By Dave Stafford, Herald Bulletin Staff Writer
dave.stafford@heraldbulletin.com
ANDERSON, Ind. - Indiana's education chief acknowledged tough times ahead for the state's schools during a speech on Tuesday, but also said fundamental changes that will be painful could help make public schools more competitive.
"We have to make ourselves uncomfortable in order to make our kids productive," Superintendent of Public Instruction Tony Bennett said during a speech to the Anderson Rotary Club at the Flagship Enterprise Center.
"We're changing the face of education," Bennett said, by taking a nonpartisan approach and by using the current sour state budget revenue forecast as an opportunity to improve schools.
Indiana's K-12 public school funding will be cut by about $300 million in the current year because of the financial shortfall. On Friday, the state Board of Education will unveil a "citizen's checklist" of areas where schools can cut to minimize the number of teachers whose jobs will be lost.
In an interview after his speech, Bennett said school systems should go line-by-line through budgets to identify where cuts can be made before any classroom jobs are eliminated.
"Our belief is we should be able to address the current budget issues without affecting teachers," Bennett said, noting that might mean school corporations will have to look at "sacred cows" that are built into budgets.
"We have to reset our budgets for education," he said. Instead of proceeding from a view that more money is needed for schools, he said, "now we're going to be saying, 'how do we get the most education for our money?'"
Indiana's top education official, Bennett noted key benchmarks that he said will determine the success of schools: "Can kids read, can kids perform mathematics and are we going to offer multiple pathways for those kids to succeed."
Bennett said his views on education reform mirror those of President Barack Obama and his Education Secretary, Arne Duncan. Bennett said he agreed with the federal Race to the Top initiative, which will reward states with federal grants for stressing accountability, reform and education.
"Forget political beliefs, who said it and what party it comes from," said Bennett, who acknowledged that as a conservative Republican, he has been chided by members of his party for supporting policies of the Democratic administration. If proposed reforms are good for students, he said, "Say they're right and they need to be applauded."
Bennett said school reforms that he is pursuing are centered on three foundations: competition, freedom and accountability.
"Our kids are in the competition of a lifetime," he said, "in an educational arms race" with students around the globe. He noted that students in other nations attend school longer than in the U.S., which could be part of the reason they outperform American students.
"We should be for a longer school day, a longer school year," Bennett said.
Bennett several times referred to new Anderson Community Schools Superintendent Felix Chow, who was in the audience Tuesday. Bennett urged the community to support Chow.
"If I expect Felix Chow to make Anderson Community Schools competitive for the children of Anderson, I need to give him freedom" to oversee the schools as the community deems best.
Chow said after Bennett's speech, "I believe the direction he set is absolutely correct."
Adults, he said, have to be willing to embrace school reform that puts students' needs for their future first. He noted that as a teenager, he was taught higher mathematics on a slide rule. As a youngster, he learned on an abacus.
"A slide rule? (Students today) would look at you and say, 'What are you talking about?'" Chow said. "We have to ask adults to start thinking and acting in a different manner than when we grew up."