Tackling tough issues: Kelly Swain-Leswing, a Greenfield-Central High School language arts teacher and member of the Classroom Teachers Association, presents her question to State Schools Superintendent Tony Bennett Thursday at the Greenfield-Central High School auditorium. Bennett was in Greenfield as part of a series of stops to engage both sides as Indiana’s legislative standoff continues. He answered numerous questions about education reform during the 90-minute forum. Tom Russo / Daily Reporter
Tackling tough issues: Kelly Swain-Leswing, a Greenfield-Central High School language arts teacher and member of the Classroom Teachers Association, presents her question to State Schools Superintendent Tony Bennett Thursday at the Greenfield-Central High School auditorium. Bennett was in Greenfield as part of a series of stops to engage both sides as Indiana’s legislative standoff continues. He answered numerous questions about education reform during the 90-minute forum. Tom Russo / Daily Reporter
     GREENFIELD — If earthquake terms can describe American education reform, State Schools Superintendent Tony Bennett believes Indiana sits at the epicenter. 

    “We’re at a time in our nation’s history, we’re at a time in our state’s history where education is one of the most debated issues,” Bennett said Thursday evening, speaking to an audience at Greenfield-Central High School. “Indiana in many instances has become the epicenter of that debate. It is the debate about where we go from here.” 

    Security was paramount Thursday for Bennett’s visit. Ten police cars were parked in front of the high school and numerous policemen stood or sat in the auditorium as Bennett spoke – roughly one policeman (including the city police chief and county sheriff) for every 10 people in attendance – mostly local teachers, administrators, school board members and interested patrons. 

    More police staked out school doorways. 

    Bennett’s visit came the same day as an Indianapolis rally where thousands of union members gathered outside the Statehouse to protest anti-union bills backed by Republicans who hold the legislative majority. 

    The town-hall style meeting in Greenfield was one of a series of stops the schools chief has made in different parts of the state in an attempt to engage both sides as Indiana’s legislative stalemate drags on. Education reform has been at the heart of an aggressive Republican agenda that prompted Democrats to walk out on the legislative session. 

    Bennett believes it’s important that each facet of the “comprehensive” reform agenda becomes law. 

    “Our reform agenda is interrelated,” Bennett said in an interview before the forum. “Part of the problem we’ve had for far too long is trying to only do one thing at a time.” 

    G-C school board member Kent Fisk was happy that Bennett was here to answer questions from local educators. 

    G-C teachers union representatives often ask questions that are tough for people at the local level to answer, Fisk said. 

    “It’s good for him to come out and actually plead his case instead of everybody just speculating.” 

    Bennett answered numerous questions written by local teachers during the 90-minute forum and said other submitted questions would be subsequently answered in writing. Questions read by a designated panel of teachers dealt with many aspects of the controversial reform agenda – school vouchers, charter school expansion, teacher evaluation and collective bargaining. 

    Many in the audience clapped in support of questions that voiced skepticism about reform efforts. 

    Lisa Kraft, who teaches language arts at Greenfield Central Junior High, expressed concern about correlating the performance evaluations of math and language arts teachers to student testing performance. 

    “ISTEP is what will be our yardstick. It’s a very rigorous yardstick,” Kraft said. “Will (teachers in other subjects) have as rigorous a yardstick as I have?” 

    Bennett assured his audience that teacher evaluations would take into account multiple factors – not just student test scores. He said he’s never advocated set percentages for teacher evaluation categories or a bell-shaped performance curve. Indiana school systems must be able to effectively distinguish between good, average and bad teachers, he said. 

    Another touchy subject that generated multiple questions was collective bargaining. Reform supporters want to limit collective bargaining to salary and wage-related items. 
 
   Bennett said he feels the education system has changed substantially since the collective bargaining law was first enacted in 1973. 

    A follow-up question involved whether there’s any evidence that eliminating collective bargaining would help solve the current problems in education. 

    Bennett returned to his theme that all the reform elements are intertwined. 

    “Each of these (reform measures) by themselves won’t fix it,” Bennett said. “When we look collectively at changing our structures, we will get the results we want.” 

    The forum’s final question voiced a sentiment that’s been felt far beyond Indiana’s borders in recent weeks. Does Bennett feel like union busting is the real driver behind much of this year’s legislation? 

    “I did not see one bill filed that asked for the repeal of Public Law 217 (the collective bargaining law),” Bennett said. “My point is: if this was about union busting, I think you would have seen that bill filed. I’m not about union busting. I am about focusing collective bargaining on what I think matters most, and I think that allows us to run school corporations in a nimble, competitive, accountable manner.” 

    Knowing many teachers in the audience would have dissenting opinions, Bennett assured them he’s not out to “destroy” public education. 

    Several questions were asked about the especially controversial subject of charter schools. One question involved why money should be taken away from public schools to pay for charter schools. 

    “I don’t feel the money belongs to public schools,” Bennett said. “I believe the money belongs to children.” 

    Previous charter school legislation didn’t have adequate accountability requirements for the schools, but current legislation would hold them accountable, Bennett said, adding that accountability is his top priority when it comes to charter school expansion. 

    As schools chief, Bennett says he’s traveled the state and seen many kinds of schools – the good, the bad and the ugly. 

    “I could take you to places that would make you sick as educators,” Bennett told his audience. “I could take you to places where you wouldn’t put your children or grandchildren in the school.” 

    Bennett said his one regret is that “good teachers have been lumped in with bad teachers; good schools have been lumped in with bad schools.” 

    “… What I want to do is make the system better,” Bennett said. “This shouldn’t be a debate of whether we should change. This should be a debate of how that change should occur.” 

    He struck a theme of bipartisanship, saying reform opponents must return to the table and offer constructive suggestions. 

    “In the middle let’s find the right plan,” Bennett said, adding that insights gained on the road have sometimes led to education policy changes. “We want you to be a part of the debate, and frankly that’s why we’re here.”
© 2024 Daily Reporter