What Does It Cost To Produce A High School Graduate In Marion County?

The average cost in Marion County by school to graduate a high school student yields few surprises. The most costly school is IPS at $383,594, while the least costly school is Washington Township at less than half IPS' cost at $154,137. How could the costs vary so wildly within the same county? The statistics were compiled by an avid Advance Indiana reader and Washington Township school board member Greg Wright based on information furnished by the Department of Education. "This is my personal short-cut for determining the efficiency of a K-12 district," Wright says. "I believe that one very important measure of a public school district is the cost to produce a high school graduate." "Since it measures the efficiency of all expenditures, this analysis doesn’t leave great opportunity for creative accounting." Wright notes that Speedway's numbers don't include any student transportation costs, contributing to its lower numbers. Washington Township has several popular private schools, which tends to reduce its K-8 student population Wright adds.


1. IPS ($383,594)
2. Decatur Township ($289,515)
3. Pike Township ($263,569)
4. Wayne Township ($244,179)
5. Franklin Township ($223,605)
6. Lawrence Township ($216,946)
7. Perry Township ($213,235)
8. Warren Township ($201,842)
9. Beech Grove ($178,035)
10. Speedway ($161,244)
11. Washington Township ($154,137)

Will FSSA Finally Admit Error Of Roob's Way?

Perhaps Indiana's Family & Social Services Agency is on the brink of acknowledging the colossal mistake its former head, Mitch Roob, made in forcing through a privatization deal for the state's welfare program that involved the participation of his former employer, ACS. "A top Indiana official says the state's privately run welfare project has so many problems that Indiana could begin taking steps to cancel its $1.16 billion contract this fall," the AP reports. The private vendors are being given until the end of September to prepare a "corrective action plan" or face the cancellation of the 10-year contract.

Have People Forgotten The Purpose Of A Bonus?

I guess it should come as no surprise to see IPS awarding bonuses to Supt. Eugene White for failure since it has become the norm in the corporate world to reward huge bonuses for utter failure. To the school's credit, it did not raise Supt. White's annual salary of $188,000, which has remained the same for 3 years. The $12,000 in bonuses it awarded him, however, to boost his annual pay to $200,000 are disturbing. The Star's Andy Gammill writes:

The board determined White should receive two of four performance-based bonuses for which he is eligible. One is an automatic $7,000 bonus if more than half of the district's elementary school students pass ISTEP tests, which they did. White did not receive an additional $14,000 in bonuses he would have gotten if middle- and high-schoolers had met the same threshold.

The other $5,000 he received is at the board's discretion, taking into consideration progress toward the board's goals and strategic direction.

"That is based on whether we think the district is moving in the right direction, which we do," School Board President Michael D. Brown said.

Brown said the board is happy with White's performance and that he appreciates the superintendent's leadership in turning down a raise until teachers have one.

Barely getting half of your elementary school students to pass the ISTEP test is hardly an accomplishment worth rewarding. And if the board thinks the school is moving in the right direction, then we have a real problem. Gammill's story notes that the bonuses were slipped into the board's agenda after it had already been posted. Apparently the board didn't want a public discussion of Supt. White's pay like what happened in the blogosphere with the discussion of the pay for the Washington Township school district superintendent recently.

Brownsburg Choking Game

Fox59 News' Kimberly King reports on a problem in Brownsburg with teens playing a dangerous game of choking. At least two teen-age boys have been taken to the hospital while playing what they call "bare knuckle fighting." A 15-year-old boy was recently charged with battery after he caused a 13-year-old to pass out after putting him in a choke hold. King says a Hendricks County judge dismissed the charges against the teen. Parents complain that the 15-year-old has choked other boys as well. Vickey McKinley tells King that the boys are mimicking wrestlers doing ultimate fighting. You can find YouTube clips all over the Internet of young guys putting someone in the so-called sleeper hold until the person passes out.

Thanks to a new law sponsored by Sen. Dennis Kruse and Rep. Ed DeLaney, Indiana will soon become a venue for pay-for-view ultimate sports fighting events. The organization that promotes these blood sport events hired Ice Miller as their lobbyist and got Kruse and DeLaney to carry the legislation, which Gov. Daniels signed into law in May. The Simon-run Conseco Fieldhouse hopes to bring the gruesomely violent sport to Indianapolis next year. Sen. John McCain has called the sport "human cockfighting" and has fought to ban it. A New York Times' editorial earlier this year lamented the introduction of the same legislation there. "In New York, they have hired some of the oiliest lobbyists to start the legislative version of arm twisting." There was no arm twisting required to pass the law here. The blood sport got the blessing of every single member of the Indiana House and Senate.

A Tale Of Two School Aid Formulas

Headlines can be misleading as the Star's front-page story on Indiana's school aid formula under the new state budget reveals. The headline says, "State's budget formula favor suburban, charter schools." That headline is accompanied by this bold claim in the story: "The schools attended by the poorest children in the state took it on the chin." The story focuses, in particular, on the funding of the state's two most urban districts, IPS and Gary Community Schools. "IPS, because its enrollment is dropping, loses $28 million -- a 2.8 percent drop in 2010 and 4.3 percent in 2011." "And Lake County's Gary Community Schools, also with declining enrollment, loses more than $12 million, a 3.6 percent cut in 2010 followed by a 4.1 percent cut in 2011."

Unless you dig deep into the story, you won't learn that the facts belie the headline and the story's assertion that somehow or another urban schools are taking it on the chin so rich suburban districts can roll in the dough. The architect of the state budget, Sen. Luke Kenley, points to facts that cannot be disputed. IPS and Gary schools receive 50% more in per-student aid than the state average, and they receive the greatest increases under this budget, "nearly four times the state average" according to Kenley. The fast-growing suburban districts are getting more money because of their rapidly growing enrollment; however, on a per student basis, their funding has actually been decreased. The story acknowledges this comparison of IPS' funding compared to Carmel Clay schools:

IPS, for instance, will get $8,844 in state funds per student, an increase of 5.1 percent per student. The statewide average, $6,553, will increase by 1.3 percent. Carmel Clay Schools, serving a fast-growing area of wealthy suburbs, will get $5,596, a decrease of 1.5 percent.

So people are fleeing these failing urban schools, which are rewarded with more money per student than schools that are succeeding, and they're still complaining that they are being short-changed. The Star is only fomenting racial division by suggesting ala Amos Brown that poor, predominantly minority urban schools are getting screwed over to benefit wealthy, predominantly white suburban schools. If people really care about these urban schools, then they should start demanding some accountability from the people who run them. Despite a lot of talk about accountability by the Star's editorial writers, today's front-page story does nothing to advance that ball; it's a step backwards.

Palin Haters Make Me Sick

I've never witnessed anything as vicious as the pure hatred that Palin's rise to political fame has wrought from the news media and the Left. I'll never forget how within the first 24 hours after she was nominated, Democratic bloggers were falsely claiming that she was not the mother of her son, Trigg. The Palin haters insisted her daughter actually gave birth to the baby and Sarah pretended to be his mother to cover up a scandal pregnancy as a result of an alleged relationship with an older friend of the Palins. It turned out to be completely false, but the rumor shot through the liberal blogosphere as fact.

From the moment John McCain selected her as his running mate, the Left never relented in its efforts to destroy her. Even now that she has announced her decision to step down as Alaska governor, the Left couldn't avoid another parting shot at her and her family. Leftist bloggers claimed Palin resigned because she was the subject of an FBI investigation surrounding the construction of her home on Lake Lucille in Wasilla. The bloggers claimed a Wasilla building supply company had subsidized construction of the Palins' home as consideration for its participation in the construction of a public facility that Palin as mayor had no part of managing. This Internet rumor got its boost from Shannyn Moore, a radio talk show host and blogger from Alaska, who is an avowed Palin hater. Like they did throughout the campaign, the Left and its friends in the mainstream media ran with Moore's false and defamatory claims. The Palin-hating MSNBC allowed Moore to state the false claims during an interview. The story has caused the FBI to take the unusual step of denying an investigation. As the Anchorage Daily News reports:

"We are not investigating her," FBI spokesman Eric Gonzalez said on Sunday. "Normally we don't confirm or deny those kind of allegations out there, but by not doing so it just casts her in a very bad light. There is just no truth to those rumors out there in the blogosphere."

The Palin-hating Moore was characteristically indignant about reporting yet another false rumor about her. She conducted a press conference in front of Palin's Anchorage office to deny a claim by Palin's attorney that she had defamed the Palins, hiding behind the First Amendment. The ADN reports:

Moore fired back on Sunday by calling a press conference in front of the governor's downtown Anchorage office and calling Palin "a coward and a bully." Moore said she only pointed out that rumors existed -- and she never claimed them to be fact.

"What kind of politician attacks an ordinary American on the Fourth of July for speaking her mind? What's wrong with her? The first amendment was designed to protect people like me from people like her. Our American revolution got rid of kings. And it got rid of queens, as well. Am I annoyed? You betcha," Moore said.

She said that "Shannyn Moore will not be muzzled."

"There is a scandal rumor here that there is a criminal investigation into some activities and that's been rumored for about, I don't know, probably six weeks or two months," Moore said on MSNBC, later commenting that Palin looked nervous and she believed the governor was doing damage control for news that would come out.

Van Flein on Sunday also highlighted a message Moore sent Friday on her own Twitter account, saying "yes, I know the nature of the scandal. Timing, baby timing." He said Moore has been cited as a source for reporting of a possible federal indictment. (The national "Brad Blog" quoted Moore as saying Palin resigned because a scandal was about to break. Moore said she was misquoted and can't control other blogs.)

Moore said the governor's sudden resignation didn't make sense and has Alaskans wondering what is really going on. She said Palin had a "massive overreaction" to her comments.

"I think it's great that the FBI has come out and said the rumor isn't true. ... But the fact, that I reported, that there was a rumor, is true. There was a rumor and she dispelled the rumor and that's great," Moore said.

As I said when I heard of her resignation announcement on Friday, I thought Palin was making a mistake. On the other hand, I haven't had to endure the non-stop, hate machine she has faced from the Left and the mainstream media from the day John McCain made her a household name. We have learned more things, true and untrue, about the life of Sarah Palin over the past year than we know about Barack Hussein Obama, the man we elected as our President. When is the media going to start telling us about the missing pieces of his life story?

Kenley's Duplicity On Voter Input

Northwest Indiana legislators didn't want a referendum to allow Northwest Indiana voters to decide whether to create a regional transit authority with the power to levy a one-quarter percent local income tax, but Senate Appropriations Committee Chairman Luke Kenley (R-Noblesville) is forcing a special election on them this fall that will cost taxpayers more than a $1 million. The NWI Times' Patrick Guinane writes:

Northwest Indiana legislators didn't want the referendum requirement, which is expected to cost county election boards $250,000 in Porter County and up to $1 million in Lake County. But the powerful chairman of the state Senate Appropriations Committee insisted voters decide whether to create an appointed board of mayors and elected county officials with the power to impose a local income tax of up to 0.25 percent.

"Let's convince the people and get their approval that this is what they want," said Sen. Luke Kenley, R-Noblesville. "I think it's a matter of public confidence in Northwest Indiana. The political people in Northwest Indiana do not have a high level of public confidence in their activities now. If they can get that (referendum) vote, then they've got a base to build from."

Although the transit authority will be supported by a local income tax, the referendum language Kenley inserted into the state budget bill that area voters will consider makes no mention of a tax increase. It reads:

"Shall there be created the northern Indiana regional transportation district under Indiana Code 8-24 to provide a regional rail system serving Lake, Porter, LaPorte, and St. Joseph counties and regional bus public transportation system serving Lake and Porter counties with (insert name of County becoming a member of the district?"

A separate referenda will take place in four counties, including Lake, Porter, LaPorte and St. Joseph Counties. Oddly, the legislation allows the authority to be created if only two of the counties adopt it. So you could have a regional transit authority consisting of Lake and St. Joseph counties with the two counties in between, LaPorte and Porter, not a part of the transit district; however, the authority will be able to collect the income tax from people living in those counties that work in one of the other counties. "If you get two counties on the extreme ends (Lake and St. Joseph) that vote for it and the two counties in the middle (Porter and LaPorte) don't, what happens to them?" asked Rep. Chet Dobis, D-Merrillville. "That (referendum requirement) was so haphazardly put together, it wasn't funny."

U.S. Rep. Pete Visclosky (D-Merrillville), who is currently under investigation by federal prosecutors for campaign fundraising-related activities, supports the plan as a way of raising $500 million to match federal funding he will help the region obtain to build rail lines to Lowell and Valparaiso. The plan is also seen as aiding the financially-struggling bus agencies in East Chicago, Gary and Hammond. Hammond Mayor Tom McDermott worries that voters will reject the referenda out of hand according to Guinane's story.

Kenley suggests the referenda was needed because of the level of public confidence in Northwest Indiana officials isn't real high right now. Is the public confidence in the Marion County Capital Improvement Board any higher? That didn't stop Kenley from including a $25 million state bailout of the corrupt and inefficient agency in the state budget bill. Voters in Marion County will have no say in the matter. Under Kenley's CIB bailout plan, the City-County Council will have to raise the hotel tax immediately if it wants an $8 million a year subsidy and a $27 million-dollar loan from the state. In three years, the City-County Council will be compelled to raise another two taxes to finance repayment of the $27 million state loan. Note also that Kenley's regional tax to support construction of Lucas Oil Stadium was decided by county councils and not by the voters.

Marion County voters will have a special election referendum this fall thanks to Kenley and his legislative colleagues, which will cost more than a million dollars to conduct. Voters will be asked to vote on this language: "Shall the Health and Hospital Corporation of Marion County, Indiana, issue bonds or enter into a lease to finance (insert the description of the project)?". Proponents of the project claim a $900 million new hospital to replace the current Wishard Hospital can be constructed without a tax increase. Yeah, and if you believe that, I've got a bridge in Brooklyn to sell you as well.

Happy Fourth Of July Chicago Style

We need more legislators in Indiana like State Rep. Paul Froehlich (D-IL). After switching from the Republican to the Democratic Party, Froehlich pulled out all of the stops to win re-election last year with some help from Chicago Democrats. It seems Froelich showed up at the door of hundreds of his constituents offering to help lower their property taxes. Of the cases he filed with the Cook County Board of Review, he had a 94% success rate. Constituents were happy and gladly rewarded him with contributions, put up campaign yard signs at their homes, etc. Everyone was happy--until Froehlich fired his district assistant, who just happened to keep a copy of the master list of property tax appeals, along with all of the political favors Froehlich received in consideration for his help, which she shared with a local FOX News affiliate in Chicago. She is planning to bring a whistleblower suit against Froehlich. He thinks she should be jailed for stealing the list. Others are wondering why all of the appeals Froelich filed were adjudicated by Board of Review Commissioner Joe Berrios (D), a former state representative and head of the Cook County Democratic Party. The Fourth of July heat is too much for Froehlich, who just announced he won't seek re-election. The Cook County State's Attorney's Office is continuing its investigation of the matter. Not that it matters to the Obama-friendly media, but then-State Senator Barack Obama used constituent service to enrich himself personally. He took more than a $100,000 in legal fees from a business for which his office lobbied a state agency successfully for hundreds of thousands in state business grants. Enjoy the video of this excellent investigative piece by FOX Chicago News.

Palin Resignation A Big Mistake

If Gov. Sara Palin's decision to resign her office later this month is to allow more time to campaign for president in 2012, I think she is making a big mistake. Palin has been the unfair subject of dozens of ethics complaints filed by partisan Democrats as a result of her vice presidential campaign last year, which has caused her to incur hundreds of thousands of dollars in legal bills. Leaving office more than a year before the end of her term looks like she's escaping the heat of the kitchen rather than finishing the job to which Alaska voters elected her. I wish her well, but I'm disappointed in her decision.