Local rural school districts are sending a message to legislators to balance the school funding formula in this upcoming session.
At a regular meeting Tuesday evening, the Northeast Dubois School Board unanimously approved signing an official resolution imploring lawmakers in Indianapolis to recalibrate a complicated formula which determines how much money each school corporation receives per pupil. In 2009, the state removed property taxes as a form of general fund revenue, making that fund entirely state-run. The general fund provides teacher salaries and benefits and is tied to school enrollment.
Northeast Dubois Superintendent Bill Hochgesang said he plans to send the signed resolutions to several legislators in hopes that it will help convince them to make a change.
“We’re hearing that school funding is going to be a major issue in the next legislative session, and basically we just want a system of equality,” Hochgesang said. “We want a fair system for all schools. We’re pulling for our students.”
The resolution reads, in part, “the state’s school funding formula has left behind school communities like ours. ... Only change of the legislated funding formula can stem the tide of higher class sizes and loss of programs due to teacher and other layoffs in communities where per pupil funding is inequitably below the state average.”
Northeast Dubois schools receive about $4,600 per student for this budget cycle. Some corporations in urban areas of the state receive more than $7,000 per student. The formula is complicated, and as of the 2012-13 budget year, it includes a complexity index which provides money for schools based on the number of students who qualify for free or reduced-price textbooks. With that grant, Northeast Dubois receives about $5,200 per student.
Still, the location of the district makes it difficult to attract as many students as an urban school system.
“So much is based on enrollment, and in a rural community, we’re not going to have a whole bunch of influx because we just don’t have the room to grow our community like a metropolis,” Hochgesang explained.
The Southeast Dubois School Board signed the same resolution earlier this month at a regular meeting.
Superintendent Rick Allen said the Legislature should consider adding a performance-based grant into the formula to balance funding for successful schools. Though Southeast Dubois had the fourth-highest Indiana Statewide Testing for Educational Progress scores in the state last spring, the corporation receives only about $4,600 per student and is not helped much by the complexity index. That index benefits urban districts with a higher percentage of low-income families. The corporation’s funding has been on the decline recently.
“That’s been coming down for the last three years, $20 here, $100 dollars there, but it adds up,” Allen said. “Our resolution is trying to say, ‘Level the playing field.’ You can only use your reserves so long, until they’re gone.
Greater Jasper, Southwest Dubois and North Spencer schools have no current plans to bring the same resolution before their boards. Southwest Dubois also receives about $4,600 per student. Superintendent Mike Eineman said he has simply not yet discussed the resolution with the board, and the members may still decide to consider it at a future meeting.
Jasper and North Spencer officials could not be reached by presstime to provide student funding amounts.
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