Warsaw School Board Opposes House Bill 1005
February 10, 2021 at 1:55 a.m.
Warsaw School Board Opposes House Bill 1005
By Jackie [email protected]
According to Legiscan.com, the bill would establish the Indiana education scholarship account program. After June 30, 2022, a parent of an eligible student or an emancipated eligible student may establish an account in the program and provides that “an eligible student who has an account and attends a qualified school is eligible to receive an annual grant amount that may be used to pay for tuition at an accredited nonpublic school or education-related expenses,” the website stated.
The grant money would be in the form of vouchers.
The bill provides “a deduction from Indiana adjusted gross income for a grant amount that is distributed to a taxpayer's Indiana education savings account and used for a qualified expense, to the extent the distribution is included in the taxpayer's federal adjusted gross income,” as well as changing the eligibility requirements to receive choice scholarships. The bill also would make changes to the amount of tuition an eligible choice scholarship student is entitled to receive to attend a choice scholarship school.
The resolution the Board passed Tuesday states during its 2021 legislative session, the Indiana General Assembly is considering HB 1005. The resolution also states “the Board has determined that the Indiana General Assembly should not enact education savings accounts, or expand vouchers, at the detriment to public school students and should continue to promote and fully invest in Indiana’s public schools.”
Public funds should be invested in improving the schools designated to serve all children and aid in improving Indiana public schools teachers’ salaries as recommended by the Governor’s Teacher Compensation Commission in its Dec. 14 report, the resolution states. Indiana already has school choice in the form of open enrollment, enrollment in virtual online schools and the Choice Scholarship program.
The cost of HB 1005 would result in public schools receiving less than one-third of Gov. Holcomb’s increase in funding for public schools for fiscal year 2022 and no additional dollars in fiscal year 2023 if Holcomb’s recommended tuition support increases of 2% and 1% for these fiscal years respectively is funded, according to the resolution.
The Board believes that public schools provide a strong educational environment for the state’s children and, if enacted, education savings accounts would put that environment at risk by directing resources away from public schools to schools that are not subject to the same “rigorous scrutiny for their use of taxpayer resources.”
Board President Heather Reichenbach said the bill is “very detrimential to our current operations and standards and the money that is put toward House Bill 1005, the majority of the money is what the governor promised” would be used to fund education but it’s being diverted to private, unregulated and home schools.
The resolution is to let the community and the state legislators know how the bill affects the school corporation, Reichenbach said.
The ability to operate, as well as to “dully compensate our teachers,” is affected by the bill, Reichenbach said.
Board member Elle Turley said the amount of services Warsaw Community Schools provides and is obligated to provide is more robust than any of these schools that you can write a voucher to.
She said one of the problems of the bill is adequately compensating teachers. Legislators identified that problem in a report and they took a different turn to solve the issue.
Board Vice President Randy Polston said there was a panel discussion about the bill with four state legislators where educators were sending in questions about the bill. One frustration Polston addressed regarding the panel discussion was that “they were hanging on to the point of, ‘We send the money with the kids. We send the money with the kids.’ But they did not address the percentages of money taken from public ed in order to fund these vouchers, in order to support” the program.
“You’re taking money away from public education in order to set up these vouchers, in order to set these savings accounts up,” Polston said.
It just comes to the point legislators are pulling more and more money out of public education, “out of our hands,” Polston said. He said the school corporation has the highest percentage of students in the town and they are educating them and money is being funneled away from the school corporation.
“I think what we would all like to see is all schools be funded at 100% of what is needed to educate the students,” Reichenbach said, noting that is why the board members were there because it’s their passion.
One concern she noted is a lack of accountability that would follow the voucher money, saying it is taxpayer money.
“There’s no need to make these type of changes,” Turley said.
In other business, the Indiana Department of Education announced Monday the estimated funds that each school district across the state will receive as part of the second round of federal stimulus dollars. The estimated funds WCS will receive is $1,249,171.40.
Superintendent Dr. David Hoffert addressed the plans for the funds.
In January, the Board passed a resolution to continue Family First Prevention Services Act that “ensures that our employees are covered if their either quarantined or are COVID positive.” While that ended on the federal and state level on Dec. 31, the school corporation took on those expenses. Hoffert also said the school corporation is looking at resupplying personal protection equipment among other things.
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According to Legiscan.com, the bill would establish the Indiana education scholarship account program. After June 30, 2022, a parent of an eligible student or an emancipated eligible student may establish an account in the program and provides that “an eligible student who has an account and attends a qualified school is eligible to receive an annual grant amount that may be used to pay for tuition at an accredited nonpublic school or education-related expenses,” the website stated.
The grant money would be in the form of vouchers.
The bill provides “a deduction from Indiana adjusted gross income for a grant amount that is distributed to a taxpayer's Indiana education savings account and used for a qualified expense, to the extent the distribution is included in the taxpayer's federal adjusted gross income,” as well as changing the eligibility requirements to receive choice scholarships. The bill also would make changes to the amount of tuition an eligible choice scholarship student is entitled to receive to attend a choice scholarship school.
The resolution the Board passed Tuesday states during its 2021 legislative session, the Indiana General Assembly is considering HB 1005. The resolution also states “the Board has determined that the Indiana General Assembly should not enact education savings accounts, or expand vouchers, at the detriment to public school students and should continue to promote and fully invest in Indiana’s public schools.”
Public funds should be invested in improving the schools designated to serve all children and aid in improving Indiana public schools teachers’ salaries as recommended by the Governor’s Teacher Compensation Commission in its Dec. 14 report, the resolution states. Indiana already has school choice in the form of open enrollment, enrollment in virtual online schools and the Choice Scholarship program.
The cost of HB 1005 would result in public schools receiving less than one-third of Gov. Holcomb’s increase in funding for public schools for fiscal year 2022 and no additional dollars in fiscal year 2023 if Holcomb’s recommended tuition support increases of 2% and 1% for these fiscal years respectively is funded, according to the resolution.
The Board believes that public schools provide a strong educational environment for the state’s children and, if enacted, education savings accounts would put that environment at risk by directing resources away from public schools to schools that are not subject to the same “rigorous scrutiny for their use of taxpayer resources.”
Board President Heather Reichenbach said the bill is “very detrimential to our current operations and standards and the money that is put toward House Bill 1005, the majority of the money is what the governor promised” would be used to fund education but it’s being diverted to private, unregulated and home schools.
The resolution is to let the community and the state legislators know how the bill affects the school corporation, Reichenbach said.
The ability to operate, as well as to “dully compensate our teachers,” is affected by the bill, Reichenbach said.
Board member Elle Turley said the amount of services Warsaw Community Schools provides and is obligated to provide is more robust than any of these schools that you can write a voucher to.
She said one of the problems of the bill is adequately compensating teachers. Legislators identified that problem in a report and they took a different turn to solve the issue.
Board Vice President Randy Polston said there was a panel discussion about the bill with four state legislators where educators were sending in questions about the bill. One frustration Polston addressed regarding the panel discussion was that “they were hanging on to the point of, ‘We send the money with the kids. We send the money with the kids.’ But they did not address the percentages of money taken from public ed in order to fund these vouchers, in order to support” the program.
“You’re taking money away from public education in order to set up these vouchers, in order to set these savings accounts up,” Polston said.
It just comes to the point legislators are pulling more and more money out of public education, “out of our hands,” Polston said. He said the school corporation has the highest percentage of students in the town and they are educating them and money is being funneled away from the school corporation.
“I think what we would all like to see is all schools be funded at 100% of what is needed to educate the students,” Reichenbach said, noting that is why the board members were there because it’s their passion.
One concern she noted is a lack of accountability that would follow the voucher money, saying it is taxpayer money.
“There’s no need to make these type of changes,” Turley said.
In other business, the Indiana Department of Education announced Monday the estimated funds that each school district across the state will receive as part of the second round of federal stimulus dollars. The estimated funds WCS will receive is $1,249,171.40.
Superintendent Dr. David Hoffert addressed the plans for the funds.
In January, the Board passed a resolution to continue Family First Prevention Services Act that “ensures that our employees are covered if their either quarantined or are COVID positive.” While that ended on the federal and state level on Dec. 31, the school corporation took on those expenses. Hoffert also said the school corporation is looking at resupplying personal protection equipment among other things.
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