Making Education Dollars Go Farther

Fifteen things you need to know as a policymaker — or someone who cares about education in your community and state.

1.End “last hired, first fired” practices.
2.Remove class-size mandates.
3.Eliminate mandatory salary schedules.
4.Eliminate state mandates regarding work rules and terms of employment.
5.Remove “seat time” requirements.
6.Merge categorical programs and ease onerous reporting requirements.
7.Create a rigorous teacher evaluation system.
8.Pool health-care benefits.
9.Tackle the fiscal viability of teacher pensions.
10.Move toward weighted student funding.
11.Eliminate excess spending on small schools and small districts.
12.Allocate spending for learning-disabled students as a percent of population.
13.Limit the length of time that students can be identified as English Language Learners.
14.Offer waivers of non-productive state requirements.
15.Create bankruptcy-like loan provisions.

These are Stretching the School Dollar recommendations contained in a brief released yesterday by the Fordham Institute. Sounds like a lot of common sense. Sounds like a lot of topics that are going to be discussed at the Indiana Statehouse in the coming months.

Read the full brief and stay tuned to see what happens.