Dear Friends,
The House has voted to tell our K-12 students that money isn't there for them and school funding must be put back to the levels of the Great Recession. On Monday (Feb. 27) the Indiana House passed a budget that gives a meager 1.1% increase for our K-12 students for next year, 2017-18. A 1.1% increase matches the 2009-10 budget written in January 2009 in the deepest part of the Great Recession. Also in 2012-13, later in the Great Recession, the K-12 increase was only 1.0%. Now the supermajority is telling our K-12 students that 2017-18 gets 1.1% again, no better than the Great Recession. Yet at the same time our public school students are being told that times are bleak, other parts of the budget contradict this pessimism: The surplus will again exceed $2 billion. The House budget added $7 million for more private school scholarships. Tax credits for private school tuition scholarships were lifted to $25 million for the two year budget, up from $18 million during the current biennium. Virtual charter schools were treated generously, getting 100% of the state per pupil amount, instead of the 90% that they have been getting. The House has let down our K-12 students, increasing total funding only 1.1% in the first year and 1.7% in the second year, figures adding $273 million in new money for K-12 in the two year budget. This is less than what Governor Holcomb recommended ($280 million) and far less than what the 2015 budget added ($474 million). After a three day break, the General Assembly will return Monday for the second half of the session when the Senate will consider the budget. Public school advocates should contact Senators to make two points:
School Funding On the floor of the House in the budget debate, both Representatives Greg Porter and Vernon Smith pointed out that under the budget proposal, 201 of the 292 public school corporations will either lose money in 2017-18 or will receive less than 1%. Chair of Ways and Means Representative Tim Brown responded by saying that his job is not to "protect school corporations but to protect school children." He said he is "agnostic" about corporations but he said the per-child funding goes up in this budget. I took that as an invitation to look at the per-child funding in the House budget and discovered that it only goes up 0.6% in the first year and 1.4% in the second year, less than the increases for total funding cited above (1.1% and 1.7%). These are meager increases for our students at a time when we are not in a recession. Despite all that has been said, neither our K-12 students nor our school corporations have been given a priority in the budget. Our Senators need to hear pointed messages about K-12 funding from parents, educators and community members. School Scholarships Indiana really doesn't need the School Scholarship program established in 2009 since the much bigger and better known Choice Scholarship (voucher) program was passed in 2011. School Scholarships are given out to private school students for private school tuition by Scholarship Granting Organizations who get their money by taking donations and then authorizing the donors to take 50% of the donation as a credit off of their Indiana income tax. In 2009-10, the first budget for the program was $2.5 million. Private school advocates have grown the annual budget to $9.5 million in 2016-17. Now the new House budget would boost the budget to $12.5 million in both years. That is a significant amount! That's $25 million for two years, more than we spend on Alternative Education and the Senator Ford Technology Fund when both are added together! If the Senate would freeze the budget for School Scholarships at $9.5 million, the Senators would have another $6 million with which to boost the K-12 tuition support for all students. If the Senate would start to roll back this privatization program, it would have even more to help the bottom line for K-12 support. In 2015, the Senate froze the School Scholarship budget at $7.5 million, but the House pushed to raise it to the current levels. Ask your Senator or any Senator to freeze or lower School Scholarships and use the money to restore better funding for all K-12 students. Only the righteous indignation of parents, educators and community members can get the General Assembly to do better for our K-12 students and to stop the expansion of private school scholarships using public tax dollars. Tell Senators that in the midst of a growing economy, they must do better than 1.1%. Thanks for your advocacy for public education! Best wishes, Vic Smith vic790@aol.com Dear Friends,
If you want to keep your power as a voter to elect the Indiana State Superintendent of Public Instruction, as Hoosier voters have done for 166 years, these are your 26 heroes who voted "no" to SB 179, a bill to switch this power from voters to the governor: (see addresses below) Senator Becker Senator Head Senator Niemeyer Senator Bohacek Senator Kenley Senator Niezgodski Senator Breaux Senator Koch Senator Randolph Senator Crane Senator Kruse Senator Stoops Senator Crider Senator Lanane Senator Tallian Senator Doriot Senator Leising Senator Taylor Senator Ford Senator Melton Senator Tomes Senator Glick Senator Mishler Senator Young Senator Grooms Senator Mrvan Before the Senators return on Monday for the "second half" of the session, I hope you will send a message of thanks to any or all of these Senators for standing up for the power of voters and for keeping our democracy in Lincoln's words "of the people, by the people and for the people." This issue is still up in the air. In the second half of the session, these Senators will be pressured to change their vote and support the appointment of a "secretary of education" by the Governor in House Bill 1005, a bill that passed the House removing any requirement that the appointee ever lived in Indiana and, unbelievably, opening the door to appointing a person with no experience as a teacher or administrator. No qualifications for this office are included in House Bill 1005. Here is a key point: The Senate has a rule regarding a defeated bill that says "that exact language or substantially similar language shall be considered decisively defeated and shall not be considered again during the session." Ask the 26 Senators listed above to take the position that they have "decisively defeated" the bill to appoint the State Superintendent. If all 26 stick to that position, attempts to resurrect the bill will fail. If you want to cut and paste this list of emails into your "to" field, you can email them all at once: s1@in.gov;s2@in.gov;s3@in.gov;s4@iga.in.gov;s6@in.gov; s8@in.gov;s9@iga.in.gov;s10@in.gov;s12@iga.in.gov; s13@in.gov;s14@in.gov;s18@in.gov;s20@in.gov;s24@in.gov; s25@in.gov;s28@in.gov;s33@iga.in.gov;s34@in.gov;s35@in.gov; s28@in.gov;s40@in.gov;s42@in.gov;s44@in.gov;s46@in.gov; s49@in.gov;s50@in.gov Also ask the 23 Senators who voted for the bill to uphold the Senate rule that "decisively defeated" bill language shall not be considered again until the next session. Even though they supported SB 179, they should take the position that it is fundamental to uphold Senate rules.The 23 Senators to contact on this point are: Senator Alting Senator Eckerty Senator Perfect Senator Bassler Senator Freeman Senator Raatz Senator Boots Senator Hershman Senator Ruckelshaus Senator Bray Senator Holdman Senator Sandlin Senator Brown Senator Houchin Senator Smith Senator Buck Senator Long Senator Walker Senator Charbonneau Senator Merritt Senator Zay Senator Delph Senator Messmer One Senator who was excused and did not vote on the bill was Senator Zakas, who should also be contacted on these points. If you want to maintain your power as a voter in our democracy, it's time to go to work. This issue will be decided in the Senate, so please contact any and all Senators to tell them how you feel about keeping or losing the power to elect the State Superintendent of Public Instruction. To contact these Senators in one email, copy and paste these addresses into the "to" field of your email message: s5@iga.in.gov;s7@in.gov;s11@in.gov;s15@in.gov;s16@in.gov; s17@in.gov;s19@in.gov;s21@in.gov;s22@in.gov;s23@iga.in.gov; s26@iga.in.gov;s27@in.gov;s29@in.gov;s30@in.gov;s31@in.gov; s32@in.gov;s36@iga.in.gov;s37@in.gov;s39@in.gov;s41@in.gov; s43@in.gov;s45@in.gov;s47@in.gov;s48@in.gov Indiana Lawmakers For more information on this topic, the weekly television and radio show Indiana Lawmakers on public broadcasting stations will feature this subject on their show that airs this weekend. In Indianapolis it will be Friday, March 3 at 11 p.m. on Channel 20. (Broadcast times for other stations throughout the state are below.) At last report, the panel on this program will include Joel Hand, our well known and well respected ICPE lobbyist, who will speak up for keeping the election of the State Superintendent in the hands of voters. The grassroots need to be heard. If you want to keep the election of our State Superintendent in the hands of the people, contact any or all Senators and tell them how you feel. Thanks for your advocacy for public education! Best wishes, Vic Smith vic790@aol.com |
Categories
All
Archives
March 2024
Friends
|