This is a photo of my lovely mother.  She rocks.  One day my future wife’s picture will be up here as well.  Spangle is there because I couldn’t photo shop him out of the picture. Happy Mother’s Day!

The political gossip and rumor mill was full blast this week, as well as some inside information on key events.  So here we go.

Indianapolis Colts owner Jim Irsay can’t seem to figure out why he’s been getting a lot of bad PR lately.  In a 90-minute meeting with city officials this past week, Irsay complained about the bad publicity the Colts having been getting regarding the Capital Improvement Board shortfall and did not think the Colts deserve the way they have been treated in the media.  He also complained no one was listening to their side of the story and the teams reputation was being dragged through the mud.  Despite that, Irsay is still firm in his belief that a deal is a deal and the Cotls have no intention of doing any renegotiating.

As reported elsewhere in the blogosphere, Indianapolis Mayor Greg Ballard did meet with key members of the business community regarding the CIB shortfall.  The meetings were described as “informational and productive.”  I would be very skeptical of what you may have read elsewhere, I have spoken to several individuals involved in the meeting and other reported accounts could not be further from reality.

Indiana House Democrats are rethinking their proposed cap on charter schools.  They are researching whether a cap on charters would result in a loss of federal education stimulus dollars.  In the budget that failed to pass, there was a limit on new charter schools to one school per school district.  Superintendent of Public Instruction Tony Bennett sent lawmakers a letter in the last days of session making that argument.  A decision could come in a few weeks as to whether a cap on charters will stay in the budget.

In the land of pure gossip, rumor and political innuendo here are some things to munch on…

• Some rank and file Marion County Libertarians are privately expressing disappointment at City-County Councilor Ed Coleman because he has not introduced an ordinance or proposal at any CCC meeting since changing parties.

• Some rank and file Marion County Democrats are privately expressing concern that if Melina Kennedy becomes the nominee for Mayor, Republicans will use her involvement in the negotiations involving the Colts/CIB Stadium deal as a weapon.

• Speaking of Democrats running for Mayor, Dr. Woody Myers has reportedly hired an attorney to deal with possible residency issues should he run for the job.  Under city code, there is a five-year residency requirement to serve as Mayor and there has always been a question as to whether Myers could meet that standard.

• If the vote for the replacement for State Senator Teresa Lubbers were held today, there would be no clear winner.  By last count CCC member Ryan Vaughn is ahead in votes, but there are enough uncommitted precinct committeemen to change the outcome.  Which by the way, a vote would not occur until after the special session.

• There is talk that Marion County Auditor Billie Breaux may not seek another term as County Auditor.  Named as a possible replacement, City-County Councilor Jackie Nytes.

• If Marion County Assessor Greg Bowes decides to run for County Prosecutor, he may have an uphill primary battle.  I’m still hearing former Indiana AG candidate and US Attorney nominee  Linda Pence is the personal favorite of Marion County Democratic Chairman Ed Treacy.  And while Pence’s office has told me she is not a candidate for the job, they have never said she wasn’t going to run.

• Hamilton County Republican Chairman Charlie White could face a challenger in his quest to run for Indiana Secretary of State.  The contender, State Represenative Jackie Warloski.

Enjoy your weekend.

As you probably read Thursday, the blog post was not written by Indiana Barrister, but Indianapolis Public School Board member Kelly Bentley.   The response was very good.  I plan to ask for submissions from other news and policy makers and hopefully get something up here once a week or bi-weekly.

If you think you have something worth reading, you are free to submit.  Here a couple guidelines.

1. Try to keep it to 500 words.
2. We don’t edit for content, but for style and clarity.
3. If all you’re going to do is yell socialism, how you hate Mitch, or make it some total personal attack on someone save it for someone who cares.
4. Thought provoking and entertaining are always clear winners.
5. Use the “SUBMIT A STORY” link for your submission.

Indiana Barrister is tied up today, so we asked for a guest editorial from IPS School Board member Kelly Bentley.  The piece was not edited and appears just as she wrote it.

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Abdul is experimenting with guest editorials for his blog and asked me to write one. To say I was a bit taken aback by the offer would be an understatement. After all, I am an IPS School Board member and Abdul has never hidden his distain for public education and IPS specifically. I also don’t have much experience writing blogs. Recently I started sharing random thoughts and frustrations over on Facebook which lead to a couple of postings on other blogs. Facebook is safe because I know all the people–it’s like talking to yourself and occasionally getting an answer.

Everyone knows by now that 66% of schools in Indiana ranked in the bottom two performance categories under Indiana’s AYP. Many are calling for more parent choice and more charter schools. I’m not sure if more choice alone is the answer because all things being equal charter schools perform about the same as public schools. But no one can deny that the structure of public education in Indianapolis isn’t working–not for students, not for families, not for neighborhoods and communities, and not for professional educators. And the one thing charter schools have that traditional public schools don’t have is autonomy and freedom from burdensome regulation—something very appealing to many creative and innovative educators and parents.

Earlier this week, Matt Tully from the Indianapolis Star interviewed David Harris from the Mind Trust about the challenges facing public education and IPS specifically (“School reformer’s ideas are a start” Indianapolis Star 5/6/09). Harris blames teacher union contracts that reward seniority for the recent layoff of 300 teachers in IPS. I agree union contacts can be a barrier to education reform but an equally problematic barrier is weak school leadership and a lack of accountability.

Many young, energetic, gifted, passionate teachers were among those teachers who may be laid off. At the same time, only 6-8 teachers in IPS were fired for ineffective teaching. Simply put, schools in IPS losing gifted educators are losing them because principals in other schools in IPS didn’t do their job. And even more worrisome is how the loss of these teachers impacts the integrity of some of the most innovative schools in Indianapolis–School 91 Montessori, the International Baccalaureate at CFI, The Sidener Gifted Academy, the Key Learning Community, and Spanish Immersion at School #74 all provide an exceptional education to a diverse group of students in IPS and keep families from moving out of the city. Indianapolis cannot afford to lose any of the schools.

On the issue of who should run the schools in Indianapolis, I found myself agreeing with much of what Harris had to say. Economically, Indianapolis is one city and we should have one school system run by one elected official, and the most appropriate official occupies the 25th floor of the City/County Building. The office of the Mayor of Indianapolis (the office, not any particular occupant) might be better able to address the elusive problem of accountability, autonomy and delivering results. Moreover, Mayors understand neighborhoods and the importance of being responsive to constituents. And since the Mayor’s office has chartering authority, charter schools could then be part of the overall plan for education in Indianapolis rather than competitors.

Instead of having eleven school systems in our city–with eleven very expensive bureaucracies, eleven transportation departments, eleven food service operations–maybe it’s time to have one system of autonomous schools to provide exceptional educational choices for all families in Indianapolis, run by one elected official. The great schools and programs in IPS and other school districts would continue to be great schools and programs, and the not so great schools and programs…well; maybe we can finally do something about those.

Parents at nearly a dozen Indianapolis Public Schools may actually get to exercise their school choice option.  According to the Indiana State Department of Education, 10 IPS schools are on their fourth year of academic probation, which means under state law, parents can transfer their kids to another school in the district.  In addition,  the state can send in teams to assist failing schools in helping them approve and if necessary, a complete state take-over.

The list of IPS schools entering their fourth year of probation are listed below…

• Arlington Community High School
• Broad Ripple High School
• Emmerich Manual High School
• Northwest High School
• Forest Manor Middle School
• Emma Donnan Middle School
• Booth Tarkington School 92
• Willard J Gambold Middle School
• Thomas Carr Howe Comm High School
• George Washington Community

Ironically, House Democratic lawmakers inserted language into the last budget bill that would have capped charter schools to one per district, arguing there are too many charter schools in IPS and in Gary.  Looking at some of the results from the DOE, there apparently aren’t enough.

The Capital Improvement Board is defending raises for some of its employees.  Under normal circumstances the raises make sense, but unfortunately, these aren’t normal times.  The raises pretty much amount to cost of living and were done last year, but still perception eventually becomes reality.  Of course it would have been nice for my Democratic friends to have had the same outrage when the previous administration gave away millions of dollars in revenue that could have been used to avoid the shortfall in the first place.

Got a busy next couple of days, so I will make this quick.   If you ever decide to become a national spokesperson against gay marriage, make sure there are no half-naked pictures of you running around on the Internet.  Carrie Prejean, Miss California, probably wishes she had.

I spoke with Senator Luke Kenley today on the new budget numbers.  Here are his thoughts…

Sen. Luke Kenley

In my never ending effort to help alleviate the problems of this city and state, I’ve come up with another idea to help solve the Capital Improvement Board’s funding crisis.  It not only solves the funding shortfall, but it also takes care of getting out-state Indiana to buy into the solution.

I started with City-County Councilor Joanne Sanders idea that revenue generated from downtown sales and income tax be used to the cover the C.I.B.’s costs.  The C.I.B. needs about $47 million to operate, and downtown generates about $200 million in sales and income tax revenue.  Sanders’ idea, which I oddly enough agree with, includes taking that $47 million off the top and using it to cover the C.I.B.’s costs and everything else going back to the state.

Now for those out-state lawmakers who don’t like the idea and think the money generated in Marion County belongs to their constituents, I would cut this deal.  Temporarily reduce the amount of state assistance Marion County gets and funnel that money back into outlands.  However, as the J.W. Marriott comes on-line as well as anything that develops in the old Market Square Arena site and other downtown properties, those sales and income taxes will stay in Indianapolis and benefit the entire county.

I would not raise taxes on hotels or car rentals, but I would raise taxes on Colts, Pacers and Indians games to the tune of 25-percent.  Hey, the people who use the facility should have some skin in the game even if their own teams won’t.

Think of this as a modified TIF district.   The money generated downtown will stay there, however Marion County agrees to forgo a certain amount of state revenue for the time being.  The plan also encourages the city to develop downtown, rapidly and quickly, which can only mean more jobs and more revenue.

What is not to like about this plan?  I doesn’t require broad based tax increases, it’s a Marion County solution and out-state isn’t out of a dime.

Where do I sign up to run for public office?