Suburban Indy Public School Corporations - Funding Problems? (Fishers, Carmel: school districts, income)

[svillechris]

Hello, up here in Northwest Indiana there has been a lot of talk, newspaper coverage, and parental outrage in the past few years about the inequity and secrecy behind the state's funding formula for public school districts in Indiana. I was wondering if the lack of funding is as much of an issue for the more affluent districts in the Indy area as it is for those in Northwest Indiana. For example, many (if not most) of the strongest districts in Northwest Indiana have either already proposed and passed a referendum, or have had discussions on putting one on the ballot. Those being Crown Point, Lake Central and Chesterton who have already passed referendums, Union Township whose board just recently voted to go to referendum, and Munster and Valparaiso who have certainly at least discussed the possibility of going to referendum.

All of these districts have seen their General Fund funding slashed drastically by the state which was the primary reason these districts elected to put the referendum on the ballot. So my question is whether this is a major problem and a topic of conversation for some of the better districts near Indy that have a low amount of students on free/reduced lunch. I haven't been able to find online any list of the per-pupil funding that every district in the state receives. I'd be very interested to see the comparisons and hear any feedback you may have. Thanks

[grmasterb]

You may recall that the last General Assembly revised the funding formula to address outrage brought by many growing, affluent districts. In fact, several districts had joined together in filing suit against the state over the prior funding formula, which used a longer-period average enrollment that resulted in inflated per-pupil amounts going to shrinking districts. My school district, Hamilton Southeastern, was part of that suit.

There have been several modest tax referendums advanced by suburban districts, most of which have passed. This has been driven as much by property tax caps and the need for capital improvements/expansion.
The most serious local case involved Zionsville, which lacks the commercial property tax base that other suburban districts possess.

[ischyros]

Originally Posted by grmasterb

You may recall that the last General Assembly revised the funding formula to address outrage brought by many growing, affluent districts. In fact, several districts had joined together in filing suit against the state over the prior funding formula, which used a longer-period average enrollment that resulted in inflated per-pupil amounts going to shrinking districts. My school district, Hamilton Southeastern, was part of that suit.

There have been several modest tax referendums advanced by suburban districts, most of which have passed. This has been driven as much by property tax caps and the need for capital improvements/expansion.
The most serious local case involved Zionsville, which lacks the commercial property tax base that other suburban districts possess.

^^^This. There have been plenty of referendums passed at least for Hamilton Southeastern (Fishers area) and Zionsville. I'm not sure about Carmel. Zionsville in particular was very cash strapped for a while because one referendum was voted down a couple years or so ago.

[rrah]

This issue wasn't just an issue for districts with or without a lot of lower income students. It's been an issue around the state in rich and poor, large and small districts.

MCCSC passed a referendum in 2009 (I think it was 2009) as the cuts started to have an adverse impact on the budget.

I found this link for referendum that appeared on ballots in May, 2012. Most are related to school districts. This is a single year.

Local ballot measures, Indiana - Ballotpedia

[sweetana3]

And some school districts, Franklin Township, appear to have financial issues due to decisions made by the district. They are the ones who tried to get rid of all bus transportation. Acton has a very new elementary school that is shuttered.

[svillechris]

Thanks for the replies so far and would love to hear more. I thought I remembered hearing about the Zionsville referendum but couldn't remember for sure. More than anything I was interested to hear whether the districts in NWI with the fewest lower income students were being treated the same way as comparable districts in the Indy area. By no means do I want to turn this into a political debate or discussion, but many people in Northwest Indiana tend to think that the state legislature highly favors anything that's Indy related, often times at the expense of the residents of Northwest Indiana. Just wondering if this was an example of that. But it sounds like, no, not really. So far it seems like this is a battle that the best districts in the state are all waging together.

[sweetana3]

Well, I understand that Lake County sued due to property tax issues and the result was the mess of property tax reform several years ago. Ended up costing them more than they expected when changed. So they should beware of asking for changes as it may not be what they expect.

[indy_317]

Schools around here are complaining, but that is because they got their hands slapped and anytime you shut off the money and/or make changes, those who stand to lose, or maybe not gain as much as before, start whining. One of the worse things that has happened is that schools spent too much on bling. Unfortunately, back then I think a lot of school funds were funded by property taxes. Some schools built Taj Mahals while other schools like Indpls. PS just wanted to get A/C in all their schools. Then it all came crashing down when K-12 over reached. Now with limited funds, the teachers aren't happy, admin. aren't happy, and parents with kids in the schools aren't happy.