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New plan to benefit local
schools
By Morgan Conklin
Summer
Reporter
State Sen. Ron Alting, R-22nd, continues to fight
for education funding to benefit local schools. Persistence on his part
has granted a minimum fund to all schools in the Tippecanoe school district,
grades K-12.
Alting said that the Indiana formula presently
makes it hard for a school with decreasing enrollment to function. That
was his cause for change. His new plan guarantees a 2 percent minimum
funding grant. All schools in the district will be eligible to receive
it from the state even if the school has a decline in enrollment. This
will be put into place with the beginning of the 2001-2002 school year.
Before this plan was put into effect, schools that
were losing student enrollment would receive less state funding. Alting
said that this was unfair due to the fixed costs, such as heat and electricity,
that a school must pay for regardless of the enrollment numbers.
This was very important to the Lafayette, West
Lafayette area because the Tippecanoe school district is losing enrollment.
Alting said that, because Purdue owns most of the land in the area,
there is no room available for new houses to be built and to increase
the population.
Alting said his proposal was difficult to pass
because "the senate is a very conservative body", and he had
to convince 32 members the importance of adequate funding.
He believes that higher education is very important
in a child’s life, but before that can happen it is important to
make sure that that child receives adequate elementary education. This
plan will help to achieve that standard of education.
"I understand when superintendents tell me
‘Senator we need the extra money to continue educating,’ so
I fight for that and was very successful," Alting said.
Although the schools in the district will be receiving
more funding, new taxes will not be imposed. The money will come from
the state taxes that are collected.
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CITY DESK PHONE:
(765) 743-1111
ext. 250
City editor:
Heather Mangold
To
send a letter to the editor, please email opinions@purdueexponent.org
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