One on One with Tony Bennett

FORT WAYNE, Ind. (WANE) - Change, is the best word to reflect the 2009 year for the Indiana public education system. It's a year that began with a new State Superintendent, and ended with an unprecedented cut to the public education budget.

NewsChannel 15's Chris Hopper sat down with new State Superintendent Tony Bennett to talk about this year of change.

"We're very excited about a new culture, a culture of excellence that says anything but the best for Indiana students isn't good enough," said Tony Bennett, Indiana Superintendent of Public Instruction.

The Governor's announcement of a $300 million cut to the education budget is fresh on everyone's mind. The fear now is teacher's will be the casualty, but Bennett considers that to be the unacceptable type of cut.

"The key to great instruction is great instructional leaders, and we have to maintain that in this state and we have to preserve that," said Bennett.

One thing that will not change in 2010 is the difficulty to find money to make up for general fund losses.

A teacher salary freeze has been proposed, but federal funding will help some. The state wants its schools to be a part of the "Race to the Top" program.

"Race to the Top won't backfill general fund shortfalls, Race to the Top is directed at helping school corporations pursue sustainable education reform," said Bennett.

The Bennett regime also made changes to the way teachers will be licensed in the future. Teachers will spend more time focusing on their content area, and less on how to become a teacher.

"This licensing reform is reform that increases and improves the quality and increases flexibility," said Bennett.

A controversial change came in the form of the I-STEP test. It moved from fall to spring.

The first part of the spring test made some students ill, others gave the test back to the teachers. After further review, Bennett is pleased with the rigor of that test.

"We're not going to have a competitive workforce in the 21st century by making things easier for our kids," said Bennett.

Admittedly this year of change leaves a lot on Bennett's plate for 2010, but he said, this transition is forcing other states to take notice.

"We believe that being in the middle of the pack in a nation that's in the middle of the pack is a good opportunity for Indiana to take the lead and go from the middle of the pack to the top of the heap," said Bennett.