While the overall Indiana General Fund Budget has grown faster than inflation, growth in Indiana’s budget for public school personnel has not. As of October of 2022, the current budget for the majority of the personnel in public, charter, and voucher-receiving schools is $590M behind the 2009-10 budget when inflation is taken into account. The current budget, at the time it passed, significantly made up the difference on a year to year basis; however, recent spikes in inflation have eaten those gains.
Continue reading “2022-2023 Indiana Education and Voucher Funding Summary”Voucher Impact 2021-2022
Submitted by Phil on Sun, 03/13/2022 – 15:01
The link below will take you to a google sheet with the latest voucher/financial data
Continue reading “Voucher Impact 2021-2022”Voucher Impact 2020-2021
The link below will take you to a google sheet with the latest voucher/financial data
Continue reading “Voucher Impact 2020-2021”Voucher Impact 2019-2020
The link below will take you to a google sheet with the latest voucher/financial data
Continue reading “Voucher Impact 2019-2020”Voucher Impact 2018-2019
Submitted by Phil on Sat, 12/15/2018 – 11:35
The link below will take you to a google sheet with the latest voucher/financial data
Continue reading “Voucher Impact 2018-2019”My Speech at the Statehouse to the Indiana Coalition for Public Education
Submitted by Phil on Tue, 02/18/2020 – 14:48
Good afternoon, it is a profound honor to speak to you today, thank you. I am Phil Downs. I am a social studies teacher currently on assignment as the superintendent of Southwest Allen County Schools, and I was asked to speak for five minutes today on the research I have done into Indiana’s budget and its Voucher program.
Continue reading “My Speech at the Statehouse to the Indiana Coalition for Public Education”Address to the 2019 Indiana School Board Association Conference
Submitted by Phil on Sat, 10/05/2019 – 10:34
In 1949, my parents were 10 years old, Harry Truman was president, the Mann Gulch fire revolutionized the study of forest fires, the Berlin Blockade ended, Mao Tse Tung became the premiere of the People’s Republic of China, the Geneva Convention was signed, Lucky Lady II performed the first non-stop circumnavigation flight of the planet, 1984 was published, NATO was established, Newfoundland joined Canada, the world’s first commercially available computer, The Ferranti Mark 1, was released, and the first ISBA/IAPSS conference was held. It is my profound honor to be addressing the 70th ISBA/IAPSS conference. Congratulations everyone.
Continue reading “Address to the 2019 Indiana School Board Association Conference”Indiana Education Spending
Submitted by Phil on Sat, 04/20/2019 – 07:51
Indiana Education Spending
Here is a fact: from 2009 to 2018 the Tuition Support budget used to pay Indiana’s public and charter school teachers has grown by 13% while inflation has grown by 17%, and the total Indiana General Fund Budget grew by 21%. There is money in the General Fund to bring Education funding up to inflation. Our elected officials made a choice to move money away from public and charter educators and are failing to live up to the responsibility to fund public education they took on in 2009.
Continue reading “Indiana Education Spending”Don’t Worry, This Won’t Effect You
Submitted by Phil on Mon, 04/23/2018 – 11:52
Recently there have been a lot of stories and opinion pieces written about the Indiana voucher program and school funding. There appears to be a misconception about how the voucher program works as well as its impact on public schools.
Continue reading “Don’t Worry, This Won’t Effect You”Indiana’s Schools Deserve Better
Submitted by Phil on Mon, 10/16/2017 – 05:45
“Applying simple solutions to complex problems creates more complex problems.” -Ronald Heifetz
Recently Indiana released the A-F grades for its schools. Each year there is a chance any given school’s ISTEP+ scores and A-F grades may go up or down. This is because ISTEP+ fits statistical models and “regression to the mean” is a real thing.
Continue reading “Indiana’s Schools Deserve Better”