ANDREA NEAL: You can thank Gov. Bowen for tax relief

Otis Bowen will go down in history as the governor who delivered landmark property tax relief to Hoosiers. He also deserves mention for what happened on Gov. Mitch Daniels’ watch: a tax reform amendment to the state Constitution.

ANDREA NEAL: Journalists still make a difference

A recent survey ranked newspaper reporter as the worst career of 2013, just below meter reader and lumberjack, but you wouldn’t guess it from the stories told by journalists who gathered in Bloomington to see six of their own inducted into the Indiana Journalism Hall of Fame.

ANDREA NEAL: Pence's leadership challenge

Only three months into his term, Gov. Mike Pence has taken a beating for failing to lead. Opinion writers, Democrats, even fellow Republicans, have offered all manner of conflicting counsel.

ANDREA NEAL: Concerns mounting over Common Core standards

When right and left wing activists find themselves on the same side of a controversy, it’s worth probing why. Such is the case with the Common Core academic standards being implemented in Indiana and 45 other states. Conservatives and progressives alike see problems with them.

ANDREA NEAL: For growth's sake, cut Indiana income tax

Popular perception to the contrary, Indiana is not a low-tax state. When you add up all the different taxes – property, sales and income assessed by federal, state or local government – we rank right in the middle.

ANDREA NEAL: Obamacare bill sparks Long debate on democracy

Indiana Senate President David Long says he's trying to be a leader, not a dictator. That's why he assigned Senate Bill 230 to the Rules Committee, where it is not to see the light of day.

ANDREA NEAL: Daniels sets sights on higher ed reform

Mitch Daniels’ recent letter to the Purdue University community was the equivalent of a 12-page research paper on the state of higher education, so Boilermakers can be forgiven if they didn't read every word of it. The content merits attention from all Hoosiers, no matter their college loyalties.

ANDREA NEAL: Indy lacks critical mass for mass transit

There is one inescapable reason that a regional mass-transit system will not succeed in the Indianapolis area.

ANDREA NEAL: Civic literacy should be on Pence's agenda

For a country saturated 24/7 in media, our ignorance of politics is stunning. Sixty-two percent of us can't identity the governor, according to a survey by Xavier University. Three-fourths can't answer the question, "What does the judiciary branch do?"

ANDREA NEAL: Government rules trump Indiana company's beliefs

When the officers of Grote Industries sat down to discuss a possible legal challenge to the contraceptive mandate in the national health care law, the vote was immediate and unanimous. “We decided that it was definitely against our beliefs,” says Chairman and CEO William Grote III.

ANDREA NEAL: Lugar solved problems before others even saw them

Dick Lugar set a record as the longest-serving U.S. senator in Indiana history, yet his career can be summed up in a single word: visionary. During 50 years in Indiana politics his chief concern was never the next election but the next generation and the common good.

ANDREA NEAL: Lincoln film portrays politics of principle

Steven Spielberg’s "Lincoln" couldn't have come out at a better time. With congressional leaders hunkered down in fiscal-cliff negotiations, the film offers a useful example of politics based on principle.

ANDREA NEAL: Hoosier voters didn't renounce education reform

It’s ludicrous to equate Tony Bennett’s defeat in the school superintendent’s race with public rejection of a school reform agenda, as many in the education bureaucracy are trying to do.

ANDREA NEAL: Daniels is education reform governor

Mitch Daniels used his first term to get Indiana’s fiscal house in order. His second term sealed his reputation as the education reform governor.

ANDREA NEAL: Daniels helped state weather recession

In his first State of the State address in 2005, Gov. Mitch Daniels announced, “Our state’s public finances are in ruins.” Unaware of the coming recession, he made four promises to citizens: To work to strengthen the economy, make government leaner and more efficient, modernize infrastructur…

ANDREA NEAL: Reading 20 minutes a day is reform that works

Before lawmakers throw money at the thorny issue of early-childhood education they should consider an experiment in Richmond aimed at getting parents to read to their children daily.

ANDREA NEAL: Cut Indiana's sales tax to 6.5%

At 3.4 percent, Indiana’s personal income tax is one of the nation’s lowest. A half dozen states, including Texas and Florida, don’t charge income tax at all; 41 states impose a rate higher than Indiana’s.

ANDREA NEAL: Why women don't run for political office

One day after Ann Romney’s Republican National Convention speech, the Associated Press devoted an entire article to her “tasteful, conservative and appropriate wardrobe.” Former Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice delivered an issue-packed endorsement of Mitt Romney, and Wall Street Journal …

ANDREA NEAL: A two-century tradition of negative attacks

Don’t blame Mitt Romney and Barack Obama for the ugly tone of the 2012 presidential race. Blame John Adams and Thomas Jefferson. They started it.

ANDREA NEAL: DCS is turning around, slowly but surely

Running the Indiana Department of Child Services is harder than being Marion County juvenile judge “by a factor of 18,” Jim Payne concedes.

ANDREA NEAL: Daniels giving next governor a fiscal head start

Call it Mitch Daniels’ gift to the next governor. While 31 states are still struggling to close budget shortfalls blamed on the recession, Indiana is touting the largest surplus in its history: $2.15 billion.

ANDREA NEAL: Tall trees and American exceptionalism

Visalia, Calif. — In Sequoia National Park in California, tall trees beckon one million visitors a year. The tourists come from all over the world to see something exceptional: the largest living things on Earth.

ANDREA NEAL: ISTA is still crying wolf over education reforms

In Chicago, teachers are poised to go on strike over a pay metric they think is unfair, longer school days they’d rather not work, and class sizes they consider unreasonable.

ANDREA NEAL: Colleges fail students in the liberal arts

Congratulations and best of luck to the Class of 2012. Even with a degree in hand, they’ll need it.

ANDREA NEAL: Divisive primary could affect November outcome

If family feuds make you squirm, you'll be glad when this primary's over. While Democrats across Indiana have lain low, infighting among Republicans has rivaled that of Cain and Abel.

ANDREA NEAL: 2012 election will determine our bicentennial governor

The next governor will have a unique opportunity to refine Indiana's reputation and mold its future. That's true of every governor, of course, but it will be even more so for John Gregg or Mike Pence because one of them will oversee Indiana's bicentennial.

ANDREA NEAL: All-boys charter school sets educational first

ISTEP passage rates at the Charles A. Tindley Accelerated School in Indianapolis are among the state's highest, but the school's leaders and supporters believe they can be higher still.

ANDREA NEAL: Online learning sacrifices traditional cognitive skills

The average teen spends 16.7 hours a week on the Internet, not counting time spent with email, according to a survey by Yahoo! and ad agency Carat Interactive. Kaiser Family Foundation says kids ages 8 to 18 spend more than seven and a half hours a day using a smart phone, computer, televisi…

ANDREA NEAL: Like his voting record or not, Lugar is definition of Hoosier

To borrow a phrase from the late Potter Stewart, I may not be able to define the word Hoosier, but I know one when I see him. And Sen. Dick Lugar is the quintessential Hoosier.

ANDREA NEAL: Sounding the death knell for 'No Child Left Behind'

According to U.S News & World Report, it is one of the nation's best large high schools.

ANDREA NEAL: Time for a reality check on mass transit

Merriam-Webster defines wishful thinking as "the attribution of reality to what one wishes to be true or the tenuous justification of what one wants to believe." It's an apt description for folks clamoring to spend hundreds of millions on a central Indiana mass-transit plan. We can pump in m…

ANDREA NEAL: Year-round university good for parents, taxpayers

Purdue University's decision to convert to a year-round trimester system is good for students, good for parents and long-run will be good for taxpayers. The only downside is that it might take 10 years to fully implement.

ANDREA NEAL: 2012 resolution is no more pork

A mile from my home, construction is set to begin on a $15 million parking garage and retail center. Its purpose is to relieve congestion in a trendy Indianapolis bar district called Broad Ripple. Citizens are subsidizing the 350-space garage with $6.3 million in parking-meter revenues.

ANDREA NEAL: Changing school board is first step to reform

Changing the selection process for the Indianapolis Public Schools board is no silver bullet, but it is an essential step toward transformation of the state's largest school system.

ANDREA NEAL: When feds spend highway money, taxpayers get fleeced

Right before his inauguration in 2009, Barack Obama invited the nation's governors to meet with him in Philadelphia to discuss the nation's economic problems. Indiana Gov. Mitch Daniels teamed up with his buddy, Pennsylvania Gov. Ed Rendell, to start a conversation about federal stimulus spe…

ANDREA NEAL: Daniels' legacy is Indiana's infrastructure

With a full year left of Mitch Daniels' governorship, there's not much left on his "to do list" because he's done it already. His foremost accomplishment boils down to one word: infrastructure.

ANDREA NEAL: No place for cowards in right-to-work debate

The Indiana General Assembly's 2012 session will be fraught with risk for Democrats and Republicans alike. At some point, lawmakers will have to vote on right-to-work legislation, and those votes will carry political consequences.

ANDREA NEAL: Indiana election fraud: Is corruption contagious?

In St. Joseph County, the prosecutor is investigating claims that hundreds of signatures were forged on petitions to qualify Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton for the state presidential primary ballot in 2008.

ANDREA NEAL: Indy streetlights still burning

Rummaging around in my purse for quarters to feed a parking meter Friday, I muttered something under my breath about City Hall. As a result of Mayor Greg Ballard's 2010 lease agreement with a private vendor, I not only pay more to park on city streets but have to check my watch to determine …

ANDREA NEAL: Election law 'slipped by' GOP leadership

If getting people to vote wasn't hard enough already, a new Indiana law will further stifle democratic spirit on Nov. 8. The measure removes from the ballot municipal candidates who are unopposed.

ANDREA NEAL: Civic education is antidote to our cynicism

"My vote doesn't matter." That's how a 23-year-old Hoosier justified his failure to vote in the past several elections. It's a surprisingly common attitude. According to the first ever report on Indiana's civic health, Hoosiers register to vote, cast ballots and talk politics a lot less than…

GUEST COMMENTARY: Testing key to 'exemplary' schools

Test. Remediate. Test again. Repeat. This is the formula for Indiana schools striving to comply with accountability provisions of Indiana Public Law 221 and the No Child Left Behind Act.

ANDREA NEAL: It's all about reading at 'Third Grade Academy'

When their city got the nickname "dropout factory" a few years back, retired businessmen Vic Jose and Rick Ahaus decided to do something about it. Four years later, the Third Grade Academy -- an intensive summer program for struggling readers -- is nudging ISTEP scores higher. It's also insp…

ANDREA NEAL: Right-to-work states have economic edge

It doesn't take an economist to spot the common thread in these recent economic development headlines:

ANDREA NEAL: Debt crisis offers unique opportunity

In 1995, Congress came within one vote of passing a balanced budget amendment. Dan Coats and Dick Lugar voted in favor of the amendment and to this day lament the missed opportunity.

ANDREA NEAL: A bicentennial chance to spotlight Indiana

Before taking the oath of citizenship last week at the Benjamin Harrison Presidential Site, 90 soon-to-be Hoosiers learned this fact from Judge Sarah Evans Barker. Five vice presidents have come from Indiana: Schuyler Colfax, Thomas Hendricks, Charles Fairbanks, Thomas Marshall and Dan Quayl…

ANDREA NEAL: Summer reading, done right, can boost skills

Here's a troubling bit of educational data that deserves more attention than it's been getting from Indiana policymakers: The reading achievement gap between poor kids and their more affluent peers narrows during the school year and widens disproportionately during the summer.

ANDREA NEAL: Rehearing doubtful in police entry lawsuit

Indiana Gov. Mitch Daniels, Attorney General Greg Zoeller, House Speaker Brian Bosma, Senate President Pro Tem David Long and the attorney for a man convicted of battery on a police officer all agree: The Indiana Supreme Court went too far when it ruled 3-2 "that there is no right to reasona…

ANDREA NEAL: Presidential primaries weed out good presidential prospects

Bring back the smoke-filled rooms, please. Without the smoke. Thoughtful deliberation by political insiders intent on winning the general election would produce far better candidates for president than the mass-media vetting process we use now.

ANDREA NEAL: In Indiana, textbooks aren't necessarily books

Indiana Superintendent of Public Instruction Tony Bennett wasn't exaggerating when he declared, "From top to bottom, it's a new world for Indiana schools." Even textbooks won't look the same.