BY CHRISTINE KRALY, Times of Northwest Indiana Washington Bureau
WASHINGTON | Second-grade teacher Susan Hmurovic is feeling a pinch. The Whiting native just bought a new car, and gas prices are high. So are the property taxes that go toward funding Lake County teacher salaries.
According to a recent NEA survey, the average Indiana public school teacher earned $45,791 in the 2003-04 school year, compared to a national average of $46,752.
Meanwhile, the average Illinois salary -- ranked seventh-highest in the country at $54,230 -- far surpassed the national average.
"It's not a secret that teachers are underpaid," said Kevin Lenz, a math teacher and head basketball and baseball coach at Whiting High School.
"But it's a little disheartening to know that Indiana doesn't pay as much as the national average."
In 2003-2004, Hoosier school funding was nearly split, with 50 percent coming from the state and 43 percent coming from local governments, mainly in the form of property taxes.
In Lake County, those taxes have skyrocketed recently, with the average household bill increasing by $415. Lawmakers have called the hikes necessary in part to address increased levies for some school districts.
According to NEA figures, even in 2001-02, Hoosier taxpayers on average paid more per capita -- $970 -- to local governments in property taxes than the rest of the country, at $936.
Illinois ranked in the top 10, contributing $1,257 per capita to local governments.
As she's done countless times in her 30-year career, Hmurovic has been buying supplies for the coming year out of her own wallet.
She says she's better off than many, finding understatement in this short but bleak assessment from Daniel Kauffman of the National Education Association: "It's a very difficult time to be an educator."
Hmurovic, who teaches at Lincoln Elementary School in Cedar Lake, said she makes just slightly above the state average. To her, the low salaries are "a very sad commentary on our society. It says that we don't value education."
Experts say a confusing school funding formula is partly to blame. But so is a nearly $800 million state budget deficit.
"I can't say that I'm shocked, because of the real challenges we've faced in recent years," said Mary Tiede Wilhelmus, communications director for Indiana's Department of Education.
Salaries have remained relatively stagnant over the last decade. NEA figures show that in the last 10 years, average Indiana public teacher salaries, adjusted for inflation, have increased less than 1 percent, as compared to 2.9 percent for the rest of the country.
"The fact that we're dealing with the lousy national economy and the lousy state economy, teachers' take-home pay is less today than it was two or three years ago," said Mark Shoup, spokesman for the Indiana State Teachers Association.
Shoup said that during the last few years, the state has contributed less money to schools, shifting the responsibility to local governments.
That should be a huge concern for citizens in Northwest Indiana, because the region already pays high property taxes, he said.
Hmurovic's property taxes -- which almost tripled last year -- combined with the escalating gas prices she pays to drive to work, have caused her to buy less for her class from her own money.
Teaching materials are not the only things sorely needed in Hmurovic's classroom. She also could use more time for individual attention -- a challenge with 28 students.
Both Indiana (at 16.9) and Illinois (at 15.9) have student-to-teacher ratios above the national average (at 15.8). Education experts agree that smaller class sizes are better for students' learning. The NEA's Kauffman says they should be "significantly lower."
Kauffman said larger classes and teacher shortages are signs that salaries are too low and incentives too few to keep educators in the classrooms.
Although Lenz said he is happy working at Whiting High School, he has wondered, "How long can I take being underpaid at an Indiana school when I can go to an Illinois school and make $7,000 more?"
Many teachers, like Lenz, take a second or third job to supplement their income. He took his coaching positions for the love of the games, but he says the extra estimated $12,000 they provide, plus summer-school pay, help make ends meet.
Lenz isn't the only one supplementing. Hmurovic is a landlady.
Sen. Sue Landske, R-Cedar Lake, said state lawmakers are concerned about teachers' salaries, but "we try to leave that up to the local school corporations," because they're most familiar with a community's needs.
A representative from Gov. Mitch Daniels' office referred questions to the Department of Education.
At a conference this month, NEA officials called on policymakers to institute a $40,000 minimum starting salary for public school teachers, which Kauffman said no state in the country has.
The wage is part of the organization's nationwide campaign for new ways to recruit and retain high-quality teachers and for instituting "appropriate living wages" for school faculty and staff.
Landske said that while it is an "admirable goal, I just don't know how we could do it. The devil's in the details. It's going to take a while to even get this kind of proposal on the table."
Indiana's Wilhelmus said that although school funding is always a priority for the Board of Education, it might not be feasible right now.
"Until we get a bounce in our economic situation, I can't imagine the General Assembly looking specifically at creating a funding formula in two years to raise teachers' salaries," she said.
Copyright © 2005 nwitimes.com.