When Governor Daniels said there was enough money to fully fund full-day kindergarten, many parents thought that meant it would cost them nothing. It turns out that’s not the case. It doesn’t take a kindergartner to realize that full-day kindergarten does not mean fully paid for. When Governor Mitch Daniels decided to increase spending on K-12 education by $150 million, it certainly seemed like it would be. “With about a quarter of that being used to complete the extension of full-day kindergarten to every school district in the state,” Daniels said at the time. “We probably didn’t get the right message, in regard to how the full-day kindergarten grant operated in the first place,” said Superintendent of Public Instruction, Dr. Tony Bennett.
Bennett, who toured the “Science-2-Go” school bus at the statehouse Tuesday, makes a good point. Currently, Indiana only pays $3,200 – or one half of the basic school funding formula – for kindergarten students. The state chips in $1,030 in grant money to push the total schools can apply to full-day kindergarten to $4,230. When the governor announced full funding for full-day kindergarten, he was actually referring to the full-day kindergarten grant fund. “I know it’s been confusing to parents, because even our initial reaction was that the other half day would be fully funded, but what that really meant was the grant would be fully funded. The grant is $1,030 instead of really another half day of tuition,” said Brian Smith, superintendent at Hamilton Southeastern.
Hamilton Southeastern is one of the school districts jumping into full-day kindergarten for the very first time and it’s commencing a lottery to fill those seats. The district will offer 600 seats and already has 350 applications on the first day parents can apply. In order to offer full-day kindergarten, the district has to charge an additional $1,700 per school year. Carmel, Franklin Township, Lawrence and Mooresville are also charging extra, but IPS and Wayne Township offer full-day kindergarten at no additional cost.
The poverty rate is one reason some schools can offer full-day kindergarten free to students. They have access to more money than other schools. One other thing is that the $1,030 grant funding is fluid. It can be a lower amount, it depends on the amount of schools participating, so it could be less.
[source: WTHR]
