From: Marilyn Hayes
Columbus
Dale Nowlin is running for State Representative of the 59th District. Many letters have been written supporting his candidacy citing his qualifications and character, and they are all persuasive and correct.
But missing from these letters is a critical reason to vote for Nowlin: He would vote on issues very differently than his opponent Ryan Lauer.
I note only two of many that affect a very large segment of the population of the 59th District.
Indiana ranks No. 1 among the states that subtract, i.e. redistribute, tax monies away from our public schools to private and religious schools. This process is called vouchers. Originally, the policy started as a choice to allow low-income students the same equal opportunity to attend non-public schools as other students.
But after five years, with effective lobbying from private schools and Republicans’ ideological desire to privatize things, any student in Indiana could choose to attend a private/religious school and receive the tax monies allotted for their education. This even applied to students who had already been attending and paying the tuition for their private/religious education and had never attended public schools They no longer had to pay for their education as long as the family income was not over $90,000.
What a windfall this was for private/religious schools! The public trough was opened for all schools and put on the taxpayers’ tab. What devastation this was for public education that teaches 93% of our children, and is required to teach all of our children — including special needs — not just the ones they choose to admit.
If you were one who objected to the recent school referendum to raise monies for our school system, your ire should be directed to the Indiana legislature (not Bartholomew Consolidated School Corp.) which enabled tax monies to be leached from the public school budgets to fund private schools. Lauer supports this policy.
Lauer is also one of the Republican men in suits in the Indiana legislative majority.
He proudly touts his endorsement from Indiana Right to Life. There has been no draconian legislation regarding a women’s right to control her body which he has not avidly supported. Republicans have always flaunted their desires for less government with the notable exception of reproductive rights. On that issue, they favor government intrusion.
So for one-half of the population, a critical issue for women is: Who is going to determine your choices as to your reproductive freedom?
You, your spouse, and your doctor, or the Republican men in suits? These men are sure they know the best for you.
This becomes particularly urgent as Amy Coney Barrett prepares to join the Supreme Court. If Roe v. Wade is overturned, individual state laws will prevail. Women’s rights are on the ballot and the Indiana legislature, as now constituted, is not on the side of women.
A vote for Dale Nowlin will begin to change it.
Editor’s note: This letter is paid political content. It is not authorized by any candidate or candidate’s committee.
