Obama is an Alien
We've learned from recent letters that President Obama, Commander in Chief of a military whose budget is greater than Russia, China, France and the UK combined, is actually an evil interloper from the planet Mars whose sole task is to enslave the people of earth and herd them like cattle to the ships that will await them after the election. Then to be feasted upon by the Morlocks who live in the underground caverns on their home planet. Based upon that forgone conclusion, perhaps we should divert our attention to other political races whose outcome may actually have a greater impact on our daily lives.
Lost
in all the chatter is the race for Indiana State Superintendent of
Public Instruction. Republican incumbent Dr. Tony Bennett and
Democratic challenger Democrat Glenda Ritz.
This
particular race comes down to how you feel about the philosophy of
privatization of public schools and standardized testing as the
yardstick to determine it's necessity. In my mind once you put a
corporation in charge of anything, suddenly profits become more
important than the outcome of the original mission statement, which
in this case would be the general welfare of our children.
In
that regard
Dr. Bennett is pushing
to speed up the time-line for state takeover of struggling schools.
He’s also seeking legislative support for the power to take over
entire school corporations. He has raised 30 times the amount of
money for his campaign, a large share of that from sources outside
the state. Why are corporations and individuals from outside Indiana
sticking their nose in our business? See...
http://stateimpact.npr.org/indiana/bennett-campaign-contributions-august-2012/
Glenda
Ritz states she would roll back many of Dr. Tony Bennett's
initiatives, in particular the
IREAD-3
test for third graders. Ritz, a library media specialist in
Indianapolis’ Washington Township, says she’s seen firsthand the
detrimental effects of the IREAD-3.
Mine
is a case in point. My Grandnephew missed passing the I-READ by
exactly 1 point. He was an A-B student and had made the honor roll.
He went on to pass the summer program and advance to the 4th
grade where he is already on track to make the honor roll again. How
can this be? Perhaps the I-READ and standardized testing in general
is essentially flawed and doesn't take into account the subject
matter and teaching methods that our teachers are using.
IREAD-3
serves to be a major distraction for the current course of education
and forces teachers to divert their efforts into taking the time to
teach to the test before they can move on. Not to mention the
negative psychological effect on a student who has worked hard all
year to get passing grades, only to be held back by the results of a
single test.
So
remember there is much more at stake this year than tax breaks for
overseas corporations, subsidies for rich farmers, flag burning and
gay marriage, there is the future of your child's education. Vote for
Glenda Ritz Indiana
State Superintendent of Public Instruction.



