For more than 20 years, periodically, this newspaper has called for the Indiana Legislature to make the superintendent of public instruction an appointed position rather than an elected one. It never made sense to us that Indiana might end up with competing educational agendas, should the governor and the superintendent be of opposition political parties. It actually happened when Republican Suellen Reed held the post under Democrat Govs. Evan Bayh and Frank O'Bannon, and to her credit, she made it work. But at the time, education in Indiana was not the lightening rod of disagreement it is today.
Also, most governors prefer to have their own education advisers on staff, thus giving the state two education chiefs, both paid by the taxpayers.
But for most of these past years, we've been whistling in the wind. No one in the legislature or state government was really very interested in doing the heavy lifting of gathering support for such a change. A lot of officials told us it was good idea, among them Gov. Mitch Daniels, but no one really wanted to champion the cause.
But today we would bet, some of them — we're talking Republicans this time — are wishing they had paid more attention to our oft-written position.
We are talking about the election of Democrat Glenda Ritz as the state's next Superintendent of Public Instruction, defeating incumbent Republican Supt. Tony Bennett.
Daniels and Bennett, with the help of Republican lawmakers, have spent four years pushing through school reforms such as creating the country's largest voucher program, tying teachers' pay to student performance, limiting teacher union contract negotiations to wages and benefits, grading schools on a A-F scale, and expanding charter schools.
Some of these reforms did not sit well with Ritz and Indiana teachers, and surely played a major part in helping her defeat the outspoken Bennett.
But because the reforms were passed into law by the legislature, and because many of the same lawmakers will be back in Indianapolis come January, there's not much Ritz can do to waylay those reforms. As school chief, she will be responsible with implementing some of the same reforms she opposed. It should be a terribly entertaining year in Indianapolis when Gov.-elect Mike Pence and Ritz lock horns.
In the meantime, we agree with Indiana House Speaker Brian Bosma who said it is too late for now to consider making the superintendent's position appointive — it just wouldn't look right. But allow us to be the first to suggest that in 2016 or 2020, someone seriously propose to make this an appointed position.