A Citizen's Guide to Indiana

Masson's Blog

HB 1036, HB 1074 and SB 188: Partisan School Board Elections

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Several legislators have introduced bills to make school board elections partisan in nature. Currently, school board candidates run for office without being nominated by a party or declaring a party affiliation. Rep. Cash has introduced HB 1036 which would require candidates for school board elections to be nominated by political parties like with other local elections.

Rep. Morrison has introduced HB 1074 which would require school board candidate’s party affiliation to be stated on the ballot and certificate of nomination. In other words, a candidate wouldn’t have to be nominated by the party but they would have to declare a party affiliation. Under this legislation, a candidate can state whatever they want as their party affiliation (or “independent” if they don’t identify with a party). However, a declared affiliation as a Republican or Democrat can be challenged. If the challenger shows that the candidate did not either vote in the Republican or Democratic primaries (as the case may be) in the most recent two elections or get a certification from the county party chair, the candidate can’t claim affiliation with that party. If I’m reading the legislation correctly, a declaration that the person is independent or Libertarian or Green Party or anything else isn’t subject to challenge. (Which, if we’re going to do this, seems suspect. The person who lives in a far left school board district but has voted Republican every election since the 80s can run for school board under a socialist label if he or she wants.)

Sen. Sandlin has introduced SB 188 which reads pretty much the same as Rep. Morrison’s HB 1074.

Whatever issues school boards have, I don’t see these proposals making them any better.

SB 77 – “Chinese” Throwing Stars

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Throw a star. Go to jail. It’s the law!

Friends, imagine if you will, the early 80s in the Middle West of Indiana. Perhaps it’s Richmond, Indiana. Junior high school boys engaged in good-natured but intense debates about the capabilities of ninjas. How would they fare against the chain-swinging New York City street gang members of our imaginations? Do they possess magic or just sufficiently advanced skills that are indistinguishable from magic? Documentary films such as the Octagon and Enter the Ninja provide guidance for some but not all of these questions. In a fit of enthusiasm, the boys cobble enough money to buy replica throwing stars from the Comic Book Guy type hobby store on Main Street. Did they know these were replicas? Absolutely not. But, when thrown at houses being constructed in the local subdivision, they bounced off disappointingly and harmlessly. Come to think of it, maybe rolling up Dungeons and Dragons characters would be more fun.

This was possible prior to 1985 when the killjoys at the Indiana General Assembly adopted IC 35-47-5-12 which prohibits the manufacture, import, sale, or possession of a “Chinese throwing star” (defined as “a throwing-knife, throwing-iron, or other knife-like weapon with blades set at different angles.”) The casual racism of that terminology is jarring. Times really are changing. Also, I have to imagine it was a kind of moral panic that prompted this legislation. The popularity of ninja movies leading to maybe a few incidents where such throwing stars were used improperly and more than a few legislators born in the 1930s bemoaning corruption of the youth with all this damn chopsocky stuff.

Sen. Brown has introduced SB 77 which would allow a return to the fun of the early 80s under tightly regulated conditions. First of all, the legislation would change “Chinese throwing star” to simply “throwing star.” But the thrust of the legislation would be to allow possession, import, and sale of throwing stars for recreational use at a business with lanes set up for such throwing stars. It has regulations for the lanes — e.g. they have to have walls that are at least eight feet high and fifteen feet long staffed by someone “trained in the possession and use of throwing stars.”

This sounds like someone has or wants to set up a business like those axe-throwing venues only with throwing stars which honestly sounds like a blast. It’s just the fact that these things are outlawed in the first place and the necessarily stilted language of legislation that makes this particular legislation sound a little silly. Given that it’s the wild-west with respect to firearms in Indiana and that other types of bladed devices don’t seem to be particularly regulated, probably the better approach is to just repeal the prohibition on throwing stars. But, if that’s not in the cards, this legislation doesn’t strike me as objectionable.

(Hat tip to u/saryl on Reddit for this one)

HB 1019 – Tax Credit for Donations to Public School Foundations

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Rep. Hamilton has filed HB 1019 which would provide a tax credit for donations to public school foundations. It gives taxpayers a credit against their tax liability in an amount equal to 50% of their contribution to a public school foundation. The amount of the credit is capped at $1,000 for single filers, $2,000 for joint filers, and, for corporate filers, the greater of 10% of the corporation’s tax liability or $5,000.

A “public school foundation” is a 501(c)(3) corporation “organized as an Indiana nonprofit corporation for the 8 purposes of providing educational funds for scholarships, 9 teacher education, capital programs, and special programs 10 for school corporations” including a public school foundation incorporated under IC 20-26-5-22.5

As the president of the board of the West Lafayette Schools Education Foundation, I’m not really an objective observer on this one. Sounds like a good idea!

SB 135 – Non-citizen eligibility for resident tuition

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First a caveat – I go through these bills pretty quickly and I’m painfully aware that I’m not familiar with the context in so many of these issues and probably just get things wrong more often than I’d care to admit. Particularly on my mind at the moment is the possibility that things which seem reasonable on the face of a given bill might be pernicious when compared to actual practice. Or a bill that seems objectionable might be an improvement over the status quo.

In any event, Senator Doriot has introduced SB 135 concerning resident tuition. It appears that it is allowing resident tuition for certain individuals who are not necessarily present in the state or the country legally. Such eligible individuals would be those who attended high school in Indiana for at least four years, graduated from an Indiana high school, files an affidavit certifying that the individual is attempting to obtain legal immigration status, and certifies that the individual “is not applying for any state or local public benefit or federal public benefit” other than the resident tuition benefit.

I’m not sure I care for the last bit. I know it’s an effort to fend off concerns that feckless alien hordes are living parasitically off of good, hardworking Americans. But: a) I think the data show that immigrants, lawful and otherwise, tend to give our communities more than they take; and b) I suspect that applicants who qualify under this bill are mostly going to be younger people whose use of and/or need for public benefits are a function of their parents circumstances; and the children should not be punished for the sins of their parents.

SB 68: Personal Finance Course in lieu of Algebra II for high school diploma

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Sen Bohachek has introduced SB 68 which would require that a personal finance course serve as a substitute for Algebra II where the Indiana State Board of Education has adopted a Core 40 curriculum model that requires Algebra II as a math requirement.

Candidly, I don’t remember Algebra II well enough to know how it differs from Algebra I and, therefore, the utility of adding a personal finance class would exceed whatever is lost by removing an Algebra II requirement. On its face, I guess it doesn’t sound like a horrible idea. But, in my mind, the personal finance requirement conjures up complaints about “kids these days” being frivolous with their money. I’m thinking of those arguments resisting health care reform because Millennials had iPhones and were eating avocado toast. I think personal finance education is a good idea, but it’s nothing like a panacea for the financial challenges people face.

(I’ve suggested in the past that maybe the State could issue “model” budgets for families at various income levels but cynically thought that the idea wouldn’t fly because then the State would have to recognize that most of the things that families “should” be doing simply aren’t possible at some of the income levels that are common in Indiana.)

SB 12: Jailing School Librarians for “Material Harmful to a Minor”

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Sen. Tomes has introduced SB 12 which is a resurrection of a provision that took a lot of heat during last year’s General Assembly concerning schools and “material harmful to minors.” The rhetoric opposing that provision — and the title to this post — was probably overblown compared to the actual text of the legislation. However, the motive for introducing this legislation also appears to be an unjustified moral panic over materials available to kids at school libraries. In the war of public opinion, it’s probably too optimistic to expect a nuanced discussion over the text of legislation and the real world need for that legislation.

The way I described the similar SB 17 from last session was as follows:

SB 17 removes protections for school librarians that currently exist with respect to material alleged to be “harmful to minors.” The public commentary on this has been a little overwrought since “material harmful to minors” is defined by IC 35-49-2-2 and basically tracks the definition of obscenity: appeals to prurient interest, patently offensive to prurient interests, lacks serious literary, artistic, political, or scientific value. So, the likelihood of schools having much in the way of qualifying material seems pretty small. But, by the same token, the utility of removing bars to prosecution of school librarians is nil. It’s a political move to exploit a panic among parents that naughty stuff might be in the school libraries. Probably comes from the same folks who were certain that there was Satanic ritual abuse of children in the Comet Ping Pong basement. And, now that I type it, I suppose there’s a group of people who similarly imagine that our public schools are immoral corrupters of children.

 

SJR 9: Right to Bail

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Senator Young has introduced Senate Joint Resolution 9 which would amend the Indiana Constitution concerning the right to bail. Currently Article 1, Section 17, says that “with sufficient sureties,” a person accused of crimes other than murder or treason is entitled to bail. (Which is to say, entitled to be released from jail pending trial or conviction.) This amendment would add a list of offenses for which bail is not required (although the court may, at its discretion, grant bail for these offenses):

  • A person charged with a serious crime (defined as a crime for which the punishment can be a term of imprisonment of at least three years) if the person was awaiting trial on another crime.
  • A person charged with a new felony if the person allegedly committed the new felony while awaiting trial on a serious crime.
  • A person charged with a serious crime if no conditions of bail are sufficient to protect the public from harm; protect any person from harm; ensure the appearance in court of a person charged  with a crime; or ensure that a person charged with a crime does not 32 commit another crime.

The amendment would also place into the Indiana Constitution the following purposes for bail:

  • Protect the public from harm;
  • Protect any person from harm, including a person charged with a crime;
  • Reasonably ensure the appearance in court of a person 6 charged with a crime; and
  • Reasonably ensure that a person charged with a crime does not commit another crime.

The discussions I’ve been seeing lately mainly seem to favor a more permissive approach to bail, primarily based on the recognition that a person who has only been accused of a crime shouldn’t be prematurely punished for that crime; and that bail necessarily falls hardest on poor people. (As the man said, “the law, in its majestic equality, forbids rich and poor alike to sleep under bridges, to beg in the streets, and to steal loaves of bread.” The man, in that case, being Anatole France.) On its face, this amendment seems to be more restrictive of bail. And maybe that’s a reaction to the move toward greater permissiveness. But I’ll confess that my practice is civil rather than criminal, so there could be nuance of which I’m unaware.

Books of 2022

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Once again, I kept a list of the books I read this past year. I don’t have a particular reason to think this is of general interests, but for my own amusement, here they are:

  • Batavia’s Graveyard by Mike Dash. Really like this one. A Dutch East India ship wrecked on its way to the East Indies in, if memory serves, the sixteenth century. Survivors wind up on a spit of land and some bad dudes take over.
  • The Outlaw Ocean by Ian Urbina. A series of articles about various things going on in lawless or underpoliced parts of the ocean. Slavery. Whale hunting. Hunting the whale hunters and poachers. Abortions at sea just beyond the jurisdiction of anti-abortion countries.
  • Happiness of Pursuit by Chris Guillebeau. This one didn’t really land for me. From a Googled book review, “case studies of regular people in search of long-term happiness. Whether they’ve walked across continents, founded nationwide charities or – like the author – visited every country in the world by the time they’re thirty-five.”
  • Northland by Porter Fox. The guy travels the northern border of the United States and tells about his experience as well as some of the history in those areas. Reminded me a bit of the style of Tony Horwitz’s books. This was a good one.
  • Later by Stephen King. Enjoyable fiction of the sort that King produces so reliably. The protagonist is a kid who has the ability to see the ghosts of dead people.
  • Ender’s Game by Orson Scott Card. This was a re-read. Ender Wiggin is a little boy who is smarter than everyone, goes to space Battle School, and unwittingly commits a genocide against the alien Bugger race.
  • A (Very) Short History of Life on Earth by Henry Gee. This goes through the ups and downs of living organisms on our planet. The sheer scale of time is mind-bending. And the several episodes of extinction events are humbling. As individuals and, even as a species, we are fairly incidental and inconsequential in the scheme of things.
  • Speaker for the Dead by Orson Scott Card. This is a sequel to Ender’s game. Ender is dealing with the aftermath of being the Xenocide and ends up on a planet inhabited by the second alien race encountered by humans.
  • Drunk: How We Slipped, Stumbled, and Danced Our Way to Civilization by Edward Slingerland. Alcohol has some very obvious negative effects which would seem to impose some competitive disadvantages when it comes to evolution and to competing cultures and civilizations. And, yet, use of alcohol and drunkenness is almost ubiquitous across history and civilizations. What advantages explain its staying power? He offers several explanations. Among them that alcohol facilitates certain kinds of lateral thinking that helps with problem solving at times, it facilitates social cohesion in certain ways, and it makes living in the relatively cramped, oppressive conditions of an agricultural civilization more tolerable.
  • Xenocide by Orson Scott Card. The third book in the original Ender trilogy. The writing was worse than I remembered. But the plot was fairly interesting, having to do with a smart virus that has made itself essential to aliens on a particular planet and might contrive to take over human biology as well; with a focus on the ethical concerns this sort of thing raises.
  • Billy Summers by Stephen King. Another solid piece of King fiction. Summers is a hit man who is pretty smart but plays dumb. He’s being set up.
  • The Greatest Beer Run Ever by Chick Donahue. Based on a true story wherein Chickie undertakes to deliver beers from home to the guys from his neighborhood who are serving in Vietnam.
  • The Quiet American by Graham Greene. A 1956 book having to do with the end of the French colonial period in Vietnam, the beginning of American involvement, and a love triangle.
  • Seven Games: A Human History by Oliver Roeder. The author takes a look at the history and game play of checkers, backgammon, chess, Go, poker, Scrabble, and bridge along with efforts to “solve” those games with computers.
  • Powers and Thrones: A New History of the Middle Ages by Dan Jones. Very readable. A good survey of the middle ages in Western Europe. It starts with environmental catastrophe in Central Asia which displaced people who displaced the Huns who helped bring about the fall of Rome. I think we go from there to somewhere in the 15th or 16th century.
  • Men Who Hate Women by Laura Bates. A look at online incel culture, how those attitudes infect the broader culture, and how those things relate to a lot of the social dysfunction we see today.
  • A Beautifully Foolish Endeavour by Hank Green. A sequel to “An Absolutely Remarkable Thing,” the two of which comprise “the Carl Saga.” It’s a science fiction novel having to do with, among other things, addictive social media controlled by a malignant narcissist from the earlier novel.
  • A Gentleman in Moscow by Amor Towles. I really liked this one. In lieu of having him killed, the communists have a Russian nobleman confined to an upscale hotel rather than just killing him. It follows him and the hotel over the course of many years.
  • Confederates in the Attic: Dispatches from the Unfinished Civil War by Tony Horwitz. Written in the late 90s, Horwitz travels around the south and looks at the influence the Civil War stil has on the area as well as giving you some history lessons about the Civil War itself. Some of the issues he identifies in the late 90s as being related to the Civil War are even more pronounced in the present day.
  • Holy War: How Vasco da Gama’s Epic Voyages Turned the Tide in a Centuries Old Clash of Civilization. This book provides some background about Islam’s founding and rapid expansion and the subsequent Reconquista in the Iberian peninsula. Then it provides an in depth history of Prince Henry the Navigator’s efforts with respect to Portuguese navigation culminating in da Gama’s voyage around the Cape of Good Hope and his encounters in India. We learned a lot about Columbus growing up. Da Gama’s voyage was a lot longer and more difficult and arguably more consequential. But we only learned about him in passing. It was good to read this not long after that history of the middle ages because there was a fair amount of overlap but from somewhat different perspectives.
  • The Way of Kings by Brandon Sanderson. Book One of the Starlight Archives. Big, sprawling epic fantasy.
  • The Year 1000: When Explorers Connected the World and Globalization Began by Valerie Hansen. She takes you around the world, discusses the societies in those places and times, and talks about explorations happening around that time that linked one culture to another (albeit very tenuously in some cases).
  • The Midwestern Survival Guide by Charlie Berens. A cute, tongue-in-cheek book about Midwestern culture.
  • Die Trying by Lee Child. A Jack Reacher book. Reacher is smarter and tougher than everyone and will always defeat the bad guy and get the girl. That happens in this installment too. It’s a fun read.
  • Voyagers by Nicolas Thomas. A history of the seaborne migrations that settled the islands of the Pacific.
  • A Psalm for the Wild Built by Becky Chambers. A novella where a tea-monk who travels from town to town making tea for people who make it goes into the wilderness and encounters a wild-built robot seeking to make contact with humans.
  • Chrysalis by Lincoln Child. A tech thriller/mystery.
  • Retail Gangster by Gary Weiss. An account of the rise and fall of Crazy Eddie’s electronics stores in the 70s and 80s in the New York City area.
  • Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas by Hunter S. Thompson. No description needed.
  • Words of Radiance by Brandon Sanderson. Book Two of the Starlight Archives.

All in all, a pretty good set of books, I’d say!

 

State Affairs Indiana on Indiana’s Public Health Care Funding

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Needle

An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure.

Kaitlin Lange, writing for State Affairs Indiana, has part one of a series on health care in Indiana. This part focuses particularly on Indiana’s public health funding. Like much of the rest of its public infrastructure, Indiana spends comparatively little on public health. County health departments rely heavily on local funding which varies wildly from county to county. This comes down to priorities and available resources.

You saw some of the most dramatic consequences of this in Scott County several years back. The county’s health department couldn’t offer HIV testing. For several years prior to an HIV epidemic, a Planned Parenthood provided that service. But when the Planned Parenthood shut down, there was no testing, and when the epidemic took hold, it was well underway before the County could react. They were eventually able to stem the tide, in part, with a syringe exchange program. (Subsequent study suggests that, had testing been available, the County probably could have reduced the number of infections from 215 to 10 or fewer.)
Treating 200 HIV patients is a lot more expensive than spending the money necessary to make early testing available. But that’s like so much of what good government does: spending money in ways that prevent problems, making the benefits of that spending largely invisible to the citizens. Citizens see the taxes but don’t see the HIV cases that don’t materialize. Or, my go-to is drainage. Spend a bunch of tax dollars on drainage tile and storm sewers; nobody realizes how much they benefit from the floods that don’t happen.
In any case, the Lange article is fairly long and covers a lot more ground than I’ve described. Definitely worth a read.

“There is but one way to secure good schools”

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I’ve posted part of this quote many times, but just came across Caleb Mills’ second “One of the People” addresses from 1848, and it bears quoting at length. It remains relevant:

STATE TAX TO SUPPORT SCHOOLS.

Liberty

Awaken the public mind, and concentrate it on the question, Am I not interested in the proper education of all that are socially and politically connected with me?

There is but one way to secure good schools, and that is to pay for them. There is but one method to induce the youth to frequent them and that is to make them what they ought to be, by such applicances of funds, as will awaken an universal interest in them. Experience has shown that this can be effectually done only by drawing a large share of the funds for their support, directly from the pockets of the people, upon the ad valorem principle of taxation. When we are required to pay a tax for the support of schools, irrespective of the question whether we have children to educate or not, then we shall attend the school meetings, take an interest in having a good school in our several districts by employing competent teachers, furnishing the children with suitable school books, comfortable and convenient school rooms, and visiting them from time to time to ascertain whether teachers and taught are doing their duty. It is vain and idle to suppose they will flourish without the appliance of that motive power of universal action, interest. In no department of human enterprise has this truth been more fully demonstrated than in Education. The best schools, both in this country and Europe, are to be found only in connection with funds raised on the principle above mentioned. Public funds are desirable only to encourage effort, not to supersede the necessity of exertion. This is evident from the character of schools in States where they are sustained almost wholly by public funds, compared with schools sustained by taxes.

Let us shut our eyes no longer to the teachings of experience. Let us have a system based on the broad and republican principle, that it is the duty of the state to furnish the means of primary education to the entire youth within her bounds. Impressed with a just appreciation of the magnitude of the enterprise, the value of the interests at stake, and the obstacles to be overcome, let us not despair of success, assured that intelligent efforts, directed by kindness and perseverance can not fail of ultimate triumph. We must not be discouraged by ignorance and prejudice. To remove the one and correct the other, we need nothing but the combined influence of light and love. All, to a greater or less extent, are aiming at the same object, and they differ only as to the means. Convince the ignorant man that knowledge would increase his happiness, and give him power for good, and you make him a staunch friend of learning. Satisfy the prejudiced man, that he has only misapprehended the best means of securing his own welfare, and the happiness of his children, and you convert him into an unflinching and zealous advocate of common schools. Let us gather up the experience of the past, and bring it to bear upon the subject of popular education, and we shall find in Indiana as cordial friends to the intellectual and moral culture of the rising generation, as in any other State in the Union. Awaken the public mind, and concentrate it on the question, Am I not interested in the proper education of all that are socially and politically connected with me? The bearings of such a question have not been duly considered. It needs to be discussed and examined. We are a shrewd people where dollars and cents are concerned. Many have never taken that view of their duty, and when it has been presented to them have frankly acknowledged that they have never thought of it in that light. Does not the Farmer derive as large a percent upon what he expends in the education of his children, as from any investment he can make of his funds? Does the amount which he pays to sustain a good school for the instruction of all the children in the district or township in which he lives, never find its way back again to him in the improved character of the community for intelligence, enterprise, and morals? Is not real estate in such a community more valuable, capital more productive, and enterprise more intelligent and successful? Would not the general thrift and prosperity caused by this intellectual and moral elevation, lighten public burdens, increase social enjoyments, enhance the value of property, multiply the facilities for its acquisition, and increase the security of its possession? Such cultivation could not fail to diminish pauperism and crime, lessen poverty and suffering, throw around the gardens, orchards, and the products of the field, an inclosure that would never be passed, improve the highways, and materially increase the substantial comforts and conveniences of the house, the farm, and the implements of husbandry.

…

[Following a discussion of the principal of ad valorem taxes]

Such a plan would distribute the burdens equitably on all according to their ability to bear them, and according to the pecuniary interests affected by the intellectual and moral elevation of the great mass of the people. Is not the rich land holder interested to the full amount of his property in the moral and intellectual culture of the community in which it is located? Is not its value enhanced by the intelligence and virtue, and lessened by the ignorance and vice of the surrounding neighborhood? Is not the merchant also interested to the full amount of his stock in trade, in the enterprise, intelligence and integrity of the community in which he does business? Would he find so large a share of his profits engulfed in the whirlpool of bad debts, if the people were honest and industrious? Can the manufacturer invest his capital with equal security and hope of success among an ignorant and vicious people that he could in an intelligent and virtuous community? Would a railroad or a telegraph running through a region, whose inhabitants, induced by designing men to believe that such monopolies were hostile to their interests, should obstruct the cars, remove the rails, or cut the wires, be as productive, or the market value of its stock be as high, as it would be, if such an improvement was situated in a section of the country distinguished for its provision for the education of the whole rising generation without distinction?

Then the rich will have no occasion to complain of the burden of a two mill tax, when they consider that their property is not only affected in its value by the character of the immediate community in which it is located, but also by the legislation of the State, where it is vested. It is evident that the vote of a wise man and a sound statesman, will count no more than that given by an ignorant, selfish demagogue. Can it be reasonably expected that the representatives of an ignorant county will be as intelligent and competent to enact wise and judicious laws, or take as enlarged and liberal views of the real interests of the commonwealth, as those chosen by a more intelligent constituency? Their honesty and patriotism may be equal, but their legislative competency may justly be questioned. If this be a sound and correct conclusion, then the man of wealth will find no better investment for the small portion of his funds, which such a law would require, than the object contemplated by the passage of such a bill. His property, as far as affected by legislation, is just as much in the power of the representative of a constituency, one third of whom can neither read nor write, as it is in that of the man who has the honor to represent “Old Wayne,” and who may well be proud of the fact that of his 9349 adult constituency in 1840, only forty-four were unable to read.

Pass such a law, and it would immediately remove two of the most formidable obstacles to the prosperity of our schools—the want of adequate funds, and a proper degree of interest in the school by the great mass of the people.”

All six of Mills’ “One of the People” messages are available here.