The lack of respect for voters is stunning.
That’s the main point we’d make about an Indiana State Senate committee’s vote Monday to approve a bill that would no longer make the state schools superintendent the chairman of the Indiana State Board of Education.
A House committee passed a similar bill last week.
The net effect is that Superintendent Glenda Ritz, a Democrat, would no longer be the chairman of the board. That would mean the Republicans, who have super majorities in the House and the Senate, would be able to elect the chairman next year.
That would be an arrogant abuse of power.
Ritz, as many Hoosiers will recall, was elected in 2012 in what was clearly a denunciation of the direction then-Superintendent Tony Bennett was taking the state in education on behalf of his Republican colleagues. Republicans extended their margins in the House and Senate that year, and Mike Pence won the governor’s office.
Many Hoosiers might also recall that Ritz collected 52.8 percent of the vote — 1,332,755 votes in all. Pence was backed by only 49.5 percent of Hoosiers — 1,200,016 votes in all.
Legislators want to do now what they couldn’t do in the election of 2012, which is make sure Glenda Ritz doesn’t have a voice in the direction of education in Indiana.
Maybe it’s not so stunning. Rather, it’s politics as usual.
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