School funding must be priority in next Indiana budget, says Democratic lawmaker

Funding for traditional public schools has slowly declined over the last decade, and there are consequences in the classroom, says a Democratic state lawmaker.

Rep. Ed DeLaney (D-Indianapolis) is calling on lawmakers to address support for schools in the upcoming legislative sessions, where the next two-year budget will be hammered out.

“We have made, in my view, a conscious choice to turn our eyes away from education, specifically public education, and to downplay it,” DeLaney said Wednesday. “That’s not an accident.”

DeLaney gave a briefing last week about data he requested from the nonpartisan Legislative Services Agency. He cited the state’s decreased college-going rate and third-grade reading scores as examples of what has failed in academics because of disinvestment.

DeLaney said tuition support for all publicly funded schools — charter schools and vouchers for private schools included — is down, despite vouchers hitting a record $439 million in tuition grants to private parochial or nonreligious schools last year.

The combined state tuition support for the three school types, as a percentage of the state’s general fund, dropped from 44.3 percent in 2010-11 to 39.8 percent in 2023-24.

Support for traditional schools, during that same time, slipped from 43.1 percent to 36.4 percent as a percentage of the general fund.

Support for charter schools increased slightly over the past 14 years by 0.4 percentage points. The report found that charter schools consistently receive more state tuition support per student than traditional public schools. That’s because charter schools enroll students who need more instructional support than their traditional school corporation counterparts, such as learning to speak English.

In the last two-year budget, lawmakers approved $8.84 billion in school tuition funds for 2023-24 and $9.03 billion for 2024-25. Additionally, $52.6 million in grants were available each year for charter schools and for charters that operate in collaboration with a traditional school district.

DeLaney believes increased state funding is also needed to alleviate local property tax burdens and improve educational outcomes.

School districts across the state, from rural to urban, ask voters to increase property taxes each election cycle to raise revenue for teacher pay, academic programs, and other classroom needs. DeLaney said the ballot initiatives fill a gap left by state funding, which he thinks is far too low.

“We decided to lower our support for all schools, but especially lower our support for traditional school corporations,” DeLaney said. “Now, the really devastating number that I came up with was that we’ve managed to gouge the property taxpayers in the process.”

What’s next?

During the 2024 legislative session, a Republican lawmaker said he wanted to overhaul how vouchers are managed. Lawmakers said they will revisit that concept during the 2025 budget session. The Indiana General Assembly reconvenes in January.

Indiana voters will elect a new governor next month, and whoever is picked will have some influence over budget priorities. The election is Nov. 5.

DeLaney said vouchers should be limited or reduced if a household's income goes above a certain threshold. For the 2024-25 school year, a family of four can earn up to $230,880 to receive a voucher to help pay for private school tuition, according to Indiana Department of Education guidelines.

"Otherwise, we're just giving people money who don't need it at all," DeLaney said.

Rachel Fradette is the WFYI Statehouse education reporter. Contact Rachel at rfradette@wfyi.org.