ELKHART -- As Indiana schools watch funding grow progressively scant, many are finding that transfer students are worth their weight in gold.
The Indiana General Assembly this year passed Senate Bill 252, giving Indiana school corporations the option to waive tuition fees for transfer students. Several districts throughout the state -- including Elkhart, Baugo, Middlebury and Fairfield in Elkhart County -- are taking advantage of the option, which has the potential to increase schools' enrollment rates and boost their bank balances by $5,000 to $6,000 per student.
What's changed
Schools previously were required to assess transfer tuition for students when property taxes financed districts' general funds. Now that the state has taken over general fund payments, the funding follows the student.
Enrollment requirements vary by district, though nearly all require students to have enrolled by the Sept. 17 count day. Precise figures will also vary, but officials estimate each student in grades 1-12 who transfers has the potential to bring $5,000 to $6,000 of additional state funding with him or her. Transfer tuition still may be assessed for students in full-day kindergarten, which is not fully funded by the state.
Some schools are going to great lengths to make sure parents are aware of the tuition waiver. Locally, Middlebury has taken out newspaper ads in Elkhart, Goshen and South Bend seeking transfer students. In LaPorte County, South Central Community Schools Superintendent Christopher Smith is sending school buses into surrounding districts to pick up transfer students.
State Superintendent Tony Bennett is pleased to see schools looking for ways to attract students.
Bennett said parents and students need to be able to seek out opportunities provided by other districts that aren't offered locally. That freedom for families ultimately gives school districts incentive to innovate new ways to better serve students.
Local numbers
According to the Indiana Department of Education, local school enrollment has been slowly declining for Elkhart, Goshen, Concord, Fairfield and Wa-Nee over the last three years, and has risen slightly for Baugo and Middlebury. Early indications show that transfers are up for the four districts waiving tuition.
Roughly 95 students have transferred to Baugo, about 50 more than last year. Fairfield's last count showed 65 transfer students, up nine from last year.
Baugo Superintendent Jim DuBois said whatever tuition would have been assessed for students would have been so small that it wouldn't be worth officials' time to track it all down. He added that because of all of the changes Baugo has seen this year, such as the closing of Jimtown North, the district wasn't looking to drastically increase its student population.
Elkhart and Middlebury saw more significant spikes. Middlebury Superintendent Jim Conner said the district has 111 transfers, up from 42 last year. Conner said the district waiving tuition was helpful for numerous families who wanted their kids to attend Middlebury but couldn't afford the $775 tuition that the district had to assess.
John Hutchings, director of student services for Elkhart, and Doug Hasler, Elkhart's director of support services, estimated the number of transfers for the district is between 40 and 50. Typically, Hasler said, district officials see transfer numbers as low as two or three a year. The county's largest district, 13,280 students were enrolled at Elkhart last year.
Goshen Superintendent Bruce Stahly said transfer tuition for first- through 12th-grade students could range from no charge to $600. Stahly said the latter is a worst-case scenario and unlikely outcome, but added that some students are more expensive to educate than others, and it's important for the district to be fair to area taxpayers. Goshen has roughly 30 transfers for the year.
Concord Superintendent George Dyer said in many cases, there is no tuition needed for students to transfer to Concord. Dyer cited full classrooms as a key reason behind the district's decision not to waive transfer tuition this year. Concord has approved 164 transfer requests this year.
Multiple calls to Wa-Nee Community Schools officials were not returned.
Potential fallout
It's undeniable that districts are under pressure to find new sources of revenue. What's less certain is whether it's a good idea to have schools competing against each other for state funding.
Conner and Dyer said they doubt there's much of a chance of a bidding war breaking out among area schools for students. Conner echoed Bennett's sentiments that parents should have a say in where their children attend school.
DuBois and Elkhart Superintendent Mark Mow have a different take on the situation. DuBois believes a bidding war is possible among corporations.
"The school business is changing," he said, "and we want to be responsive to our students' needs that we have right now, make sure we're doing a good job for them."
Mow said competition was likely what state legislators wanted. He added that the various programs in Elkhart County schools are all excellent, and so there's no telling whether there will be much competition in the area. As to whether the legislation is a good idea, "I think the jury's still out on that."
Stahly said he's concerned that wealthier schools able to generate larger enrollment numbers will only get wealthier while struggling schools will continue to struggle. And he's not a fan of South Central's tactic of sending buses into surrounding districts.
Teresa Meredith, vice president of the Indiana State Teachers Association, said it will take a year or two before officials know the effectiveness of having schools compete for students.
Educators need to examine why students are leaving a particular district, she said. Is it because a school wasn't offering a course that would have been helpful, or because a student had a falling out with a teacher? Meredith added that if students are perpetually entering and leaving a district, it will be harder for that district to anticipate how much money it'll have for the coming year.
Meredith echoed Stahly's worry that good schools with limited resources could struggle under the new system. If a student at a struggling school transfers out, for whatever reason, that school's resources are limited even further, she said. And those limitations can filter down and impact the students that, for whatever reason, are unable to transfer.
Bennett disagrees.
"I don't see this as a knock against schools," he said.
Bennett said it's possible for school officials to reassess their core mission and how to execute it in a way that will attract students and the enrollment dollars they bring with them.
There's a problem, Bennett said, with the philosophy that students must go to a particular school because of where they live, regardless of whether the school serves their needs.