TERRE HAUTE —
The gesture by the extreme conservative Republicans in the Legislature seems astonishingly generous.
Their political arch-rival, the Indiana Democratic Party, lingers mainly through its name recognition. It wields no force in state-level government, with Republicans holding super majorities in the House and Senate, and the governor’s seat. Most of all, the Hoosier Democratic Party has long lacked an identifiable personality with whom voters can identify. With Evan Bayh — the former governor and U.S. senator — out of public life, Democrats have no equivalent of a Mitch Daniels or a Mike Pence.
The hard right of the GOP is working on that.
By appearing to be controlling, paranoid and politically vindictive in their legislative response to Glenda Ritz becoming the new state superintendent of public instruction, those zealous Republicans have unwittingly highlighted the stark contrast of her rational, likable style for millions of Hoosiers to see. Once she defeated charismatic and controversial Tony Bennett in the lone Statehouse Democratic victory in November, stunned Republicans could have let Ritz drop the GOP education reform steamroller into a lower gear — as voters overwhelmingly chose her to do — and return the superintendent’s role to a less-headline-grabbing situation.
The extremists chose otherwise. As a result of their intransigence on the public stage, households from Angola to Mount Vernon now know Glenda Ritz. She is the new face of the Indiana Democratic Party.
It would be hard for Hoosiers to dislike what they are seeing in her. She is appealing in ways that those trying to undermine her are not. Ritz has treated Republicans in power as if she and they are members of the same team. (Such a concept is rare nowadays, but in Ritz it is a virtual reality; she was a life-long Republican before switching parties to take on Bennett.) Ritz solicits Republicans’ input on policy changes and has promised to properly manage reform programs she opposed. She has focused on common-ground education improvements, backing Gov. Pence’s push for revitalized vocational training in high schools.
Yes, Ritz has no choice but to accommodate the majority party, given the political realities in the Statehouse. Still, Ritz has sincerely embraced compromise — a trait the people want but party-line politicos detest.
Her reward?
Last week, Republicans unmoved by her outreach forged ahead with bills to strip her authority and pointlessly penalize teachers unions that supported her campaign. House Bill 1342 threatened to shift oversight of the private school voucher program from the Indiana Department of Education (headed by Ritz) to the Office of Management and Budget (controlled by Pence). Why? To guarantee that vouchers would be handled by an “impartial” manager, the bill’s author told the Indianapolis Star.
Impartial? Really? Pence, a staunch voucher proponent, is no more impartial to the concept than Ritz, who opposed them. To her credit, she told the Star, “I took an oath to uphold the law. I may not personally agree with vouchers but I have a responsibility to uphold the law.” Pence told the Star he supports the takeover bill.
Admirably, House Speaker Brian Bosma — increasingly a voice of reason in the capital — interceded and dropped HB 1342, for now. But two other political payback bills — one forcing Ritz to share oversight of the grading system of schools, and another prohibiting districts from permitting voluntary payroll deductions of teacher union dues — stayed alive.
Through it all, so far, Ritz has stuck to the high road, approaching quality education as a nonpartisan issue. Her detractors look petty and manipulative. Hoosiers are noticing. Those images will be hard to forget.
Editorials
EDITORIAL: GOP ‘payback’ action may help re-energize Dems
As a target, Ritz’s profile brightens
- Editorials
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Cleaning up voter rolls
It’s not a lot of money in the big scheme of things, but the $2 million designated in the recent session of the General Assembly will begin the messy but necessary process of cleaning up Indiana’s voter registration rolls.
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EDITORIAL: Waging the ‘readiness’ campaign
Almost every Hoosier who starts college intends to finish. Unfortunately, those who arrive on campus unprepared in key academic areas are far less likely to fulfill that aspiration.
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EDITORIAL: Insult to an independent press
Distrust of government secrecy has been elevated to an exceptional level with the disclosure the Justice Department covertly examined two months of Associated Press phone records to determine who leaked details to the AP about a foiled terrorist plot.
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EDITORIAL: Noteworthy in the news: Dashing finish for the Sycamores
It’s always thrilling to see Indiana State University’s athletic teams do well in high-level competition, and two specific teams rose to impressive heights last weekend in the Missouri Valley Conference outdoor track and field championships.
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EDITORIAL: Better monitoring needed to prevent local environmental messes
The nasty, hazardous messes lurking in the community raise a bottom-line, red-flag question. Could these environmental problems have been monitored and, thus, prevented?
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EDITORIAL: Memo to U.S.A.: You can ‘SPPRAK’ just as we do in Vigo County
Our kids, truly, are ‘Making a Difference’
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Some words in praise of boring government — Indiana’s
A conservative Republican governor has super majorities in both branches of the legislature. One might suspect such one-party government leads to major changes in public policy. This did not happen in 2013 in Indiana.
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EDITORIAL: Doc’s prescient prescription
Viewed through a 2013 prism, Doc Bowen’s response to the AIDS epidemic looks merely prudent, routine.
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EDITORIAL: Education remains worth the cost
Within the next few weeks, each of the local colleges will have conducted graduation ceremonies. A few days later, a different Class of 2013 will don caps and gowns for commencement — the seniors at five Vigo County high schools. It is still a smart, worthy aspiration for those high school grads to replicate the achievement of those college students by earning a higher-education degree.
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EDITORIAL: Good news for downtown
For decades, it seems, downtown Terre Haute has been in the throes of change
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EDITORIAL: Overall, state budget step in the right direction
For average Hoosiers uninterested in political point-scoring, the budget crafted by the Indiana Legislature inspires only muted, if any, fanfare.
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EDITORIAL: The lessons of organ donation
The range of emotion surrounding life-saving transplantation of a vital organ is extreme. It is the ultimate “good news-bad news” scenario.
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READERS’ FORUM: April 26, 2013
• Pence’s tax cuts benefit wealthiest
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EDITORIAL: Noteworthy in the news
This does not qualify as a surprise in any way. But the Wabash Valley’s response to widespread flooding of recent days has been nothing short of impressive, even inspirational.
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EDITORIAL: Still waiting for the jobs reward
The forces in control of Indiana government for most of the past decade need to show some results to Hoosiers in one primary category.
Good-paying jobs. -
MARK BENNETT: Littered with irony: Why do people callously discard their trash, and who are they?
Though they aren’t acknowledged by the U.S. Census Bureau, there are basically two demographic groups of people … Those who would dump their old toilet on the banks of the Wabash River or a rural roadside. And those who wouldn’t.
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EDITORIAL: Doing the dirty work to clean up tossed trash
A first-of-its-kind, coast-to-coast project to remove litter from U.S. roadsides brought the Pick Up America crew through the Wabash Valley two years ago.
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EDITORIAL: Keep school security a local issue
The decision to provide armed security inside a schoolhouse should be made locally.
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EDITORIAL: Noteworthy in the news
Indiana’s parks need your help.
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EDITORIAL: The return of terror
Emotions today remain strong and raw in wake of Monday’s terror bombings near the finish line of the Boston Marathon.
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EDITORIAL: A solution to distracted driving … stop it … now
You’ve got to stop. You know you do it. It’s a miracle you haven’t caused a tragedy already.
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EDITORIAL: ‘Women of Influence’: 2013 selectees have given much to their communities
For the second year, United Way of the Wabash Valley has teamed up with local sponsors to select and honor a group of women who have made outstanding contributions to their communities, professions and families.
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EDITORIAL: Noteworthy in the news: A new honor for our veterans
A commendation goes out today to state Rep. Clyde Kersey, a Terre Haute Democrat who led the charge this week in the Indiana House of Representatives to pay tribute to the nation’s Purple Heart recipients.
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EDITORIAL: Shifting view on marriage
One could argue, as many have, that Sen. Joe Donnelly did the right thing last week when he dropped his support of government-sanctioned opposition to same-sex marriage. It wasn’t a radical move, considering most Democrats have now made the switch.
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MAX JONES: The American Newspaper: Changing? Yes. Dying? No way!
It happened again this past January when all those “looking at the year ahead” stories started popping up on Internet “news” websites and broadcast “news” programs. Under a provocative headline reading something like “Five industries/businesses doomed to tank in the coming year,” there it was, a prediction based on an unsubstantiated “expert” analysis that the newspaper industry will continue in 2013 to suffer its slide into oblivion.
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EDITORIAL: A chance to change our bad cultural habits
The sight of diligent, eager young people dragging trash out of the Wabash River wetlands is both inspiring and sad.
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EDITORIAL: Maintaining high standards
Standards
It’s the raging buzzword in education circles these days. Everyone insists that higher standards must be met. Anything less is, doggone it, unacceptable. -
Noteworthy in the news
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EDITORIAL: Crack down on dumpers
There is a reason it’s called “illegal” dumping. It’s against the law. And there is a very good reason illegal dumping is against the law.
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Season of Day 2s arrives
Calendars in Cincinnati contain one extra holiday — Opening Day, traditionally the first Monday in April.
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Cleaning up voter rolls
Looking for Love? Take the Prague Metro
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IWitness Look at Moore, OK Tornado
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Robert Pattinson Moves Out
