By VICKI URBANIK

The Porter County Council resolved a lingering issue Tuesday by agreeing to provide the financially struggling Portage Adult Education with $67,000 of county funds, keeping the program afloat this year.

And if two county officials’ comments are any indication, the county stands willing to help out the program if need be next year as well.

The county council unanimously agree to tap the county’s income tax funds to help offset the Adult Education’s deficit this year. Other agencies, including the Lake County Council, are also chipping in to cover the estimated $140,000 shortfall.

The Portage Township School Board decided late last year that its school system, which serves as the administrative agent for the multi-county adult ed program, can’t continue to absorb the operating loss. Unless some other financial help was found, the school board’s decision threatened to bring the program to an end in June.

Porter County Commissioner President Robert Harper, who first proposed using county funds to help bail out Adult Education months ago, told the council Tuesday that adult education officials are hoping that the state government comes up with a long-term solution. The funding help from the county is being viewed as a one-time fix only, he said.

But Harper raised some suspicion that the state will come to the rescue of Adult Education. If the program needs additional funding next year, he said he would support it.

Porter County Council member Karen Conover, R-3rd, agreed. She said helping Adult Education is a “wonderful expenditure” of the County Economic Development Income Tax funds. If the county needs to revisit the funding situation again next year, it will do so, she said.

Council member Dan Whitten, D-at large, said it would be “disastrous” if the program shut down.

Harper cited a variety of benefits from Portage Adult Education, including the statistic that 40 percent of the students who get their GED through the program go on to college and that the program annually serves more than 2,000 students. Council President Robert Poparad, D-at large, pointed out, however, that all Porter County school systems are voluntarily paying the amounts that the Portage Schools bill. It’s the school systems from outside Porter County that are not paying the full costs, he said.

With council member Jim Burge, R-at large, absent Tuesday, the council -- Conover, Poparad, Whitten, Mike Bucko, D-4th, William Carmichael, R-at large, and Rita Stevenson, D-2nd -- unanimously approved the CEDIT funds.

Posted 5/28/2008