A Chance to Improve Reading InstructionIndiana Writers Group column for Feb. 21 and thereafter 745 words By Andrea NealIn the 2001-02 school year, Indianapolis Public Schools launched a reading initiative that used a lot more phonics in the early grades. The switch wasn’t easy on teachers. They had to change the way they did things: A different textbook, extra training, a more formulaic way of teaching. Their new text, Open Court published by SRA/McGraw-Hill, wasn’t…

Indiana Writers Group column for release Feb. 14 and thereafter 618 words Editors: This article assesses the current funding system for Indiana’s public schools. It may be used independently or with the introduction by Dr. Sam Staley. These are the first in a group of articles on education reform to be released this legislative session. Other topics include: all-day kindergarten; alternative funding systems; collective bargaining; charter schools; and local application of the No Child Left…

Indiana Writers Group column for Feb. 7 and thereafter 730 words By Andrea Neal     “A lottery is a taxation — upon all the fools in creation,” said the 18th century English playwright Henry Fielding. “And heaven be praised, it is easily raised, credulity’s always in fashion.” Almost 300 years later, Fielding’s criticism holds true. “Lottery players are guaranteed, overall and over time, to lose,” said Professor Michael Mainelli of Gresham College in London. Their…

Indiana Writers Group column for Jan. 31 and thereafter 699 words   by T. Norman Van Cott Dictionaries define xenophobia as fear or hatred of things strange and foreign, including people. In the economic realm, xenophobia manifests itself in animosity toward imports and immigrants. Foreign investors are two-headed monsters for economic xenophobes. Not only are foreign investors the source of capital imports (ugh), the foreign managerial-entrepreneurial skills that often accompany capital imports mean immigrants (ugh)…

Indiana Writers Group column for Jan. 24 and thereafter 730 words   By Andrea Neal FRENCH LICK, Ind. — When I walked on to the gaming floor at French Lick – my first time ever in a casino – I was struck immediately by the number of slot machines. There were hundreds of them, in all directions, and they so consumed the 42,000-square-foot room that I barely noticed the craps games, the poker tables or the…

Indiana Writers Group column for Jan. 17 and thereafter 673 words By Andrew Horning Healthcare is an odd business in that it has always been both expensive and unpleasant. Until the 1920s, the average doctor couldn’t even help with the average ailment. While medicine then included a range of arts like phrenology, acupuncture, homeopathy and allopathy it really was a coin-toss whether you’d be saved or killed by a doctor’s work.   Then came insulin,…

Indiana Writers Group column for Jan. 10 and thereafter 735 words By Andrea Neal     INDIANAPOLIS – A visitor passing through Indianapolis this week would be hard-pressed to decide if Indiana is a red state or a blue one, if it’s dominated by Republicans or Democrats, and what exactly those two labels mean here. As the 2007 legislature swings into action, a motley list of priorities has emerged that defies political labeling.     Passing a two-year budget…