Indiana Governor Proposes More Dollars To Classroom For Student Learning

Offers Tax Credit For Teachers

EVANSVILLE, Indiana (August 12, 2008) - Indiana Governor Mitch Daniels says schools must find a way to increase spending in Hoosier classrooms, and he will propose actions to free resources for student learning.

Daniels will ask the next Indiana General Assembly to require that schools work through the Indiana Department of Administration (IDOA) to purchase goods and services unless they can show they can get better prices another way. A 2006 law encouraging collective purchasing has had some success, but the governor believes much more must be done.

The governor also said he will work with the legislature and the State Board of Education to provide incentives to schools that are doing a good job of spending efficiently or are making progress toward their dollars to the classroom goals. For example, those schools might receive preference in the competition for Department of Education discretionary grants and programs.

"Only 61 cents of every dollar spent in our schools makes it to the classroom, even under a liberal interpretation of what counts," said Daniels. "Each one percent of improvement would mean over $100 million new dollars to hire more teachers, pay them better, make class sizes smaller, reduce the cost of textbooks, and so on. That's a huge opportunity, and we must seize it."

According to 2005-06 data from the U.S. Department of Education's National Center for Education Statistics, fewer than half of those who worked in the state's K-12 system were teachers. Indiana is 48th in the nation for its ratio of teachers to total staff and 45th in the ratio of in-school administrators to teachers working in those schools.

Daniels also wants to help teachers who reach into their own pockets to buy needed supplies for their classrooms by giving them a break on their state income taxes. The governor proposes to help teachers by offering them a $50 credit annually on their income taxes for supplies they've purchased for their classrooms.

"This is a modest proposal, but we want to do whatever we can to support teachers and their commitment to students," said Daniels. "As schools refocus their spending away from overhead and into the classroom, we hope eventually to make out-of-pocket teacher spending unnecessary."

Two years ago, the Indiana legislature passed HEA 1006, the governor's bill that requires the Department of Education and the Office of Management and Budget to track school

expenses in four broad categories to measure every school corporation's record of spending in the classroom. Expenditures in the first two categories are considered to be dollars in the classroom spending. The categories are:

1. Student academic achievement: including teacher salaries, principals, speech pathologists, media services, textbooks, school libraries

2. Student instructional support: including guidance counselors, nurses, curriculum development, superintendents, school boards, technology

3. Overhead and operational: including legal services, business support, maintenance, transportation, food service, athletic coaches

4. Non-operational: including school construction, debt, interest, lease rental

Results from the first two years of tracking vary widely, but in 2007, the statewide average ratio of student instructional expenditures to total expenses was 61 percent. The ratio for each school corporation can be found on the list at http://www.in.gov/omb/2349.htm

As a part of the 2006 legislation, the state's nine regional Education Service Centers were asked to play a role in helping their member school corporations purchase goods and services collectively to gain savings. The service centers reported that for 2006-07, they jointly saved Indiana school corporations over $14 million in both shared services and joint purchasing agreement.

The governor says that's a good start, but he believes there is more opportunity for savings. During the past three years, the state, through IDOA, has centralized purchases to obtain better prices. The state's OneIndiana initiative, which incorporates all efforts to leverage the state's buying power, is expected to save taxpayers $165 million over the span of contracts. Quantity purchase agreements, known, as QPAs, are part of the state's efforts to negotiate the lowest possible prices for everything from office supplies to janitorial chemicals to computers

Now, the governor is proposing to bring schools into these agreements. For example, from June 2006 to June 2008 some schools have participated in purchasing Dell computer equipment. IDOA estimates that schools have achieved savings of at least $6 million through the agency's purchasing agreement.

IDOA is developing a Web site, Oneindiana.net, which will make it possible for school corporations and other units of local governments to participate in the discounted purchase programs. IDOA purchases a wide range of products and services that school corporations use, including office supplies, computer products, software, fire extinguishers, mowers, paper products, paint, lab equipment and food items.

Source: Indiana Governor

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