By Larry Grau, DFER-Indiana State Director
In an unfortunate turn of events, Indiana has gone from being lauded as a leader in advancing the Common Core and education reforms to rightfully being called into question about our collective sanity on education policies. That rapid left – or rather, far right – turn in the perception of education policy in the state was prompted by a piece of legislation filed by Indiana State Senator, Scott Schneider (R, Indianapolis). Sen. Schneider’s bill (Senate Bill 193, or SB193) requires the state to completely withdraw from the Common Core (read it for yourself HERE). Much to our dismay, the bill passed out of Committee, after being stalled for weeks following a hearing that spanned nearly six hours.
DFER-IN proudly provided testimony (which is outlined below) opposing SB193 and supporting the Common Core, and was glad to be joined by a diverse group of organizations and individuals covering a wide political ideological spectrum that supported our efforts, including the Indiana teachers’ unions. However, there were some local and regional union representatives and members teaming up with Tea Partiers to express opposition to the Common Core and support for SB193.
Over the past few years, we have witnessed this perplexing alliance in education policy issues form at an increasing rate in Indiana, and it is something that begs the probing question: what’s up with that? The explanation for the alliance is probably fairly simple – it is the convergence of individuals or groups who will always oppose ed reform for two very different reasons: One doesn’t want government to do much of anything and the other doesn’t want to have any accountability in education.
The hearings on SB193 have been marked by the Tea Party/union alliance stoking uneasiness, fears and misperceptions around Common Core. They tried to persuade legislators that Common Core would take away “local control” through more government programs and requirements, allow corporate interests to take over our schools, and enable the Government to mandate what and how teachers can teach. Their goal was to convince legislators to not only oppose participation in Common Core, but also to be leery of anyone favoring reform at all.
During the course of the two hearings on the bill, the Tea Party/union alliance was able to convince enough legislators to pass the bill out of Committee. However, our efforts against the bill made an impact. All of the Democrats on the committee – lead by Sen. Earline Rogers – voted against Schneider’s bill.