Last month at the American Enterprise Institute for Public Policy Research, Governor Mitch Daniels touted his successes in Indiana education reform, stressing that bills passed in the just-concluded legislative session “end discrimination against charters” and put the state’s education system on the road to recovery after “a regime that attempted to choke the charter school.” Still, he stressed that there is a keen focus on improving failing public schools. “I salute the president, [Education] Secretary [Arne] Duncan; they’re right about these things,” and they push reforms to a point where they “irritate some of their allies,” Daniels said. “You cannot often enough affirm your commitment to the public schools.” Pushing public-school reform while affirming the value of charter schools is key in Indiana’s reforms, he said. “As this bill was finally crafted, public schools will get first shot at every child,” the governor said. “This package of four bills we see as a mutually reinforcing whole. We think it was extremely important that each element of this passed.” The reforms focus on teacher quality (including pay based on results rather than seniority), “freedom to lead,” and options for parents and students. “Collective bargaining has its place,” Daniels told the packed AEI house. “Always will.” He said it is “strengthened” under the package passed. However, he decried lobbying practices that include students being given homework assignments to write letters supporting public education, as well as other union campaigning against his efforts. “I’m told that Darth Vader was never really that bad a guy compared to me,” he quipped. Daniels said that he believed parental choice provisions are “going to attract a very large share of the attention” but not necessarily be a “very large phenomenon” in his state, predicting that a “meaningful but not very large” segment of families would take advantage of it. “If dollars alone were enough, we all know this problem would have been solved a long time ago,” he said, noting that school reformers have no shortage of knowledge as to what works. “We’ve known that charter schools work. We’ve known that more competition is helpful.” Still, on his legislative reform successes, Daniels said the process is just beginning. “The real test for us is dead ahead, and that is to implement these tools,” he said. “I will never stop learning about learning.”
To view a video of the the address by Governor Daniels, visit http://www.aei.org/event/100394
