House Bill 1001, which was co-authored by Rep. Timothy Brown, R-Crawfordsville, and Rep. Gregory Porter, D-Indianapolis, will define the budget for the state of Indiana for the next two fiscal years, starting July 1 of this year. It is the first bill on the schedule to be read in the Indiana House of Representatives today.
Public education has come under heavy scrutiny from the state Republicans in recent weeks, and with some adjustments to the education budget, major changes could be observed in the next couple of years.
For fiscal years 2016 and 2017, a total operational budget of approximately $31.66 billion and $31.69 billion have been proposed, ?respectively.
Of the total operational budget, approximately $11.20 billion and $11.34 billion have been proposed specifically for education in the fiscal years 2016 and 2017, respectively. This is compared to the $11 billion estimated for fiscal year 2015 and $10.47 billion spent in fiscal year 2014.
The education budget includes State Student Assistance Commission, primary, secondary and higher education, tuition support and other costs associated with ?local school districts.
Both HB 1001 and Gov. Mike Pence’s recommended budget that he released in January offered increases in funding toward education. However, HB 1001 proposes an increase of $469 million over the biennial period while Pence’s budget only increased the education budget by $333 million.
Some of the funds that were intended for public education in previous budgets have been redirected to private educational expenditures, specifically charter schools.
The bill would increase the current $6,600 grant cap for students in adult learner charter high schools to $6,800 and also provides a grant of $1,500 per student enrolled in a charter school for that charter school.
In a fiscal summary of the proposed budget done by fiscal analyst Alan Gossard, it is estimated that this increase in grant money to charter schools will incur an additional cost of $37.3 ?million per fiscal year.
At the same time, public education would observe some changes within its own financial system. This is referred to as a “money following the student” plan, which would provide more aid to growing suburban?districts as opposed to ?urban districts.
Some examples of this include Indianapolis Public Schools, which would lose about $18 million over the next two fiscal years. Hamilton Southeastern, a suburban district, would gain an additional $24 million and North West Hendricks School Corporation, a rural group of schools, would potentially receive an increase of ?$1.3 million.
A portion of the education budget will be allocated to Teacher Performance Grants to educators throughout the state whose classrooms scored above a certain threshold on ISTEP, Indiana’s standardized test. Fiscal summaries conclude that the impact of these grants amount to approximately $26.6 million ?each year.
The bill also focuses on some infrastructure investments, including setting aside $200 million each year for major highway projects, which is the same as the current ?budget.
Funding for public transportation would get an increase of $6.4 million over the biennial period, including $3 million each year to be awarded to the Hoosier State Amtrak line that runs from Indianapolis to ?Chicago.
