State funding for the real world

Maybe the folks in Indianapolis have been watching too much Star Trek.

"Make it so," Captain Picard used to say from the helm of the Starship Enterprise. "Make it so."

If only it were that simple.

Faced with unprecedented shortfalls in state tax collections, the Indiana State Board of Education has been reduced to telling school corporations to tighten their belts, freeze salaries, and prepare to make do with less.

In other words, "Make it so."

Trouble is, it's not that easy.

The overwhelming bulk of state tax revenues for public schools go to the school corporation's general fund.

And the overwhelming bulk of the general fund goes for salaries.

Most of those salaries, meanwhile, are tied to legally binding contracts.

Those contracts, in turn, tie up a good chunk of the 2010 calendar before cost reductions can begin to be made.

Jay Schools officials say they have identified 50 different areas to trim expenses in the year ahead in response to the state's budget pinch.

That's great, and it shows both initiative and enterprise to have those plans ready to go.

But the spending cuts now envisioned in Indy are likely to go beyond the scope of what has been planned, and it's irresponsible of state government to dump the funding problem in the laps of local school boards and simply say, "Make it so. Deal with it."

Here's a modest suggestion that would give school leaders a bit more flexibility.

We'd propose that the Indiana General Assembly take up legislation in January that would allow school corporations to borrow money from their own capital projects funds to cover general fund expenses in the face of state funding shortfalls.

Capital projects would be deferred, at least for a few years, but kids in the classroom wouldn't be adversely affected.

There could be dollar limits and time limits on such borrowing, but the point would be to create flexibility where no flexibility now exists.

In other words, it would make it possible to "make it so." - J.R.[[In-content Ad]]