The Democrat planning to challenge Republican State Senator Linda Rogers in November says her bill introduced Thursday to have the state take over the South Bend Community Schools board would deal another harmful blow to public education.
Gabrianna Gratzol on Friday reached out to WVPE asking to talk about Rogers’ bill, which would replace elected school board members for South Bend with a state-appointed board.
Gratzol notes Rogers is a big advocate for charter schools, and, like many statehouse Republicans, she’s received thousands of dollars in campaign funding from Larry Garatoni, the South Bend businessman and charter schools owner.
Garatoni has tried but failed to acquire the former Clay High School building for a dollar under a law that was co-sponsored by Rogers.
“That was defeated and because it was defeated, they want to change the people who are making the decisions and put the power in the hands of appointed delegates who are going to vote the way they want.”
The South Bend Regional Chamber, which, under the bill, would get a say in nominating board members to the state for approval, issued a statement saying, “For decades, reliance on an elected governance model has not produced sustained improvement in outcomes.”
The Chamber statement added that the corporation “faces significant challenges, including declining enrollment, underutilized buildings and facilities, academic performance well below state averages, financial instability, and high chronic absenteeism … Current approaches have not resolved these issues, and action is required."
But Gratzol says such criticism are unfair because it’s been the GOP’s priority on private school vouchers and charter schools that have caused public school districts like South Bend to lose students.
"I do agree that action is required to improve our public school systems, absolutely," Gratzol says. "I fail to see how taking away the input of the people who have a better understanding, the people who live in the area, the people who send their kids to that school, who teach at that school, I fail to see how removing the local voices is a solution and putting people who have nothing to do with the school corporation in charge of making those changes. To me it feels like justification for government overreach."
