No bias, No spin, No jargon...sometimes

Chalkbeat, "a nonprofit news organization," says of itself...

Everyone has an opinion about how to fix education, especially for the poorest children. As a nonprofit news organization, we at Chalkbeat offer you solid facts about what is actually happening and what it means, from local reporters who really understand.
No bias, no spin, no jargon.

That self-assessment is true, sometimes. In its daily newsletter, Rise and Shine, Chalkbeat reposts articles focusing on education from a variety of sources...some pro-public education, some pro-"reform."

It's own news stories, however, are often different.

In July, for example, on the occasion of Mike Pence's elevation to the position of V.P. candidate on the Republican ticket, Chalkbeat posted an assessment of his "education record." On Wednesday, following the national debate by the two vice presidential candidates, they reposted the same article in Rise and Shine...

Mike Pence faced Tim Kaine in the only VP debate last night. We've got the story on his (somewhat surprising) record on education.

Here is, in part, what they wrote...

As governor, Pence has supported expanding charter schools and voucher programs. But Pence’s signature education initiative was a push to create the first state-funded preschool program. Despite opposition from many Republican allies in the state legislature, Pence was a staunch advocate for the small preschool pilot program that launched in 2015. [emphasis added]

What is surprising is that Chalkbeat neglected to mention that in 2014 the Indiana Department of Education, under State Superintendent, Glenda Ritz, had applied for a federal grant to fund preschool education which Pence stopped dead in its tracks. He rescinded the application for the $80 million grant which would have brought preschool programs to low-income students. Pence, instead, opted to push for a preschool "pilot" program which would serve students in only 5 of Indiana's 92 counties.

In another move, Pence created a new agency to support his privatization plans, in direct opposition to the State Department of Education. He closed the agency after some political fallout, and then went after the State Superintendent.

Ten times Pence didn’t make Indiana great again

...Pence disenfranchises State Superintendent Glenda Ritz (ongoing)

Before Pence got settled into the governor’s chair, he created the Center for Education and Career Innovation, which became a mirror agency to Ritz’s Department of Education. CECI was just the beginning of the rift between Pence and Ritz. Although he dissolved CECI in 2014, Pence supported the state legislature’s push to weaken Ritz’s office, including attempts to make the Superintendent of Public Instruction an appointed position instead of an elected one and removing the superintendent as chair of the Board of Education.

It seems to me that his "signature education initiative" during his term as governor has been to support private education at the expense of public schools, and to disrupt the work of the elected state Superintendent of Public Instruction, Glenda Ritz.

And Pence's education plan isn't surprising at all. When he ran for Governor he told the citizens of Indiana that he wanted to privatize public education...and he's worked hard to do that. Since Glenda Ritz ran on a pro-public education platform, the fact that Pence has done everything he could to stand in her way isn't surprising either.

What is surprising about Pence's education record in Indiana? Not much.

And Chalkbeat? It's not surprising that they claim that his "signature education initiative" is a preschool program yet don't mention his thumbing his nose at an $80 million grant which would have done more. They get their support from some of the most powerful "privatizers" in the business...

• The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation
• The Gates Family Foundation
• The Anschutz Foundation
• The Friedman Foundation for Educational Choice
• The Joyce Foundation
• The Walton Family Foundation

Chalkbeat tries, and often succeeds, at being an objective news source for education. Sometimes, however,  the deep pockets of Gates, Walton, and others, show through.

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