[Southsider2k12]

During the middle of the week last week, the Indianapolis Star published an article detailing the school systems which saw their funding increase and decrease the most based on the school funding formula. The MCAS saw the 10th largest decrease in the State of Indiana.

http://www.indystar.com/story/news/educati...diana/25470321/

What I did was to cross reference the school systems from Kris Turner's article in the Indy Star against the demographics detailed by the Indiana Department of Education. All of the statistics you see are taken directly from the Data Collection page on the INDOE's website.

For the "Poor %" I added up the numbers of students getting both free and reduced lunches, as seen in columns J and K, then divided them by the total enrollment in column M.

For the "Non-white %" I added up all of columns C through H, and divided that by column M, the total enrollment.

The top grouping of schools is the schools with the biggest gains under the funding formula. The bottom grouping is the schools with the biggest losses. As you can see by the numbers, the schools losing funding at the highest rates have about 2.5 times the poverty rates and have twice as many minorities in them. Both rates are highlighted in red. MCAS is highlighted in yellow. The state did not have data for Bowman Academy in the biggest losses, and Indiana Connections Academy Pilot in the biggest gainers. So while I won't go as far as to call this is a race or poor based policy, there is no denying that this is hurting the poorest and minorities at a much higher rate than anyone else in the state of Indiana.

[Jesse B]

Maybe a better question is why are kids leaving the schools like MC and Gary Public Schools and wanting to attend schools like Carmel, Westfield, Hamilton SE. I see Pike is listed as a big gainer and the last time I checked it was still in Indianapolis. What gives there? MC continues to have kids leave the system and that problem is not getting any better it is only getting worse. We all know of kids that should have attended MC that are going to Marquette, New Prairie, LaPorte, Chesterton, South Central, Westville and Chesterton. At $6,000 + a kid there is your funding issue.

[lovethiscity]

--><div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(Jesse B @ Apr 13 2015, 12:13 PM) </div><div class='quotemain'><!--quotec-->
Maybe a better question is why are kids leaving the schools like MC and Gary Public Schools and wanting to attend schools like Carmel, Westfield, Hamilton SE. I see Pike is listed as a big gainer and the last time I checked it was still in Indianapolis. What gives there? MC continues to have kids leave the system and that problem is not getting any better it is only getting worse. We all know of kids that should have attended MC that are going to Marquette, New Prairie, LaPorte, Chesterton, South Central, Westville and Chesterton. At $6,000 + a kid there is your funding issue.
[/quote]
The IDOE with no new funding sources, is now funding two additional education systems. Besides the traditional public education system the money is also funding the Charter school system. The voucher program is now helping to fund religious based education. School systems like the MCAS that are the lowest funded in the State can not afford to make cut after cut.
Economic leaders insist that a in order to attract new businesses, we need an educated work force. This will never happen unless we invest in our children's education. In Laporte County we invest in jail expansions and prisons rather then education. We are not alone in this investment trend. The United States leads the world in the category of incarcerating our children. Pay now or pay later. Job creation I suppose is job creation. The Indiana state prison being the largest employer in the county needs more residents in order to grow. We are off to a very good start.

BTW when it does come to jail or prison expansion, we will not see a referendum on a tax increase. We will just receive a tax increase.

[taxthedeer]

Just the high school alone is down 300 students from 4 years ago. 300 less students X $6,500 per student means $1,950,000 less funding for MCAS.

Here is the piece the school system put out:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RTDaWeTERJY