Indiana Ranks 47th On Amount Of Money Spent On Students
SOUTH BEND — The amount Indiana spends on each public school student is 47th in the country. That’s according to a National Education Association report.
But what about the three quarters of a billion dollars in additional funding state lawmakers passed in April?
Operation Education investigator Tolly Taylor has been looking into whether that changed things for public school students.
“Obviously, the government we have right now doesn’t value public education,” said Rep. Ryan Dvorak, (D) South Bend.
Dvorak is reacting to a National Education Association report that shows Indiana spent about $8,700 per student in 2016-17, ranking the state 47th in the country.
That number actually dropped a year later.
When the NEA looked at how much Indiana’s spending changed compared to other states, it ranks dead last.
As we reported last week, there’s disagreement about the NEA’s numbers.
But Indiana State Teacher’s Association president Keith Gambill says the education budget state lawmakers passed in April has clues that explain what happened between 2016 and 2018.
“There is a gleaning off of education dollars from public schools into charter and vouchers. And that’s what’s driving that number to go down,” said Gambill.
WSBT 22 wanted to check Gambill’s statement for ourselves, so we started by comparing the increase in funding for public schools verses charter and voucher programs.
Between 2018 and 19, public school education funding went up by about 1.3-percent. Charter and voucher funding increased by 2.2-percent. We then looked a numbers given to us by the non-partisan Legislative Services Agency for next year, and it appears Gambill was right. Public school funding will increase by a little more than 2-percent, but charter school and voucher funding will grow by almost 10-percent.
St. Joseph County representative Dale DeVon says state dollars follow students. He says the reason charter and voucher programs are getting more money is simple. DeVon says more students are leaving public schools.
“So you see more kids going that direction, so the numbers are going to look higher, because there’s more kids with the money following the child,” said DeVon.
Dvorak says charter schools perform worse on average than public schools and the voucher program just gives money to private or religious schools. He says the result is that educational achievement suffers state wide.
“They’re running our state as if it’s a science experiment. And the problem is, the lab rats are our children,” said Dvorak.
Dvorak says some kids in South Bend go home without someone to greet them off the bus, without the same bed from night to night, let alone a parent who’s able to help them with homework.
He says kids facing these situations need more help in their education, and that costs more money.
South Bend Superintendent Todd Cummings says the district has had about 5,000 students leave through the voucher programs.
“We have about 5,000 students who use vouchers—that costs us real dollars,” said Cummings.
When the district does a student count at the beginning of the year, it’s often down about 200 students.
Using numbers provided by the Indiana Department of Education and LSA, that means anywhere from $1.22 million to 1.34 million less for the district.
Whichever number you use, Cummings says schools are left to make these adjustments.
“We may hire fewer teachers, class sizes may increase, non-certified folks, para-professionals who support our students — we may hire less of those. We may continue with building maintenance being deferred,” said Cummings.
WSBT 22 looked at the estimated dollar amounts that South Bend Schools will receive for its budget over the next two years.
In 2020, the budget increases by a little more than $200,000. But in 2021, the schools will see a decrease of almost $400,000.
How are those spending numbers impacting business in the area?
South Bend Chamber president Jeff Rea said businesses focus on two things before moving to a new state or area: education and workforce. He says they’ve definitely noticed the struggling public schools in the state.
Source: WSBT