Doug Martin's Letter to Gordon Hendry and the Indiana State Board of Ed

By Doug Martin

Once again the Indy Star has given space to complete unreality, this time by you, Gordon Hendry, the new state board of education member all goo-goo eyed over your neoliberal heroes Bill Clinton and Bart Peterson.

In fact, your piece, in many ways, is an attempt for Mike Pence and the state board to do damage control over a recent Journal and Courier guest editorial by Dr. Lynn Nelson and his wife Trudy (a retired public school teacher), who both attended the last state board fiasco. 

In an accurate take on that last board meeting, the Nelsons say this:

“With calmness and integrity, [Glenda] Ritz countered their [the state board members] accusations. Had she not done this, she would have been labeled as a weak leader. By defending herself, she is accused of being confrontational. We encourage the readers to view the online streaming of several board meetings to note the confrontational and often juvenile behavior of the board members.”

Deceptively, you claim, in your editorial, Mr. Hendry, that you hope parents will not “despair” when they watch videos of the state ed. board meetings and see how Ritz is so hard to work with, when in reality you hope that most parents don’t even know about the meetings let alone watch them. 

The corrupt-corporate cat is out of the bag, Gordon, and even the newspapers are starting to mention the backlash. 

The Nelsons have exposed the state board for what it truly is, a male dominated-billionaire-wannabee-boys club.  You, as a hedge fund Democrat (as I have detailed before), must be a bit worried, and so is the Star, a newspaper which has carried the dirty water for the assault against public schools in this state since its inception. 

How ironic for you to name Glenda Ritz as Indiana’s education “czar,” when the CECI is a non-democratic war-camp set up by Mike Pence who seeks to be Indiana's first and complete corporate-theocratic ruler. 

You state that since Glenda has been elected, state ed. board meeting have become “grueling get-togethers…more akin to high school student council meetings where 15-year-olds argue about soda machines and lunch menus,” when you know damn good and well that you and your state board school buddies are the real bullies in the cafeteria.

Shame on you, Gordon Hendry.  You have absolutely no background in education.  The Nelsons have devoted their entire lives to it, as has Glenda Ritz.  You and the billionaires are phonies.  Everybody in this state will eventually know it.