13 WTHRIndiana Dept. of Education: Memo from Bennett was forgery
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Dr. Tony BennettIndianapolis - The Indiana Department of Education says someone forged a memo that used its letterhead and purported to be from state superintendent Tony Bennett.
The DOE calls the "response to teachers' protests" a falsified memo, and says that Dr. Bennett did not write it. It is the latest development in a contentious battle over education reform in Indiana.
The memo reads, "Any plan aiming to dramatically improve our system of schools must be negotiated with input from teachers, administrators, superintendents, parents, union leaders and politicians from both sides of the aisle."
The memo also mentions the "real value of collective bargaining agreements between school corporations and unions."
The falsified memo was sent from a gmail account, and asked administrators to distribute it to all teachers. The DOE says all of its official communications come from email addresses ending in doe.in.gov.
The DOE says it's working to identify who sent the memo. If the person is caught, they could face a Class A misdemeanor since it's illegal to impersonate a public official.
The official DOE went on to say, "While the falsified memo almost entirely misrepresented IDOE's position, it did get one thing right when it said, 'Indiana's educators deserve respect and gratitude for dedicating their lives to preparing children for success.' Unfortunately, these deceitful attempts to undermine IDOE do nothing to honor those teachers who work so hard on behalf of Indiana's students every day."
House Democrats, who have been boycotting the Indiana Statehouse for four weeks, say one of the issues that prompted them to flee the state is education reform. They are protesting proposals that would channel tax dollars towards private schools and other related issues.
"This is just one more example of the lengths to which individuals to whom the truth is not obstacle will go in their attempts to defend the status quo. It is extremely disappointing that these individuals have resorted to scare tactics like this one during this year's legislative session," said the DOE.
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GIndiana
It appears that Bennett has learned well from the Gov. Check Daniels' remarks at CPAC. His intention is to allow vouchers which would use public money intended for public schools in private schools. School employees are not defending the status quo, but neither are they willing to accept the Governor's agenda as an improvement. Mitch and his IDOE puppet have conspired to bash schools at every opportunity in order to advance their destructive agenda. They have set standards that are not attainable and them denegrated schools for not making them. How many times have they changed the test, test dates, cut scores and other items? Schools are trying to hit a moving target. IDOE needs to identify the specific schools that are not meeting the standards and make changes in those that would make a difference. Mitch wants to lower the cost of educating our youth more than he is interested in reform and improvement. The worst part is that the Republican controlled legislature is afraid to defy his demands. My Senator and Representative has heard from me repeatedly. Hopefully the Democrats can continue to block the destructive Daniels' education agenda.
How obvious... he'd never say to get input except from him.