Pence, Daniels say they stand by Bennett's education changes

Outgoing Gov. Mitch Daniels and his newly-elected replacement, Mike Pence, both said they stand by the policies pushed by State Superintendent of Public Instruction Tony Bennett, even though he was defeated by Democrat Glenda Ritz on Tuesday.

Though teachers' unions disagreed, Pence said voters delivered a "strong affirmation of the progress on education reform in this state" by keeping GOP legislative majorities.

"I want to be very clear: I support the policies and the progress that we've made on education," said Pence, a Republican who will take office in January. "We will support that in the next four years and we will seek more ways to build on that that really put kids first and continue to keep Indiana in the forefront of the kind of education reforms that focus on results."

Their comments came during a Wednesday morning news conference where Pence outlined plans for his transition team and Daniels said he'd do all he can to help. Pence is preparing to take over the reins while his party enjoys a supermajority in both the Indiana House, with 69 out of 100 seats, and state Senate, with 37 out of 50 seats.

The two began to outline strategies to keep Ritz from reversing policies she campaigned against, including the state's private school vouchers, tightened controls on teachers' collective bargaining rights and a merit pay system that is tied to students' test scores.

Daniels noted the Indiana Board of Education's 10 members are appointed by the governor, and said it would be a firewall against major policy changes.

"The consensus and the momentum for reform and change in Indiana is rock solid. Not one word of those laws is going to be changed unless it's extended further in the direction of reform," Daniels said.

"There's a board of education I appointed and the new superintendent reports to. Every one of them is pro-reform. We've got a very idealistic, pro-reform administration coming in."

Neither would rule out the possibility of abolishing the state superintendent of public instruction's position as an elected official and instead having the governor select the head of the Indiana Department of Education.

Pence pointed to the governor's desk and said on education issues, he's "pretty sure the buck stops right over there."

Nate Schnellenberger, president of the Indiana State Teachers Association, said Republicans will ignore Ritz at their own peril.

"I would remind (Pence) that she pulled more votes than he did," Schnellenberger said. "If he's going to disrespect the position that she's in and disrespect her, then educators will turn out and do the same thing to him in four years that they did to Tony Bennett yesterday."

He said Pence and Daniels are mistaken if they believe the education reforms championed by Bennett and also Daniels and Pence are popular among Hoosier voters.

"How did she carry counties that Democratic candidates have never carried before? It absolutely is a widespread revolution of people saying, 'Let's be reasonable,'" Schnellenberger said. "If they didn't understand that message, it's just unfortunate."

Indiana House Speaker Brian Bosma, R-Indianapolis, said turning the state superintendent's position into an appointed one rather than an elected office is an idea he has long supported, but it is trickier now.

Doing away with the office just months after Democrat Ritz won it by popular vote could look like an overreach by a House and Senate where the GOP hold supermajorities.

Bosma said the lesson to learn from Bennett's downfall is that when communicating new initiatives, "language and tone matter."