Here’s a closer look at how spending has increased statewide over the last decade in four major categories.
The categories, and the line items assigned to those categories, were approved by the Indiana State Board of Education, whose members are appointed by the governor.
The numbers are taken from the 2010 Dollars to the Classroom report, which is posted online at www.in.gov/omb/2495.htm.
The report was compiled by the state OMB, using information submitted by each of Indiana’s 292 school districts, plus its charter schools.
Detailed information for each entity is also available in the online report, as is a ranking for how they compare to all public school districts in Indiana.
• Student academic achievement expenditures - includes teachers, textbooks and various school programming for gifted and talented, vocational education, summer school and remediation.
FY 1999: $3,461,967,723
FY 2009: $5,755,824,883
10-year increase: 66 percent
• Student instructional support — includes guidance counselors, nurses, curriculum development and principals.
FY 1999: $470,461,948
FY 2009: $889,583,580
10-year increase: 89 percent
• Overhead and operational — includes school boards, superintendents, legal services, business support, maintenance, transportation, food service and insurance.
Fiscal year 1999: $1,380,589,954
Fiscal year 2009: $2,647,602,363
10-year increase: 92 percent
• Non-operational expenditures — includes school construction, sports facilities, debt, coaches’ pay and high school band uniforms.
FY 1999: $1,376,974,898
FY 2009: $2,207,509,295
10-year increase: 60 percent
• To view the entire report from the Indiana Office of Management and Budget regarding education spending, including breakdowns for every school district, go to www.in.gov/omb/2495.htm.
The cost of educating Indiana students over the last decade has gone up significantly, even though the number of students in public schools has increased much less.
Enrollment in the state’s public schools grew less than 6 percent, while total expenditures went up 51 percent. Accounting for inflation over the decade, expenditures went up about 18 percent — more than $800 million dollars.
In 1999, public school corporations in Indiana spent about $7.6 billion to educate 988,064 students. In 2009, they spent about $11.5 billion to educate 1,047,145 students.
Some of the extra cost reflects the changing nature of what’s going in schools and in the classroom. In 1999, there was less than $500,000 spent statewide on “academic honors” programs for high school students. Last year, the amount spent to fund those programs totaled $23 million.
Similarly, spending on student instruction in “gifted and talented”
programs went from zero to almost $11 million.
Other costs have gone up disproportionately as well; spending on instructional costs to educate students with mental and physical disabilities has more than doubled in a decade. The amount spent on teaching students with mild, moderate or severe mental disabilities has risen to more than $250 million in 2010 from about $110 million in 1999.
The amount spent on technology — from purchasing equipment to paying technical support staff — has escalated from a few dollars into the millions in a decade.
Meanwhile, the ratio of dollars spent directly on student instruction and support has decreased.
According to the most recent “Dollars to the Classroom” report, which was authorized by the Indiana General Assembly at the urging Gov. Mitch Daniels, 57.8 percent of all public education dollars went into student instruction in the 2008-09 school year.
In the 1998-99 school year, 61.3 percent of public education dollars went into student instruction. Daniels is advocating that 65 cents of every education dollar should be spent on student instruction and support.
The Dollars to the Classroom report remains a subject of contention. Daniels argues that it’s a fair assessment of how taxpayer dollars are being spent. School administrators, though, have chafed at the report; they say it’s weighted against growing school districts that have assumed large debt to pay for needed building projects.
© 2024 Community Newspaper Holdings, Inc.