Political candidates address Frances Slocum Chapter

On Tuesday, September 16, 2014, Indiana Superintendent of Public Instruction, Glenda Ritz headlined a slate of eight candidates who addressed the Frances Slocum Chapter of ISTA-Retired. Those candidates are seeking elected positions at local, district and state levels. Issues of interest to educators covered in discussion included educational equity, teacher pensions, Cost of Living Adjustment (COLA) for teachers, charter schools, school funding, testing, and the school environment created by recent legislation. In dialogue with the candidates, FSC members also expressed concern and frustration over the attacks on public education and the Ritz led Indiana DOE. Members pointed out that over 1.3 million voters elected Superintendent Ritz to move education in Indiana forward in a direction clearly different from her predecessor and of the previous governor. However, the newly elected governor, his appointed Board of Education, and the legislature have ignored the election day mandate of the Indiana electorate and are aggressively devious obstructionists to Ritz's educational leadership. 

In order to follow the direction of Superintendent Ritz, rather than the direction forced by the governor and the current state legislature, changes in the legislature must occur. To do that, educators need to, again, get out the vote in this "off-year" election.

The group of teachers present at the meeting learned that the election of the Indiana State Treasurer and the State Auditor take on particular significance for education in our state. The Indiana government website states, "The governor, auditor and treasurer constitute the state Board of Finance. The board supervises the fiscal affairs of the state and has advisory supervision of all funds coming into the state treasury. The board may transfer money between state funds and appropriations and approve loans made by the state." This is how the governor established, by executive order, the Center for Education and Career Innovation (CECI) at an additional budgetary cost of 14 million dollars over two years. The current Board of Finance has moved funds from the Indiana Department of Education to underwrite CECI. If elected the two democratic candidates for treasurer and auditor could initiate actions to restore funds to the peoples' Department of Education and cutback funding for the governor's 'pet' CECI project. Mike Boland is the Democratic candidate for State Treasurer and Mike Claytor is the candidate for State Auditor. We all need to spread the word and get our friends to the polls.

Our next meeting is scheduled for Tuesday, November 18, 2014 at 4:30 p.m., at the Marion IHOP restaurant. The program will be presented by former educator and ISTA UniServ Director, Rod Ellcessor. At the meeting we will be discussing our purpose as an organization, our goals, and our strategic actions to serve our retired teacher members and to promote the teaching profession. This is of utmost importance to our local chapter. Please be sure to join us.

• A quick reminder: Local dues for the 2014-15 membership year are $10.