The Hoosier State GOP was unprepared and unwilling to take advantage of a historic moment. Here’s what we can learn from its mistakes.
The Hoosier State GOP was unprepared and unwilling to take advantage of a historic moment. Here’s what we can learn from its mistakes.
T he Republican education-reform movement in Indiana has suffered a defeat, and honestly, they deserved it. Even with a supermajority in both houses, they failed to pass “Education Matters” bills HB1134 and SB167. The cause of this defeat was threefold: the lackluster omnibus nature of the bills, incompetence during committee and testimonies, and the absence of even an elementary communications strategy.
The GOP has the opportunity to make education a winning issue, but we have to do our policy-making right if that hope is to manifest in reality. Thankfully, among the wreckage of these bills, there are lessons to be learned.
First and foremost, these bills seemed to lack any knowledge of either the practicality of their implementation in schools or their consequences. Second, curriculum transparency, data collection of minors, the curation of allowable topics, and parental accountability all deserve their own bills. These bills attempted to combine all four and did so poorly.
To begin, these bills required teachers to post their lesson plans publicly by June 30, a nonsensical idea. Teaching requires improvisation and constant modification. A class may take particular interest in one historical event, so a teacher may supplement a reading from National Geographic on the moon landing, whereas another class struggles with a math concept, forcing a teacher to modify the schedule. Having a detailed schedule on day one is naïve at best and impossible at worst.
A functional alternative would require teachers to post all curricular materials to the site within two weeks after teaching the material. Regarding curricular review, committees should be under the jurisdiction of the local school board. For better groups, elect better school boards.
Second, data collection of minors and the role of schools in parent-approved psychological services deserves its own bill. The specific requirements of FERPA, medical-privacy laws, and Indiana’s Constitution necessitate a very carefully written piece of legislation.
Third, restricting the slander of immutable characteristics, or as the bills called them, “divisive concepts” — originally classified as eight topics off limits in the classroom — was a core goal. The limits included banning teachers from saying that students were inherently good or bad because of their skin color, sex, national origin, or religion. The eight inherent topics teachers would be restricted from endorsing or decrying were soon neutered to three via amendments by Senator Linda Rogers (R) a month after the bill was introduced, providing countless loopholes for teachers’ political advocacy in the classroom, including allowing teachers to teach that students should feel guilty based on their immutable characteristics. Furthermore, special language in the bills maintained the teaching of historical atrocities and the current Indiana academic standards: “Nothing in this chapter may be construed so as to exclude the teaching of historical injustices committed against any sex, race, ethnicity, religion, color, national origin, or political affiliation or ideas or values that conflict with the United States Constitution or I.C. 20-30-5-7-a3.”
Finally, the method used to provide parents with curriculum accountability was bewildering. Parents who believed a teacher was violating any of the above tenets of the legislation were given the ability to file a civil suit against the teacher. No mention was made of the Department of Education, licensure penalties, or any state method for enforcing this law. It’s unclear who thought it was a good idea to clog up the civil courts of Indiana when the legislature could require the DoE to revoke a license.
And that is precisely the problem. No one thought it was a good idea. Authors of these bills simply borrowed language from other states and tried to force them into Indiana’s existing framework. At no point did authors from the Indiana House or Senate reach out to any conservative teachers, administrators, think tanks, or policy experts to craft this legislation.
After the bills’ introductions, the education committees called for public testimony. I watched these abysmal testimonies in person, as Democrat senators and representatives came prepared with question after loaded question for parent, teacher, and administrator testimonies. The Republicans sat silent, stone-faced, and inept. Not a legislator in the room showed a basic knowledge of the text right in front of them.
This should be a serious concern for the nation. If “deep red” Indiana can’t use a supermajority to provide competent education reform, defend it to the public, and pass the legislation without scrubbing it of usefulness, then how are we going to win these battles in battleground states?
Other red states have delivered the same brand of disappointment. Georgia’s speaker of the house threw out a school-choice bill because he didn’t like a political-flyer campaign. In Oklahoma, the former GOP chair suggested that no GOP candidate should be primaried for not supporting school-choice vouchers. In Utah, Governor Spencer Cox promised to veto school-choice legislation that reached his desk.
Lukewarm, inactive legislators have become standard with establishment Republicans, and our children are paying the price.
These are not issues solved at the November ballot box — we aren’t simply choosing between Republicans and Democrats. If Americans desire true education reform, the changes must be made in the primaries. It is imperative we support knowledgeable, motivated, family-focused candidates who are ready to work with local and national groups to write and pass the policies our kids deserve.
The same individuals that didn’t issue a single statement in defense or support of HB1134 and SB167 in Indiana for fear of “rocking the boat” will assuredly make the rounds for reelection this spring, summer, and fall — promising you the very things they failed to give you last term. American conservatism cannot afford the same status-quo, tepid nonsense that thoroughly embarrassed Indiana in early 2022. Don’t waste the opportunity — hold your legislators and state Republican Party to higher standards.