Loading ...Be Careful What You Wish For!
The Indiana State Teacher’s Association will file suit tomorrow arguing Indiana’s system of funding education violates state law and the State Constitution. ISTA argues the state has put mandates on schools to perform, but has not provided the necessary funding. Indiana is not alone, according to some research I did this morning, 37 states have been sued over education funding, 21 have been successful and nine are pending.
Dan Clark of ISTA says the organization is not asking for a property tax increase to pay for funding, but an increase in the income tax on the wealthiest of Hoosiers to close the gap. Clark downplayed the idea of forcing school districts to consolidate as a way to provide more dollars for schools, saying it should be voluntary.
However, as my good friend RiShawn Biddle reports on his Expresso web blog, ISTA could end up with a result it wasn’t expecting. Under the current formula districts that loose students have their funding phased out over three years while those who gain students get the funding phased in over three years. So a district like Hamilton County that is growing is negatively impacted, while those who lose students like IPS, get to keep their dollars.
If the funding formula is changed and the money follows the student immediately, this could have a serious deleterious effect on the schools and districts that need the money the most.
Like I said, be careful what you wish for. You just might get it.
April 19th, 2006 at 8:17 am
Thought this story from the Huntington Herald-Press that could provide some insight into this topic:
Background: This school system in the last 5 years have added 3 new school and a new athletic fieldhouse.
I’ve summarized the article below and attached the link.
CONTRACT’S FINANCIAL IMPACT COULD BE DIRE ON SCHOOLS
http://www.h-ponline.com/articles/2006/04/13/news/01teachertalks.txt
The board and administrators of the Huntington County Community School Corporation set the ultimatum before teachers Wednesday night - compromise a contract or we’ll cut you, cut extra programs, even close and consolidate school buildings if we have to.
“We don’t want to go there, but it’s realistic to understand that that’s where we’re going to go if things don’t change,” Superintendent Tracey Shafer said.
Teachers, represented by Valerie Conner, said their salaries aren’t as high as they want them to be. They’re paying more out-of-pocket expenses to their insurance trust to cover medicines and doctor visits, which they can’t do without. Teachers at the high school don’t have enough time to prepare for their classes, and the current seven-period day schedule there isn’t what teachers and administrators recommended to the board.
The board and administrators, represented by Bill Sweet, said they know what teachers want but don’t have the money to give it to them. The corporation is getting less and less money from the state. With the current salary schedule, HCCSC can’t afford to pay teachers’ salaries and all but $1 of their insurance. Over 93 percent of the corporation’s largest fund, the general fund, goes to pay teacher salaries and benefits. The corporation can’t even keep enough cash in the general fund to cover more than a month of payroll. Surplus money in the insurance fund will run out in two years. If HCCSC has to keep paying more and more for teachers’ insurance, the corporation may reach the point where academic and extracurricular programs are cut, more teachers are let go and class sizes increase, schedules at the middle school are condensed, and, ultimately, schools are closed and consolidated to reduce staff and expenses.
A status quo contract for the 2003-04 school year requires the corporation to continue paying for insurance premium increases and 1.2 percent automatic raises each year for all teachers except those at the top of the salary scale.
HCCSC Business Manager Tom Johnson, who first gave testimony for the corporation’s side, said the average teacher in the corporation has 13 years’ experience and a master’s degree, putting his or her salary this year at $46,871 - and with benefits including insurance, added, at $62,570.
HCCSC teacher salary averages, though slightly below state averages, have steadily increased along with state averages, he said. Enrollment has declined slightly each year since 1994-95, which has a direct effect on the amount of money received from the state.
Total salaries and benefits, Johnson said, account for 93.14 percent of the HCCSC general fund budget. The state average is just 87.42 percent.
“When 93 percent of your budget is tied up in personnel, your option is to cut personnel,” said Shafer, who testified last. “The next logical place to look would be staff cuts at the middle school levels.”
And in case teachers think the solution is to cut central or building office staff, Johnson said, the percentage of general fund money paid for central office staff in 2004 was just 0.95 percent, about half the state average of 1.83 percent. The amount paid for principals’ office administration was 5.22 percent, slightly lower than the state’s 5.32 percent.
April 20th, 2006 at 7:52 am
Just one question, How many of the wealthiest hoosiers send their children to public schools? For that matter, How many teachers send their children to public schools?
Seems to me that they’re going about this backwards, they say they need more money to improve the product, but if they improve the product, more money will come.