Detractors of public education received a big blow last week when it was revealed that former Indiana schools superintendent Tony Bennett manipulated the state's school grading formula to ensure a charter school run by a major Republican donor received an "A" grade. 

Bennett, who was just recently Florida's education commissioner before he resigned last week, was pressured to step down after the Associated Press published the following email to his chief of staff:

This will be a HUGE problem for us….They need to understand that anything less than an A for Christel House compromises all of our accountability work.

Public schools and teachers have been under attack in the form of budget cuts, privatization and the implementation of high-stakes testing in recent years, and the A–F grading system is an illustration of the ridiculous and unfair standards school are being held to. This grading system determines which schools get taken over by the state and whether students seeking state-funded vouchers to attend private school need to first spend a year in public school. It also determines the level of funding schools receive.

AFT Indiana President Rick Muir got on a call with bloggers yesterday to call for an "immediate suspension" of this kind of grading system, which penalizes schools in which the students live in poverty. This grading system sets up public schools to fail so that more money can be funneled into charter and private schools. In fact, two schools that didn't have the same political connections as the charter school could have been spared from being taken over by the state if Bennett offered the same flexibility in the grading system. 

"This is not a good system; a good one would be transparent," said Muir to WIBC News in Indiana. "[A good system] would be thoroughly and collaboratively designed...it would be one that would help school districts improve, rather than punish." 

On the call yesterday, Muir pointed out the grading system was universally opposed by people who spoke at a state school board meeting when it was initially passed. "Thirty-six people spoke against it and not one person spoke in favor."

Muir said teachers support accountability in the classroom but cannot get behind an arbitrary grading system that lacks transparency without input from the people who spend the most time in the classroom every day. Muir said, "If a school is struggling, let’s not hand it over to a private corporation."

Not surprisingly, StudentsFirst founder Michelle Rhee, who has crusaded for the privatization of schools, expanding charter schools and reducing teachers' pensions and eliminatng tenure, praised Bennett for his "leadership."

Bennett's leadership in IN showed his commitment to kids. With better grad rates & fewer failing schools, IN kids benefited from his tenure.

— Michelle Rhee (@MichelleRhee) August 1, 2013

Jeb Bush, former governor of Florida and creator of the Foundation for Excellence in Education, which reportedly writes state education laws to benefit its corporate backers, also tweeted his support for Bennett:

Thanks to @Tony_Bennett’s leadership children are better prepared for success. http://t.co/7xYq8HbAvy

— Jeb Bush (@JebBush) August 1, 2013

The Huffington Post reported that although Bennett resigned, he still stands behind his move to change Indiana's grading formula to make charter schools look better:

When devising Indiana's grading system, he said, he expected "top-performing charter schools" to be rewarded for their performance, but "that didn't happen."

"We found a statistical anomaly that did not allow 13 schools—there's been a focus on one school—but did not allow 13 schools to have their grades truly reflect their performance, and they were unfairly penalized. That wasn't rigging anything," Bennett said. "We did the right thing for Indiana schools and Indiana children."

AFT is calling for a full investigation into Bennett's actions and creating a more collaborative, transparent system for accountability instead of the A–F grading system.