These are the messages that protesters will be conveying at a rally in support of public education at 2 p.m. today at the Indiana ?Statehouse North Atrium.
The rally is being planned by several different organizations throughout the state of Indiana, including the Indiana Coalition for Public Education, the Indiana State Teachers Association, the American Federation of Teachers in Indiana, Northeast Indiana Friends of Public Education and the Indiana Parent Teacher ?Association.
Attendees are encouraged to bring posters and other people to the event.
Cathy Fuentes-Rohwer, chairperson for the Indiana Coalition for Public Education’s Monroe County and South Central Indiana branch, will be one of the speakers.
“I think there will be hundreds of people at that rally,” Fuentes-Rohwer said. “Buses are being chartered ... from all over the state.”
While intending to address a variety of issues pertaining to public education in Indiana, the rally is being formed in response to a couple of recent political events in Indiana legislature.
Last week, a policy battle between Gov. Mike Pence and the State Superintendent of Public Instruction Glenda Ritz intensified when the length of the newly-revised standardized test for Indiana, ISTEP, came under scrutiny from Pence’s office.
Senate Bill 470 was approved by the Senate Education Committee on Wednesday. It would allow private schools to ignore ISTEP and to instead take “another nationally recognized and norm-referenced assessment” of their own choice.
Some opponents of this legislation see this as a direct attack on public education in Indiana and an obvious preference to private schools.
House Bill 1609 was also passed in the Indiana House of Representatives last week, which would allow for the State Board of Education to elect its own chairman instead of the state superintendent of public instruction automatically filling the ?position.
