Region school leaders continue to voice concern with school funding discussions at the Statehouse.
Lake Central School Superintendent Dr. Larry Veracco is concerned with the amount of additional school funding going to expand the school voucher program for higher-income families. "In this particular year when money is short, though, to give $139 million of $180 million in the first year to a small sliver of students benefiting is a concern," Veracco told the Lake Central School Board on Monday.
He said the current state budget proposal would only include "meager" increases in the education fund, which covers teacher salaries. At the same time, the proposed property tax relief bill could freeze operations fund revenue, which covers utilities and transportation costs.
"While all of us — I've said it before — are paying more for school buses, cleaning products, paper, everything else that's essential to educating students, the idea of our operations fund being frozen is troubling," Veracco added.
He said it isn't clear what school corporations like Lake Central could cut, but less funding would ultimately lead to fewer staff members. "It's just important that we not accept this notion that somehow in schools we can do more with less," Veracco said. "We can't do more with less. We will do less with less."
Veracco encourages lawmakers to spread out property tax relief over a longer period and to hold off on expanding vouchers or find another funding source for them, to free up funds for public schools.
School board member Dr. Janice Malchow urged residents to contact state lawmakers. "[It's] really, really, really, really, very important that we all, that all of us, especially our community members, make it known to our legislators that we are not happy with what's going on with the funding recommendations that we think we are going to get," Malchow said.
