By LAURA HAMMACK, guest columnist
The Indiana General Assembly just completed its session and there are, as usual, significant implications for education. Like all convenings, there are wins and losses for our school community and for K-12 education across the state.
I am grateful to Sen. Eric Koch and Rep. Chris May for their tireless efforts during this “long” session of the Indiana General Assembly. Every odd year, the legislators develop the biennial budget. The budget developed in this year’s convening will be implemented in 2020 and 2021. Legislators conduct a “short” assembly in even years where a budget does not need to be created for implementation. The “long” sessions are significant for public schools, as the budget development process fundamentally informs our local school budget.
I am pleased to share with you that the General Assembly increased funding for K-12 education by $763 million, which translates into a 2.5 percent increase each year of the biennium.
Of this total funding, $539 million is from increases in the school funding formula’s basic and categorical grants. Additionally, Gov. Eric Holcomb introduced an incredibly innovative idea to transfer $150 million from the state’s general fund reserves to buy down the “Post-1996 Teacher Retirement Fund (TRF) Plan,” resulting in a 2 percent reduction in required local school district retirement contributions.
The remaining $74 million of this total funding adds dollars to a variety of other education-related programs. Highlights include an increase in appropriation from $30 million to $37.5 million for the annual Teacher Appreciation Grant (TAG) program. This program allocates dollars for teacher merit bonuses. The Secured School Safety Grant program’s (this is the grant resource that is currently funding our school resource officer) annual appropriation is being increased from $9 million to $19 million. Additionally, $3 million is allocated for training teachers in computer science.
I wish I could assure our readers that all of this new money will translate into a more favorable economic outlook for the financial structure of Brown County Schools. The unfortunate reality is that because of our ongoing declining enrollment, our school district is projected to experience more than $200,000 of revenue loss each year of the biennium.
You are likely asking yourself, “How is it possible that a $763 million influx of funding for K-12 education for the next two years actually translates into a reduction of $400,000 for my local school district?” Let me explain.
The state forecasts our enrollments for the two years that make up the biennium budget (2020 and 2021). They are forecasting our 2020 Average Daily Membership (“ADM” — the number of K-12 students enrolled in school) to be 1,717 and 1,655 in 2021. My forecasts are slightly higher at 1,727 in 2020 and 1,685 in 2021. However, should the state’s (and my) forecasts become reality, even though the number of dollars received per student actually increases because of the biennium’s funding increase, the total number of dollars receipted actually decreases because our number of students is declining.
Specifically, in 2019, Brown County Schools was given $6,997 per student ADM in tuition support from the state. In 2020, because of the funding increase, we will receive $7,155 per student ADM (2.3 percent increase) and in 2021, we will receive $7,284 per student ADM (1.8 percent increase). However, because the number of students is declining, the total revenue is down $214,324 in 2020 and is down an additional $231,067 in 2021.
Clearly, this is disappointing news; however, we are not alone. About 20 percent of school districts in the state are experiencing a forecasted revenue decline in one or both of the years in this biennium, even with the significant influx of additional resources to K-12 education. We respond by continuing to make reductions in our expenditures to match the revenue that is earned.
We know that we are losing enrollment for three reasons. First, the population in Brown County is declining in two important age bands: school-aged children and child-rearing-aged adults. Without more young families choosing to live and raise their families in Brown County, our enrollment will continue to decline.
Second, too many families who live in Brown County choose to send their children to a school district other than ours. We understand that there are many factors for this decision making. We remain relentless in our efforts to develop world-class academic and extra-curricular programming that attracts and retains Brown County students in Brown County Schools.
Third, family decisions to homeschool are a final component in the school enrollment decline. We are respectful of this very personal decision and are working to expand opportunities for students to participate in portions of the school day while simultaneously respecting the decision of the family.
The board and I are committed to decision making that translates into a local school budget that matches expenditures with our revenues. We have made massive budget reductions that have positively affected our cash balances even though we have lost 233 students in the past three school years. The biennium forecast is challenging to navigate; however, we remain optimistic and willing to do the hard work to be fiscally responsible.
Please place Wednesday, June 12 at 6 p.m. on your calendar. With thanks to the Brown County Redevelopment Commission, I am presenting my first ever annual report of the schools at the Brown County Playhouse. I will be talking more in depth about the challenges presented within this article as well as celebrating the successes from school year 2018-2019. It will be an important night for our community. Please join.
Laura Hammack is superintendent of Brown County schools. She can be reached at 812-988-6601 or [email protected].
