Recent editorials published in Indiana newspapers

The (Munster) Times. May 4, 2017

Referendum results show community values

If communities aren't willing to invest in public schools, it's hard to conceive of anything else that would pass the muster of investment.

It's why we were so adamant that Munster, Lake Station and East Chicago voters flock to the polls of a special election Tuesday in which they were asked to support or oppose respective school funding referendums.

With all of the votes counted, we're heartened that nearly 68 percent of the Munster voters who participated in the election and 55 percent of the Lake Station referendum voters supported the measures in question.

We're equally disappointed East Chicago - albeit a paltry 14 percent of its eligible voters - defeated that city's public school referendum.

Now the School City of East Chicago's superintendent and school board, which have been working hard to change the fate of a struggling urban school district, must become even more efficient.

We hope they can make a case for community investment to voters in the future and that voters will see the far-reaching merits of investing in their schools.

In Munster and Lake Station, a majority of caring voters who participated in the referendum reaffirmed a principal of both social stability and economics: The rising tides of a quality school system raise all boats.

For Munster property taxpayers, that means an increase from 19 cents to 42 cents per $100 of assessed property valuation to generate $6.9 million to support programs and teaching at one of the Region's perennially best school districts.

Munster voters also approved a further investment of 43 cents per $100 of property valuation to fund school construction and repair projects.

In Lake Station, property taxpayers will pay 54 cents per $100 of assessed valuation to raise about $800,000 per year for seven years for public schools there.

Meanwhile, East Chicago schools miss out on about $41 million in a referendum that would have meant a small $4 per month increase in property tax bills for homeowners with a median value of $80,000.

We applaud Region communities whose residents realize the direct effect quality schools have on social fabric and property values.

This way of thinking should spread throughout our Region's cities and towns.

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The (Bloomington) Herald-Times. May 4, 2017

Lack of vetoes by the governor predictable but still regrettable

It was unrealistic to think Republican Gov. Eric Holcomb would step in and veto a number of bad bills passed by the overwhelmingly Republican General Assembly. While Holcomb provides a hope of thoughtfulness instead of the narrow ideology of former governor and current Vice President Mike Pence, it would have been shocking had he challenged his own party and their financial backers during his first four months in office.

That's too bad. With his signature Monday, he joined lawmakers in saying the sun is the property of companies and not individuals and continued the erosion of local control, specifically for elected officials in Bloomington.

In regard to the sun, a lot of common citizens, faith leaders, local officials and businesses had strongly opposed Senate Bill 309, which relates to solar power. The bill phases out the practice of "net metering," in which families, faith communities, small businesses, local governments and schools that invest in solar systems get full credit from utility companies for any excess energy collected that powers their neighbors. The bill would reduce the rate the utility companies would be required to pay the little guys, serving as a disincentive for small players to install solar.

The bill that received Holcomb's signature and now will become law cedes the rooftop solar market to big energy companies at the expense of individuals who had been leading the state's charge toward renewable energy.

The governor made it a point to add a comment to his lack of a veto, noting the bill would not harm existing solar customers.

"I support solar as an important part of Indiana's comprehensive mix," he stated. "I understand the concerns some have expressed, but this legislation ensures that those who currently have interests in small solar operations will not be affected for decades."

No comment was made on signing Senate Bill 558, which includes a lot of elements about property owners and renters.

As noted in a previous editorial, the bill seems to target and halt Bloomington Mayor John Hamilton's potential to use "inclusionary zoning" as an affordable-housing tool that would link the production of market rate housing with the production of affordable housing.

The new law prohibits county or municipal officials from requiring anything of private developers that would have the effect of controlling rental or sales prices of property or would reserve the sale or lease of property to specific persons, such as those of a specific income level.

Local officials should be left alone to make zoning decisions that are best for their communities. State lawmakers overstepped.

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The (Fort Wayne) Journal Gazette. May 5, 2017

Out of the box

New law reinforces safest method for surrendering abandoned infants

With the governor's signature this week, Senate Bill 246 effectively ends the idea of placing insulated boxes for unwanted babies in fire stations and other public places. Now attention should turn to promoting the state's safe-haven law as the best approach to protecting infants.

The distraction came with Woodburn resident Monica Kelsey's bid to promote Safe Haven Baby Boxes - a receptacle where an individual can leave a baby without being seen. But the key to the 1999 safe haven law is the infant being handed over to an emergency medical services provider - not left in a box.

State health and child welfare officials rightly recommended against efforts to address the liability concerns of baby boxes, instead encouraging promotion of the existing state law.

A deputy state health commissioner said officials couldn't find evidence of a decrease in infant mortality or the number of abandoned babies in places where the unattended incubators are used.

Nevertheless, a bill was filed by area lawmakers to address the liability concerns discouraging use of the baby boxes. What emerged as law will grandfather in incubators installed before Jan. 1 - one in Woodburn and another in Michigan City.

But it limits additional use of baby boxes to licensed hospitals staffed on a 24-hour basis and in a location "that is conspicuous and visible to hospital staff."

In other words, the law reinforces the intent of the original safe-haven law: Leave an infant directly in the care of an emergency medical professional.

Promoting the original, sound law is the key. While nearly 3,000 infants have been surrendered safely since the law went into effect, tragic endings still occur. That's the outcome when a young parent is scared, ashamed and doesn't want to be found.

Better to promote the law with a message that leaving a baby in the safe arms of a nurse or emergency medical provider is easy, is the right thing to do and will have no legal repercussions.

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The (Fort Wayne) News Sentinel. May 5, 2017

Another fine First Amendment mess

Last year, some students at Carmel High School were allowed to put up an anti-abortion sign. This year, a different group of students were told they could not hang a pro-abortion rights sign.

That is discrimination based on viewpoint, and that is a clear violation of the First Amendment. Naturally it's time to bring in the American Civil Liberties Union of Indiana and take the school system to court, by God!

Of course the story is a tad more complicated than that, and the episode should serve as a warning for school districts inclined to stray from their mission under the false impression that they must accommodate every student demand for this or that "right."

A school is not a microcosm of the country, with students counted as citizens and school officials standing in for "the government." A school is a structured learning environment in which anything not aimed at imparting knowledge must be put aside. True, students don't leave their rights at the schoolhouse door, but the rights they have are not the same as a citizen's in dealing with government.

If schools choose to ignore that reality, they owe it to students to have very clear rules that are widely disseminated and understood. This is what Carmel failed to do.

The school at first took down the anti-abortion sign last year. But it put it back up for 10 days after the conservative legal group Liberty Counsel threatened legal action, arguing that the school had allowed other ideological messages on signs, including a donkey on a sign for a student club for Democrats and the use of a rainbow and the word pride on signs for a group supporting lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender students. The anti-abortion sign said "3,000 Lives Are Ended Each Day" and featured the word "abortion" changed to say "adoption."

The school says groups may post signs only if they advertise group meetings. Lawyers for the school district say the new sign did not include the group's name or meeting details, which the sign last year did. But the ACLU, like the Liberty Counsel before, is citing all the previous ideological signs allowed.

Judge Tanya Walton Pratt of the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Indiana says the controversy over the new sign "opens a can of worms, doesn't it?"

Indeed, it does. And it's not the students who are at fault.___