Indiana at Top of List of States that Have Underfunded K-12 Education since Recession

Last updated on Thursday, July 19, 2018

(WASHINGTON) —Indiana is among a group of states with the largest cuts in K-12 education since the 2008 recession, according to a groundbreaking report by the American Federation of Teachers.

Governments in 25 states have shortchanged public K-12 education by $19 billion over the last decade, the report found. "A Decade of Neglect: Public Education Funding in the Aftermath of the Great Recession" details for the first time the devastating impact on schools, classrooms and students when states choose to pursue an austerity agenda in the false belief that tax cuts will pay for themselves.

Over the past decade, Indiana cut its public education spending by $511 million.
"Indiana should be ashamed of its disinvestment in education. There is no one to blame but elected officials--most of them Republicans--who would rather hand out tax cuts than give our kids a well-funded education. The fact is, money matters in schools," said GlenEva Dunham, president, AFT Indiana.

This underfunding explains why the most recent data indicates that the average Indiana teacher salary is lower in 2018 than it was in 2009 and why the pupil-teacher ratio was worse in 2016 than in 2008.

The report also measures each state's "tax effort"--that is, how much they tax, compared with how rich they are. Of the 25 states with the worst K-12 funding, 18 have taxed their residents less since the recession, including Indiana.

"These problems belong squarely at the feet of elected officials, many of them Republicans, who, rather than investing in our future, insisted on ushering in counterproductive austerity," said AFT President Randi Weingarten. "When legislators choose to prioritize millionaires over children, our country suffers. And when our education secretary says that money doesn't matter in schools, we tell teachers, parents and children that they don't matter either."

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