While the Indiana General Assembly is considering significant cuts to a proposed $34.6 billion, two-year state budget, good news emerged during the final Third House session at Columbus City Hall.
A proposed $29 million capital project at Ivy Tech Community College — Columbus remains in the budget, State Rep. Ryan Lauer, R-Columbus, told the audience of about 55 people Monday.
The original House budget contained funding for a two-story, 80,000-square-foot replacement for the 36-year-old Poling Hall, Lauer said.
When the Indiana Senate completed making changes to the House budget, funding for the new building had not been cut, he said. “I’m fully expecting the bill to fully pass once we work out compromises on other issues in the Senate,” Lauer said.
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If the new building is approved, construction would take about three years to complete, said Steven Combs, chancellor at the local campus.
Planning for the proposed project could take about a year with construction expected to begin in the summer of 2020, he said.
Lauer, as well as Sen. Greg Walker, R-Columbus, and Rep. Jim Lucas, R-Seymour, attended Monday’s public forum sponsored by the Columbus Area Chamber of Commerce. It was the final Third House session this year. This year’s legislative session is scheduled to end no later than April 29.
Teacher pay raises and teacher pensions dominated Monday’s discussion at Third House.
Compared to the previous three months, state revenue forecasts appear to be down by about $30 million, Walker said.
That news comes while additional spending on Medicaid is expected to go up by about $65 million, and the Senate increased funding to the troubled Department of Child Services by more than $500 million over the next two years, the senator said.
Speaking on behalf of a group of 300 local retired teachers, former Bartholomew Consolidated School superintendent John Quick said teacher pensions have been stagnant for a decade, and current legislation does not include a cost of living adjustment.
“I understand the revenue forecast isn’t as good as you hoped, but after a decade, I think we should be making (increased teacher pensions) a priority,” Quick said.
In response, Walker said state lawmakers have established a supplemental account for teacher pensions that should have in excess of $100 million by next year.
“If we can get to about $110 to $120 million, that will give us a chance to do an actual cost-of-living adjustment for the first time since 2009,” he said.
Even without that supplemental account, the state already plans to spend close to $2 billion on retirement benefits over the next two years, Walker said.
Retired teacher Sandy Watts addressed the lawmakers with figures she said she obtained from both media reports and educational institutions.
Watts, who taught for more than 35 years, said public schools in Indiana have a 91 percent graduation rate, but that figure drops to 40 percent for charter schools and 29 percent for online, virtual schools, according to her statistics.
Nevertheless, Watts said Indiana lawmakers are proposing increasing funding to non-traditional schools by a higher percentage than what is provided to public schools.
Watts also claims that while public school students are tracked on their progress, there are no figures that keep an eye on home-schooled children, including how many hours they are actually being taught.
She concluded that a lack of competitive pay has resulted in 35 percent of public schools teachers leaving the profession within five years.
Walker said teacher wages are not as high in Indiana because the cost of living is lower than many states.
He also challenged Watts’ claim that a number of home-schooled children don’t receive a sufficient education. Walker, who said his own children were home-schooled, described Watt’s remarks as “anecdotal” and “hearsay.”
“Let’s stick with the facts, which are we are putting an additional $775 million in K-12 education this biennium,” Walker said. “We’ve created a $90 million grant program for exemplary teachers. And we’ve dictated that one-third of that grant go specifically to teachers who have more than five years of experience.”
In regard to suggestions that state lawmakers raise salaries for all teachers, both Walker and Lucas said lawmakers are reluctant to interfere with collective bargaining that occurs in nearly 200 school districts across Indiana.
When Watts spoke critically about charter and on-line schools, Lucas replied those alternative methods of education will eventually close if they are indeed failing their students.
However, the public education systems will never be closed, the Seymour lawmaker said.
“Public education still gets nearly 97 percent of education dollars,” Lucas said.
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The 2019 session of the Indiana General Assembly is scheduled to end no later than April 29.
Hoosiers may check on last-minute changes on proposed bills online by going to iga.in.gov
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