OPINION: Pence and Gregg agree job creation is next governor's top priority

Both candidates say jobs and education are key issues and that the best school-reform ideas don’t come out of Washington. Gregg says they don’t come out of Indianapolis, either.

Pence is a Republican serving his sixth term in the U.S. House, a lawyer and past president of the Indiana Policy Review Foundation. Gregg is former Democratic speaker of the Indiana House, former interim president of Vincennes University and a lawyer.

Neither is opposed in the May primary, which means the electorate is getting a glimpse of the general election now.

“I don’t think there’s any question it’s all about jobs,” Pence said. “Everywhere I go, people sense that we’re on the verge of an era of growth and opportunity like no other in our lifetime. But I think that for the next governor of Indiana, job creation has to be job one.”

“People say to me, ‘what’s more important, jobs or schools?’ but I see them as part of the same thing,” Pence said. “I believe that we cannot succeed in the marketplace if we don’t succeed in the classroom.”

Gregg said all he hears about on the campaign trail is jobs. “Not social issues, not these divisive issues that we sometimes get sidetracked on. And you know what? If they’re my age — I’m 57, and I know I don’t look it — they’re concerned. They’re worried about their kids, and they’re worried about being able to make it to retirement.”

Any discussion of jobs goes hand-in-hand with schools, Gregg said, because a state can’t produce good jobs without a “world-class” education system that encompasses K-12, college, adult and continuing-education options.

On that point, the candidates agree. Both also mention keeping higher-ed affordable and giving K-12 teachers more freedom in the classroom.

Pence strongly backs charter- and private-school voucher programs enacted under Gov. Daniels, noting he’s been involved in the school-choice movement for 20 years. Asked what’s next for schools, Pence said, “I think it’s time to move from reform to results.”

Gregg noted that he’d be working with a Republican-controlled Legislature and would sit down with House and Senate leadership “literally the day after the election” to evaluate what’s in place.

“I think we need to have at least a little breathing room, see how some of these reforms work. Now we’re moving away from No Child Left Behind; just the other day we were moving toward it.”

“I think what we’ve done backward is we’ve left teachers out of the reform,” Gregg said. “Every teacher I’ve talked to, public, private, I say, ‘Can education get better?’ and they all say ‘yes.’ I’ve never had teachers tell me they didn’t want to be held accountable, but they’d all like a voice in it.”

Under Gov. Daniels, the Legislature limited collective bargaining between school corporations and teachers to salary and wage-related benefits. The idea was to give administrators flexibility to base teacher-performance assessments on test scores and classroom effectiveness, criteria typically precluded from negotiations by the unions.

Asked whether it might be time to eliminate collective bargaining, Gregg said, “That’s something the Legislature decides. I‘m not opposed to teachers having the right to collective bargain. I don’t see that as an issue.”

Pence said, “We’re looking at a broad range of issues including that. I will say I do believe that putting seniority in its proper place as ‘a’ factor but not ‘the’ factor in promotion and retention is proper.”