An Indy Star article by Michele McNeil entitled Schools face new price checks, describes new rules on school construction adopted by the Daniels administration.
The guidelines, which are effective immediately, call for districts to rein in project costs and justify school buildings with price tags above a national average. Officials from the Department of Local Government Finance, which approves school construction borrowing, also will zero in on projects that put sports before academics.
. . .
Daniels said schools are getting too big and too expensive, and they need to stress instruction, not construction. He said state officials will be flexible and will hear schools out if they can make a good argument.
Beech Grove assistant superintendent, Ross Sloat points out that under school finance laws, money saved on buildings can’t necessarily be spent on instruction.
Just anectdotally, at the school system where my wife used to teach, teachers got fairly grumpy when the school would cite finances as a reason to cut teachers and, at the same meeting, decide to go ahead and build new bleachers for the baseball stadium.
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