Stalemate not an option with new superintendent
Tony Bennett deservedly fell to one of the most effective grassroots political campaigns I’ve ever seen. I was approached by a dozen teachers, both Democrats and Republicans, asking me to vote for Glenda Ritz. No one outside the education establishment knew who she was just six months ago.
Democracy works.
The public school system is not going away. So let’s hope our Republican-dominated state government gets that message and truly works to make it better and not just engineer it to look better.
That said, Indiana teachers and their union must realize there’s no going back to a pre-reform state of affairs. Vouchers, teacher evaluations and some form of testing and school assessment are likely here to stay for a long time. Ritz and her colleagues would better serve Indiana children and teachers by making these programs more effective and fair.
They should also call the effectiveness of charter schools into focused public debate. Although charter schools offer parents a choice, it has simply not been demonstrated over many years now that they improve public education. School vouchers are a much more effective way to offer educational choices to parents. However, schools that accept them must be held to the same standards and expectations as public schools.
We’ll find out soon enough how effective Ritz can be as a politician and leader when she has to work with the people in the legislature and governor’s office, as well as the U.S. Department of Education, to get anything done. For our kids’ sake, a four-year stalemate is not an option.
PATRICK WILTSHIRE LaGrange
Seniors’ Obamacare role coming into focus
The Nov. 10 article by Lisa Green, “Care center for seniors shovel-ready” sums up what we seniors 75 and older already know: Obamacare and its “independent payment advisory board” view seniors as “shovel-ready job creators.”
HENRY JANDA Columbia City
Second-term America’s outlook pretty bleak
To those of you who voted for President Obama, what was it you were expecting from his re-election? Let me tell you what you can expect.
Don’t like gas prices? Obama wants them higher. Don’t like your electric bill? Obama said it’ll go higher. Don’t like grocery prices? They’ll go higher too. Think your health insurance, if you have it, is expensive now? It’s going up. More employers are saying they’ll cut their insurance or cut employees back to part time because it’ll be too expensive under Obamacare which, thanks to his re-election, will be in full force in 2014. Don’t like your taxes? On Jan.1, there are something like 14 new taxes that take effect just related to Obamacare, not to mention the 16,000 new IRS agents that are part of Obamacare. What’s up with that?
And just wait until you see how he stacks the Supreme Court.
Want worse? The lower tax rates that went into effect during George W. Bush’s presidency are set to go back up Jan. 1 too, and this will affect everyone. This is barely the tip of the iceberg, and this is going to hurt those of us who didn’t vote for him too.
You say you didn’t know all this stuff before you voted? In part, you can thank the major news media outlets for intentionally keeping you in the dark, but there were many of us who tried to warn you. But hey, I’m only the messenger, and I didn’t vote for him, either time.
KEN SELKING Decatur
