While I have been a bookaholic since elementary school, few books made as much of an impression on me as E.D. Hirsch’s “Cultural Literacy: What Every American Needs to Know.” It was released in book form in 1987, rising to second on the New York Times Best Sellers List behind Allan Bloom’s less-readable but also influential and important “Closing of the American Mind.”
Legislatures in Iowa and California have seen the wisdom of eliminating partisan gerrymandering and the polarized bodies it generates. The call for redistricting reform is growing now that the federal government has been shut down and the nation’s credit and the world’s economy threatened.
In the state law that requires government meetings to be open to the public, there’s a wonderful preamble expressing the philosophy behind the statute. The intent of the Open Door Law, it declares, is “that the official action of public agencies be conducted and taken openly … in order that the people may be fully informed.”
We have a disconnect in Indiana that we need to fix.
The next legislative session is likely to feature several bills affecting “social” issues like same-sex marriage, curriculum controversies and religious activities in public schools, abortion and public prayer.
For those who can still bear to look, Indiana’s unemployment rate remains stuck above 8 percent.
The Indy Chamber is opposing the proposed state constitutional amendment to prohibit same-sex marriages and civil unions. Fifty years ago—even 10 years ago—such a position would have been unthinkable. This is a remarkable change.
Twenty-fourteen will be a year of love and politics in Indiana.
We sometimes hear the advice to “get on the right side of history.”
Political crusades for raising the minimum wage are back again. Advocates of minimum wage laws often credit themselves for being more “compassionate” toward “the poor.” But they seldom bother to check the actual consequences of such laws.
Countries that don’t plan for the future tend not to do well there. When you watch the reckless behavior of the Tea Party-driven Republicans in Congress today, you can’t help but fear that we’ll be one of those.
It’s become common over the past year or two to note how well Wall Street is doing while Main Street is still struggling.
When Occupy Wall Street sprang up in parks and under tents, one of the many issues the protesters pressed was economic inequality. Then, as winter began to set in, the police swept the protesters away, the movement all but dissipated.
Weather permitting, I walk our Irish setter, Finn McCool, nearly every day in Garfield Park. The 126-acre park on the near-south side has been a Mahern recreation site for over 100 years, after my great-grandfather moved his family to the area of Raymond and Shelby streets.
Early this year, Indianapolis expressed its intent to become a major player in the world of international sports.
One of the most controversial proposals to emerge at the 2013 General Assembly has resurfaced as the topic of a summer study committee. Late last month, the Interim Study Committee on Economic Development focused on ag gag legislation that would make it a crime to expose illegal, inhumane or unsafe conditions at factory farms in Indiana.
We Americans pride ourselves on free speech and demonstrate that privilege—vocally, written, cartooning, tweeting, publishing, televising, on billboards, and through movies, TV shows and publications.
Nothing in politics is so constant as change. Consider the Indiana State Teachers Association.
Recent ISTEP test scores seem to indicate a correlation between academic success and economic prosperity. These test results show that school districts in affluent neighborhoods have better scores than schools in poorer neighborhoods.
My son started kindergarten in August. Within a few days, it became apparent that his kindergarten experience is significantly different from that of his parents. Homework every night. Reading that must be logged and initialed. High expectations for reading, math, technology and the arts.
