Adopted 1960; Updated 1970, 1975, 1982, 1990

The League of Women Voters of Indiana believes that public school funding should guarantee equal access to basic, high quality education for all Indiana children. To achieve this goal, the League supports a foundation program for funding public elementary and secondary schools.

The League defines a foundation program as a state-regulated system

1. which provides for standard, basic, high quality education for all Indiana children regardless of their place of residence;

2. which is appropriate for each child's individual potential and circumstances;

3. which is financed by a mix of local and state funds;

4. and which provides fiscal equalization, i.e., a minimum local tax effort is required by state legislation, and state tax revenues provide sufficient additional funds to pay for the foundation program.

The foundation program should include:

• Provisions for incentives to improve education.

• Weights reflecting the added per pupil costs for equalizing educational opportunity for children who are economically disadvantaged, physically handicapped, or in other special circumstances.

• Provision for additional costs resulting from special circumstances of the school corporation itself.

• The total foundation program funding should be set at a level high enough to provide all funds needed for school corporations to pay for high quality education. This includes teachers' salaries which are competitive within the field.
  

• After the foundation program has been set at a level high enough for a basic program and has been fully funded, the League supports other funding mechanisms which allow school corporations to provide for local needs and interests by additional limited local leeway funding.

The League of Women Voters of Indiana supports:

• An over-all increase in the level of education funding of Indiana's public schools.

• The concept of state taxes paying, on the average, three fourths of public school operating expenses (those costs other than construction costs, debt service, and transportation).
  Transportation funded separately by a mix of state and local taxes.

• Complete funding of costs over the foundation level for state mandated programs.

• Methods of public funding of schools which (1) are simple, predictable, and stable, allowing for efficient planning; (2) are flexible and responsive to local needs and/or choices; (3) and provide incentives for creative efforts among school corporations and innovative approaches to problems.

• A method of public school funding which eliminates extreme variations in level of per pupil expenditures, allocating funding so that each child receives relatively equal support, with consideration given to area differences in cost of living.

• If additional tax revenues are needed to supply the state's share of an adequate foundation program, the League favors use of the statewide income tax.

The League opposes use of tuition tax credits for school operating expenses.

The League no longer opposes the use of tax referenda to increase local school funding.