High-res file can be accessed here. 

The breakdown of losses, as calculated by the Indiana Association of Public School Superintendents, is here in PDF and Excel formats—district by district.

The bigger picture can be accessed here. Be sure to watch the video walkthrough first. 

District by district charts can be found here. 

Dear Friends,

This is the first “Vic’s Election Notes on Education” for 2018. Notes under this title contain commentaries on election candidates and my personal candidate endorsements.
There is no link between “Vic’s Election Notes on Education” and any organization. __________________________________________________________________________________

Which candidate for U.S. Senate from Indiana should be favored by public education advocates?
If you are a voter who puts a high priority on public education, Joe Donnelly is the best candidate in the U.S. Senate race. As an advocate for public education, I have reviewed the record, and Joe Donnelly has my full endorsement over Mike Braun.

Here are my reasons.

Mike Braun Has a Poor Record on Public Education

Mike Braun served in the Indiana House of Representatives representing District 63 for three sessions: the long budget session of 2015 (after winning the 2014 general election unopposed), the short session of 2016 and the long budget session of 2017 (after defeating Democrat Andrea Hulsman in the 2016 general election). Then he resigned to run for U.S. Senate in November, 2017.

[Please note: Indiana Code 3-14-1-17 says that government employees including public school employees may not “use the property of the employee’s government employer to” support the “election or defeat of a candidate” and may not distribute this message “on the government employer’s real property during regular working hours.” Ironically, the law does not prevent private school employees from using computers purchased with public voucher money to distribute campaign materials. Private schools now financed in part by public voucher dollars have retained all rights under Indiana’s voucher laws to engage in partisan political campaigns.]

It intrigued me that Mike Braun’s U.S. Senate primary campaign ads ignored his three years in the General Assembly and made it sound like he was a businessman with no experience in government.
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During those three sessions, he had a poor record on issues related to public education:

• In 2015, Mike Braun voted to double down on high stakes testing by voting for HB 1638, a bill passed into law which I strongly opposed. It allowed schools with F grades to be taken over by the state more quickly, potentially placing them in the hands of private for-profit operators, a strategy that has not succeeded.
• In 2016, Mike Braun voted to expand voucher enrollment to spring semester by voting for Senate Bill 334, a bill I strongly opposed and a bill with some bipartisan opposition. It was opposed by 6 Republicans, but not by Mike Braun. It was later voted into law as part of House Bill 1005.
• In 2016, for his votes on these and other bills in 2015-2016, Mike Braun earned a D on the 2016 Legislator Report Card issued by the Indiana Coalition for Public Education.
• In 2017, Mike Braun voted for the badly flawed budget bill in 2017 that raised taxpayer support of private school tax credit scholarships by $7.5 million (up 19%) to a two-year total of $26.5 million, more than state funding for K-12 technology or for alternative education. Also, despite a strong economy, the budget gave cheapskate increases to K-12 funding, only 1.6% in 2018 and 1.7% in 2019, less than inflation, straining the financial position of many school districts.
• In 2017, Mike Braun voted to remove a pillar of public education from the public, the power to elect the State Superintendent of Public Instruction, a power voters had held since 1851. The controversial law (House Bill 1005) which angered me and other public school advocates does not even mandate that the Governor appoint a leader with K-12 experience when the appointments begin in 2025. Three House Republicans voted against this bill deconstructing voter control of public education as established by Indiana’s founders, but not Mike Braun.
• In 2017, Mike Braun voted for House Bill 1384 to help voucher schools. It allowed new private schools to get vouchers the first year of operation without waiting a year to get accreditation, as was required before the new law.
• In 2018, Mike Braun strongly supports the policies of President Trump who has proposed using federal money to pay for private school vouchers and using federal tax credits to reimburse taxpayers who donate money for private school scholarships, a plan being pushed by his Education Secretary Betsy DeVos. Standing recently with President Trump at an August 30th Evansville rally, he promised to support President Trump “on everything.” These damaging proposals would undermine public education nationwide.

Joe Donnelly Has a Strong Record on Public Education

• In 2017, Joe Donnelly opposed the nomination of Betsy DeVos to be Secretary of Education, and for good reasons. Betsy DeVos is an advocate for private education, not public education. She has been the most influential funder behind Indiana’s historic switch to giving public tax money to private and religious schools. According to research by Stephanie Wang and Chelsea Schneider printed in the Indianapolis Star (1/15/17, page 21A), DeVos has provided $2.5 million since 2004 to Indiana politicians to support vouchers. That paved the way to historic votes in 2009, 2011 and 2013 which step by step have privatized the school system in Indiana. DeVos donated another $1.7 million between 2012 and 2014 to non-profit groups in Indiana which support private school vouchers, such as the Institute for Quality Education. Senator Donnelly certainly did the right thing in opposing the nomination of Betsy DeVos to be Secretary of Education.
• In 2018, Joe Donnelly, in a speech that I heard on August 25th to the Indiana Coalition for Public Education, declared his opposition to President Trump’s proposal to use federal tax money to pay for private school vouchers.
• In 2018 in the same speech, Joe Donnelly declared his opposition to using federal tax credits to reimburse those who donate to private school scholarship funds, a tax plan being pushed by Secretary of Education DeVos. He was adamant that this expensive plan to fund private school scholarships was absolutely wrong given our huge deficit.
• Both State Superintendent Jennifer McCormick and former State Superintendent Glenda Ritz have publicly praised Joe Donnelly for his help in connecting the Indiana Department of Education to the approximately $1 billion in federal funding for K-12 schools in Indiana.

It’s a clear difference. If supporting K-12 public education is a concern as you vote, I urge you to support Joe Donnelly in this tight election race and to ask friends and family to do the same.

Good luck in your work! If public education is going to survive in Indiana, voters will make all the difference.

Thanks for advocating in support of public education!

Best wishes,
Vic Smith [email protected]