The look on then Indiana Superintendent of Public Instruction Tony Bennett’s face was one of extreme incredulity — the half-smile, half-weepy look some people get when they don’t believe what their accountant is saying about their taxes or what their teenager is saying about damage to the family car.
Only he was listening to the editorial page staff of the Chronicle-Tribune telling him reporters had been invited to a fundraiser for him in Marion that evening.
He stared at one of his young aides like the employee was a rookie quarterback who had just thrown an interception inside the opponent’s 5-yardline. Simultaneously, he told us he was looking forward to seeing us that night.
We should have known then how his career in public service would end.
People abandon the truth at the drop of the hat these days, as if there is nothing to be gained by truth. This is a real problem with people in public office.
Bennett resigned as Florida Education Commissioner Thursday morning, three days after news broke alleging that he changed the grade of a campaign donor’s charter school while Indiana’s education chief.
“It’s not fair to the children of Florida that I continue as commissioner and deal with the distraction,” Bennett said during a press conference in Tallahassee. “I end my tenure with my head held high.”
It was March 2012 when he last visited the Chronicle-Tribune newsroom. Bennett was just getting his re-election campaign underway. He hadn’t announced he was running yet, but he was meeting with local Republicans and school officials to get started. He had stopped on his way at the Hostess House where he met with, among others, then Marion Superintendent Steve Edwards.
Edwards had been critical of Bennett’s IREAD-3 perhaps as forcing too many kids to perform well too early and causing them to leave school due to failure. When asked by the newspaper that night if he would endorse Bennett, Edwards was concise. “That’s what we’re doing here,” he said.
We now have to wonder what would have happened to Marion Community Schools if he had said no or not shown.
Four of seven MCS facilities received “F” designations for the 2012 year under the Indiana Department of Education’s A-F grading system. The highest grade in the district was a “C,” achieved by both Marion High School, holding steady from the previous year, and Riverview Elementary School, declining from an “A.”
Don’t get us wrong, we think Indiana’s public education system improved under Bennett and we specifically think that Marion schools improved tremendously under the pressure to succeed delivered to the corporation by Bennett and Edwards in tandem. Even for those who no longer trust the state accountability grades, the district improved in every measureable way, from ISTEP scores to graduation rates.
But, whether it is Bennett or former Gov. Mitch Daniels, who appointed the board that went on to hire him as president at Purdue University, we are again disappointed by a politician who said the right things but in the end would not walk the walk in his own public behavior.