Chamber Sees Education Progress at Statehouse
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As a subscriber you can listen to articles at work, in the car, or while you work out. Subscribe NowEducation continues to be a major issue in the Indiana General Assembly, including the creation of a new school funding formula. In a Studio(i) interview, Indiana Chamber of Commerce Vice President Caryl Auslander says the process creates a “difficult balance” because some suburban districts are growing while many urban and rural school systems are losing students. During a Studio (i) interview, Auslander addressed the issue of changing the school funding formula, and how urban school districts could be potentially negatively impacted.
She says, “It's a difficult balance because what you have are growing school districts and some of the suburban areas that are growing year after year and you combine that with some of the more urban and rural districts in the state that are losing students just as fast as the others are growing and so it's important to make the disparity of funding between the two a little bit closer together, so all students are getting good funding and keeping the school districts a float.”
Auslander believes the legislation will raise some of the foundation dollars.
Meanwhile, two bills have been introduced this session that deal with governance of the State Board of Education: House Bill 1609 and Senate Bill 1.
“We have heard HB 1609 is not moving forward at this point and they are dealing with Senate Bill 1 moving forward, but they have a month left of session, so that could change. There are a lot of negotiations at this point to figure out what portions of each bill will move forward,” Auslander said.
Source: Inside INdiana Business