By LAURA HAMMACK, guest columnist
Like other local governmental entities, school districts across the state are currently engaged in budget development for the upcoming calendar year. School finance in Indiana can be a bit tricky; however, my intention with this column is to focus on one of the primary drivers for revenue generation: the state tuition support funding formula.
Indiana schools are funded by local, state and federal sources. The majority of school district funding comes from state resources through the state tuition support funding formula.
Prior to 2009, the funding formula was populated by both state and local tax dollars. In 2009, Indiana changed the way the funding formula was populated to solely state revenues.
Local and state tax revenues continue to fund programs like school transportation, capital projects and debt service.
[sc:text-divider text-divider-title=”Story continues below gallery” ]The state tuition support funding formula is primarily informed by student enrollment. This enrollment number is called the average daily membership, or “ADM.” Effectively, the number of students a school district educates is multiplied by a dollar amount called the “basic tuition support per ADM.” The total from this calculation results in the foundation for our state tuition support.
The ADM enrollment count is taken two times during the year, during September and February. In September, once the ADM is certified, the Indiana Department of Education reconciles tuition support distribution for school districts back to July 1 of the same year. If enrollment is up, school districts receive a positive adjustment. If enrollment is down, school districts experience a reduction in funding.
Unfortunately, the ADM story in Brown County Schools is a troubling one. The chart with this column shows a continuous enrollment decline over the past 12 school years.
The 2020-2021 September ADM date took place on the 18th of this school year. The pre-certified count is 1,667 students. This number is likely to change slightly as summative student data is aligned at the state level. For now, this is the number we are using for our budgeting process.
Eleven years ago, the ADM for our school district was 2,130 students. This year’s enrollment shows a decline of 463 students from that number (-22 percent).
When a school district’s primary revenue stream is tied to enrollment, it is the responsibility of the school district to ensure that receipted revenues match district expenditures. Over the past four school years, we have reduced our budget well over $2 million to ensure this reality.
Unfortunately, because the 2020 September ADM enrollment count is down as compared with 2019, it evidences the need for additional cuts to the budget to achieve that necessary equilibrium.
I am often asked why the enrollment in Brown County Schools is declining. Most of our patrons know that we offer extraordinary academic and extra-curricular programming. Our students consistently compete (and win!) at state and national levels with students from schools that are much larger. While we believe that we can always improve in all that we offer, we also believe the explanation of declining enrollment is unique from programming.
Consider the chart with this column as it shows a compelling rationale for enrollment decline.
This chart illustrates the change in Brown County’s overall population for the past 19 years. The data tell an alarming story.
The number of preschool-aged children (0-4) residing in Brown County dropped 23.4 percent.
The number of school-aged children (5-17) residing in Brown County dropped 25.7 percent.
The number of college-aged students (18-24) residing in Brown County dropped 2.1 percent.
The number of child-rearing-aged adults (25-44) residing in Brown County dropped 28.8 percent.
The number of (typically) non-child-rearing-aged adults (45-64) residing in Brown County increased 6.3 percent.
The number of senior adults residing in Brown County increased 98.8 percent.
The only demographic where increases in population occurred were in non-child-rearing-aged adults from the ages of 45 to 64, with a 98.8 percent increase in the demographic for senior adults aged 65 and up.
This set of data show that while an ongoing reduction in student enrollment is an unfortunate reality for Brown County Schools, the percentage decline in enrollment actually aligns with the changing age demographic represented in the population of our county. When there are fewer school-aged children living in the county, there are fewer students in school.
So. Now what?
We need to talk boldly about housing, because young families simply can’t afford to live here and we need their children to fill our schools.
In my next column, I intend to address how housing informs the future vitality of a school community. This conversation has never been more relevant and it requires a collective response to impact the trajectory that is evidenced today.
Laura Hammack is superintendent of Brown County schools. She can be reached at 812-988-6601 or lhammack@brown countyschools.com.
