Porter proposal would restore $296 million of K-12 funding for public schools

INDIANAPOLIS – State Rep. Gregory W. Porter (D-Indianapolis) today introduced an amendment to House Bill 1007 that would take $296 million from the budget surplus and return it to K-12 schools in Indiana as a one-time payment.

“This $296 million would make up for the money that former Governor Mitch Daniels took from K-12 schools in 2010,” said Porter. “This would be a one-time payment until the state legislature has the opportunity to come up with a long-term solution to allocate additional state dollars to traditional public schools in 2021 when we discuss the new state budget.”

Republicans claim that there was a “historic” investment in public education during the 2019 legislative session, but traditional public schools only saw a 2-percent increase in state funding, which barely keeps up with the rate of inflation.

The Indiana House Democrats support driving more state dollars to public schools, where over 90 percent of Hoosier students learn and grow.