July 23, 2014 at 2:10 p.m.
Can GOP resurrect spirit of Bowen? (08/13/07)
Editorial
Indiana Republicans ought to consider a seance.
If they did, they could try to wake up the spirit of Otis Bowen.
Gov. Bowen, back in the 1970s, tried to deliver something that's in wide demand today: Property tax relief.
The Bowen plan, which was pretty complicated, rested upon two basic principals: Public education was primarily a state rather than a local function and people who moved from one school district to another in Indiana had a right to expect that the level of tax support ought to be pretty much consistent.
Prior to the Bowen plan, about 60 percent of school funding came from local property taxes, with the other 40 percent coming from state taxes and an odd assortment of taxes on things like banks.
Once the Bowen plan was adopted, the situation was reversed. Today, roughly 60 percent of public school funding comes from state taxes. The smaller share comes from property taxes.
The Bowen plan, of course, came with a cost.
The sales tax was boosted to provide the revenue that relieved the burden on property taxes.
And, just as importantly, when the larger share of funding moved to the state, the Indiana General Assembly essentially became an over-sized school board.
Move the funding mechanism, and you move the power.
From the late 1970s on, local school boards were remarkably restricted when it came to funding education. The bulk of the bucks were coming via Indy decisions; local decisions were hamstrung when it came to a school corporation's general fund, which paid teacher salaries, and only had real authority when dealing with capital projects like new or remodeled buildings.
There were some serious short-comings to the Bowen system.
The largest was the loss of local control. "Home rule" was a rallying cry 30 years ago, but that's not a buzz word that resonates with Bowen's party today.
Instead, the ideas being tossed around by the governor and his minions are consistently top-down: Push for more school consolidation, re-vamp courthouse government at the statehouse, order re-assessments even if it's not at all clear the governor has the authority to do so.
Would Otis Bowen approve? We don't think so.
Otis Bowen was a grassroots-then-up sort of guy.
A GOP seance may be in order. - J.R.[[In-content Ad]]
If they did, they could try to wake up the spirit of Otis Bowen.
Gov. Bowen, back in the 1970s, tried to deliver something that's in wide demand today: Property tax relief.
The Bowen plan, which was pretty complicated, rested upon two basic principals: Public education was primarily a state rather than a local function and people who moved from one school district to another in Indiana had a right to expect that the level of tax support ought to be pretty much consistent.
Prior to the Bowen plan, about 60 percent of school funding came from local property taxes, with the other 40 percent coming from state taxes and an odd assortment of taxes on things like banks.
Once the Bowen plan was adopted, the situation was reversed. Today, roughly 60 percent of public school funding comes from state taxes. The smaller share comes from property taxes.
The Bowen plan, of course, came with a cost.
The sales tax was boosted to provide the revenue that relieved the burden on property taxes.
And, just as importantly, when the larger share of funding moved to the state, the Indiana General Assembly essentially became an over-sized school board.
Move the funding mechanism, and you move the power.
From the late 1970s on, local school boards were remarkably restricted when it came to funding education. The bulk of the bucks were coming via Indy decisions; local decisions were hamstrung when it came to a school corporation's general fund, which paid teacher salaries, and only had real authority when dealing with capital projects like new or remodeled buildings.
There were some serious short-comings to the Bowen system.
The largest was the loss of local control. "Home rule" was a rallying cry 30 years ago, but that's not a buzz word that resonates with Bowen's party today.
Instead, the ideas being tossed around by the governor and his minions are consistently top-down: Push for more school consolidation, re-vamp courthouse government at the statehouse, order re-assessments even if it's not at all clear the governor has the authority to do so.
Would Otis Bowen approve? We don't think so.
Otis Bowen was a grassroots-then-up sort of guy.
A GOP seance may be in order. - J.R.[[In-content Ad]]
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