Letter: Stay the course? - Dubois County Free Press, Inc.

Stay the course?

We often hear the definition of insanity is “doing the same thing over and over again and expecting a different result.” Indiana has long had Republican leadership, but what has that leadership done for Hoosiers? Well, let’s just look at the last 20 years.

In areas of healthcare, healthcare quality, public health and infant mortality, Indiana consistently ranks among the bottom 10 states.

It is peculiar that our elected leadership, which is determined that Indiana be “pro-life,” implements policies with results that have not improved our life or our health. Our representatives were among the first to hold a special session after the overturning of Roe v Wade to restrict our reproductive rights, suggesting the phrase is really nothing more than a buzzword to secure votes. A way they have used to avoid engaging with us about any local politics because they didn’t have to.

Why is our state’s education budget being plundered to support charter schools and offer vouchers for private schools? While many of those schools are reputable their mission isn’t “educate the public.” They can discriminate against students (or their parents) based on religion, orientation, or disabilities. Were that not reason enough, fraud is rampant and we are not immune to the costs. The money diverted from our schools is not just for our local students using vouchers for our local private schools. The voucher program can divert local dollars to other counties’ and cities’ schools where we do not vote and our voice is not heard to programs with little oversight. It would seem elected leadership has implemented policies to deliberately make our public schools less effective. How much money will our schools see repurposed? This year Dubois County for example lost over $3 million to these programs.

Our average wage is dead last. Which could explain why businesses like to come to Indiana as we are ranked in the top 20 for growth.

Our representatives being anti-union helps keep wages and benefits low compared to states that do not disenfranchise its workers with so-called “right-to-work” policies, but instead support unions. Union workers’ wages range 10%-20% higher than nonunion workers. Aside from wages, unions secure safety standards, fight for weekends off and vacation, support child labor laws and they can even lift non-union wages due the labor market having to compete with unions.

Are we proud of the work from our republican leaders over the past 20 years?

Matt Johnson
Jasper

References

Indiana ranked 10th-worst state for health care due to high costs, poor outcomes

https://fox59.com/news/indiana-ranked-10th-worst-state-for-health-care-due-to-high-costs-poor-outcomes

Infant Mortality Rates by State

https://www.cdc.gov/nchs/pressroom/sosmap/infant_mortality_rates/infant_mortality.htm

Indiana’s overall child well-being scores decline in new national report