Chamber undermines public schools

To the editor:
Jack Ronald doesn’t always speak for me when it comes to teaching and public education, but this time he hit the nail on the head.
Chambers of Commerce all over the country have been lobbying and working diligently to undermine public schools for the last ten to twenty years, and, unfortunately their efforts in Indiana have been working. Indiana has gladly given public funds to private and public charter schools even though there has been little solid evidence that they work better than public schools.
Russ Pulliam of the Indystar makes a startling admission: “Charter schools in Indiana are mostly low-performing schools. Instead of “saving poor children from failing public schools,” most charters are low-performing.  Today, Indiana has one of the largest voucher programs in the nation. More than half the charters, he added, are getting D or F. Even when you standardize the results for at risk factors, charters are failing at twice the rate of traditional public schools.”
Although he had some positive things to say about charter schools, he believes that this issue needs to be revisited. So do I.
Why am I so concerned? As a proud public school teacher in Jay County, I have been watching my profession and all it entails change dramatically over the last few years and not for the best.
The legislature backed by the Indiana Chamber of Commerce first went after the unions because ‘public schools were failing’ according to them. That was a ruse used to stop paying teachers a good salary.
Consequently the value of a teaching career went down and these soon-to-be new teachers discovered what had been lost by the take down of the union in regards to pay and benefits.  
Giving teachers “merit pay” is another farce created by the Indiana Chamber of Commerce and the Republican Party, which sounds good, but in actuality is unrealistic.
The other reason I am concerned about public schools is that I work with college students at IUPUI who are thinking about teaching as their career. They see the lowering of salaries and the disgraceful way the teaching profession has been treated since the Indiana Chamber of Commerce started their war on public schools.
They are young and enthusiastic about teaching until they begin service-learning requirements in the schools and listen to the teachers telling them “to seek another path” as Mr. Ronald shared.
Now the Indiana Chamber of Commerce implies that anyone can teach and you don’t need a teacher’s license to become a public school teacher any more. They don’t think you need to be taught skills like the best way students take in information, what the brain has to do with learning, how to have good classroom management, or how to use positive discipline to effect learning.
 Mr. Brinegar stated that teachers should have professional development to learn some of these skills; however, the truth is the state no longer provides professional development or even gives schools money to provide it.
They want teachers to teach all day and then do mediocre staff development after school when they are exhausted and still have to prepare for the next day. Few of these things I’ve mentioned in this letter make the teaching profession appealing to college students who want to teach and those who are already in the field.  
I think there are many positive, progressive ways to improve education and encourage new people to want to teach.  Maybe they should look to the teachers in the schools for information and suggestions to make that happen.
Shirley Franck
Retired Jay County Teacher
Redkey