So Much for Ritz and the Revolution
You may not be aware of this, but Glenda Ritz announced her re-election bid this week and Tuesday night she lost.
At an education forum on the west side of Indianapolis, Ritz told the “pro-public education” crowd that she was going to run again for the job. And then Tuesday happened.
Although the Superintendent of Public Instruction wasn’t on the ballot, the tidal wave of GOP victories throughout Indiana basically took any hope Ritz and her supporters had a of stemming the waves of education reform and threw in the trash heap where it belonged.
Democratic Auditor candidate Mike Claytor,tied his wagon to the Glenda train, saying that as part of his watchdog duties he would protect her from the evil GOP. He went down to a 36-point defeat.
A number of Statehouse candidates who ran on a “pro-public education” platform found themselves back where they started from at the beginning of the campaign, not in public office.
Perhaps most telling was in the Terre Haute area where Republican John Ford beat Democrat Tim Skinner, who was the epitome of the anti-reform movement.
Even in the IPS school board race “Hoosiers for Public Education” (otherwise known as the Indiana State Teachers Association) spent thousands of dollars trying to defeat reform-minded candidates Mary Ann Sullivan, Lanier Echols and Kelly Bentley only to find themselves defeated.
Ritz cut the following ad trying to rally the troops, but it didn’t work.
Ritz and her allies accused Republicans of trying to destroy public education, but it didn’t work.
So if Ritz is going to go forward with re-election bid, she might want to try something that works, because it sure didn’t this time.
