Teachers and administrators from all four school districts in Clinton County gathered Wednesday afternoon on the lawn of the Clinton County Courthouse in downtown Frankfort for a Clinton County Public Education Grade-In.
Teachers were encouraged to bring signs, school work, lawn chairs and umbrellas as well as pack up snacks and wear their ‘#RedForEd’.
“We’re trying to raise awareness of the deficit that’s happening in the funding of public education,” said Frankfort Education Association (FEA) President Jason Fortner. “There’s a real inequity in the funding system that’s happening right now in the state. Schools who have plenty of funds continue to get more and those of us who are underfunded continue to get less than in the past.”
To illustrate Fortner’s points, 90 percent of Indiana kids attend public schools, 72 percent of Hoosiers say teachers are paid too little, Indiana is ranked 36th in teacher pay nationally, Indiana public schools ranking for funding in America is 47th, and Indiana teacher ranking for salary increase in the past 10 years is 51st. The state spent $143 million on vouchers in 2018 and it increased its vouchers from $500 to $750 per pupil for 2019.
“The big push with all the legislators right now is charter schools,” said Clinton Central Superintendent Al Remaly. “They (legislators) think those types of schools are better when all the data shows their not. All the money their pumping into those schools, I don’t see where they’re getting a bang for their buck.”
Remaly said the best scenario for teachers and schools would to have equal funding for public schools like the way they are funding charter schools.
“Charter schools are getting $1,500 or $2,000 more per kid than what a public school is getting,” said Remaly. “I just don’t see where that’s fair.”
Fortner said the local schools are losing really good teachers to other jobs or school corporations who are managing to pay teachers more money.
What needs to be done?
“We need the legislators to listen to us — the teachers who are in the trenches every day,” said Fortner. “There’s just been a lot of bills that are frankly a little bit crazy that have come down the pike lately that don’t have children in mind and they don’t have teachers in mind. They’re pretty random.”
Remaly thought the event on Wednesday was really good for everybody.
“The teachers want to show everybody what they’re doing and they want the conversation in the community of what they’re doing,” said Remaly. “I think everybody would agree that teachers are not paid fairly across the state of Indiana and I hope this brings a little light to that. We’d love to get more money to pay our teachers, but it’s out of our control. We hope things like this get across to our legislators that we’re watching.”