By John Krull TheStatehouseFile.com INDIANAPOLIS – Only in Indiana would the state’s governor make the climax of the most important speech he makes all year an ode to cow manure. But that’s what Gov. Eric Holcomb did Tuesday night during his third State of the State address. Near the end of his 31-minute speech, Holcomb […]
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There’s been a lot of talk these days over at the Indiana General Assembly about increasing teacher pay, and various proposals are surfacing to deal with the issue.
Gov. Eric Holcomb wants to repurpose Teacher Appreciation Grant dollars (to the tune of $60 million over the biennium) to go toward salaries and tax credits for teachers who buy school supplies. House Republicans are “encouraging” school districts to dedicate 85 percent of their operational expenses to the classroom or explain to their constituents why that isn’t happening. Indiana Democrats, particularly state Sen. Eddie Melton, have called for increased dollars to schools so that teachers can get a 5 percent increase in pay over the next two years.
In a recent op-ed in The Lafayette Journal & Courier, West Lafayette Community School Superintendent Rocky Killion argued that we could find $180 million in new money for teacher pay by getting rid of standardized testing, I-READ and vouchers. Never mind the fact, that testing is a qualifier for federal aid to schools. Second, Killion argues that 60 percent of voucher students never attended a failing public school, so that money should go back to the classroom for teacher pay. The problem with that logic is that if you eliminated vouchers, and even funding for charter schools, while you do drive more dollars back to the traditional public school setting, you also drive students as well, so you will have more money but more students, and there won’t be any net benefit for teachers because school districts will have to hire more teachers for the increased student population.
Frankly, I think before there is any discussion about more state funding for teacher pay, we should have a discussion about what schools are currently doing with the cash they’re getting. Remember, it’s local school districts that set the pay for teachers, not the state. And the school districts get help is setting the pay with the unions that sit across the table from them when they collectively bargain. And there is this referendum process schools can use for operational expenses to increase teacher pay; Indianapolis Public Schools just did one, and it was successful.
I did some cursory research recently and looked at how much schools in Indiana were getting in state aid.
I went and collected some information from the Department of Education on how much state aid (basic tuition support and complexity grant dollars) traditional public schools have received since fiscal year 2014 as well their student populations and the number of teachers. Here’s I found so far…
FY 2014: 989,330 students / 57,277 full-time teachers / $5,506,395,395
FY 2015: 985,517 students / 57,100 full-time teachers / $5,498,031, 260
FY 2016: 1,022,461 students / 57,201 full-time teachers / $5,746,947,138
FY 2017: 1,024,677 students / 57,433 full-time teachers / $5,848,240,464
FY 2018: 1,026,580 students / ? full-time teachers / $5,938,860,576
(The number for 2018 won’t be available until this summer, but it is fair to assume it was at least 57,500.)
There are a couple of things we can extrapolate from these numbers. First, while the number of students has increased from 2014 to 2018 (37,000) the number of teachers has stayed relatively flat. But schools received nearly $342 million more dollars since 2014, and this does not include the $289 million that Gov. Holcomb wants to give them over the next biennium.
So, ask yourself, if the number of teachers has stayed about the same, but there are more students and more money going to the schools, where are the dollars going? I think that might be the question that needs to be answered first. Who knows what we might find? I’m thinking more money for teacher pay.
Abdul Hakim-Shabazz is an attorney and the editor and publisher of IndyPoltics.Org. He is also a frequent contributor to numerous Indiana media outlets. He can be reached at [email protected]. Send comments to [email protected].
