tax credit when the state runs a surplus of a certain amount. This means that the state will collect only what it needs plus a set amount of reserves, forcing it to live within its means. Passing this balanced budget will ensure that Indiana remains one of the most fiscally sound states in the country.

– Township and local government reform. In an effort to modernize local government, legislators have sought to address issues like nepotism and conflict of interest that exist at this local level of governance. After the House passed a conflict of interest bill (House Bill 1022), it passed the Senate by a vote of 34-16 earlier this week. The bill now heads back to the House. This bill would prohibit an employee of a county, city, town, or township from assuming elected executive office in that same unit or becoming an elected member of the unit’s legislative or fiscal body. Senate Bill 0302 would address the issue of nepotism by prohibiting a relative of certain officials from being employed by the relevant local unit. After passing the Senate, this bill is in the House Committee on Government and Regulatory Reform. This bill would, among other things, address the fact that a report by the Indianapolis Star found that in a sample of 617 townships, two-thirds of trustees employed a relative.

– Creating a climate for job growth. At a time when creating jobs is of the utmost importance to Hoosiers, legislators are continuing to create an economic climate in Indiana that is second to none. Cutting the corporate income tax will mean that Indiana is more competitive than it already is, which will attract businesses to the state and create more jobs for Hoosiers. Senate Bill 0589, which would decrease the corporate income tax rate from 8.5% to 6.5% over four years, has passed the Senate and the House Ways and Means Committee and awaits a vote from the full House.

These items and more, coupled with the transformation of K-12 education, will make this one of if not the most productive and impactful legislative sessions in Indiana history. 

It proves that leadership really does matter.

He cites the recently released research of Greg Forster, a senior research fellow at the Foundation for Educational Choice. The report, entitled “A Win-Win Solution: The Empirical Evidence on School Vouchers,”  finds that nearly all prior research on vouchers found that children in voucher programs do better in school than similar students in public schools and public schools faced with students leaving on voucher programs improved more than public schools that did not face that situation.

Matthews writes that while 1.5 million students attend charter schools (which are by definition public schools as they charge no tuition and are open to everyone), only  about 190,000 use vouchers to attend private schools. While many politicians, including President Obama and other Democrats, have voiced support for expanding charter schools, many have not extended similar support to expanding school voucher programs. This leaves voucher programs lacking funding and political support, even though research continues to document the positive effects of school voucher programs for all students.

In fact, of ten studies that Forster reviews:

• student outcomes for those using vouchers improved in nine studies,

 

• all students benefited in six studies,
• no study documented a negative impact,
• of the 19 studies which reviewed how voucher programs affected public schools, 18 studies found that there was a positive effect.

Matthews concludes that, ”I see nothing morally, economically, or politically wrong with vouchers.”

Hoosiers agree, which is why public opinion in favor of school vouchers is very strong.

The Senate Education Committee is hearing HB 1003 today.  Lets hope they agree with the research and the public, and move forward legislation that will give more Indiana parents choices in their childrens education.

Our new TV ad tells one parent’s story about his attempt to send his daughter to a better school.  Who wants to be the one to tell him no?

A new education reform organization called Stand for Children recently released the results of an independently-conducted statewide poll of Hoosiers that asked them about their support for SB1. The results showed that Hoosiers are “strongly in favor of these policy ideas designed to improve the state’s public schools by retaining and rewarding great teachers.”

Some key findings:

-Respondents strongly support SB1, as more than 75% of respondents said that they support changing teacher compensation and placement criteria so that student academic growth, and not just seniority, is considered.

-85% percent of respondents said that they supported changing tenure rules so that granting permanent status to teachers would be based in part on teacher effectivenss rather than just seniority.

-About 90% of respondents support schools being able to dismiss ineffective teachers and principals without being forced to retain ineffective teachers due to seniority rules.

-85% believe that if teacher layoffs are necessary, those layoffs should be based on effectiveness and not seniority so that the best teachers remain in the classroom.

The overwhelming support that Hoosiers have displayed for the basic components of SB1 demonstrates that Hoosiers are ready to challenge the status quo to ensure that the children of Indiana receive the best education possible.

SB 1 is being heard in the House this week.  If you support rewarding and protecting out best teachers based on effectiveness and not union rules about seniority, please reach out to your legislators now.  You can find their contact info at http://www.aiminghigherindiana.com/find-your-legislator/ .