Governor Mike Pence wants a one percent increase for K through 12 school funding in each of the next two years. Schools would have to earn the extra money in the second year.
The governor’s budget includes around 190 million new dollars for K-12 schools. But Crothersville Democratic Representative Terry Goodin said that’s not enough.
"Our public schools are the number one economic development tool in our state," said Goodin. "So if that’s the case, we need to fund those economic development tools properly. One percent’s probably not going to do that."
Goodin said school funding must include a discussion of the best way to target more money at improving education. Pence aims to do that by creating a performance-based model for the school funding increase in the second year of his budget.
Budget director Chris Atkins said schools would receive money based on three metrics: their school letter grade, graduation rate and percentage of students passing the state’s third grade reading assessment.
"We believe this performance-based funding could provide incentives to our schools to provide more high quality options for our children," said Atkins.
Goodin said performance-based funding isn’t necessarily a bad idea, but adds he wants to learn more about the details before evaluating Pence’s proposal.
