Early in the evening, Republican Reid Dallas set the tone for what would be a contentious forum. The candidate for state Senate, District 40, would continually highlight the difference between himself and his opponent, Democrat Mark Stoops, by calling on figures and statistics released by the government analyzing the results of educational reforms in the state.
“Really? That’s what you’re going to do? How are documents on Interstate 69 going to help or advance our county,” Dallas said during his opening statement, referring to a promise to dig through I-69 documents Stoops made after announcing his candidacy.
Meanwhile, Stoops would argue using analysis to look forward.
“When we put money into education, we save money in many other areas,” Stoops said later in the evening, responding to a question that asked how state government could improve public education while reducing the money appropriated for it.
Both men came prepared.
In response to the first of seven questions, the first of three regarding the state of public education in Indiana, Dallas rattled off most of the statistics provided by the Indiana Department of Education’s fact sheet for the 2010-11 school year before answering.
The question asked what the candidates would do to reduce the number of high school dropouts and encourage students to pursue higher education.
Dallas allied himself with Republican gubernatorial candidate Mike Pence, saying that he supports Pence’s suggestion that the number of students participating in Jobs for American Graduates should be doubled. He closed with less concrete solutions. He would respect and support teachers, but he knew what happened at home mattered, too, especially for the roughly 6%, 4,600 students, in the class of 2011 who dropped out.
“We hold our teachers accountable, so why don’t we hold parents accountable, as well,” Dallas asked.
Stoops joked that there would not be much of a debate if he and Dallas agreed on everything, noting that he also supports the JAG program before getting into the meat of his answer. Stoops said $600 million had been cut from the state’s K-12 budget in the last couple of years.
“That means there are a lot of children that are falling through the cracks. The teacher just cannot handle that many students,” Stoops said.
Stoops said local high schools (Edgewood High School, Bloomington South High School, and Bloomington North High School) were having great success with the graduation coach initiative. He would try to make it statewide.
Question two asked candidates what the government could do to improve public education with a shrinking budget.
Stoops responded that the government must restore K-12 funding. He argued that, in doing so, the state would save itself money in social services, in the judicial system, and would foster business creation by producing entrepreneurs.
He said Indiana legislators are privatizing education. New legislation has led to an assessment system that grades schools like students. If they receive an F too many times in a row, a private corporation is able to take over the school. Stoops said the grade was on a curve, so automatically one-third of schools would fail every year. These corporations would then be able to buy the serially failing schools, whether just a building or the whole corporation, for $1.
He added that the state was creating a monopoly to train teachers.
“So this company would receive money from the state. It would receive money from people who want to be teachers. All they have to do is pass this test that’s created by the company and they will become teachers,” he said.
The result, Stoops said, would be an inexperienced, non-unionized, and cheap pool of teachers in the workforce.
Dallas began his response to the same question by telling Stoops his $600 million figure was wrong. According to a report in 2009, the figure was actually $300 million.
Both were wrong. The figure was $479 million, according to state budget documents available online.
Dallas noted that K-12 education funding is the single largest component of the state budget. He said test scores indicated that state education reforms were working as the 2011 graduating class achieved the highest passing rate for advanced placement tests in the state’s history.
“I think our education is going well in Indiana. We should be proud of it, we should be talking about it,” Dallas said.
Candidates were asked if it was a mistake to move funding of public education away from property tax revenue and into the general fund.
“The true measure of that right now is how we’re doing here in Indiana versus America as a whole. During the last four years, America’s debt has doubled. Half of our citizens pay no taxes. Half of America receives some form of government benefit. One-hundred million people are on welfare and now we face the takeover of our health care system, which doesn’t even begin to pay for itself,” Dallas began, hitting on a number of Republican talking points before contrasting the statement with Indiana’s successes.
Meanwhile, he said, Indiana maintains a AAA credit rating, a healthy rainy day fund, has reduced its debt by 42%, balanced its budget, and had great success in educational reforms.
“Here in Indiana, we’ve chosen to follow the fundamental principles of freedom and liberty which built our nation – limited government, trust in our people to choose whether they should belong to a union, low taxes, and fiscal restraint,” Dallas closed.
Stoops argued, however, that changing the funding wrested control of school corporations away from local government and gave it to state government.
“While it’s nice to have public schools off of our property taxes, it’s also taking away a lot of control,” Stoops said, referring to the grading system recently put into place that could lead the state to take over failing schools, as well as the recent decision to allow tax money to pay for vouchers to private schools, which he claimed could effectively cut the public education budget $500 million dollars.
He said placing the K-12 budget in the hands of the state was unstable.
“When Mitch Daniels increased the sales tax from 5% to 7%, he said that money would go to schools. Of course, he was advised when a recession comes that money will disappear. And it did,” Stoops said.
Responding to the question, if Indiana does not participate in the health care exchange, what will it do to help people with pre-existing conditions, Stoops said the state of Indiana has a dismal record on Medicaid coverage.
“What happens in these are people who go to the emergency room for coverage. They cost the state of Indiana $1 billion dollars a year,” he said.
Stoops said the Affordable Care Act, also known as Obamacare, will expand Medicaid to cover 100% for the first few years, then 90% after that. He said the act would save $100 billion a year – that giving it up would cost America $100 billion a year.
He proposed preventive care and health care coaches as a key element in reducing overall health care expenses for the state.
“I’m going to be honest. This took me a day and a half to find the answer, folks. This is how bad this legislation is. Of course, they didn’t read it before they passed it. I had to call my representatives, I spoke with their staff, I spoke with multiple other people to find out,” Dallas said.
The Republican candidate said both parties agreed when a bill was proposed that would bring similar legislation to Indiana – they rejected it.
“I have a question as to why they would not support the president’s legislation at the state level,” Dallas said of the Democrats in Indiana’s state legislature.
Originally published in Ellettsville Journal, 2012. Republished here for archival and portfolio purposes.