Articles

TALLIAN: Indiana’s laws are draconian and counterproductive

The young woman called my law office, tearfully pouring out her story. As an 18-year-old at a graduation party, she had been arrested and charged with possession of a small amount of marijuana. She was booked and made bond, pleaded guilty, went through substance abuse evaluation, did community service, paid a fine, and went through probation for a year.

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BROOKS: Law, order, confidence in safety precede prosperity

If you’re reading this, you are probably not buffeted by daily waves of physical terror. You may fear job loss or emotional loss, but you probably don’t fear that somebody is going to slash your throat or that a gang will invade your house come dinnertime, carrying away your kin and property. We take a basic level of order for granted.

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SIDDIQUI: Indianapolis needs faster Internet, and quickly

My congregation recently purchased a former day care in the middle of a business district to house our congregation and private school. Before purchasing this facility, we did our due diligence. We checked with zoning, had an appraisal and inspection, brought in the plumber and electrician. Satisfied with all the reports, we went ahead and purchased the building.

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STYRING: Utopian transit dreamers could railroad taxpayers

After years of trying, mass transit advocates have finally steered a central Indiana transit bill through the General Assembly. It authorizes county councils and, in some cases, township boards to approve ballot referenda imposing up to a 0.25-percent transit income tax.

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MACALLISTER: Better ways for higher education to measure itself

Mitch Daniels made an almost iconoclastic observation about evaluating the value of a college (or university) education. He implied that the arbiter of its value is not reflected necessarily in grade point average or the number of Ph.D’s matriculating but in the degree of success students achieve as they find a career and then how quickly they advance in their chosen vocation.

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KRULL: Teachers are only part of ‘education reform’ equation

Some things are just hard to measure.That’s the real message of the teacher evaluations the Indiana Department of Education released this month. Twenty-five percent of Hoosier teachers were rated highly effective and another 61 percent as effective. Less than half a percent were deemed “ineffective.”

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FROEHLE: A bright silver lining from the teacher evaluations

After the educational community waited months for results to be released, the Department of Education made public its grades on teacher effectiveness in the 2012-2013 school year. Only 2 percent were rated “needs improvement” and even fewer—less than half of 1 percent—were “ineffective.”

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