Indiana Writers Groujp column for March 21 and thereafter 730 words by Andrea Neal     Indiana voters don’t have much say in the process of selecting presidential nominees. Beginning with the 2008 election, we’ll have none. That’s because California just moved its presidential primary from June to the first Tuesday in February. In a ridiculous game of one-upmanship, 17 other states are considering bills to move up their primary dates.     By the time our presidential…

Indiana Writers Group column for release March 14 and thereafter 655 words by Lisa Snell In Indiana, like most states, school funding is  not  attached to the child; families cannot easily choose between local public schools based on quality. As a consequence, public schools have no incentive to improve because children have no right of exit to a better-performing school. While some public schools have experienced modest improvement in recent years, thousands of Hoosier children…

Indiana Writers Group column for March 7 and thereafter 730 words By Andrea Neal    The Indiana House has forwarded to the Senate a bill requiring that Indiana public schools “include a study of the Holocaust in each high school United States history course.”     As curriculum mandates go, this one isn’t too onerous. Any history teacher worth his salt is already teaching the Holocaust as part of an even cursory study of World War II. Most…

Indiana Writers Group column for Feb 28 648 words By Lisa Snell Gov. Mitch Daniels proposed a full-day kindergarten plan in his State of the State address and the Senate overwhelmingly approved a bill that would make full-day kindergarten available to Indiana children this fall.   When fully implemented, the price tag could reach $285 million per year, depending on how many parents choose to enroll their children. “After years of study, debate, and failed…

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…