Sad, Sad, Sad.

I moved to DC in early 2001 from Indianapolis, where I had worked in the Statehouse for the previous six years as a Democratic staffer for the state Senate and then the governor. That meant, necessarily, working at various times in close concert with the state teachers union. The union reps were by and large smart, committed people who fought hard for public education, and I have a very clear memory of all of us gathered in a downtown hotel ballroom on a cold election night in November 1999 celebrating the election of Bart Peterson as the new Mayor of Indianapolis.

It was a watershed moment. Indiana is a red state by inclination, and Republicans had dominated the mayoralty and city council in Indianapolis ever since the city and surrounding county governments had merged in 1970. Blowout losses in city-county elections became a habit and Republican dominance a foregone conclusion, until Peterson arrived as young, dynamic candidate who ran a smart campaign against the sitting Secretary of State and won by double digits. It was what candidates often promise and rarely deliver: A new day, a sense that things are different now.

And Bart followed through. He was a strong, sensible mayor who brought a lot of great ideas to the table, particularly on education. Legally, Indianapolis mayors have little say over the budget or administration of the city-county schools, which are split into eleven separately-governed and financed school districts, a legacy of racial segregation. But where other mayors ran away from the public schools as a money pit and an insoluble mess, Bart took responsibility for the success of public charter schools that he personally authorized. No blaming poverty or the school board or circumstances beyond his control. He said, I stand by these schools; judge me by judging them.

So it was a shock to learn that Bart narrowly lost his bid for re-election on Tuesday to a little-known, under-financed challenger. Frankly, I didn't even bother to check yesterday morning, I assumed winning was a foregone conclusion. Initial news coverage lay the blame on turnout, voter fatigue, and anti-tax anger. But now, via Eduwonk, we learn that lack of support from a city teachers union angered by charter schools played a role:

The Indianapolis Public Schools Teacher's Union did not endorse a mayoral candidate, but Indianapolis Education Association President Al Wolting believes many IPS teachers and employees voted against Peterson because of his support for charter schools.

"All they're doing is taking our students, taking our money and they're taking away all our efforts we're trying to make with public schools," said Wolting.

Wolting admits however that he doesn't know the mayor-elect's position on charter schools. [Mayor-elect] Ballard admits he rarely was asked about education on the campaign trail.

"Yes, I plan to continue charter schools," said Ballard. In fact, Ballard sounds as if he may start one of his own. "I have a model that I'd like to try but if that's ineffective then we'll move to something else because every kid in this city deserves a fair shot."

This should be said until nobody says otherwise: Charters schools are public schools. Public. Schools. That doesn't mean all charter schools are good public schools, but guess what--Indianapolis charters turn out to among the good ones, overall, at least compared to the traditionally-governed public schools from which students voluntarily left were "taken."

So what can we expect, educationally, from the conservative Republican mayor my former teachers union colleagues helped put in office? Who knows? It's hard to tell from reading his education agenda, other than charter schools are the one Peterson initiative he supports. Indianapolis will apparently be getting some kind of "public-nonprofit partnership" involving "the faith community" and "character education starting in the 5th grade." Hopefully the local union has socked away some money because more school funding is decidedly not on the way. Says the mayor-elect, apparently unaware that Indiana has these things called academic standards:

Do we have any goals for our school systems? Not that I can tell. Without defined goals, we really don’t know how many resources we need. We do know that our graduation rates and literacy rates throughout the city are unacceptable, and I don’t believe more money is the answer.

Sad, sad, sad.