Indianapolis Star 12/29/2014, Page A09 Sc hool funding tug-of-war The big talk among legislative leaders about boosting the dollars for education significantly may turn out to be largely that — big talk. That’s no commentary on the Republican leaders who are hoping to make 2015 an education session. They appear sincere in their efforts, although their specific goals for how to distribute the money will be controversial. But a new fiscal forecast predicts the state won’t have a lot of money to throw around. The projection estimates taxes will bring in about $360.5 million more in fiscal year 2016 and another $482.3 million more in FY 2017. That’s an increase of 2.4 percent in the first year and 3.2 percent the second year. That’s in many ways a lot of money, especially compared with some leaner recent years when tax receipts were only inching up. But Indiana Fiscal Policy Institute President John Ketzenberger said the totals are not so much when compared to the overall size of the annual state budget. “In the context of a $15 billion budget, it’s not enough” to launch big new programs or significantly expand existing ones, Ketzenberger said. In fact, it takes about $100 million more each biennium just to keep existing state programs running as they are, he said. That’s important to education spending debate. Funding for education makes up 63 percent of the current two-year spending plan, according to the State Budget Agency. Most of that money goes to base funding for K-12 schools. In the current fiscal year, nearly $6.7 billion is going to the school funding formula. It will take nearly $135 million in the next two-year spending plan just to boost school funding by a mere 1 percent per year — which doesn’t quite cover the cost of inflation. And House Speaker Brian Bosma, R-Indianapolis, has said he wants to boost education funding by more than the 2 percent increase schools received in FY 2014. Bosma’s goal is to increase school funding enough that the more disruptive changes he wants to make will be less noticeable. Republicans are proposing to close the gap between the per-pupil spending received by many urban districts and the amount received by faster- growing suburban districts. That’s a relatively simple process when there is enough money. Lower-funded districts could receive big increases while lower-funded schools get a little more. That way all districts get additional money, but the ones with fewer dollars per student get a bigger boost. But without putting a lot more money into the school funding formula, the changes proposed by Bosma and his caucus could result in a shift of dollars. Money now earmarked for higher-funded districts could end up redistributed to lower-funded ones — and that is a big political problem. Of course, it’s a political fight that Bosma could probably win. Republicans control the House and the Senate by huge majorities, and they are more likely to represent the suburban districts that now receive fewer dollars per student. Democrats are much more likely to represent the better-funded urban districts. But a proposal that involves big cuts in funding to urban districts could make for some ugly debates. And, naturally, there will be a lot of competition for the dollars Bosma wants to spend. Gov. Mike Pence has said he wants to eliminate a cap that limits how much private elementary schools can receive from state vouchers. Legislative leaders say they plan to extend some increases they approved over the past two years in highway funding. And business groups are pushing for additional cuts in taxes. Senate Appropriations Committee Chairman Luke Kenley, R-Noblesville, said lawmakers “already have requests for twice” the amount of new money the state is expected to receive. “We’ve got our work cut out for us in this next budget session,” Kenley said. “It’ll test the legislature’s ability to be disciplined and keep Indiana financially strong to come up with the right answers and still meet the priorities we all want to serve.” No doubt. ✭ Weidenbener is editor of TheStatehouseFile. Lesley Weidenbener Columnist Powered by TECNAVIA Copyright 2014 Indianapolis Star. All rights reserved
Posted on: Mon, 29 Dec 2014 16:52:33 +0000
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