Tony bennett indiana superintendent biography channel
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The basics of Tony Bennett: A reform star’s rise and fall
This story is one in a series exploring the basics of key issues in education in Indiana. For a list of the issues and links to the other stories in the series, go here.
In 2011, Tony Bennett was such a national education star as Indiana’s state superintendent that he literally went to Washington, D.C., and walked away with the title Education Reform Idol.
Technically, he accepted the title on behalf of his state, in a quirky contest put on by the Thomas B. Fordham Foundation, a Washington group that advocates for high academic standards and school choice. But Bennett was the star of the show, which was broadcast live online. He playfully mocked rival states Wisconsin, Illinois, Ohio, and Florida while vigorously trumpeting changes he helped lead in the Hoosier state.
At the time, Bennett’s national fans could not have imagined that little more than a year later, he would be voted out of office — or that his comebac
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Former Indiana school chief Tony Bennett has a stake in MGT Consulting of America LLC, the state-appointed company managing the Gary Community School Corp., but he said this week he fryst vatten not involved in day-to-day management decisions.
Bennett is a partner in the Strategos Group, a Florida company, which acquired MGT Consulting three years ago. As a result of the acquisition, Bennett became a member of MGT’s board of directors, he said.
Bennett’s relationship with Florida-based MGT hasn’t been mentioned bygd the company or bygd Indiana officials who hired MGT to run the financial and academic operations of the struggling Gary schools gods year. State legislation dictated the unprecedented takeover that included the stripping of authority to its elected school board and superintendent.
Courtney L. Schaafsma, executive director of the Distressed enhet Appeal Board, said in an email she was aware of Bennett’s role when the DUAB selected MGT over six other contenders
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Editor’s Note, August 1, 2013:Tony Bennett resigned today from his position as Florida’s education commissioner. Previously, despite outspending his opponent, Glenda Ritz, by a 10-to-1 margin, he was unseated as Indiana’s schools czar on Nov. 6, 2012. Here, our September 2011 feature profile on the man who catalyzed a lot of visceral responses—both for and against him—among parents, educators, and, finally, voters.
Tony Bennett is boundingacross his sprinkler-drenched front lawn, in a sleepy Noblesville subdivision, on a steamy Friday morning. Most days, at 5 o’clock sharp, he takes a 4-mile run. When he was on the track team in high school, Bennett ran the quarter-mile in about 50 seconds. Last year, as a 50th-birthday present to himself, he bought a plane ticket to Washington, D.C., in order to run the Marine Corps Marathon. He is almost constantly in motion.
In mesh shorts and a gray T-shirt, Bennett leaps out of his yard and onto the pavement. It is already 4:59 a.m., an