No Privatizer President!
Friends and Constituents,
I hope you have all been enjoying your holiday season. I’ve forced myself to slow down and make time for reflection, planning, badly-needed house cleaning and home maintenance, and taking inventory of our wins and struggles thus far in my two years in office.
Now I’m back to the grind, and ready to fight harder and smarter than ever before.
I wanted to quickly acknowledge the horrors of war that Donald Trump has unilaterally imposed upon the people of Venezuela. My comrade and friend JP Lyninger, Metro Councilor in Louisville, typed a statement that resonates with my own thoughts and personal experiences. As a democratic socialist, as a Christian, and as a pacifist, I stand in deep opposition to military adventurism and bombings, and oppose these with every fiber of my being. People sleep homeless on our streets in Indianapolis - every dollar we spend on military actions is a moral outrage when there are residents of District 13 who need the bare necessities of a dignified life.
But most of my email today focuses on antidemocratic actions much closer to home.
Check out the weekly video update, then keep reading for the details.
On December 17th, dozens of people from across Indianapolis came to voice their outrage at the proposed plans that the Indianapolis Local Education Alliance was considering. Central Indiana DSA, the Indianapolis Education Alliance, the IPS Parent Council, IPS principals and administrators, the local NAACP branch, MADVoters, the Concerned Clergy, the Urban League, the Baptist Ministers’ Alliance, and more all came out to voice their collective insistence that the ILEA turn back from their proposed plans and maintain a fully elected school board with all the powers that school boards exercise across the state.
Corrupt abuser Mayor Joe Hogsett and his handpicked appointee, Maggie Lewis, voted to ignore all of these community members in order to placate far-right education privatizers. Mayor Hogsett gaveled the meeting out to the cries of “Shame! Shame!” that followed him for several minutes as he fled the room.
Just five days later, the Democratic caucus announced that they were electing Maggie Lewis to be the new President of the Council, replacing disgraced former President Vop Osili after he was pushed to step down.
I shared my deep disappointment and disgust with this choice in a statement to WISHTV:
“Indiana Open Door Law requires decisions to be made in front of the public at a meeting that provides public notice ahead of time. Antidemocratic supermajority caucuses – Republicans at the Statehouse as well as Democrats on the City-County Council – abuse an exception to the state Open Door Law in order to cut taxpayers and constituents totally out of the decisions. No votes should be made behind closed doors in general, as a matter of public good.
On this vote in particular, the Democratic Caucus is showing its disdain and disregard for the students, teachers, and parents of Indianapolis Public Schools. Less than one week ago, Ms. Lewis voted to ignore the hundreds of public comments demanding fully funded, fully public education. Boos and cries of “shame” rang out loudly after this vote. Voters will remember the Councilors choosing this person as their leader.”
Lewis, along with Vop Osili as members of the Committee on Committees, has seen fit two years in a row to grant every single Republican Councilor twice as many committee assignments as they grant to me - a fellow Democrat. Dozens of constituents have emailed Lewis and Osili to point out that this disenfranchises them as voters - most constituents have not received any response to these messages.
I encourage supporters of public education to take action.
Call and email every member of the Council to ask them not to trust Maggie Lewis as their new President. Show up tomorrow, Monday the 5th, at the Full Council meeting to talk to them in person.
As usual, I will be hosting a People’s Caucus beginning at 6 pm in the Public Assembly Room prior to the 7:00 pm Council meeting. I believe many people will be attending to speak up about the proliferation of data centers in our state, about the LEAP District and its potential impact on our water, and more. I’ll be sending out an annotated agenda via email as usual tomorrow, and will provide copies of the agenda for those attending in person.
I also wanted to invite you all to join me at the Committee on Committees meeting on Tuesday, January 6th at 5:30 pm on the 4th floor of the City-County Building.
We will be asking the new Committee on Committees leaders once again to provide District 13’s representative at least the same number of committees that every Republican-represented district receives.
I’m so grateful for each and every one of you reading this letter and helping with our struggle for fully funded, fully public schools. I still believe that we can defeat the ILEA recommendations, reverse the downward trend caused by the overuse of charter schools, and give all of our children and teachers the education system they deserve. We will get there together. A better world is possible.
In love and solidarity,
Jesse