Hello everyone.
Ahhh, the first day of school - Smiling teachers… Excited Children… Gridlock across Franklin Township. I can’t remember a time where there was so much media coverage of Franklin Township. My only recollection might have been when I stepped off the bus as a 5th grader at Wanamaker Elementary many, many years ago on the first day of school desegregation with cameras everywhere covering the historic first day.
I did some research last week because I have been mad about transportation challenges in Franklin Township for the last 10 years, but for a reason different than all of you. Here’s a history lesson that will be short and sweet. Actually, much shorter than the traffic lines we must navigate to deliver our children to school.
I began my Franklin Township School Board service in July of 2004. In September of 2004, the Franklin Township School Board submitted an appeal to the State of Indiana for additional transportation funds. It had made the same request of the State of Indiana in both 2002 and 2003. Each year it received help from the State.
Let me paraphrase the comments made by Rod Caldwell, who was at that time the FTCSC Business Manager. The comments were made at the school board meeting in September of 2004. He indicated “it had been a struggle to keep up with additional costs due to growth as the state placed limits on the amount of money that could be raised.”
Then, another experienced school board member commented “if the legislature did not make a change in the funding formula, particularly in the area of transportation, the corporation would have no choice but to continue to appeal.” The board member explained “the FTCSC School Board had spent a great deal of time talking to legislators about the need for changes in the funding formula and to date there had not been a favorable response.”
Those legislators at the time included current State Senator Pat Miller. Some things never change, do they?
Another board member immediately followed with the comment that “the state of Indiana was punishing Franklin Township schools for being a growing school corporation.”
Rod Caldwell explained “a change had been made just prior to 2004 and the State of Indiana had chosen to no longer contribute anything in the education funding formula for transportation as that funding burden was being shifted to property tax payers.”
However, the state retained control of the cap and the amount of the increase schools could receive for transportation when asking their tax payers for help. That year the amount was 4.3%.
But that's not all. Mr. Caldwell went on to explain that “FT had over 500 new students that year and the school corporation needed 10 new buses. Thus, Franklin Township could not provide transportation on the revenue received from the tax rate approve by the state of Indiana. It was growing too fast.”
In that same September 2004 meeting, Mr. Caldwell explained that “state funding for transportation was opposite what it should have been because school systems with flat or declining enrollments still got the 4% increase in transportation revenue.”
Let me summarize in one sentence. The system was badly broken in 2004. And, it hasn’t changed since that time. FTCSC has been fighting this battle regarding transportation every single day of every single year for these last 10 years.
I’ve been involved in it. I understand it. Most of you don’t have the history or choose not to educate yourselves.
Today, particularly on this first day of school, the transportation system in Franklin Township is badly broken, but for a different reason than in 2004.
I believe Franklin Township might well have been a reason for the original creation of property tax caps. Follow me here.
As the state of Indiana looked for ways to fund less of education over the last 10 years, what they did for a period of time was allow the school systems to raise the dollars (that the state was taking away) through additional property tax levies. Transportation is the perfect example. The State chose to no longer include transportation of students in the funding formula, but they would allow schools to raise tax revenue from property tax payers.
So what happened? Property taxes continued to escalate as these funding shifts took place, particularly in Franklin Township, where the tremendous growth in the schools demanded more resources... And the state said “we aren’t giving the funds to you, but we will change the funding mechanisms to allow you to go get it from your tax payers.”
So, then the tax caps were enacted. I am not in any way opposed to tax caps. They are much needed and much appreciated, but just like the system was broken 10 years ago, these sweeping changes made by the state did not take into account the negative effect on a school system such as FTCSC.
So here you are on this day furious at the most negatively affected public entity (school or otherwise) in the state of Indiana… when they’ve been fighting this transportation funding battle every single year for AT LEAST the last 10 years.
Most of you sit in traffic and only look at the events of the last 4 months with no understanding of the past. You see the end of a valued social service, a privilege we had come to expect. It is terrible for ALL of us as parents of Franklin Township students, but transporting "our" kids isn't the law.
There’s a 1.2 billion dollar surplus at the state level right now. Part of that came from the almost 6 million dollars in funding they took from Franklin Township in the last 2 years due to cuts in the funding of public education at the state level. Direct your anger in the right place people. Go talk to Pat Miller and Mike Speedy. Ask them to fix the problems they have participated in creating. In Pat’s case, she has been part of the problem for years and years.
Have a great day!
