As the state legislature moves toward wrapping up its session, Warsaw Community Schools Superintendent Dr. David Hoffert and the school board expressed their concern Monday night that the state budget for the next two years won’t do enough for education.

“This is our last month, hopefully, that we’re talking about the legislative report because the legislative session is going to come to an end at some point and there are going to have to be some decisions that are made,” Hoffert began.

He said he and three board members  attended a public meeting with local legislators to talk about where they’re going with educational funding. Those legislators included State Reps. Dave Wolkins and Curt Nisly and State Sen. Ryan Mishler.

Hoffert began with a point that he said needs to be clarified.

“One of the data points that’s been thrown out there a couple of times is Indiana spends more on its budget for its education and is ranked third or fourth in the nation,” he said.

However, “Most states still fund education through property tax, not through sales tax and income tax. So, again, that makes that a little bit of a different type of statistic that is out there,” he said.

Taking information from governing.com, Hoffert showed where Indiana is with funding per pupil. “We are in the 30s inside this report. We are right between Kentucky and Arkansas when it comes to funding per student and when it comes to overall expense per student,” he said.

Hoffert showed the board a slide on research data put out by USA Today, which compared national rankings on teacher pay. “When we’re talking about recruitment and retention here inside Indiana, we understand that this is so critically important. ... This is something our state is really struggling with. We’re ranked No. 37 out of 50. This is something that is incredibly discerning,” Hoffert said.

“The local decision can only take place if the funding is there to be able to do it. That’s why schools are starting to turn to things such as operating fund referendums, to subsidize, especially as these dollars are coming from state sales tax and state income tax,” Hoffert said.

Board Vice President Randy Polston said he’s been in contact with Wolkins, Nisly and Mishler multiple times over the last couple of months.

“Prior to me standing up and speaking to them at this Q&A session, there was a gentleman … who shared his feelings and it was in support of the teachers in Indiana and that as a state, if we’re going to put education up there as top priority, which we’ve always tried to do, we need to do some financial backing for teachers,” Polston said.

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He said the man had been a substitute teacher but would never go to the classroom again to try and deal with the type of kids he had dealt with. “It was his way of sharing how much education has changed and the children that are coming into our classrooms have changed over the years,” he said.

Polston mentioned how State Superintendent Dr. Jennifer McCormick is hoping for a minimum 3 percent increase for teachers this year. That 3 percent would just keep up with inflation, he said.

“The budget that the House has sent to the Senate is looking at 2.1 and maybe lower,” Polston said. “I brought that up to the three of them.”

In 2009, then-State Superintendent Tony Bennett announced he was going to hit a reset button on the education budget for Indiana, Polston said. “He warned everybody. Based on that, he did and there was like $300 million slashed that particular year. As school corporations, from 2009 to 2019, we have not been able to catch up from those cuts that Tony Bennett threw at the state.”

He said Indiana may be 37th in that USA Today ranking, but it continues to drop. In 2015-16, Indiana was at 26th.

“When you look at Michigan, Illinois, Ohio and Kentucky, every one of these surrounding states were a lot higher in ‘15-16, he said. “I think Michigan was sixth in the nation, average teacher salaries. My point that I was trying to make to the three of them is that we are losing young people that are going across the state line to make more money. We are losing young people that are making decisions … we’re not having the numbers that are going into education. ... And that has a lot to do with the salaries, it has a lot to do with the challenges that our teachers are facing in the classroom every day.”

Wolkins previously told Polston that he sends a survey to his constituents every year and he asks about teacher salaries. The responses say teachers are making enough or too much.

Hoffert pointed out that a 2.1 percent increase in education doesn’t mean that all money is going to public schools or even into salaries. He showed a slide that came from McCormick with the House version of the budget. It showed that next year the increase for public schools would actually be 1.59 percent. At the same time, charter schools in Indiana would get an increase of 11.35 percent; virtual schools, 9.17 percent; and voucher schools, 10.33 percent.

“So we’re seeing significant increases in other classifications of schools. … We again are looking at some equality across the board that would be able to help us as a public entity that is serving the majority of the kids and it serves all kids,” Hoffert said.