Hello everyone.
On Tuesday evening, July 26th, State Senator Pat Miller and State Representative Mike Speedy will be participating in a Franklin Township Town Hall meeting to answer questions and discuss their positions regarding the recently enacted transportation fee through Central Indiana Education Service Center.
Last week, Senator Miller was kind enough to elaborate on her position regarding the transportation fees. She clearly expressed her position to oppose such fees and indicated she considers them to be a tax during tough economic times. I’m sure she will expand upon her feelings and you can attend this event to listen to her share the thought that charging bus fees is an unconstitutional activity.
Since I will be unable to attend, I’d like to share information with you I am certain will not be part of the dog and pony show the elected representatives will share.
I told all of you in messages beginning on March 7th of this year exactly what would happen. Transportation would go away… people will scream. Having served 4 years on this school board in Franklin Township, I have personally watched the state fulfill its funding obligation less and less annually since my involvement began in 2004. Senator Miller has been Franklin Township’s representative in the State Senate prior to that and ever since. I have found her in my personal interactions to be polite, but somewhat dismissive. In saying that, I mean that she would always seem politely engaged in the annual conversations with the Franklin Township School Board, only to go off and do nothing that was truly supportive of this school system’s needs.
In the days following the recent referendum vote in May, I wrote to each of you that the township residents had spoken and the direction was quite clear. By an overwhelming defeat of this second referendum request, residents were telling the school board and the school administration to get their financial affairs in order. The residents clearly said, “We are not willing to pay any additional tax dollars to keep the schools open or keep bus transportation in place.” The message to Dr. Bourke and the board… balance your budget and work with what you are already being given.
Dr. Bourke and the school board heard this message loud and clear. Eighteen months ago, the school board voted to keep schools open an extra year with hopes this most recent referendum would succeed. This year, upon the referendum failure, they closed the schools… and as they stated they would do for months leading up to the referendum vote, they maintained their commitment to eliminate transportation because of the lack of funding available to support it.
In case you are not aware, schools are not required to offer transportation with the exception of the requirement to transport special needs students. For example, Speedway schools do not offer transportation.
For those interested in reality and not the political games we see all around us these days, let me share some specific events in the days following the referendum you are not aware of. When I sent my last message out to each of you, it had an interested reader who wanted to get together and meet… State Representative Mike Speedy. I believe his interest was in response to my telling you it was time to turn attention to the place where the problem has resided all along… with the leaders at the State House. I told him I would be happy to meet, as long as the meeting included Superintendent Walter Bourke and School CFO Chad Blacklock. I also told him I was only interested in talking about the reality of the situation and not some of the nonsense numbers he had shared with me to tell me how great of a job he and Senator Miller were doing for Franklin Township.
That meeting took place at 8am on the morning of May 19th at the Starbucks on Southport Road. He invited another guest… Senator Pat Miller. The conversation was direct, but actually quite cordial. The situation from the view of the school system was explained to them. They were given an outline reflecting the massive deficit funding projections for 2012, 2013, 2014, and 2015 in the debt service fund, the capital projects fund, the transportation fund, the bus replacement fund and the pension bond fund.
They were told that the 37% loss of property tax dollars when the 1% property tax cap was enacted was devastating to Franklin Township Schools in particular, likely more so that any school system in the state. They were told that Franklin Township would be the only school system in the entire state of Indiana to have to pull dollars from the General Fund to pay debt service based on the loss of property tax dollars (or in more simple terms, dollars that are supposed to go into the classroom will be used to pay debt).
Here are the specific responses from the elected officials in that meeting:
State Representative Speedy wanted to know how we can heal the community after the referendum split.
State Senator Miller stopped short of interrupting him, but immediately followed with… and I quote, “What I am concerned about is how we can get buses running to pick up kids for the first day of school.”
Dr. Bourke said that was his main focus as well. He shared his efforts to “outsource” bus transportation to a third party servicer. Yes, the conversation focused on the specific group that will be handling the transportation this year… CIESC (the Central Indiana Educational Services Cooperative). A number of schools in Central Indiana work with CIESC to share resources and it’s a valuable partner to school systems.
Dr. Bourke then shared that there was a past opinion from the Attorney General that indicated they might find such outsourcing to be unconstitutional, yet there was another state statute in place being used as the basis for the effort. Senator Miller said she would place a call to the Attorney General that very day because the buses needed to run. She then said she would begin placing calls to key legislators to see if anything could be done. She noted it would be difficult in that they were out of session, but she would begin looking for opportunities to help Franklin Township in the next legislative session.
At one point in the conversation, I made a comment to her about the appreciation we had that the funding formula was changed in this last legislative session to give Franklin Township some much needed help in the coming years (since they finally made the change to have the money follow the child), but she needed to understand the state was still underfunding FTCSC such that there was no hope of saving transportation because there were no dollars to support it. I then went on to share with her that Franklin Township is only the first to take on the bus transportation issue because within days of our failed referendum (and prior to this Starbucks meeting), Decatur Township released to the press an announcement about a major cut back in the number of stops buses would make in transporting students. Again, my message to her… Franklin Township is only the first… just like the “pay for play” policies other schools engage in now after Franklin Township had to be the first to implement the practice.
Her direct reply to me was that Franklin Township was different than any other district and in a far worse situation. She used a percentage that is related to property tax credits and where other challenged districts throughout the state had percentages in and around 40%, she told me Franklin Township was at 174%. She said people at the statehouse were very aware of the affect on Franklin Township and no other school system’s situation was near as bad.
So, that meeting wraps up with a commitment by Senator Miller and Representative Speedy to go and see what they could do to help. They were going to talk to Luke Kenley, the legislative leader when it comes to education. They were going to talk to other state officials. They were going to set up a meeting and get something done to help. Nobody knew what that might be yet, but the intent to help was clear.
Fast forward a few weeks… a meeting takes place with school officials and several state leaders, some legislators and some from the Department of Education, as well as various other state agencies. Skipping all of the details, the end result of that meeting was Franklin Township was told there would be no more help and no more money. They were told to spend their savings and they were asked why they hadn’t claimed to be a school system in financial duress so they could cut all of their teacher salaries by 5% across the board to free up dollars to provide transportation.
Here is my response… what in the world are these people thinking? Now, I may be in the minority and so be it, but why in God’s name are government leaders and legislators telling Franklin Township to spend its savings and forget about balancing its budget? Did they really say that after the community voted and demanded the schools balance their budget?
I know the school system has $17 million dollars in savings. I also know there will never be another dime added to that. No debt can be refinanced. No money is there to move to savings. There will be deficits every year into the foreseeable future and the state directly told Franklin Township you will get no additional money to help with your transportation problem. I know there is NO money in the budget for building repairs such as roof leaks or problem with a boiler in a building. The school board is aware of this and directed Dr. Bourke to keep contingency dollars set aside… these rainy day funds are the only contingency dollars this school system will ever have.
It’s amazing to me that the state recently revealed a billion dollar surplus and announced bonuses will be given to state employees… and they are praised for being responsible and great managers of state funds. Franklin Township School leadership announces that it has balanced its budget, kept more teachers than originally planned and is making the tough decisions to remain financially viable for years to come, yet they are attacked for it.
I heard a statistic last week that the top 1% income earners in the United States pay an amount equal to 96% of the population in our country. In this recent national debt ceiling / budget debate, it has been suggested that these top income earners pay even more. So the question there is how much should they pay… more than 97% of the country… or 98% of the country… or 99% of the country combined?
Here, the situation is this… Franklin Township loses over 3 million dollars every year it offers bus transportation. So, to those of you who say they have to provide transportation... Should they do it just for 1 year… or 2 years… or 3 years? How much money do they need to lose and how much of their savings do they need to spend for it to be enough for you?
I suspect most of you don’t care about the financial security of the school system. I suspect most of you think they should cut another 5% of teacher pay… never mind the incredible results our teachers have been able to attain to make this a leading public school system in Central Indiana… and never mind the effect another 5% would have had on Franklin Township’s ability to attract the best educators. Dr. Bourke and the Franklin Township School Board are only doing what they think is best to be responsible financial stewards - just as you asked them to do.
So, I will end with asking you… if you experience tough times at home in your personal budget, do you intentionally set up your expenses to exceed your known revenues and then intentionally plan to set up a budget that makes you live daily off of your only savings? That is exactly what your state leaders want Franklin Township Schools to do.
On Tuesday night, why doesn’t somebody have the guts to ask them what they plan to do to help with the problem at the state level? Why doesn’t the Franklin Township community ask them why it is okay for them to cut FTCSC funding by 2.5 million dollars for consecutive years when times are tough at the state level, but they want our school system to spend our only savings to provide transportation they refuse to adequately fund? Why is it congratulatory for the state to keep a billion dollars sitting, but Franklin Township should have to spend its savings instead of making tough decisions and cuts?
You need to push back on your legislators and do it now. At this time, Senator Miller has jumped the fence and will attack the schools to save her political future, especially since her district has been redrawn and most of her constituency resides in Franklin Township. When will someone make her feel some of the pressure community members feel today.
She will tell you how this bus fee is a tax. It is not. Your taxes are capped to only 1% and that is what put Franklin Township in this mess. Your taxes will not change. This is a user fee. If you don’t use the service, you don’t pay the fee.
It is a terrible situation for all involved, including myself as a parent of two daughters in Franklin Township schools. It is hard on the parents. It is hard on the schools who have to find a way to get all of these car riders in the building, while searching for partners to help create and maintain a viable bus transportation program.
Here’s an idea… instead of telling your state senator how bad this school system is, why don’t you ask Senator Miller and Representative Speedy what they plan to do at the state level to help Franklin Township Schools. Make them accountable. Tell them if they spent less time on the school voucher program and more time focused on helping to support the public schools they are elected to represent, these issues might get addressed. And, be sure to let them know that you are aware that not only is Franklin Township the most devastated public school system in the state as a result of the decisions at the state level, but it may well be the most devastated public entity of any kind in this state.
You won’t be telling Senator Miller anything she doesn’t already know. She shared it with me at the Southport Road Starbucks on May 19th.
And, by the way, these state leaders know if the relationship with CIESC works out, every school system around will try to outsource bus transportation. There is no question. Schools are in the business of educating kids and the costs of transportation are crippling. Clearly the state funding isn’t in place. Decatur Township was the first besides Franklin Township to take some steps to cut back transportation, but they won’t be the last.
Thanks for your consideration!
