The
Republican-controlled Senate Appropriations Committee voted 8-3 to advance
its two-year state spending plan to the full Senate.
The Senate
committee's $31.5 billion plan includes 2.3 percent increases in school
funding in both budget years, while maintaining a state surplus of about
$1.9 billion. Those figures are similar to a plan advanced by House
Republicans in February, but the school funding increases top the 2
percent and 1 percent boosts Gov. Mike Pence had proposed in January.
The Senate
proposal doesn't include the $40 million in new grants for charter schools
that Pence has requested and was included in the House spending plan.
Senate
Appropriations Committee Chairman Luke Kenley, R-Noblesville, said
modifications to how money is directed toward districts with high numbers
of students from poor families would result in fewer of the drastic
funding shifts that were seen in the House plan.
Funding for K-12
schools makes up slightly more than half of the total state budget.
Kenley said the
$466 million boost in school funding included in the Senate budget plan
was a major step that should help all schools, although final budget talks
with the House will pick up steam once an updated state revenue forecast
is given to lawmakers on April 16.
"My big hope is
to hang onto the money that we're putting in there," Kenley said.
The House
spending plan shifted tens of millions of dollars to growing suburban
districts in an attempt to shrink the gap in per-child funding between
growing and shrinking school districts that has reached nearly $3,000.
That funding plan, however, included cuts to more than a third of
Indiana's nearly 300 school districts.
It wasn't
immediately clear how many districts would still see cuts under the Senate
plan.
Estimates based
on the Senate proposal showed smaller funding reductions for districts
ranging from the 29,000-student Indianapolis Public Schools to the
850-student Culver Community Schools in northern Indiana — both of which
are expected to see enrollment declines. Those estimates also show some
slight smaller increases for growing districts, such as the Zionsville and
Hamilton Southeastern schools near Indianapolis.
Pence said in a
statement he continued to support his plan to provide $1,500 more per
student for charter schools, giving them money for building work and
transportation that traditional school districts receive through local
property taxes. Pence said he also preferred the House school funding
proposal, "where the dollars more closely follow the students in growing
suburban areas."
House and Senate
leaders have until April 29 to reach a budget agreement.
Sen. Karen
Tallian of Portage, the top Democrat on the Appropriations Committee, said
she believed the believed the Senate plan reduced the worst of the school
funding cuts, but that more time was needed to review funding estimates
for individual districts.
Tallian said she
agreed with the holding off on new grants for charter schools and believed
the state needed to also consider ways of helping school districts that
have lost money for bus services because of statewide property tax caps.
"The local public
schools are also having the same problem," she said.
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