Earlier this week I highlighted the efforts undertaken by former Indiana schools chief Tony Bennett to “cook the books” to give a charter school run by a prominent Republican donor a passing grade in Indiana’s school grading system.
In the face of strong criticism of Bennett’s efforts to help the prominent Republican donor, Bennett resigned as Florida’s State Education Commissioner on Thursday.
Despite Bennett’s resignation earlier this week, new revelations have come to light regarding a 2011 decision he made as Indiana’s superintendent of public instruction to pick a for-profit education company in Florida to run a group of Indianapolis public schools. That decision led to millions of Indiana tax dollars flowing into the company’s coffers, and as reported by Matthew Tully of the Indianapolis Star, that company has hired Tony Bennett’s wife Tina as a regional director in Florida.
Charter Schools USA earlier this year hired Tony Bennett’s wife, Tina, as a regional director based in Florida, where Tony Bennett was hired late last year as commissioner of education. And, so, the bottom line is this: Tina Bennett is now earning a paycheck from the company her husband hand-picked to take over schools in Indiana, a decision that was very good for the company’s financial fortunes.
I’d say I’m shocked by this new revelation, but there’s very little that shocks me any more when it comes to what depths Republicans are capable of sinking to.
Zach, Tony Bennett lost re-election in the Indiana State Superintendent race last year to Glenda Ritz, a Democrat who ran a grassroots campaign with very little money and very few campaign resources.
Yep…I knew that.
Without oversight, what do you think is going to happen here in WI? Just look to the WEDC a clue.
At least in Wisconsin, we have an elected Superintendent of the DPI who isn’t in the pocket of Republicans/tea party types.
As a former Hoosier public school teacher, I had a few thoughts on the subject.
I’ll also point out that WEDC is a direct carbon-copy of Mitch Daniels’ IEDC, which had the exactly same type of cronyism, corruption and lack of results. In fact, it seems that this type of corruption isn’t a bug in GOP world, it’s a feature. It’s how Mitch got hired as president of Purdue when he’d appointed more than half of the Board of Regents for the school.
To paraphrase, George Carlin, “It’s a big club, and we’re not allowed in it.”