To the editor:
As the retired superintendent of Brown County Schools, I read with interest your article of Nov. 5, 2019 about the student enrollment count in Brown County Schools.
There is a much more important story than the challenges we are facing in Brown County with declining student enrollment. The real story in this challenge involves the education initiatives of the Republican Party supermajority in the Indiana General Assembly and of Governor Holcomb.
Through the past three administrations of governors Daniels, Pence and Holcomb, the Republican agenda on public education has been to reduce funding for most rural and urban school districts with declining enrollment while dramatically increasing funding for wealthier districts with enrollment growth, for charter schools, and for the voucher program.
With a supermajority and control of the governor’s office, the Republican leadership has created the following major problems for public schools who serve over 90 percent of the Indiana’s children:
1. Reduced funding for rural and urban districts whose enrollments are decreasing, which results in major teacher staffing reductions, larger class sizes, and loss of programs offered to our boys and girls.
2. Millions of dollars given to wealthy parents of private school students in form of voucher tuition reductions, paid by the state, for students, most of whom have NEVER attended public schools.
3. An annual $45 million ILEARN testing program which yielded no real usable data on student achievement.
4. The TAKING of the vote for state superintendent of public instruction from the voters and making this position a gubernatorial appointment in 2020 when Dr. McCormick, our voter-elected state superintendent, leaves office.
5. A general disrespect and lack of support for public school educators which has now resulted in an ACUTE teacher shortage statewide.
6. Policies and laws which are effectively causing a statewide teacher strike today, Nov. 19.
The Indiana Constitution provides for the ADEQUATE funding of public education for Indiana’s children. Currently, over half of the school districts in the state are under financial distress and are being forced to take action like we did in Brown County, where we did not rehire 10 teaching positions in our district. These actions result in larger class sizes and reduced class offerings.
In my opinion, this is simply unacceptable bad governance by our state’s leadership at a time when there is an over $2 billion surplus in the state treasury.
If this concerns you as it does me, contact Sen. Eric Koch and Rep. Chris May and tell them it is past time to change the direction of public education policy in our state.
Call Gov. Holcomb and let him know that we support public education and we want adequate funding for Brown County Schools.
Generations of our boys and girls are going to be hurt if we do not immediately change the direction in which the supermajority has taken us.
David Shaffer, Brown County
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