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Editorial
Bill would accelerate schools resegregation
Accusations of racism roiled an Indiana House debate last month and rightly drew attention to the uncivil atmosphere of this year s session. But the controversy shouldn t serve as cover for the bad piece of legislation that precipitated the discord. The bill could hasten the resegregation of schools already occurring under voucher and charter programs and sharpen the economic divide among the state s three school systems.
House Bill 1367 would establish a pilot program allowing a single township in St. Joseph County to withdraw from the South Bend Community School Corp. for annexation by the rural, much-smaller John Glenn School Corp. While it currently affects only those two districts, opponents rightly noted that once approved, the legislation could serve as a mechanism for localities statewide to pull out of one district and join another. Imagine Cedar Creek Township, home to the Leo-area schools, leaving East Allen County
Editorial
Lack of disciplined leadership results in long-festering resentments boiling over
“All . will bear in mind this sacred principle, that though the will of the majority is in all cases to prevail, that will to be rightful must be reasonable; that the minority possess their equal rights, which equal law must protect and to violate would be oppression.”
– President Thomas Jefferson, in his first inaugural address, 1801
The angry eruption in the Indiana House last week shouldn t surprise regular observers of the General Assembly. Frustrated Democrats clashed with a handful of GOP caucus members who increasingly have shown disdain for long-accepted norms of civil debate and deliberation.