An Indiana elementary school teacher recently emailed State Board of Education members essays from her students. These essays excoriate Governor Mike Pence (R) and glorify State Superintendent of Public Instruction Glenda Ritz (D). However, a quick read of these “essays” shows that most of the letters say the same things, with the same phrases and statistics. These kids were coached, and a teacher is using our children to further her political ideology.
Mary Jane Dye works at Wilbur Wright Elementary School in New Castle, Indiana, where she teaches fifth and sixth grade students. Indiana has two major education issues happening. There is the controversy surrounding the ISTEP (Indiana Statewide Testing for Educational Progress,) taken by third through eighth graders and used to measure accountability and assign a letter grade for the schools, which was lengthened from 6 to 12 hours this year. This increase met stiff resistance from Gov. Pence and others. Pence hired two consultants to help reduce the test to nine hours, which passed the Indiana legislature and was signed into law.
On top of this, a power struggle emerged between Ritz and Pence. Republicans, who dominate the House and Senate, moved to strip power from Ritz (who has been accused of being incapable of handling the duties of Superintendent) and limit her ability to work independently. Supporters of Ritz say that she was elected to the position by the voters, and Pence and Republicans have no right to remove her powers. They call it pure partisan politics.
Teachers and unions have rallied to Ritz’ side. In February, the hashtag #RallyForRitz and #
But no one expected a teacher to bring students into the mix. Enter Dye, and her email to the State Board of Education. Her students, she claims — fifth and sixth graders mind you, which means 11 year olds — wrote these essays on the power struggle between Gov. Pence and Ritz without any coaching:
“I am forwarding essays my students wrote about their educational experience and thoughts regarding reform in Indiana. These were not coached. … students did research in the computer lab and at home and wrote the essays in class,” Dye wrote in her email.
Before we believe that, we should look at the emails in question.
As both WIBC reporter Ray Steele and Indy Star opinion editor Tim Swarens found, the kid’s essays were remarkably similar, commenting on how the state should not use ISTEP to determine teacher salaries and how wrong Gov. Pence is to try and take Ritz’ power:
“You are stripping Glenda Ritz of her power, and she was elected … She was elected with over 1.3 million votes,” one letter from a 5th grade student read. Several letters used the 1.3 million vote number, while other students argued against the growth formula the state uses to score ISTEP, which is the main component in the A-to-F grades assigned to schools.
Other essays mentioned specific percentages of growth on the ISTEP test and how it affects teacher compensation. Said another way, these students, acting independently and “without coaching,” came up with the same analogies, using the same statistics, in the same methodology.
Mirabile dictu! It must be wonderful to have such bright students all on the same wavelength, and so many of whom know how many votes the Superintendent of Public Instruction got in her election … in 2012 … when they were eight. As Swarens notes:
These children — 10- and 11-year-olds, mind you — have delved into the intricacies of Statehouse politics, the complexities of ISTEP testing and the injustice of holding teachers accountable for students’ work, and arrived, unanimously, at this conclusion: Top vote-getter Glenda Ritz has been under unfair assault from “Dictator Pence.”
Dictator Pence? Exactly what an 11 year-old says. All the time.
Dye and New Castle Schools Superintendent Steve Fisher are staying silent on the matter. To date, they have not responded to requests for more information from The Indy Star, WIBC nor EAG News, which focuses on educational issues.
Children in America are not used as propaganda, nor as pawns. A battle between Pence and Ritz, however nasty, should not, and must not, involve kids.
Yet, far too often, progressives put their children on the front lines of their battles, valuing the cause over the child. In 2011, a mother forced her son to ask then presidential candidate, former Texas Governor Rick Perry, about creationism and why he, “didn’t believe in science.”
At an Occupy Wall Street rally in Portland, Oregon, a mother laid her four year-old daughter on train tracks to help shut down the Port of Portland. She said it would be fine, because she believed in humanity and that, “I don’t think that any person driving a train is going to plow through a bunch of peaceful people with children.”
When adults use their children as shields, props or weapons, that belief in humanity lessens. Now, a teacher who is supposed to be trusted with the welfare of our children is using them for political purposes; to make her job easier, and wholly unaccountable to the people who pay her salary.
According to the New Castle school district code of ethics, “Professional employees are expected to “refrain from using their position or public property, or permitting another person to use an employee’s position or public property, for partisan political or sectarian religious purposes.”
These 11 year-old students were not just used for political purposes, they were abused for political purposes. No one believes these kids weren’t coached, or, more to the point, told what to write. It cannot be tolerated.