Recent editorials published in Indiana newspapers

The (Fort Wayne) Journal Gazette. April 26, 2016

Vouchers' use strays further from original intent.

Voters will be hard pressed to find a legislative candidate on the Republican primary ballot who doesn't identify as a school-choice supporter. But the state's newly released voucher program report makes it tough for them to claim they are fiscal conservatives. In just four years, the cost of Indiana's school choice program has grown from $15.5 million to $112.7 million. The final cost for this school year won't be available until June, but eligible voucher awards totaled nearly $135 million - an eightfold increase from the 2011-12 academic year.

The number of voucher students increased by just 3,538 this year, according to the report, but eligible voucher awards increased by $18.8 million.

Choice proponents disingenuously claim that vouchers save taxpayers money because the maximum Choice Scholarship is less than the per-pupil tuition reimbursement for Indiana public school districts. That was true for the first two years of the voucher program, when tighter eligibility requirements restricted voucher awards primarily to students who had attended public schools.

But the General Assembly and Gov. Mike Pence expanded the voucher program in 2013 to thousands of students enrolled in private and parochial schools and to home-school families. The new report shows 52 percent of voucher students never attended a public school.

"It's clear now that vouchers are not attracting big new numbers to private and parochial schools but instead are being used to pay the tuition of private school students who have always been in private schools," observes Vic Smith, a retired educator and member of the Indiana Coalition for Public Education. "The choice was made not after trying public schools first but at the outset of the student's schooling, and now the voucher expansion rules have been changed to figure out a way to have the taxpayers pay the private and religious school bills."

Lighthouse Christian Academy in Bloomington is one of those schools.

"Before, looking at education that was faith-based was out of reach financially, and with the scholarships, they were able to make that happen," Principal Joyce Huck told the Bloomington Herald-Times.

Most of the school's 25 new voucher students were previously home-schooled, Huck said. The school collected about $393,000 in voucher payments this year.

In Allen County alone, private and parochial schools collected $20.7 million in voucher payments this year. More than $2.7 million of that amount went to one of three Horizon Christian Academy schools in Fort Wayne. Two of the schools opened originally as Imagine Inc. charter schools but became voucher schools after Ball State University declined to renew their operating charters. Loans they received from the state were forgiven.

Has academic performance improved at the Horizon schools since that time? It's tough to say. Horizon's Broadway school received a C under the state's A-F school grades; the Wells Street school earned a D. A third school, on East Coliseum Boulevard, earned an F. More detailed information on student achievement is unavailable - private and parochial school boards are unelected and their meetings and records are not subject to Indiana's public access laws.

Choice proponents might not have a problem with school boards that are unaccountable to taxpayers, but no one who claims to be a fiscal conservative should accept that nearly $135 million in education dollars goes to schools with no public oversight. Lawmakers might want to reconcile their views on choice and fiscal accountability before Nov. 8.

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Kokomo Tribune. May 1, 2016

Let's shake up calendar.

Isn't it nice to be needed for a change?

Indiana has been basking in the warm glow of national attention, as the presidential primary race has reached a white-hot temperature here in the Hoosier State. The candidates have risen to the challenge, criss-crossing the state in a mad rush to scoop up every available vote before Tuesday.

Wouldn't it be nice to feel like this every four years instead of every, say, 20? Indiana has a terrible spot in the calendar, and has for years. Most of the other states already have made their choices. It's usually a done deal by the time anyone asks us our opinion. It's only an accident of this unprecedented election cycle that we even have a say in this crazy process at all. Usually, no one has any reason to care about anything we say.

What will it take for the Democratic and Republican parties to realize Iowa and New Hampshire don't necessarily represent the demographics of the rest of the country? Iowa has been first since 1972. That's more than 40 years. Isn't it time for a change? What if we rotated the honors around? Why does it have to be the same old calendar every single time? We here in Indiana don't need to be first every time, but once would be nice. We don't even have to be first; even if we were somewhere near the front of the line, it would be a welcome change.

We all know change won't come from within. The establishment has no reason to change, left to its own devices, as history has shown. And there are those in the early voting states who see candidates fawn over them for months at a time before a single caucus is held or vote is cast.

Former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton racked up a huge delegate lead early in the race, as many Southern states went to the polls first. But, what does this really mean in a larger sense? It's likely neither Democratic candidate is going to win any of those states in the general election, so what difference does it make who wins Mississippi? Independent Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders won in Wisconsin and Michigan, both battleground states that could go either way in November. Yet, these victories may have come too late in the calendar to matter as much as they might have otherwise.

And Republican Party loyalists can't be happy with how this mess is turning out. Would those in the #NeverTrump movement have a better shot if the order was changed? We'll never know unless we try it.

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The (Anderson) Herald Bulletin. April 28, 2016

Indiana should end drug offender food stamp ban.

Sometimes you just have to ask, What the heck were we thinking?

That question pops immediately to mind when you consider that the state of Indiana imposes a lifetime ban on drug offenders receiving food stamps.

So, just what were our state legislators thinking when they drafted the law?

Maybe it was to punish drug offenders beyond their prison sentences. Maybe it was to limit food stamp programs to save money. Perhaps it was considered a way of ensuring that drug offenders have less money to spend on drugs, since they would have to spend some on food.

Whatever the reasoning, the policy is clearly flawed. Drug offenders, after they've done their time, should be eligible for the same sorts of public assistance as others. In fact, having access to food stamps might keep them from dealing drugs to get money to buy food.

Indiana is one of just nine states that still deny food stamps to drug offenders. One of the others, Georgia, is poised to end its ban soon. Public officials in another, Nebraska, are debating that state's policy. That leaves only Indiana, Alaska, Arizona, Florida, Mississippi, South Carolina and West Virginia with the law intact.

Indiana needs to follow the lead of the rest of the nation and quit punishing people for what they might do wrong again - in this case, use drugs.

"I get it. These people who have drug problems did a bad thing," Nebraska state Sen. Tommy Garrett said in a recent Associated Press article. "I'm interested in reducing recidivism, and I don't think it's warranted to deprive them of beneifits that other convicted felons get."

Life is hard enough for an ex-con (keep in mind that they've already paid their debt to society) just trying to find work, a place to live, transportation, health care and other necessities, without having to go hungry.

It's time to abolish this "what-the-heck-were-they-thinking" law.

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(Logansport) Pharos-Tribune. April 27, 2016

Dual-immersion a benefit to students.

We published a story earlier this week that we thought would be well received by most who read it. It was a story about increased opportunities for local students, after all.

But when posting the story on social media, we were surprised by the large number of negative comments it received.

To sum up the original report as shortly as possible, 50 local kindergartners will have the opportunity (it's not a mandated program) to learn to read and write in English and Spanish. It's called a dual-immersion course, and Logansport Community School Corp. is now the seventh school district in Indiana to offer it.

Housed at Landis, both native English and Spanish speakers will be split evenly into two sections. They'll spend half of the day learning kindergarten standards in English and the other half of the day in Spanish.

This is an incredible program that will positively impact the enrolled students long after kindergarten is over, so we were disheartened to see it met with such a sour reception.

So, today we want to share why we think the program is a positive addition to our Logansport schools.

For starters, the program isn't just about learning a second language. It's about the additional skills a person acquires when they are bilingual. The benefits of such have been the subject of mountains of research, and subsequently there's no shortage of the documentation to prove its value.

That research can help calm the fears of parents who might be concerned that learning a second language will hamper their child's reading and verbal abilities in English. Many studies' findings have suggested quite the opposite.

One such study - testing the reading ability of 4- and 5-year-olds - found that bilingual children showed better understanding of what they read. Another found it improves a child's understanding of his/her native language. Yet another study found students who learn foreign languages score higher on standardized college entrance exams.

The Center for Applied Linguistics says that learning a second language at an early age has a positive effect on intellectual growth and enriches and enhances a child's mental development, as well as allows students to have more flexible thinking.

It gives them a head-start in language requirements for college and increases their job opportunities in many careers where knowing another language is a real asset, the center reports.

We could go on and on about the many personal, cognitive, academic and societal benefits of learning a second language.

So, why wouldn't we want all of this for our local students? We do, and that's why we support Logansport school officials in their endeavor to get the dual-immersion course up and running.

We look forward to the first success stories and reporting on the program's expansion in coming years.