Policies, Politicians, Polyphonies.

 A short discussion on two politicians who are a part of the same song, but are playing different melodies. 

Sue Errington

Sue Errington has previously served in the Indiana State Senate and is now serving in the Indiana State House of Representatives. She came to my Educational Technology Policy class to speak with us about what it's like to make policies at the state level and what policies are currently being set in place for education. Rep. Errington is a tenured politician, meaning she's been a politician for many years. In my opinion, politicians have their own dialect that is easily recognizable. It's like, someone who lives in New York speaks a certain way (which is likely different than the way you speak if you don't live in New York) and when you hear them speak you're like, "Hey! You're from New York!" Well, I think that politicians, especially ones who have been politicians for a while, have developed their own dialect.

Before I move on, I'd like to stress that having the "politician's dialect" is not a bad thing. It's a necessity for politicians and it's completely acceptable. Now, back to you're regularly scheduled blogging.

Rep. Errington definitely has the politician's dialect. Again, this is not a bad thing! One of the things that's jumped out at me while talking with her was how obvious it was that she is a politician. She has the dialect, she dresses like one, and she has a poised manner like you'd expect one to have.

One thing I learned from Sue, is the (long and arduous) process of policy making at the state level. There are at least twelve steps and seven votes for a bill to become a law in Indiana. This is assuming that all goes well and congress doesn't have to vote on the bill a hundred times before they agree on it. One other important thing that Sue mentioned was that legislators usually vote on the idea and then send it to the legal department to put it into "legalese." I guess I always assumed that the legislators wrote the "legalese" bills/laws out themselves. 

One question that Rep. Errington left me asking (which I should have asked her while she was there), is how often do EDTEC policies get brought up at the state level? Do they get much attention at all? This would be a great question to research or ask a politician about. I expect that it gets an attention level of about 3 on a 1-10 scale, 10 being that's all they talk about. This isn't because I think EDTEC policy is unimportant, it's because I know it works funny. From my research in class, I've noticed how EDTEC policy isn't really a separate entity, it's included in other policies, like budgets, state aid to schools, and within education policy as a whole.  

Sarah O'Brien (middle)

Sarah O'Brien currently serves on the Indiana State Board of Education (SBOE) and is an elementary teacher in Avon, Indiana. My class talked with her via Skype, which is a completely different experience than meeting face to face. One think that I noticed about her was how little she seemed like a politician. She is in the early stages of developing the politician's dialect and, because the meeting was on Skype, she didn't seem as poised as Rep. Errington. That being said, she definitely gave off the teacher-vibe. She was relaxed, very attentive, and ready to answer any questions that came her way. 

From Mrs. O'Brien, I learned that, apparently, some teachers like the common core standards. More importantly, I learned that the process of developing new standards includes a lot of revisions of the past 3 sets of standards and a few new inclusions. This is interesting, because a lot of people have the idea that the SBOE is just cutting and pasting from old standards, but that's not true.

One question Sarah left with me was, "What is it actually like to serve on the SBOE?" She explained their duties and some of the things they talk about, but I guess I'm interested in the interactions they have during sessions. I want to know if the members of the SBOE get along or if they ever go hang out after a session or something. Maybe it's not as important, but I find the way in which humans interact in certain circumstances (like serving on a perceivably divided SBOE) very interesting. 

Party lines

Oh wait.....

To explain my very first sentence, Sue and Sarah both give off the impression that they really want to improve Indiana's education system, but they have different ideas on how to get there. They both realize how terrible it is in comparison to other states. It's relieving, really, because as I talked with Sue and Sarah I got the impression that they were from different political parties. I know politicians, no matter the party, always say things like, "I want to improve education in this state," etc., but they both seemed to be able to explain their differing ideas for improving education well and they both seemed very invested in the topic. Like a Baroque piece of music that may be one piece, but has different melodies playing at once, they both want Indiana's education system to improve, but I'm not sure they want to get to that state of improvement the same way.