The Truth about Ryan Glick and Allan Kauffman's Letter to the Editor in the Goshen News on November 2nd.
Note: See Part 1 of this saga here. See Part 3 of this saga here.
On November 2nd, the Goshen News published a letter to the editor from sitting Goshen School Board member Allan Kauffman concerning myself and the School Board Mailer. Please see below for my rebuttal of his additional false, misleading, and seemingly implausible claims.
1st Claim:
"In Monday’s letter to the editor, Ryan Glick alluded to "false and misleading information" in a recent mailing to Goshen Community Schools' voters. I received the mailing and carefully reviewed the message."
First, this went to much more than Goshen Community Schools voters. As far as I can tell, it hit every Goshen address, including other school districts. Second, he acts as though he received the message like any other community member and carefully reviewed the message. Can this be true? Three sitting board members and the mother of a fourth were on that mailer. Allan, a sitting board member, is, as I understand, working with Jose to get him reelected. Therefore, five board members out of seven are directly or indirectly connected to that mailer. Who came up with the words chosen? Who chose to use the RedHawk Logo? Who approved the design? And who ultimately paid for it? Could Allan not have known about the content of that mailer? It seems completely implausible. If he did know about it, this offhanded way of acting like he was coming with a clean slate to review the message with no involvement is more than misleading. It is deceptive.
Breaking Update!!!
Allan Kauffman has just stated this:
Ryan Glick for Goshen School Board, District 1 I’m not afraid to admit, and not ashamed to say I wrote the original draft for the candidates to edit. They did so and approved the changed wording. After your criticism, I carefully reread the copy I received, looking to see if final draft in some way justified your criticism. I didn’t find it. You asked who paid for the mailing. The disclaimer stated it was paid for with candidates’ funds. Many community members, retired teachers and others, concerned about this election, contributed to the effort. Yes, I am working with Jose Elizalde as his campaign manager. I’m proud to do it, as I have no doubt that he is by far the better candidate for district 3.
We will find out who paid.
Update 2
We are following the money. And the money leads to.... Allan Kauffman.
The other two candidates are coming, and the total is a substantial sum of money. According to Mario Garber, Alan collected donations and delivered these to the different candidates. As I understand, two received $4,408, and two received $1,177 for a total of $11,170. I will update if the final reports indicate otherwise. If that is a legal way of doing donations (I will find out), on the books, Allan paid for these. If he collected money, it would seem Jose's campaign (since Allan is the campaign manager) received the money and gave it to the other candidates and should have recorded Allan as the receiver and all donations over $100 listed by name. I will find out about that also.
2nd Claim:
"Mr. Glick states the flyer was intended to undermine his campaign and falsely accuses him of not valuing diversity. The flyer describes the agenda of the "Purple for Parents" national organization that endorsed the three local candidates, Ryan, Linda Hartman and Rob Roeder. It does not mention individual candidates' platforms. The word "they" refers to the national agenda of the "Purple for Parents" organization."
The truth: The mailer first says that I am endorsed by Purple for Parents and then says "Be knowledgeable about these candidates' agendas." It then proceeds with Purple for Parents. The direct implication is that the charges made against Purple are charges against me and they are clearly false or misleading charges.
3rd Claim:
"He complains about test scores. They went down across the state during and after the pandemic. School board candidates should know this. And they should have a better understanding why urban schools don't test as well as suburban schools with lower numbers of English language learners and students from poverty. Superintendent Dr. Hope has compared Goshen to schools across Indiana with similar demographics and has not found one doing better. It is a credit to our superbly trained and dedicated teachers."
See below: The blue line is Goshen Community Schools. They have declined every year recorded since 2015, except a slight bump in the last year. Rather than this being a credit, this is proof of the failure of the School Board before the pandemic, and the failure of the response of the School Board during the pandemic. The standard for Goshen Schools is not other schools, it is the state standard. The valedictorian of a class that all failed to pass their exams is still a failure. Goshen is not good simply because it is better than another similar school.
Additionally, even ACT CEO Janet Godwin says it is not the pandemic. "The magnitude of the declines this year is particularly alarming, as we see rapidly growing numbers of seniors leaving high school without meeting the college-readiness benchmark in any of the subjects we measure," Godwin added. "These declines are not simply a byproduct of the pandemic. They are further evidence of longtime systemic failures that were exacerbated by the pandemic. A return to the pre-pandemic status quo would be insufficient and a disservice to students and educators. These systemic failures require sustained collective action and support for the academic recovery of high school students as an urgent national priority and imperative." ABC news: High school class of 2022 had lowest ACT scores in over 30 years, data shows. It is not School Board candidates that should know something. It is the current School Board. Mario Garber said on his facebook page, "The amount of misinformation and general lack of knowledge of some of the school board candidates is astonishing. Please don't be fooled by scare tactics." Janet Godwin is not using scare tactics. It's stating the obvious. The pandemic is not to blame, the system is.
4th Claim:
"Teachers and students fear candidates could get elected this year with radical ideas that will move Goshen Community schools in the wrong direction." What is radical about ACT CEO Janet Godwin saying "These systemic failures require sustained collective action and support for the academic recovery of high school students as an urgent national priority and imperative." What is radical about saying education must come first? What is radical about saying the schools are not supposed to be sex centers for kids? Why is the school board resistant to the blatantly obvious fact that our education is a disaster? Even EducationWeek disagrees with Mr. Kauffman. “Thirty countries now outperform the United States in mathematics at the high school level. Many are ahead in science, too. According to the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, the millennials in our workforce tied for last on tests of mathematics and problem solving among the millennials in the workforces of all the industrial countries tested. We now have the worst-educated workforce in the industrialized world.” Why Other Countries Keep Outperforming Us in Education (and How to Catch Up)
Additionally, we have a current board member who recently posted this on his facebook page:
This article is propaganda from an anti-American, communist newspaper (China Daily) and favorably quotes Karl Marx, the author of the communist manifesto. It says killing children is the key to social progress. How can he call my ideas radical? Radical is already on the School Board.
Vote for change. Vote Ryan Glick for Goshen School Board, District 1 on or before November 8th.