School funding and the expanding voucher system were the focus of the Strong Public Schools for Strong Communities collaborative event at Warsaw Community High School Performing Arts Center Tuesday.
Warsaw Mayor Joe Thallemer said Tuesday’s event was a collaboration of “our four north-central Indiana counties” and was organized by Brian Wiebe, president and CEO of the Horizon Education Alliance of Elkhart County.
Warsaw School Board President Heather Reichenbach said 15 years ago when her husband, Brian, was finishing up his residency, they were looking for a good fit for Brian’s medical practice and a good community to settle their family in with a good public school system. She said neither good jobs or good education was more important than the other.
Proximity to good jobs and good schools are the biggest drivers to residental growth and economic growth in communities, Reichenbach said.
Thallemer said he has heard guest speaker economist Dr. Michael Hicks speak before in regards to the importance of supporting public education and factors of growing communities, including a skilled workforce and educational containment, which is all supported by quality education.
Hicks said he wanted to have a very frank conversation about education and funding in Indiana.
“Right now, Indiana has too few very well-educated residents, or at least as a share of our population that fully participates in the economy that is transforming in the 21st century,” Hicks said. Over the past 15 years, “we have tried a lot of different things with K-12 and higher education. Some of those things have worked and some have not.”
Spending for kindergarten through 12th grade education are at prerecessionary levels, Hicks said.
“So we’re back to where we were in 2008-09 in inflation-adjusted spending,” Hick said. He said it is important because that means Indiana is spending $1.2-$1.5 billion a year less than the state would have if “we had used the same share of our economy on education than we did back in 2010 today.”
While Indiana has gotten better in some aspects, like higher graduation rates and better test scores, Hicks said he thinks Indiana is in a time when “we really need to talk about a major policy review.”
Hicks shared some statistics. Indiana has 25% more high school graduates than the country as a whole. Indiana is about at the national average of people completing associate’s degrees, but are falling short on people completing bachelor’s degrees and higher. That sets the state back. Between 2010 and 2019, eight of 10 newly made jobs nationwide went to people who had a bachelor’s degree.
School choice had “a real purpose,” which was to provide competition for public education. In 2009-10, there was a big surge in school choice, Hicks said.
Hicks said people need to recognize school choice is not going away, as there seems to be a national push for it. But Hicks said he thinks it has run its course in Indiana.
In 1990, over 10% of students went to private schools in Indiana, which included home schools, which Indiana stopped counting “in the middle part of the past decade,” Hick said. Today, total private enrollment consists of 5.5% of the student population. Hicks said school choice has resulted in students moving “overwhelmingly” from private schools to public schools. Indiana now has a higher percentage of its student population that are educated in public education than any point in history.
Between 2010 and the current school year, student spending has dropped from $9,800 to $8,351 per student per year, Hicks said.
Indiana teachers also make less than neighboring states, said Wa-Nee Community Schools Superintendent Scot Croner.
There were some things Hicks said people can do, which includes addressing the education problem the state has to legislators. Embracing school choice is another thing he recommended as more students are going to public education. However, people have to remind legislators of that shift.
People also need to talk to their neighbors that the state cannot continue to cut spending and continue to see results in its workforce, Hicks said.
Reichenbach said good education is key to a healthy workforce.
“We need to make sure our state is keeping its promise about funding education,” she said.
Croner said Indiana has taken a drastic approach to school choice. The point of Tuesday’s event was not to debate the effectiveness of each option.
Public schools are the life blood of the community, Croner said. However, back in 2010, the state has taken tax dollars and expanded the schools it has given money to without expanding the budget.
“We are nearing a crisis that, if we do not address, will have a serious impact on our communities that we live in and the futures of our children,” Croner said.
Reichenbach talked about school boards adopting resolutions opposing the expansion of voucher programs. Currently, over 150 school boards have adopted resolutions opposing House Bill 1005 and Senate Bills 1421 and 413.
Representatives of 22 of the 23 school boards of the four counties were in attendance. They were asked to bring the resolutions they approved if they had approved such resolutions. They will be presented to local state legislators.
At the end of Tuesday’s event, several community members from Elkhart, St. Joseph, Marshall and Kosciusko counties read off a declaration to Indiana legislators and Gov. Eric J. Holcomb.
It begins stating, “We, the undersigned, strongly support public education. Following a dozen years of underfunding Indiana public schools, we say no expansion of school choice and no new education savings accounts.
“As concerned citizens of Indiana, we ask both House and Senate members to oppose House Bill 1005 and Senate Bills 412 and 413. We believe the dramatic expansion of Indiana School Choice Scholarships and the creation of Education Savings Accounts (ESAs) will harm our local public schools and the communities they serve. This legislation would adversely impact 90% of Hoosier students and all of our communities.”
The declaration was asked to be signed by the 150 people in attendance and will be presented to legislators in Indianapolis Thursday.
