State Rep. Ed Delany, a member of the House Ways and Means Committee in Indiana, requested a report in the state of K-12 education in the state. Indiana now has four separate sectors: traditional public schools, charter schools, online schools, and voucher schools. He discovered that the budget of the traditional public schools, which enroll 94% of the state’s students, have suffered a budget cut of $3 billion since 2009.
Education report summarizes damage caused by less money, more chaos for schools
For immediate release:
Oct. 19, 2015
INDIANAPOLIS – Below are remarks given today by State Rep. Ed DeLaney (D-Indianapolis) to the Interim Study Committee on Education Issues. It covers the subject of education funding in the state of Indiana and its impact on teacher shortages in our state.
“Is Indiana policy designed to attract people to the teaching profession?”
As a member of the Indiana House Ways & Means Committee, I always am concerned with what our state budget does to fund education and the signals we send when we adopt those budgets.
I am deeply concerned that we are signaling a decline in support of our state’s traditional public schools, which serve nearly 94 percent of our students.
As a result of my growing concern, I asked the Legislative Services Agency to analyze how we have allocated funds to education overall and specifically how we have supported traditional schools, charter school, virtual charter schools and the voucher program. You have all received a copy of the July 14, 2015 report. The first two pages set out the funding history for each of the four programs and the third page sets out our overall level of support for education as a whole.
What do these numbers tell us?
The General Assembly now controls the funding of four distinct forms of publicly-funded schools: traditional schools (school corporations), charter schools, virtual charter schools, and schools accepting vouchers. I requested that LSA track the funding of these four pathways over the period from FY 2007 through FY 2015. Remember that this period largely overlaps the growth phase of charters and the start of vouchers. It also overlaps the period of the Great Recession and the end of using property taxes to fund teaching. I have made the LSA memorandum publicly available at http://indianahousedemocrats.org/teacher-shortage, so everyone is free to analyze this data on their own. This report focuses on the State as a whole, not individual districts or schools.
What do we learn from this report?
From FY 2009 through FY 2015, state-directed funding for traditional schools fell by a total of considerably more than $3 billion and has yet to return to FY 2009 levels. (See the revenue line on p. 3 of the LSA report). Note that some of this shortfall was made up by the limited federal stimulus program.
During the same period, the cumulative support for charter schools rose by more than $539 million. Virtual charter funding rose from nothing to over $50 million a year with the total for the period totaling more than $133 million. Voucher support went from nothing to over $113 million a year with a cumulative increase of some $248 million. Thus, the three new recipients of public funds gained $920 million dollars in support over the period.
All of this activity has caused a small shift in attendance for the period from FY 2009 to FY 2015. Traditional school attendance fell from 987,000 to 952,000 over the period. The charters had a growth in attendance from 16,500 to some 25,000. Virtual charters went from zero to 8,400. Vouchers went from supporting no students to supporting some 29,000. Note that the total attendance for all types combined rose modestly from 1,003,000 to 1,015,000.
Despite the attendance shifts within the four categories of publicly funded education, 93.9 percent of our publicly funded students presently are still in traditional schools. One may ask what message the General Assembly is sending when it cuts funding for 93.9 percent of our students and dramatically raises funding for the remaining 6 percent. I have two charts showing the changes in funding from a baseline of 2009.
I believe that these charts and the LSA report show a dramatic drop in education funding and a shift of emphasis and funds from the 94 percent of our students in traditional schools. I believe that the public and especially aspiring teachers sense this shift. They have reacted.
The data referred to above is statewide. In addition, I have looked to other public sources to get an idea of how this impacts teachers and school corporations. I am posting references at http://indianahousedemocrats.org/teacher-shortage. Using these you can learn a great deal about teacher age, teacher pay, rates of retirement, and other information tied to particular districts.
Here are a few key data points I learned that impact schools and teachers:
INPRS, the state pension organization, has a wealth of information on our teachers. The Demographic Assumptions used in our pension system tell us that some 35 percent of new teachers don’t enter a second year as teachers. These may be connected to the fact that the pay increase from year one to year two has fallen.
INPRS advises that the average years of teaching have fallen steadily from 2007 to 2015, declining from 15.6 years of service to 14.1 years. Over the same period, the number of active teachers in the pension system fell from 75,833 to 68,734. Of this lower number, some 10,400 are expected to retire over the next five years. They will need replacements.
What are the conclusions that can be drawn from this data?
Our state has cut support for K-12 education.
It has diverted money to three new experiments. I believe this has been dispiriting to future teachers and confusing to the public.
We seem to forget that people rely on institutions when choosing a job. What institution can the new teacher look to? The General Assembly and its budget? A charter school with an unelected board or a for-profit operator? A school corporation that is subject to the whims of the Legislature on issues of pay, testing, financial support and access to property tax revenue?
I for one hope that this committee will start to rebuild our central educational institution, the school corporations. I also hope that we will put a moratorium on new educational experiments while we examine what less money and more chaos has accomplished.
It’s a pity he doesn’t show the expenditure per pupil in the different categories.
Go to Indianahousedemocrats.org and click on the links for all the details including that. Ed
According to your report, Rep DeLaney, school corporations only account for 93.9% of students, but receive 95.6% of the state’s total educational revenue. If anything, this would seem to indicate that further school corp cuts should follow.
James Maloney, if public schools enroll more students with disabilities than charters, they should receive more funding.
Good for him. The laserlike focus of ed reform on charters and vouchers probably can’t go on forever at the state level (unlike the federal level, which seems to operate completely in a bubble).
At some point “the 93.9%” of schools are going to insist on being heard in these states, because obviously it’s the vast majority of kids and parents. People really are paying these state ed reformers to “improve” their schools, and they’re probably going to notice at some point that isn’t happening- in fact,the opposite is occurring- their schools keep taking hit after hit.
Surprise – there ARE some intelligent people in positions of power who can’t be bought.
The interim study committee where Mr. Delaney presented this information was not interested in hearing about the repercussions of the ruling political party’s (GOP) educational legislation. Glenda Ritz,the elected Superintendent of Public Instruction presented information from a broad based commission she put together to find the sources of our teacher shortage that the prevailing GOP so far refuse to recognize. The committee tried to squash the voices of reason with hours-long ridiculous presentations from out of state legislators and organizations such as NTCQ that claimed there is no teacher shortage, just teachers that wouldn’t apply for the jobs available.
Ed Delaney is a great legislator, (I live in his district in Indianapolis) one who analyzes legislation and considers the impact it will have on not only his constituents, but also the entire state over time. The Republican party that holds control of our state legislature and ultimately the control over the education funds does not want to listen to Ed or any others that can contradict their ideas, their policies and their legislation.
Our teacher shortage is real and the educational “reforms” enacted by the GOP – starting with Tony Bennett and Mitch Daniels back in 2009 to Mike Pence and his sham of a State Board of Education have made it impossible for current teachers to stay in the profession and for new teachers to want to start. I can’t think of a state that is more corrupt in regard to state education policies, education along with education funding. Mr. Delaney clearly states the problem and his report doesn’t even get a mention in the Indianapolis Star article on the hearing or in any of the other news media.
So that is the state of Indiana. Corrupt ruling party that refuses to listen to voices of reason while selling off our public schools to the highest bidder.
Teresa,
I envy you having Delany as your rep. I’m stuck with a former teammate of a Boston Celtic’s legend who repeatedly gets re-elected simply because of this relationship. Funny how moderate success in basketball makes tall men experts in a plethora of “public service endeavors.” Nudge, nudge… Arne…
Delany puts forth concrete evidence, clearly demonstrating the crisis concerning public education in Indiana, and sadly, it will most likely go unnoticed. The data is there, but news coverage is lacking.
Apathy and an “ignorance is bliss” attitude continues to languish in the Hoosier hinterland.
Ronald Reagan summed it up so well with his famous faux pas, while paraphrasing John Adams:
‘Facts are stupid things – stubborn things, should I say. [Laughter].’
I am so sorry that you have to have Bob Heaton as your representative. It is hard to believe that Terre Haute, the home of Eugene V. Debs can elect someone that is such an elitist. Having gone to ISU when Mr. Heaton was there and having also had the unfortunate experience of being in a class with him, I know that he has no moral compass. And thus the reason for him fitting in so well with a political party that puts crooks in leadership positions -http://www.indystar.com/story/news/politics/2014/11/25/rep-eric-turner-plagued-scandal-formally-resigns/70109996/ , and allows someone who clearly is misagynistic to take over the crook. http://www.indystar.com/story/news/politics/2015/09/30/state-rep-jud-mcmillin-resigns/73040942/.
The GOP in Indiana is corrupt, both physically and morally. And they have made sure through gerrymandering and restrictive voter laws that they will continue their reign.
It’s ALL politics in Indiana. When Rep Jud McMillan spoke at a public meeting at the local high school last year, he was asked why he entered the bill to take away Superintendent Ritz authority on the board. His reply: Gov. Pence came to me and asked me to do it. That was the best he could do. He seemed to know very little about the whole matter until after he did the deed. When asked about education spending in the state, he didn’t seem to have any clue.
Lest we forget the epic quote from Indiana Senate president David Long in reference to the elected Indiana Superintendent of Public Instruction:
“Now, in all fairness, Superintendent Ritz is a librarian, OK?”
Derpity-derp-derp….
Mix arrogant, conniving state GOP legislators with a generally uninformed general public, throw in a generous dash of passivity and you have the toxic stew that is the Indiana model today.
Not so much passivity on the RFRA bill though. Money rules in Indiana. It’s the only thing that moves the government. The reason for voter apathy is that neither party gives us anyone to vote for; just something to vote against. And we lose interest in a government that’s only purpose is to put money in the pockets of legislators.
Isn’t less money and more chaos (for the public schools) what “disruptive innovation” is all about?
This is the game plan of the so-called reformers, unspoken in public except when someone like Rick Hess or Andy Smarick is indiscreet enough to reveal their real intentions.