'Perfect' storm for Hoosier teachers?

How strange it must be to be both a Republican and a teacher.
Plenty of people fall into that category.
By our seat-of-the-pants guess, we’d estimate that more than half the members of the Jay Classroom Teachers Association qualify.
By inclination, they’re relatively conservative. And they grew up in the Midwestern Republican stronghold of Indiana.
So how must it feel to have the leadership of your own party going after you?
Your union’s bargaining rights have been targeted. Funding for public education is likely to be cut further, either through changes in the school funding formula or by diluting support by providing vouchers to private schools that don’t have to play by the same rules.
And in many ways, you have been demonized.
Somewhere along the line, GOP leadership decided that teachers were the bad guys.
It may have started during the Reagan administration, when the report “A Nation at Risk” was issued. But while that report raised concerns, it didn’t paint things in black and white.
When past state administrations — dating back to Gov. Robert Orr — attempted to improve the quality of public education, there was a mixture of tougher standards and increased resources. That was true throughout the tenure of Superintendent of Public Instruction Suellen Reed.
Today, the landscape has changed.
Local school boards have seen much of their decision-making power diminished. The Indiana General Assembly’s majority party has bought into an ideology that minimizes the historical importance of public education. And the state’s revenue outlook is pinched.
That adds up to a perfect storm for Indiana teachers, no matter what their party affiliation. — J.R.[[In-content Ad]]