Across Indiana, in more than a dozen different school districts over the past year, taxpayers have sent a message to administrators:
We are no longer giving you a blank check.
Voters in Beech Grove on Tuesday endorsed a tax increase to keep school buses operating, while other education-related measures in two Marion County townships failed.
As a mother of two, Feleccia Moore-Davis is accustomed to the usual back-to-school swirl of new supplies, new clothes and
new routines. But this year, that final flurry of summer is accompanied by an unusual worry.
IBJ is completely off base to suggest that the new state budget was “balanced on the backs of poor children.”
As has been true of every state budget for the last two decades, students in Indianapolis Public Schools and other urban districts
are actually the biggest winners in this budget.
A state budget was passed June 30, but it’s balanced on the backs of poor children. Legislators
deserve praise for at least slightly increasing overall education funding, but because of a flawed funding
formula, urban districts such as Indianapolis Public Schools actually will lose money in the next two
years.
Stimulus talk continues to dominate discussion at the Indiana Statehouse, creating indecision for lawmakers who were supposed to be devoting their full attention to assembling a two-year budget under difficult economic circumstances.
