In Her Own Words
Indiana Barrister is tied up today, so we asked for a guest editorial from IPS School Board member Kelly Bentley. The piece was not edited and appears just as she wrote it.
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Abdul is experimenting with guest editorials for his blog and asked me to write one. To say I was a bit taken aback by the offer would be an understatement. After all, I am an IPS School Board member and Abdul has never hidden his distain for public education and IPS specifically. I also don’t have much experience writing blogs. Recently I started sharing random thoughts and frustrations over on Facebook which lead to a couple of postings on other blogs. Facebook is safe because I know all the people–it’s like talking to yourself and occasionally getting an answer.
Everyone knows by now that 66% of schools in Indiana ranked in the bottom two performance categories under Indiana’s AYP. Many are calling for more parent choice and more charter schools. I’m not sure if more choice alone is the answer because all things being equal charter schools perform about the same as public schools. But no one can deny that the structure of public education in Indianapolis isn’t working–not for students, not for families, not for neighborhoods and communities, and not for professional educators. And the one thing charter schools have that traditional public schools don’t have is autonomy and freedom from burdensome regulation—something very appealing to many creative and innovative educators and parents.
Earlier this week, Matt Tully from the Indianapolis Star interviewed David Harris from the Mind Trust about the challenges facing public education and IPS specifically (“School reformer’s ideas are a start” Indianapolis Star 5/6/09). Harris blames teacher union contracts that reward seniority for the recent layoff of 300 teachers in IPS. I agree union contacts can be a barrier to education reform but an equally problematic barrier is weak school leadership and a lack of accountability.
Many young, energetic, gifted, passionate teachers were among those teachers who may be laid off. At the same time, only 6-8 teachers in IPS were fired for ineffective teaching. Simply put, schools in IPS losing gifted educators are losing them because principals in other schools in IPS didn’t do their job. And even more worrisome is how the loss of these teachers impacts the integrity of some of the most innovative schools in Indianapolis–School 91 Montessori, the International Baccalaureate at CFI, The Sidener Gifted Academy, the Key Learning Community, and Spanish Immersion at School #74 all provide an exceptional education to a diverse group of students in IPS and keep families from moving out of the city. Indianapolis cannot afford to lose any of the schools.
On the issue of who should run the schools in Indianapolis, I found myself agreeing with much of what Harris had to say. Economically, Indianapolis is one city and we should have one school system run by one elected official, and the most appropriate official occupies the 25th floor of the City/County Building. The office of the Mayor of Indianapolis (the office, not any particular occupant) might be better able to address the elusive problem of accountability, autonomy and delivering results. Moreover, Mayors understand neighborhoods and the importance of being responsive to constituents. And since the Mayor’s office has chartering authority, charter schools could then be part of the overall plan for education in Indianapolis rather than competitors.
Instead of having eleven school systems in our city–with eleven very expensive bureaucracies, eleven transportation departments, eleven food service operations–maybe it’s time to have one system of autonomous schools to provide exceptional educational choices for all families in Indianapolis, run by one elected official. The great schools and programs in IPS and other school districts would continue to be great schools and programs, and the not so great schools and programs…well; maybe we can finally do something about those.
