Senate Bill 30 regarding education foundations passed the House 90 to 0 and was returned to the Senate without amendment, so no need to go to conference committee.
Provides that until June 30, 2012, the governing body of a school corporation may donate up to $25,000 per year from the general fund of the school corporation to a public school endowment corporation for the future use of the school corporation for programs and activities that enhance the quality of education or extend learning opportunities for students of the school corporation. Requires matching private funds on at least a dollar for dollar basis for each dollar contributed by a school corporation.
I don’t mind this bill. In fact, it could have good consequences for the schools able to take advantage of it. But, from what I recall of my K-12 days, none of the schools I attended probably could have taken advantage of this bill, given the budgetary constraints under which they seemed to be working. Seems like the school boards of Richmond Community Schools during the 80s were generally cutting programs. I don’t see how they could have eked $25k out of the budget to invest in an education foundation. Maybe times have changed.
[tags]SB30-2007, education[/tags]
Ah yes, SB30.
When I asked Brent Waltz about his wacky bills, i got the following response from someone in his office about SB30:
Lot of detail there.
So I suspect I’ll be able to pass along where the money’s going, because by all appearances it’ll be Center Grove (White River Township, Johnson County) Schools, and that’s where my tax dollars go.
Up until very recently, public school foundations weren’t legal at all in Indiana. It took legislation in 2005 just to get to the point where a school corporation could have a foundation, regardless of who contributed to it. That legislation was driven in part by some wealthier districts that saw a decent source of revenue from well-to-do benefactors among the alumni.
Foundations sometimes need to “prime the pump” with a high-profile project that has success in order to draw donations. This law may help that happen for some of these foundations.
Just for the record, $25,000 percentage-wise is not a lot of money in a school corporation of any size. Budgets have gotten tighter and tighter indeed, but $25,000 is not big money in a $13 million annual budget (as is the case with a smallish corporation with which I am familiar). In fact, putting that money in a foundation to put it to a highly-publicized good use to draw more donated dollars may be just what public school foundations need to get the ball rolling. In the end, the $25 K will probably get spent on some of the same stuff it would have been anyway, or may draw interest for later use by the foundation.
You’re probably right about the $25k as a percentage of operations. Still, it seems like it’d be tough to make any sort of budget cut and still proceed with investing the $25,000, no matter how much long-term sense it might make.