Interesting happenings Thursday evening, by a reported vote of 125-36, Melina Kennedy won the endorsement of the Indianapolis Fraternal Order of Police. There are at least 1600 members in the FOP. Greg Ballard won the endorsement of Spencer Moore, the father of David Moore who was killed in the line of duty. The ad is below. Make your own calls on how this impacts the Mayor’s race.
If it were me I would gladly take the endorsement of the guy whose son was killed in the line of duty over the organization that voted to defend David Bisard who allegedly killed someone and critically injured two others while driving drunk.
I’m also told that Marion County Sheriff John Layotn’s campaign paid for about 50 Sheriff’s deputies so they could vote this evening. This should make for interesting mailers, don’t you think? To be honest, I don’t know why any candidate would want the FOP’s endorsement this year.
With that said, this is the last post until Tuesday. It is anniversary weekend and the lovely Mrs. Shabazz takes precedent. After two years the traditional gifts are cotton and straw. However, somehow I think q-tips and a broom won’t quite cut it.
For those of you who still can’t get enough, here’s my appearance on Thursday’s edition of Afternoons with Amos; much fun was had by all.
If you are free around 1 p.m. today tune in to the Amos Brown show on 1310 AM or praiseindy.com. I will be participating in a “friendly” discussion with my former broadcast counterpart. Between Andre Carson’s remarks, IPS’ failing schools, satellite voting, the upcoming Mayor’s race, this should make for interesting radio, to say the least. *Erika Smith from the Indy Star and Shannon Williams from the Indianapolis Recorder will also be there, but we both know what the audience and political class will really be tuning in for. They’ve been waiting for this day for years!
Although my relationship with 75-percent of the Marion County Democratic Party is strained at best, I have always had a good relationship with 7th District Congressman Andre Carson. We almost became relatives through marriage a few years ago. And we are even disliked by personally by the same Democratic County Chairman. So while a lot of people are quick to jump on him for recent comments, I take a more measured response.
As someone who still gets paid to talk on occasion I can appreciate being somewhere, giving a speech, getting caught up in the moment and saying something you shouldn’t. Heck, that’s my daily life as a married man. However, when you do catch yourself saying something stupid, apologize and move on. I hope someone on Carson’s staff is giving him that advice.
As you are aware by now in a recent speech in Miami, Carson accused members of the tea party of wanting to treat Blacks as “second-class citizens” and want to see us “hanging from a tree”. Strong language no doubt. What is most disturbing is that earlier this year Carson called for, and I agreed, for toning down some of the rhetoric in the national dialogue. He told my colleagues at RTV 6…
“I think we have to recognize that we’re all fellow human beings, one, and that we have philosophical differences, but those differences have to be met with some kind of civility.”
He made his remarks in the wake of the shooting of Arizona Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords. Carson went on to say…
“It’s unacceptable whether you’re Democratic or Republican. We have to sit down and see how we can come together and debate and critique each other with civility, with respect and with honor.”
I expect the race card from some of Carson’s fellow Marion County Democrats because that’s all they know how to do. And it’s sad that some of them excuse the Congressman’s words by saying he’s just reflecting the thoughts of his community. I guess that means the next time a white Congressman takes the stage and refers to poor blacks on government assistance as ghetto porch monkeys on welfare, we can excuse that too as just reflecting the will of his constituents. We wouldn’t accept those comments, nor should we accept Carson’s. Hopefully, the voters will demand better from him.
The discussion is heating up once again in Marion County over the issue of satellite voting. Democrats say it increases voter participation. Republicans say it’s too expensive. Underneath it all is the question of who benefits the most, especially with the upcoming Mayor’s and City-Council races. We can have the honest debate about politics, although that’s hard to do at times when people are quick to yell racism. However despite the best wishes of satellite voting proponents, the evidence doesn’t prove that it increases voter turnout. If anything, I argue you just rearrange the deck chairs and individuals who would have voted anyway just do it earlier. Here’s a synopsis of the voter turnout taken from the Marion County Clerk’s website.
2011 Primary – 12.4 %
2010 General – 36.6 %
2010 Primary – 15.1 %
2009 Special – 11.4 %.
2008 General – 54.7 %.
2008 Primary – 36.6 %.
2007 General – 26.3 %.
2007 Primary – 6.5 %.
2006 General – 33.19 %.
2006 Primary – 13.67 %.
2004 General – 53.6 %
2004 Primary – 18.73 %.
2003 General – 26.8 %
2003 Primary – 9.9 %.
As you can see voter turnout tends to be pretty consistent, regardless. In fact looking at the 2004 and 2008 general elections, although there was a 15 percent increase in the number of registered voters (602,918 in 2004; 697,559 in 2008) there was only a 1.1 percent increase in total voter turnout and 2008 had satellite voting and Barack Obama on the ticket. And in the 2010 general election we had pseudo-satellite voting as the Clerk used off-site offices for voting. Compared to the 2006 general election, there was slightly more than a 3 percent increase in voter turnout.
Satellite voting may make it easier for people to vote, but there’s no evidence that it increases participation. It does drive up costs because you have more facilities to rent or lease for voting. So if you end up paying more, but don’t get more voter participation, it makes wonder what’s the point? Unless you want to use it as a political issue to insinuate racism exists where there is none? But we all know that would never happen.
Former Utah Governor and Ambassador to China Jon Huntsman came to Indianapolis Monday looking for support from Hoosiers. Huntsman said his goals were to get American back on track by creating jobs, tackling the debt and making the nation energy independent.
While conservative, Huntsman could be considered the most “moderate” candidate out of the current lot of candidates. I asked him if that might be a problem in a Republican primary where the candidates are all tripping over each to be considered the most conservative.
He answers that question, as well as several others below. The audio runs about seven minutes.
Huntsman was the guest of the Indiana Republican Party. Herman Cain has already made a visit and Mitt Romney is expected to be here next month.
The Indiana State Board of Education is voting today to turn over several failing Indianapolis Public Schools to private operators in an effort to improve school performance.
At the time of this posting the Board has voted to turn over control of Arlington High School to Ed Power and Emma Donnan Middle School an Manual High School to Charter Schools USA.
I’ve embedded audio from IPS Superintendent Eugene White, Superintendent of Public Instruction Dr. Tony Bennett and Richard Page of Charter Schools USA. I spoke to them during the break. Each clip is less than five minutes.
The Board of Education also voted this morning to assign letter grades to Indiana schools based on academic performance. Some critics complained the metrics used to grade schools are being replaced and that could give parents a flawed perception of their schools.
I’ll have more up later. You can watch the board hearings here.
The Indiana State Board of Education meets later this morning and will decide the fate of six failing Indianapolis Public Schools. As I told you last week, Superintendent of Public Instruction Dr. Tony Bennett has recommended the Arlington, Emma Donnan, Manual and Howe schools all be taken over by the state and that Broad Ripple and Washington schools be assigned lead partners to assist them in improving their academic performance.
From my conversations with members of the State Board over the past few months, I don’t see any reason why they won’t approve Dr. Bennett’s recommendations. There may be some questions about intervention, I am told. One thing I will be looking for in particular is any sort of amendment or resolution instructing the State Department of Education to go to the Indiana General Assembly and ask for tougher accountability laws.
A number of Board members have expressed frustration that under current law the state has to wait six years to intervene and that a failing school can get off academic probation with just a three-percent approval in end of course assessment scores.
I did speak to one board member about IPS Superintendent Dr. Eugene White’s intent to file a lawsuit against the state to stop the intervention, after that board member stopped laughing they went on to question Dr. White’s leadership at IPS and asked if he was getting ready to run for another public office.
The hearing begins this morning at 9 a.m. and could run until 3 p.m. You can follow me on Twitter for the latest updates.
I am now fully convinced that Indianapolis Public Schools are run by idiots and overseen by a majority morons. On the day where the Indiana Department of Education announced that it was recommending the State takeover four IPS Schools and send in special teams to two other schools, the IPS Board reacts, by 4-3 votes, to sue the state to block the takeover and extend the contract of the individual who’s overseen this trip to educational hell in hand basket via Federal Express.
How can any sane person in their right mind defend IPS anymore? IPS thinks it has a legal case against the state. It claims that Howe, Broad Ripple, Washington and Arlington should be exempt from takeover because the state counted their 7th and 8th grades in end of course assessment scores when it should have only counted grades 9-12. Now please note this is the same school district that had no qualms in threatening to break the law by denying admission to any student who lived in IPS and went to a charter at the start of the year but decided to return after the official enrollment count date.
But this isn’t even half the story. An observant poster to this blog pointed out that earlier this year in IPS’ own cable television show (IPS Superintendent Showcase March 2011, Segment 2, interview with Yvonne Rambo, Director of Turnaround Schools) Eugene White knew that he school district acknowledges that the scores of 7th and 8th graders will be taken into account at their community schools. It starts at about 5:00 and goes to 7:00. IPS admits that they know 7th and 8th grade scores will be counted at its Community High Schools and taken into account when the state decides what type of intervention is necessary. It starts at 5:00 and goes to about 7:00.
Anybody else wonder how long this video will stay up now that these guys have been caught with their pants down while their hands were in the cookie jar. How anyone with half a brain who care about children and education could continue to defend this is totally beyond me. Then again, most things concerning IPS usually are. That’s what I get for putting education ahead of educrats.
