Questions to Bosma focus on education

Indiana house speaker addressed 100 people in town hall meeting at IPFW.

By Bob Caylor
of The News-Sentinel

Brian Bosma, the speaker of the Indiana House of Representatives, came to Fort Wayne to hear what people think, and he found they’re thinking about education. Nearly all the questions he fielded during a two-hour town hall meeting Wednesday night at IPFW pertained to charter schools, vouchers or funding for public schools.

Bosma, an Indianapolis Republican, spoke for a few minutes before he took questions. In that time, he outlined the top priorities the General Assembly faces.

Topping the list, of course, is squaring spending with estimated revenues over the next two years. “We have a 2011 budget with 2005 state revenues,” he told more than 100 attendees. They filled all the chairs in three joined meeting rooms, packed open spaces to standing room only, and listened in an adjoining lounge and hallways. Bosma said revenues had never dropped to levels of six years ago, “not even during the Depression.”

Since both parties agree they won’t raise taxes to make ends meet, the answer is that most schools, social service agencies and other state-funded entities must “continue to do more with less,” he said.

Other top priorities this year include passing education reform, encouraging economic recovery (including finding a way to support unemployment insurance), redrawing legislative districts in line with 2010 census findings and bringing a return to civil debate in the legislature, Bosma said.

In answering the first question, Bosma affirmed his support for some mix of measures that will promote charter schools or possibly other alternatives to public schools.

“We need to give parents as many options as possible,” he said. That might include making it easier for school boards or groups of parents to start charter schools.

A more extreme measure – a “nuclear option,” Bosma said – would be enabling parents to get a portion of the funding used for their children in public schools if they move their children to nonpublic schools.

Many in the audience were teachers and let Bosma know they have strong qualms about making it easier to pull funding from public schools. The best-known of those who urged Bosma to be cautious was Mark GiaQuinta, president of the Fort Wayne Community Schools board.

“The biggest threat to educating kids the way we all want to educate them is getting to them early enough,” he told Bosma. Peeling more resources away from public school systems will make it even more difficult to provide exemplary early education for children, he said.

Team Hammond General Meeting

The first Team Hammond meeting of the New Year will be on Tuesday, January 25 at the Woodmar United Methodist Church at 7320 Northcote. Meet andGreet at 6:30 PM, meeting at 7 PM

Now that the property tax caps are in place, we will be starting to put together the agenda for 2011. The Indiana State legislature has an ambitious agenda that includes many issues that will affect communities like Hammond.

School reform is a key issue. Redistricting of course will be a big issue, as will local government issues that could eliminate or significantly change the function of townships. Another issue near and dear to the hearts of those in Lake County will be the governor’s initiative to curb nepotism.

THe primary election in May and the general electionn in November will mean lots of discussion of candidates and issues.

Plan to come to the meeting on Tuesday Jan. 25 and help Team Hammond plan their direction for the new year.