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John,

We need to revive our small towns - not abandon them. That’s why this week I called on the Indiana Chamber of Commerce to reexamine its long-time effort to consolidate rural and small town school corporations of less than 2000 students.

I understand the Chamber’s policy goals - everyone wants what’s best for Indiana students. But in my letter, I laid out why this isn’t the right path:
“Eliminating small public school districts through consolidation will be seen as a death knell for the millions of Hoosiers who live in small towns and rural communities.

We need a vision for Indiana that reverses the population decline and makes our small cities and towns a destination to live, work and raise a family as opposed to plans that are perceived to give up on them entirely. For far too long, our state has ignored our small and rural communities and had no plan for them, only giveaways to corporations.

Lobbying for consolidation, no matter how noble the aim, sends the wrong message to the two million Hoosiers who choose to live, work and raise their families in small communities and is ideologically inconsistent with our shared principles of school choice and local control.”
Read the full letter here

The Indiana Chamber’s plan calls for a reduction “by half the number of very small school districts with enrollments below 2,000 students.”

I disagree. We can’t write off the 2 million Hoosiers who live in rural Indiana, and the schools that serve their kids.

Indiana needs to adopt a new bold approach to economic development that treats all 92 counties as communities of opportunity.

Plans like our Indiana Main Street Initiative would take ten percent of what Indiana spends on economic development – around $100 million per year – and redirect it to small towns and rural communities creating more than $16 billion in economic growth in these communities.

That’s the vision we need for rural Indiana: revival instead of decline.

God bless and enjoy the weekend,
Eric Doden
PAID FOR BY DODEN FOR INDIANA.

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