Brookings Institute researchers recently published a book called “Confronting Suburban Poverty in America” that profiles how quickly poverty is migrating from many urban centers to their surrounding suburbs. Metro-area poverty has grown fastest in the suburbs over the past 30 years—experiencing a 64-percent increase versus 29-percent growth in urban centers.
As a child, racial segregation was a fact of my life, whether by law or by custom. In the South, barriers between whites and blacks were rigidly codified by statute before the civil rights victories of the 1950s and 1960s.
Those of us who have seen the progress Indianapolis has made over the last several decades are justifiably proud of what has been accomplished. At the same time, most thoughtful observers agree on the need to address a range of problems—notably crime, fiscal pressures, education, transportation and neighborhood development.
It was a warm, sunny Monday in November when John McCain came to the Indianapolis airport seeking to pull out an Indiana win in the 2008 race for presidency. It was the day before Election Day. Confident Hoosier Republicans were thrilled about the first real campaign rally in this state by that year’s GOP nominee.
I generally stay away from education issues in my column, but recent thoughts compel me to divert from that practice.
We welcome a new leader to town to take one of our most important jobs—superintendent of Indianapolis Public Schools.
There has been significant discussion this summer about gay rights and marriage equality. Specifically in Indiana, House Joint Resolution 6, the amendment that would permanently alter Indiana’s Constitution to define marriage, has produced strong emotions on both sides.
Former Gov. Daniels seems to have a good grasp of Orwell’s notion that who controls the past controls the future and who controls the present controls the past.
Here’s something to ponder in the wake of the big stories that keep trickling out from the emails released by state Superintendent of Public Education Glenda Ritz: What if the emails in question had been from her own tenure in that office? Or, what if a reporter had asked Tony Bennett for the same emails while he was still in office (or asked for the emails from then-Gov. Mitch Daniels)?
When I read what then-Gov. Mitch Daniels said in an email to then-Superintendent of Public Instruction Tony Bennett about Marxist historian Howard Zinn’s work, my immediate reaction was, “My thoughts exactly!” I take great exception to Zinn’s characterization of American history.
It’s time to reboot the American Dream for Indiana by doing three things:
The answer is as old as the Bible: “Train up a child in the way he should go, and when he gets old, he will not depart from it.” Likewise, we are all familiar with the idea that we will reap what we sow, and this is true in our educational system.
Let’s assume for now, with appropriate disappointment, that there are no Hoosiers on the ballot.
If you’re a Democrat looking ahead to 2016, there’s only one name anyone wants to talk about: Hillary Clinton.
Detroit is a symbol of the old economy’s decline. The metropolitan area lost population between 2000 and 2010, the worst performance among major cities. Atlanta, by contrast, epitomizes the rise of the Sun Belt; it gained more than 1 million people.
As Americans, we tend to believe we have the right to do whatever we want, so long as it doesn’t interfere with the rights of others. But sometimes the lines get a little blurry.
The fundamental problem of the political left seems to be that the real world does not fit their preconceptions. Therefore they see the real world as what is wrong, and what needs to be changed.
I never imagined I’d be writing this column, and I want to preface it with a blanket statement that will never change: I’m a proud Hoosier, and I love my hometown of Indianapolis.
Indianapolis is home to three amazing institutions that try to improve public school education—The Mind Trust, Teach for America and IUPUI School of Education—but reform rhetoric is hurting their efforts.
These past few weeks, we’ve seen more sclerosis in Washington, this time with the farm bill. On a topic that begged for compromise, everyone dug in, and there was celebration in some quarters even as they were spitting ashes out of their mouths.
