Tom LoBianco appears determined to save journalism all by himself. Hot on the heels of his investigative story about former Gov. Daniels and his efforts to stifle teaching of Howard Zinn, Tom (I can call him Tom because I met him one time!) has a story that I think is a lot more substantively important.
He reports that e-mails from former Superintendent of Schools, Tony Bennett, reveals that the State gamed the school rating system to accommodate a favored narrative and a favored political contributor.
Emails obtained by The Associated Press show Bennett and his staff scrambled last fall to ensure influential donor Christel DeHaan’s school [known as Christel House] received an “A,” despite poor test scores in algebra that initially earned it a “C.”
“They need to understand that anything less than an A for Christel House compromises all of our accountability work,” Bennett wrote in a Sept. 12 email to then-chief of staff Heather Neal, who is now Gov. Mike Pence’s chief lobbyist.
Bennett’s response suggests that favored schools run by influential donor’s cannot fail; they can only be failed. Apparently the fact that the existing metrics gave DeHaan’s school a low grade was evidence of problems with the metrics, not the school.
Responding to news that Christel House would be getting a “C” under the existing metrics:
“This will be a HUGE problem for us,” Bennett wrote in a Sept. 12, 2012 email to Neal.
Neal fired back a few minutes later, “Oh, crap. We cannot release until this is resolved.”
A weeklong behind-the-scenes scramble ensued among Bennett, assistant superintendent Dale Chu, Gubera, Neal and other top staff at the Indiana Department of Education. They examined ways to lift Christel House from a “C” to an “A,” including adjusting the presentation of color charts to make a high “B” look like an “A” and changing the grade just for Christel House.
Stories like Tom LoBianco has been unearthing show how and why journalism can be saved. Digging for and examining evidence about what happened; and afflicting the powerful when they have it coming is what journalists do best and the value they add to the system. Bloggers will not often replicate this sort of thing. I think newspapers would be well-served to focus on this aspect of their business. Opinion pieces and classified ads can be imitated and replaced. Journalists can’t.
On the journalism part, spot on!
On the content part: Why do people put stuff like that in emails that are subject to Freedom of Information inquiries? Sounds like they were making things up on the fly. Sounds like neither the best NOR the brightest were at the helm. Observed again, we compete hard in the race to the bottom, so no doubt we will win!
I’m sorry, I can’t disclose any information about that customer’s secret, illegal account.
Oh, crap. I shouldn’t have said he was a customer… Oh, crap. I shouldn’t have said it was a secret… Oh, crap! I *certainly* shouldn’t have said it was illegal!
mary, it’s TEAM players former Governor Daniels cherishs most, not talent. He lays it out and the TEAM runs with it (wherever that might go). Talent might not be quite so pliable. Purdue may yet learn to rue the day that Mitch came to town.
The whole thing just shows what a joke “education policy” was under the last administration. Sending former State Superintendent Bennett out to greener fields in Florida was one of the best things that happened in that election cycle. Of course, even Governor Pence won’t let that ragged sock go any more than former Governor Daniels would. Yeah?! You can be Superintendent, gurl, but we are taking all your power away from you! I am VERY disappointed that the Governor has abetted that pettiness. VERY. And, married to a former teacher as well. Tsk, tsk, tsk.
We rued the day already… Now we shake our head and wonder when the next shoe will drop.
LoBianco has hit the mother lode because there are so many more bugs under those rocks, and the field is full of them. It’s almost a formula, where you focus on rigid and arrogant but not very bright ideologues who believe they are untouchable yet who forget that emails are subject to FOIA requests. It’s low-hanging fruit, for heaven’s sake! There might even be some jail time waiting for someone in this mix.
But didn’t anyone see this coming? Remember Nixon? For you folks who went through that, didn’t you just know that one day the shoe was going to drop? The same applies to Daniels, Bennett and that bunch. The best and brightest have warned us that what was happening was not right. Letters to the editor went ignored as did the editorials. Now LoBianco steps up and does what needs to be done. Maybe we will see some justice come out of this sewer yet. Better yet, maybe there is hope for substantive change. And the empty suit, Pence, doesn’t seem alert enough to understand that a real Christian would understand that justice and making things right should be his priority, not ideology.
I want to see indictments!!
“You might very well think that – I couldn’t possibly comment.”
First, let me say that I could not be happier that Bennet is gone. Hopefully for good. Second, it’s nice that Ritz has the resources to be combing through what must be an enormous amount of data from the previous administration. Tony always came off as a slick snake oil salesman, but other than a shout-out “gotacha” for all her teacher friends I’m not sure how this story furthers the mission of her office. Hopefully after two stories recess can be over and her office will come in from the playground and get to work.
Greg, I’m not sold on the idea that State Superintendent Ritz is the one combing through this stuff. But, if she is, it’s the Governors’ (present and previous) fault for doing their utmost to make sure she has little esle to do.
I believe her administration is answering FOIA requests. But frankly, the dimwit in charge today is making her irrelevant in the debate by trying to slide all power to the appointed Board of Education. – basically the governor’s lackeys. The voters are being screwed as are ultimately the children of Indiana.
I presume Tom LoBianco’s e-mailbox is going to be filling up with more of this stuff. It would be hard to believe Bennett got involved only this one time. I wouldn’t be shocked if there was evidence that he (or upper-level staff) were involved in knocking down scores in districts where donor charter schools were set up, or wanted to set up.
If anyone at this point believes the Daniels/Bennett organization or anyone who subscribes to it cares about education, they’re deluding themselves. It’s all about the money.
My understanding is that this is the tip of the iceberg.
I think this is a big story and that Tom LoBianco did a very nice write up. I’m not so sure, however, that he went “digging” for this information. Most likely this was placed in his lap by the current folks at DOE. Between this and the Daniels/Zinn story, it sounds like Bennett, et al forgot to wipe their servers and there was probably not much investigation on LoBianco’s part. Could be wrong, but that just seems to be the logical scenario.
If they had wiped their servers it would still be a story as that is not permissible under Indiana records retention rules.
I’ll bet someone in Indianapolis is wishing that they had doubled Ritz’s responsibilities and budget and kept that bunch so busy that they didn’t have time to look over Bennett’s old emails. Now they have a real problem, with an elected adversary who has lots of time to look over the evidence while they wait for the next shoe to drop. Someone’s going to lose sleep over that.
My understanding is that this is the tip of the iceberg.
Well, considering what the tip of an iceberg did to the Titanic….
The Bennett fiasco seems to have uncovered the continuing adversarial relationship between the legislature and Gov. Pence. Pence announced that he has asked the State Board of Education to make a plan to deal with the A-F scheme. The next day, Brian Bosma announced that the legislature will design an accountability plan themselves, thus continuing to separate themselves from the governor. Sometimes, when you lift a rock, more rocks are turned over than the one you lift. (This came from Educators Against Mike Pence for Governor).
If true, a rift like this may be a not bad thing. Checks and balances, you know. There wasn’t any rift in Wisconsin between Scott Walker and his legislator-water-carriers and look what a mess that made in Wisconsin. I have never been a big fan of Brian Bosma but I am feeling a little more moderated toward him lately.
Especially when I see that Bosma and Long and talking and maybe working together, when Pence has a history of simply being an obstructionist who doesn’t really seem to care who or how many suffer as long as his ideological goals are met. That, to me, is just plain evil.
Bosma and Long have been around the block, many, many times. This is their State, and they mean to govern it. Pence is a new kid in town, and doesn’t seem to have much experience or appetite for actually governing. He has some ideological notions he likes to talk about, and some litmus tests he likes to have met when legislation comes around. But, beyond that, he seems very passive when compared to Gov. Daniels and, in any event, not very good at working with the General Assembly.
That story could have a bad end. Meanwhile, I hope he doesn’t take many people down the drain with him.
Well, exhoosier was dead right: It’s about the money. And the Bushes appear to be in back of it. In today’s Washington Post they report a raft of emails that you can read connecting the Bushes’ “Foundation for Excellence in Education”, corporations that want access to tax dollars for themselves, state initiatives and and “School Chiefs”, all working for a right wing agenda, evaluating teachers through test scores, A-F schemes, charter schools, online education, the works. We have been had, folks, and Indiana is only one on the list. The Post article: http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/answer-sheet/wp/2013/01/30/e-mails-link-bush-foundation-corporations-and-education-officials/. And the emails: (http://www.inthepublicinterest.org/node/2747)