In a visit to Terre Haute Monday, Glenda Ritz said she dropped out of the 2016 Indiana governor’s race so she could focus on her duties as state superintendent of public instruction.
“I decided I have to be totally dedicated to my superintendent position,” she said in an interview with media. “I have a lot of initiatives started; I need to see them through.” She noted that 103 schools that had received grades of D or F improved to an A, B or C letter grade.
“It’s all about making sure we’re improving public education, and with so many initiatives going on and so many issues still coming at us, I feel I need to be dedicated to the kids and the families and the educators in the state,” she said.
The decision was a difficult one, she acknowledged, “but not so difficult in terms of my personal passion. My passion is with the kids, I’m an educator, and I just decided that’s where I needed to have my focus.”
Ritz, a Democrat, announced Friday that she was dropping out of the 2016 Indiana governor’s race and will instead seek re-election to her current job next year. She has clashed repeatedly with Republican Gov. Mike Pence over education policy since they both won election in 2012. She announced a bid for governor in early June.
In a statement Friday, she said she had since decided “now is not the right time for me to run for governor.”
According to the Associated Press, Ritz had trailed former Indiana House Speaker John Gregg in fundraising as they both sought the Democratic nomination for governor. Ritz ended June with about $110,000 in total campaign funds, far behind the $1.8 million Gregg had in the bank as he seeks a rematch of his 2012 campaign loss to Pence.
Now, just Gregg and state Sen. Karen Tallian of Portage are seeking the Democratic nomination for governor.
Ritz was in Terre Haute Monday to speak during the Vigo County School Corp. Back-to-School rally at Terre Haute South Vigo High School. Gregg also made an appearance and greeted Ritz prior to the program; he did not speak at the rally.
When asked about the fundraising difference, Ritz responded, “Actually, my decision was totally based on what I need to do as a person and my service toward the children and families and educators in the state.”
She said she looks forward to being re-elected state superintendent.
She listed two goals for the upcoming year. One is to work on getting wraparound services to school children in need and working with local communities more in depth toward that goal.
Another goal is to address the teacher shortage that Indiana is starting to experience, and she has formed a Blue Ribbon Commission to study the issue and make recommendations to the Legislature.
She also commented on the delay in grading of this year’s ISTEP tests. Representatives of McGraw-Hill Education CTB have said results are being delayed by more than a month as the testing company works to complete grading the exams.
The company president told the State Board of Education last week that changes made to this year’s ISTEP test have pushed back its grading work. That means schools and parents likely won’t receive student test results until mid-December, according to AP.
On Monday, Ritz confirmed the company “has stated they were going to have a delay in getting initial scores to us.” The reason is because scoring needed to be rechecked with the new technology-enhanced items on the test. “I’m excited we’ll make sure we’re doing our due diligence; we want students to get credit for all of the answers they’ve given. When you start a brand new initiative like technology-enhanced items ... you want to make sure everything is right.”
Yes there’s a delay, she said, “but I feel we need to embrace that and just move along.”