Governor Mike Pence Is At IT Again! Or, playground bullying isn't isolated to grade school?

Abuse of Power is an Epidemic So It Seems;Too Many Selfie's Maybe? 

It seems that White House isn't the only place where there seems to be a misuse power in order to steamroll an agenda. Indiana Governor Mike Pence is at it too. Our state openly and honestly elected Superintendent Glenda Ritz, yet it seems that Mike Pence is doing everything in his power to remove her power as head of education in Indiana.

I personally believed in Ritz as she embodies everything that is right in education and stands against everything that has gone wrong. She represents the possibility that a person can be chosen for a position regardless of political connections, or correctness. Public education, like most government run agencies has become a cesspool of nepotism, political ties, and what is most pervasive cronyism! Glenda's appointment was refreshing because it sent a message to people everywhere. That message simply stated is; do a good job, be a good person, and you can move to the head of the class. Her appointment embodies what public education is!

Well, it seems that whether you are dealing with State level education or a local school yard, bullies do in fact troll the halls and playgrounds just waiting to find someone to bully and minimize. I truly believe that Glenda Ritz is being grossly disrespected by Governor Mike Pence. Is it because she never held a local superintendent position or is because she is a woman, she supports public education and republican Governor Mike Pence is misogynistic? My suspicion is that it is both. Please read a letter sent to me by the Indiana State Teacher's Association. It is time for union members across the nation to stand together and demand the badgering against public educators stop!


ISTA has learned that the State Board of Education intends to further diminish Superintendent Ritz’s role as Chair of the board and transfer some responsibilities to the board’s staff at the Center for Education and Career Innovation (CECI). The actions will take place at the board
meeting on Wednesday .

The board will propose dramatic new board procedures through approving a resolution that will form a one-time, ad hoc committee that will approve the new measures intended to cut into the Superintendent’s traditional role as Chair.

It’s no secret that the Governor and the CECI have wanted to remove Superintendent Ritz as Chair of the State Board of Education. In December, it was disclosed in a leaked CECI memo that Ritz being the Chair was perceived as a “problem” that should be addressed by the legislature. The goal then was to have the Chair appointed by the Governor.

This latest move coincides with efforts to seemingly make the Department of Education a minor administrative bureaucracy folded within one agency under the Governor’s office. 

Efforts first began when the Governor, with the stroke of a pen and without legislative approval, created and diverted funding for his duplicate education agency, the CECI.

We learned just weeks ago that the Governor’s Indiana Career Council has adopted a new strategic plan that includes consolidating more than 30 state agencies and programs, including the Department of Education, totaling more than $650 million, under one lead agency directed by the Governor.

This new resolution brought forth by the governor-appointed state board of education members is the latest in this fixation over gaining singular power at the expense of the authority of the Superintendent of Public Instruction.

Please contact the members of the State Board of Education and urge them to work WITH Superintendent Ritz instead of continuing on this path of disrespect for her, the office she holds and the 1.3 million voters who elected her.

Tony Walker - tony@walkerlawgroup.biz

Dr. Brad Oliver - brad4education@gmail.com

Dr. David Freitas - drdavidfreitas@comcast.net

Daniel Elsener - delsener@marian.edu

Cari Whicker - cwhicker@hccsc.k12.in.us

B.J. Watts - bj.watts@evsc.k12.in.us

Sarah O’Brien - sobrien4cd@yahoo.com

Troy Albert - talbert@wclark.k12.in.us

Andrea Neal - aneal@inpolicy.org

Gordon Hendry - education@gordonhendry.com