WCS?Superintendent Gives Update On Ed-Related Legislation
February 13, 2019 at 5:21 p.m.
WCS?Superintendent Gives Update On Ed-Related Legislation
By David [email protected]
At Tuesday’s school board meeting, Hoffert discussed where state funding for schools comes from, with plans to present a follow-up at Monday’s regular board meeting.
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“People get it in their heads still that most of the state funding, especially that which goes to the classroom, is coming out of property taxes,” Hoffert said, adding that he wanted to clarify that point.
“The money that is going into classrooms does not come from your local property taxes. Local property taxes pay for (capital projects fund), debt service, transportation and bus replacement,” he said.
The educational fund comes mainly out of sales and income taxes at the state level. Hoffert said the change was made when Mitch Daniels was the governor and property tax caps were put into place.
“And really they said, ‘We want to control educational funding.’ Since that point, we have seen a decrease in a percentage of educational funding that has been coming to local school systems,” Hoffert said.
Every student in Indiana is worth $5,352, what is called the basic plan, he said. That money follows the child. Schools have one count day in September. If a student moves or comes in to a school after that day, the school neither gains or loses that funding for the student. School corporations base their budget for the rest of the year on the September count day.
The complexity grant is also a consideration. Factors in the complexity grant include English language learners, special education and suburban/urban or rural.
“Warsaw has not been a winner in the complexity grant funding,” Hoffert said. “When you look at, we’re down at the bottom when it comes to complexity grant.”
Hoffert said this factor brings in about $500 per student, creating total funding per student at $5,815. The average in Indiana is $6,060, he said.
“If you multiply that out by our 7,000 students, that would be an average of $1.7 million more that would be going into our local schools,” he said.
With Indiana Gov. Eric Holcomb looking at increasing education funding in the state legislature numbers, Hoffert said, “One of the things that we’ve really asked them to look at is, please, if money is going to be increased in areas, please make sure it’s on the basic grant, not the complexity grant ... because that is something that would help our local schools here inside this local community that we have.”
Another thing they’ve been advocating for has to do with charter schools and online charter schools, he said. While the Kosciusko County area doesn’t have any charter schools, Hoffert said they’d like to see local legislatures advocate for the local schools through state funding.
Board Vice President Randy Polston represents WCS on the new Legislative Action Network established by the Indiana School Board Association. He said he’s had conversations with State Reps. Dave Wolkins and Curt Nisly on these issues. The network has had some effect on legislation being considered at Indianapolis, he said. He will be in Indianapolis Tuesday with other school board members from around the state meeting with state legislators.
Heather Reichenbach, school board president, asked for a clarification.
“When we are talking about charter schools, since we don’t have any in our area, but there are some down state in Indy and other areas, when state spends money on a charter school outside Warsaw or Kosciusko County, then there’s less money overall in the education pot that is available for all the other public schools? Is that correct?” she asked.
Hoffert said that was correct.
“So that’s how charter schools, even though they’re not here in Warsaw, do affect us somehow,” she said.
Elle Turley, board member, asked how that challenges the argument that the money from the state follows the student.
“Money does follow the student in a lot of ways. There are a lot of other grants that go into just charter schools being funded because when you have brick and mortar with public schools, you have online academies now that have cropped up. ... One of the things that is going through the legislative session right now is, is an online academy student worth the same ADM (average daily membership) that a (public school student is), because the average online academy class has 250 kids, the average here in Warsaw has about 21 kids,” Hoffert said.
He said there seems to be different rules for public schools versus charter schools.
“I don’t feel that Warsaw has ever been a charter school fashion community or a charter school negative, but we just want to make sure that No. 1, we have something to be very proud of here in Warsaw. We have something to be very proud of going on, and we just want to make sure that we’ll continue to offer that through the funding that comes from the state of Indiana,” Hoffert said.
At Tuesday’s school board meeting, Hoffert discussed where state funding for schools comes from, with plans to present a follow-up at Monday’s regular board meeting.
[[In-content Ad]]
“People get it in their heads still that most of the state funding, especially that which goes to the classroom, is coming out of property taxes,” Hoffert said, adding that he wanted to clarify that point.
“The money that is going into classrooms does not come from your local property taxes. Local property taxes pay for (capital projects fund), debt service, transportation and bus replacement,” he said.
The educational fund comes mainly out of sales and income taxes at the state level. Hoffert said the change was made when Mitch Daniels was the governor and property tax caps were put into place.
“And really they said, ‘We want to control educational funding.’ Since that point, we have seen a decrease in a percentage of educational funding that has been coming to local school systems,” Hoffert said.
Every student in Indiana is worth $5,352, what is called the basic plan, he said. That money follows the child. Schools have one count day in September. If a student moves or comes in to a school after that day, the school neither gains or loses that funding for the student. School corporations base their budget for the rest of the year on the September count day.
The complexity grant is also a consideration. Factors in the complexity grant include English language learners, special education and suburban/urban or rural.
“Warsaw has not been a winner in the complexity grant funding,” Hoffert said. “When you look at, we’re down at the bottom when it comes to complexity grant.”
Hoffert said this factor brings in about $500 per student, creating total funding per student at $5,815. The average in Indiana is $6,060, he said.
“If you multiply that out by our 7,000 students, that would be an average of $1.7 million more that would be going into our local schools,” he said.
With Indiana Gov. Eric Holcomb looking at increasing education funding in the state legislature numbers, Hoffert said, “One of the things that we’ve really asked them to look at is, please, if money is going to be increased in areas, please make sure it’s on the basic grant, not the complexity grant ... because that is something that would help our local schools here inside this local community that we have.”
Another thing they’ve been advocating for has to do with charter schools and online charter schools, he said. While the Kosciusko County area doesn’t have any charter schools, Hoffert said they’d like to see local legislatures advocate for the local schools through state funding.
Board Vice President Randy Polston represents WCS on the new Legislative Action Network established by the Indiana School Board Association. He said he’s had conversations with State Reps. Dave Wolkins and Curt Nisly on these issues. The network has had some effect on legislation being considered at Indianapolis, he said. He will be in Indianapolis Tuesday with other school board members from around the state meeting with state legislators.
Heather Reichenbach, school board president, asked for a clarification.
“When we are talking about charter schools, since we don’t have any in our area, but there are some down state in Indy and other areas, when state spends money on a charter school outside Warsaw or Kosciusko County, then there’s less money overall in the education pot that is available for all the other public schools? Is that correct?” she asked.
Hoffert said that was correct.
“So that’s how charter schools, even though they’re not here in Warsaw, do affect us somehow,” she said.
Elle Turley, board member, asked how that challenges the argument that the money from the state follows the student.
“Money does follow the student in a lot of ways. There are a lot of other grants that go into just charter schools being funded because when you have brick and mortar with public schools, you have online academies now that have cropped up. ... One of the things that is going through the legislative session right now is, is an online academy student worth the same ADM (average daily membership) that a (public school student is), because the average online academy class has 250 kids, the average here in Warsaw has about 21 kids,” Hoffert said.
He said there seems to be different rules for public schools versus charter schools.
“I don’t feel that Warsaw has ever been a charter school fashion community or a charter school negative, but we just want to make sure that No. 1, we have something to be very proud of here in Warsaw. We have something to be very proud of going on, and we just want to make sure that we’ll continue to offer that through the funding that comes from the state of Indiana,” Hoffert said.
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