Indiana’s general fund has grown faster than inflation since 2009, but public school funding has not.

That was one of the messages from Southwest Allen County Schools Superintendent Dr. Phil Downs as he spoke last night at Lakeland Jr/Sr High School.

Downs has spent countless hours drilling down into Indiana’s budget numbers and reached some conclusions that he shared last night.
Over the last ten years inflation grew at 16.6% but the state’s education
budget grew by 13.3%. Downs says the expansion of the voucher program has a real cost for every school district in the state.

In LaGrange County that shift is a net loss of close to $900-thousand
dollars, since the only school that received vouchers – Howe Military – has closed.

Downs also said the numbers break down a myth that students move around after the student count day in September.