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Indianas largest teachers union gave its official support to Democratic gubernatorial candidate Jennifer McCormick on Wednesday, citing her common sense and bipartisanship approach to state politics and education policy.

Speaking on the south steps of the Statehouse Wednesday morning, Indiana State Teachers Association (ISTA) President Keith Gambill announced its political action committee, I-PACE, has endorsed McCormick, a former teacher and principal who served as Indianas final elected superintendent of public instruction from 2017 to 2021.

I cant teach a kid thats not there. Indiana lawmakers give final approval to absenteeism bill

Shes the only gubernatorial candidate on the Democratic primary ballot and has already effectively secured her place on the November ballot.

There are six candidates vying for the Republican nomination. The victor will face McCormick and Libertarian nominee Donald Rainwater who was chosen in a party convention in the general election.

Today, as we face continuous challenges that threaten the fabric of public education, we need a leader like Dr. McCormick, someone who understands these issues deeply not just from the perspective of policy but through the lens of personal experience as a teacher, and a principal and an administrator, Gambill said. I call upon all supporters of public education, all who believe in a brighter future for Indiana, to stand with us. Stand with a leader who has proven she can uplift our educational standards and advocate tirelessly for our needs.

Speaking to a small crowd at the announcement event, McCormick emphasized that Indiana must reinvest in its traditional public schools not private voucher programs in order to reverse lagging literacy, increase teacher recruitment and retention, and improve overall outcomes for Hoosier students.

As the governor, I will be committed to kids kids first, always. I will tell you, though, in order to make that promise come true, we must take care of our teachers, McCormick said. If we take care of our teachers and give them the support that they dont only need, but that they deserve, everybody wins. Our kids win. Our families win. Our communities win. The State of Indiana wins. We need to make sure that is the goal.

I-PACEs endorsement provides McCormicks campaign with financial support and other resources, Gambill said. The PAC currently has about $1.3 million cash on hand, according to state campaign finance filings. Gambill said the committee hasnt decided if it will support any other statewide candidates yet.

Lawmakers seek to require science of reading in all Indiana schools to improve literacy rates

A former Republican, McCormick fell out of favor with the Indiana GOP while serving as state superintendent.

The Republican-controlled legislature with approval from Gov. Eric Holcomb eliminated the elected position and replaced it with a Secretary of Education, who is appointed by the governor.

McCormick switched sides to become a Democrat shortly after. She announced her campaign for governor in May 2023 and formally filed to run in February.

Angie Hood, an educator in Warren Township in Indianapolis, said that in her 25 years of teaching, things have drastically changed and not for the better. She said she wants to see McCormick in office to better support teachers and the tools they need in their classrooms.

Theres been a lot of push for testing. Unfortunately, with the push for testing, we have seen a decline in students mental health as well as teachers mental health because it is a lot of stress on the young people, and they feel like theyre being tested too much. And they are not being encouraged to use the different sensory skills in order to learn, Hood said.

Jennifer understands that schools must meet the needs of individual students, she continued. She believes that all students can learn with appropriate support, starting with early childhood through post-secondary education. Her common sense approach is needed to move our community forward.

In her remarks, McCormick criticized existing statewide education policies, including changes to teacher licensure requirements and increased standardized testing for students.

She specifically took aim at a new law passed earlier this year that requires educators for Pre-K to Grade 6 to complete 80 hours of professional development on science of reading concepts and pass a written exam. Teachers wont be able to renew their license without doing so.

Stacy Kurdelak, a special education teacher at Rensselaer Central High School, said the new rule makes her and her colleagues feel disrespected.

Along with my 28 years of experience, I hold a masters degree, I have a professionalized Indiana teaching license in four areas, and I am consistently evaluated as highly effective by my building administrator. But, according to the state, it is no longer enough, said Kurdelak, who voiced support for McCormick on Wednesday.

Indiana schools get legislative green light to break up ILEARN testing throughout school year

I think it was a knee-jerk reaction to the literacy rate problem, McCormick added. I thought it was sloppy, at best. And I just think it was a knee-jerk reaction to appease that theyre doing something under the Republican Party.

McCormick noted, too, that existing literacy intervention programming for the states youngest students has underfunded for years. Dollars needed for local school districts to host summer school have also been cut short, she said.

She maintained that increased funding for those areas would be a more effective use of state resources for ensuring Hoosier kids are on track with reading. Looking at the root causes of literacy deficiencies will be expensive, though, she said.

Education makes up just over 50% of the states biennial budget. Lawmakers will convene and craft the next budget during the 2025 legislative session.

The Democratic hopeful also criticized a separate new law that will require IREAD standardized testing to begin in second grade and continue into third grade. Students who fail the test three times will be held back and have to repeat third grade.

McCormick said investments in childcare and providing universal pre-K education would be better approaches. If elected, those are the types of issues she promised her administration would focus on.

(Voters) are tired of extremism. Theyre tired of infighting amongst the party. They want a focus on everyday issues impacting our lives, like taking away our healthcare rights and freedoms, like not having access to affordable healthcare, like not having access to great paying jobs. Theyre worried about our public schools. Theyre worried about their kids education. Theyre worried about our environment, McCormick said. They want to see someone who can have those conversations in a civil, calm, commonsense, bipartisan way.

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Democrat Jennifer McCormick gets teacher union endorsement in race for Indiana governor Indiana Capital Chronicle - Indiana Capital Chronicle

The Biden campaign is mounting a concerted push to attack former President Donald J. Trump over statements he made to Time magazine in a wide-ranging interview published Tuesday morning, particularly on abortion.

In the interview, Mr. Trump refused to commit to vetoing a national abortion ban and said he would allow states to monitor womens pregnancies and prosecute those who violated abortion restrictions.

This is reprehensible, President Biden wrote on X. Donald Trump doesnt trust women. I do.

Julie Chavez Rodriguez, Mr. Bidens campaign manager, said in a statement that Mr. Trump would sign a national abortion ban, allow women who have an abortion to be prosecuted and punished, allow the government to invade womens privacy to monitor their pregnancies and put I.V.F. and contraception in jeopardy nationwide.

Abortion has become a winning issue for Democrats, and Mr. Biden has argued that Mr. Trump and Republicans will continue to erode abortion rights. He and Vice President Kamala Harris have campaigned heavily on the issue in battleground states, and Democrats hope that state ballot initiatives to protect abortion rights will help their candidates for president, Congress and state offices. Their messaging has sought to pin state abortion bans directly on Mr. Trump, whose appointees to the Supreme Court helped overturn Roe v. Wade.

Gov. Gavin Newsom, Democrat of California, posted screenshots of the interview on X, writing that Mr. Trump had said he would let red states monitor womens pregnancies and prosecute those who violate abortion bans and had hinted at banning abortion pills.

Hell see what women think about that this November, said Gov. Gretchen Whitmer of Michigan, also a Democrat.

The former president also told Time that he would deploy the U.S. military to detain and deport migrants, and did not dismiss the possibility of political violence should he lose the election.

Democrats highlighted some of those statements as well.

Donald Trumps repeated threats of political violence are as horrifying and dangerous as they are un-American, said Alex Floyd, a spokesman for the Democratic National Committee. Trump is hellbent on threatening our democracy, win or lose.

Hillary Clinton urged her followers on X to read about Mr. Trumps plans for a second term and take them seriously.

Mr. Trumps interview in which he faced detailed and probing questions about his policy positions reveals the pitfalls for candidates when they sit down with mainstream news organizations. Mr. Trump does so rarely. But Mr. Biden has been even more averse to being questioned by journalists, a traditional undertaking of those running for the White House.

The presidents two most recently released interviews have been on The Howard Stern Show and the comedy podcast SmartLess.

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Biden and Democrats Seize on Trumps Interview With Time Magazine - The New York Times

A rematch of the Republican primary for the 50th state House District is now set for the fall.

Stephanie Waggett, who lost to state Rep. Bud Cook in the Republican primary last week, secured enough Democratic write-in votes to run against him again in November.

According to unofficial results from the April 23 primary, Waggett received 413 write-in votes from Democrats 338 of which came from Greene County voters giving her more than the 300 needed to get on the ballot in the general election. Cook received 228 write-ins, while registered Democrat Drew Ross Manko of North Bethlehem Township, who made the effort to run a write-in campaign, received 133 votes.

Cook, a four-term Republican incumbent from West Pike Run Township, easily defeated Waggett in the GOP primary, receiving 3,920 votes compared to her share of 2,367, according to unofficial results. Most surprising is that Cook had a sizable vote advantage in Greene County, despite Waggett living in Cumberland Township.

The district includes all of Greene County and parts of Washington County. While the district offers a voter registration advantage for Republicans, the general election will allow Democrats and independents to also have a say in who they want to represent them in the state legislature.

Meanwhile, in the South Hills of Pittsburgh, state Rep. Natalie Mihalek will have a Democratic challenger in the November election.

Peter Kohnke of Bethel Park easily surpassed the 300 write-in votes he needed from Democrats during the April 23 primary to get on the ballot to run for the 40th state House District seat.

The district, which Mihalek has represented since winning her first election in 2018, includes Peters Township in Washington County and Bethel Park and the southern area of Upper St. Clair in Allegheny County.

Democrats urged their voters to write-in Kohnkes name since the party did not have anyone receive enough nominating signatures to get on the primary ballot. According to unofficial vote totals, Kohnke received 534 votes in Allegheny County and 326 write-ins from Washington County voters, giving him nearly three times the number needed to qualify for the Nov. 5 general election.

Mihalek, R-Peters, received 5,757 votes from Republicans 3,755 in Allegheny County and 2,002 in Washington County in the uncontested primary.

The results must be certified by the county elections boards no later than May 13 and sent to the state Department of State.

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Waggett wins Democratic nomination in 50th, setting up rematch with Rep. Cook - Observer-Reporter

Organizations like the Democratic Socialists of America (DSA) continue to gain prominence, growing from 24,000 members in 2017 to 92,000 members today. So, what is Democratic Socialism? Democratic socialism is fairly easy to define based on the two components of its name: democratic, meaning rule by the people, and socialism, meaning that the workers own the means of production.

The first principle seeks to mend the source of many criticisms of forms of socialism, putting the direct will of the people above all else andfullysubjecting any structures of power to the desires of the people not those holding office. This focus on democracyis enshrinedin the national DSA Constitution and the constitutions of every local DSA chapter.

The second workers owning the means of production is the central end goal of the labor movement, which democratic socialists wholeheartedly support.Whether fromin-depth economic analyses like Capital or through observing historical and modern material conditions, socialists agree on one central principle: theliberation of the masses at large the working masses can only come from those masses owning the means of production. These two principles are agreed upon by all members of DSA, even those who do not consider themselves democratic socialists.

As an organization, DSA does not form an ideological hegemony; a wide variety of political views are represented throughout chapters around the country. Instead, members are committed to one shared goal: to progress society however they can. Thanks to their popularity as members of Congress, Bernie Sanders and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortezare commonly cited as examples of democratic socialists. Most socialists would not consider them such. Instead, they are considered social democrats a capitalist designation developing out of a regression from the principles of prior socialist organizations like the Russian Social Democratic Labour Party. Likewise, countries often regarded as socialist, like Sweden, Norway, Denmark, and Finland, are also social democracies; they arestill capitalist states but have a greater focus on providing services to the people than more laissez-faire capitalist nations like the United States.

Due to its organizations diversity and the desire to recruit all who want to change the world, regardless of age, DSA involves high school and college students through the Young Democratic Socialists of America or YDSA. Here in Fullerton, a YDSA chapter is currently being organized at CSUF toorganize the citys youth and work to improve Fullerton and CSUF. So far, this has included advocacy against crippling tuition hikes, calls for the demilitarization of Fullerton PD, and efforts to protect free speech on campus.

If you have any questions about democratic socialism or want to makechange happen, contact Titan YDSA at csufydsa@gmail.com. If you want to join DSA but are not a current student, contact Orange County DSA at https://ocdsa.org to learn more.

(Note for transparency/clarification: while this post generally conveys the original ideas as submitted, it has been edited to some degree)

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Understanding what Democratic Socialists of America are and how they differ from social Democrats - Fullerton Observer

More than 100 people rallied and marched through Surfers Paradise at Australias Gold Coast on Saturday to denounce the intensifying Israeli genocide in Gaza and the Albanese Labor governments ongoing diplomatic and military support for the mass murder of Palestinians.

Led by young workers and Middle Eastern families, it was the latest in weekly protest activities in the city. Gold Coast, although mostly known as a tourism destination, is Australias sixth largest city, with a population exceeding 650,000, including many working-class people.

There were spirited chants, such as free, free Palestine and Albanese you cant hide, youre supporting genocide during the rally and march. Many onlookers were supportive, another sign of the widespread disgust and opposition to the crimes being committed by the Israeli regime with the backing of the US and its allies, including Australia.

Mike Head, a Socialist Equality Party national committee member and WSWS correspondent, addressed the rally at the invitation of the organisers. He began by posing the burning questions we all confront: How can the genocide in Gaza be ended? And how can we stop the wider plunge to war by the US and its allies?

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Head said the harsh reality was that the Israeli regime and its backers in Washington and Canberra had doubled down on the mass killings, despite millions of people around the globe, including in Australia, joining the largest worldwide anti-war movement in decades.

Over the past week, the protest movement has grown in the US, especially on the university campuses, he said. Following the arrests of more than 100 students at Columbia University in New York, encampments have been set up at least 40 universities across the US, and spread to other countries, including here.

In response, the Biden administration, in alliance with the fascist-led Republican Party, has backed a massive police mobilisation against the students. The ruling class is effectively moving to criminalise political opposition to the Gaza genocide, slandering it as antisemitic, even though many Jewish students are involved.

Head warned that the Albanese government and the police-intelligence agencies were trying to create the political conditions for similar repression in Australia by orchestrating sweeping police raids to arrest Islamic teenagers on flimsy terrorism charges without any evidence of terrorist plots or plans.

This is as the final stage of the genocide is now looming, with intensifying bombings in the southern Gaza city of Rafah, where over 1.5 million Palestinians are crammed in shocking conditions, and plans to forcibly remove them all into tents.

The US Congress had just given bipartisan support to another $US95 billion for war fundingfor the US-NATO proxy war against Russia in Ukraine, for arming Israel for its genocide in Gaza and military confrontation with Iran, and for building up Taiwan as a war base against China.

Also attached to the bill was another $3 billion for the AUKUS submarine program, which was aimed directly at China.

These developments make clear the connection between the Gaza genocide and the wider plunge to potential nuclear wars by US imperialism against Iran, Russia and China, Head stated.

Many protest leaders had presented Gaza as a single issue, unconnected to any other developments and the history of US wars, including from Vietnam to Iraq. And they had kept urging people to write to MPs and send petitions to the very same capitalist politicians responsible for the slaughter in Gaza.

The task is not to issue requests to these governments, but to build a mass political movement aimed at overthrowing them and the capitalist system they defend, Head said to applause.

Via the AUKUS military pact with the US and the UK, the Albanese Labor government was completing Australias transformation into a frontline state for war against China, including via US basing arrangements.

It is a political dead end to try to convince politicians and governments to adopt a more humane policy in Gaza, while they carry out policies that could blow up the world.

The same goes for appeals to the trade union apparatuses. They are completely aligned with the Labor government. They have not called a single strike against the genocide.

We urge workers to mobilise independently of the union bureaucracies and all the parties of the ruling class, including the Greens, to immediately stop weapons deliveries and arms production for the genocide in Gaza and other US-instigated wars.

We explain that to really fight the genocide and war, we have to turn to the revolutionary force in society, the global working class. But that poses the need for a genuine socialist party in Australia and on a world scale.

Head urged everyone at the rally to register for this years International May Day Online Rally, organised by the International Committee of the Fourth International. This global rally will be centred on the development of a working class and socialist movement against imperialist war.

He also urged people to sign up as electoral members of the Socialist Equality Party so that we can have the basic democratic right to have our partys name on the ballot for the next federal election to broadcast the existence of a genuine socialist, anti-war party.

After the rally, Jasmine, a young worker from New Zealand, signed up for the partys mailing list, and wrote thank you on the form. She said she wanted to express her appreciation that Head had explained the link between the horror in Gaza and the US war moves against Russia and China.

A doctor who participated in the rally said she had first been motivated to join the anti-genocide protests by the fact that the Israeli forces were killing 100 children a day. At that rate, my sons school would be eliminated in a fortnight.

But this was the first time she had heard a real analysis presented at any Gaza protest rally. That speech explained the connection to the wider war drive by the US and its allies. It was very informative and resonated with the audience. It contextualised many of the facts about the genocide and clarified the broader significance of the genocide to international geo-politics and why Israel is being backed by the US and Australia.

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Australia: Gold Coast Gaza rally hears socialist anti-war perspective - WSWS