The Dreaded School Books

Madam Toastmaster, Fellow Toastmasters and honored guests:

"There is always one moment in childhood when the door opens and lets the future in."

As I recite this quote from Graham Greene, I can't help but wonder if when that door will open for my daughter who starts first grade in about ten days. Anyone who has lived in Indiana for very long and has children will empathize with me as I speak ab out school funding, particularly the dreaded book rental/tuition fees. This topic hits home because working for the MCCSC School System for six years prior to my employment here, part of my duties included printing the book bills, assisting with the calcu lations of the rates to be charged and answering questions regarding them. There were always calls from some very upset parents. I always acted like I understood but really did not until I became a parent who is going to have to pay $95.00 next week for b ook rental/fees. The term book rental is used loosely as I have heard that there might be one workbook and one weekly reader actually used by my daughter during the yearly curriculum.

The U.S Department of Education cites 7 priorities as mandated by the President and Secretary. They are

1.All students will read independently and well by the end of 3rd grade.

2.All students will master challenging mathematics, including the foundations of algebra and geometry, by the end of 8th grade.

3.By 18 years of age, all students will be prepared for and able to afford college.

4.All states and schools will have challenging and clear standards of achievement and accountability for all children, and effective strategies for reaching those standards.

5.There will be a talented, dedicated and well-prepared teacher in every classroom.

6.Every classroom will be connected to the Internet by the year 2000 and all students will be technologically literate.

7.Every school will be strong, safe, drug-free and disciplined.

Quite an admirable list of priorities but each one costs money.

Indiana is one of only 9 states that assess fees for textbook rental or purchase. In at least 36 states, a combination of state and local tax funds is used to fund public education and nothing is collected from families as "book rental" or "fees".

Textbook relief is available for some families. Indiana mandates that students eligible for free lunch be provided with textbooks at no expense. There is a lengthy process and strict financial guidelines that a family must fall under to qualify for the free lunch/textbook program. To receive free lunch/textbooks, a family of four can only gross $1,783 per month. However, if families qualify for reduced priced meals (family of four gross only $2,537 per month), there is no relief for textbook fees. In 1 997, an average of only 22% of the students in Indiana qualified for this free lunch and textbook program (17% of the pupils in RBBSC, and 15% in MCCSC). About $12.5 million total is needed from the Indiana General Assembly to reimburse the rental account s of local schools for textbooks already provided each year to these eligible students. State tax money for textbooks has been promised from the Indiana General Assembly to cover this need and they have fallen short. In 1995, the state reimbursed school c orporations only 70% of these expenses. Estimates to provide "free" textbooks to ALL Indiana public school students would range from $46.5 million to $57 million.

A petition supporting State subsidized textbooks was signed by 5066 local citizens (several of which were senior citizens who no longer have children in school) and sent by the Superintendent of the MCCSC to Governor Frank O’ Bannon in February of last year. This effort was a very "tenacious" (word for the day) and important step in demonstrating the wide support of state funded school books. They are considering collecting signatures and submitting another petition this year.

But if the state ran almost $13 million dollars short on assistance to schools to reimburse the existing "free" textbook program, what other funding sources could they use to subsidize textbooks?

Very "tenacious" in my search, I investigated the Hoosier Lottery. To my surprise I found out that for every dollar, 30 cents goes back to the state as profit. The two top distributions for the Hoosier Lottery profit to date have been for education—abo ut $293.2 million has gone to tuition support for public schools and about $252.6 million to Teachers’ Retirement Fund. The cumulative total distributed to Monroe County from 1989-1997 was $10,635,091 of which $3,711,526 went to supplemental tuition suppo rt, second only to the excise tax reduction effort.

How about our state tax dollars? Well, a major portion already goes into funding education in the state. The property tax levy per average daily membership in RBBSC in 1997 was $2,099 and the property tax levy per average daily membership in MCCSC in 1 997 was $2,780. The average expense per pupil was $5862 in RBBSC and $6363 per pupil in MCCSC.

What would be the drawbacks if our state legislature fully funded public education?

The only one I found was the possible loss of local control. Under the current Indiana system, local schools make selections from the state's Official Adoption List. It lists state-adopted textbooks and instructional materials. Any of which may be adop ted locally on a six-year cycle in a process of continuous review and evaluation that helps keep the curriculum up to date. The statewide adoption guarantees price and availability for six years, but it leaves the final choice up to local people. Local pa rents, local teachers, local administrators, and local school board members have the opportunity to evaluate and select new or updated materials every six years.

In some cases, states providing "free" public education will use the same textbooks for more than 12 years without revision and some state budgets do not even call for providing a separate book for each student. Can you imagine how worn, tattered and o ut of date a twelve year old textbook would be?

"There is always one moment in childhood, when the door opens and lets the future in…"

I want my children to open that door with education, personal strength and "tenacity". If this means having to take a second mortgage to afford the keys to open this door, so be it!