Muscle + money
National teacher union leader helps support Gary tax referendum drive
The president of the American Federation of Teachers brought muscle and money in support of a referendum to raise taxes in the Gary Community School Corp.
Randi Weingarten presented a $5,000 check to lead manager Paige McNulty on Tuesday during a barnstorming AFT stop in Gary to support the referendum and encourage people to vote in the Nov. 3 election.
The AFT bus tour began Sept. 30 in California and is making its way across the country. Weingarten, a former New York City social studies teacher, said she’s been in 20 states already.
In Gary, she said the stakes were high on the local and national level.
Weingarten said when cities like Gary were abandoned by businesses and corporations, the state had a duty to fill the breach when schools lost money.
Instead, she said Indiana created privatization, diverting more money out of traditional public education. Under former GOP governors Mitch Daniels and Mike Pence, who’s now vice president, Indiana created the most expansive voucher system in the nation.
Weingarten commended Gary’s AFT president GlenEva Dunham, who’s also the state AFT president, for working with McNulty to promote the eight-year $71.2 million referendum that will mean a 52-cent tax increase per $100 assessed valuation for homeowners.
“You’re really trying to walk through that sense of despair and create a sense of hope about what can happen in Gary,” said Weingarten. “People need hope. Kids need what teachers bring with them and they need to see people like you working together.”
McNulty said Gary needs the referendum to keep up with neighboring communities. Last year, she said the district was short 45 teachers because it hadn’t offered raises in more than 10 years.
To stay competitive, she said the first $1
million from the referendum will go toward teacher raises.
“It becomes a social equity issue as the state put us in a position where we have to go in and ask for money in a community that’s already struggling,” McNulty said. “It’s much easier in a Crown Point or Munster. If we’re going to save our schools, we have to invest in our students.”
McNulty said besides teacher raises, referendum money would be spent on academic programs, including an expansion of STEM classes and extra-curricular programs like Science Olympiad, band and athletic offerings.
“At the end of the day, this is really about our kids,” said former mayor Karen Freeman-Wilson. “This is about giving our children opportunities other kids have both in and out of Indiana.”
She said she was pleased that 80% to 90% of elected and appointed officials support the referendum.
Mayor Jerome Prince, however, issued a pocket veto of the city council’s endorsement of the referendum. The council overrode his veto.
Two councilmen, Clorius Lay, D-At large, and Cozey Weatherspoon, D-2nd, are campaigning against its passage.
There’s also a political action group formed by the Miller Citizens Corp. called Cap All Property Taxes, which opposes the referendum, contending the district already has enough revenue.
Gary was taken over by the state in 2017 because of staggering debt and operating deficits. A private education manager, MGT Consulting, has trimmed the annual deficit from $22 million to $6 million. School officials say the referendum will help close the deficit gap.
Until it posts two consecutive balanced budgets, the state will continue to control the district.