By the time freshman Morgan Montgomery graduates from Carmel High School, she will have endured eight semesters as a part of Carmel Clay Schools (CCS). As second semester elapses, somewhere in the state of Indiana, another student is also in the second semester of his or her freshman year. The one difference is the second student goes to a private school.

Financially eligible students can decrease their private school tuition by $4,500 per school year with the help of vouchers from the School Choice Indiana program, which was approved by the state last year.

According to a memo sent by the state to all public school districts, the funding that would otherwise go to CCS and students like Montgomery will now be deducted in order to support the student using a voucher.

Montgomery said as a middle school student her family considered sending her to a private school, but even now, she said they would have no intention of taking advantage of the voucher even if she is eligible.

“My parents always said I would go to Carmel,” Montgomery said.

Now, according to a memorandum sent on Sept. 2 by the state to public school districts, each district, beginning in the second semester of the 2011-2012 school year, will face a deduction in funding in order to support the state’s private school voucher program. The total for CCS this semester is $97,000, and at least that amount in each successive semester.

“For us to receive (the deduction) is particularly galling, because we have zero students from the Carmel Clay School district who sought a voucher, and to my knowledge, only one student who is looking at taking advantage of an early graduation scholarship,” Superintendent Jeff Swensson said.

A copy of the memorandum, supplied by Swensson, said the deduction for the voucher program would occur at both times when state funding is sent, which is February and November of each school year.

Both Swensson and Roger McMichael, assistant superintendent of business affairs, said the state never elaborated on how the amount of the funding deductions were formulated.

“As surprising as it may sound, we’re not totally sure how the (state) is determining how much each district will give up in funding,” McMichael said.

McMichael said he believes a possible determinant may have to do with the fact that the general education fund that the states used for funding previously paid for students in public schools whereas now, with the implementation of vouchers, those currently in private schools are now a part of a funding equation that includes an unchanged amount of money.

What Swensson said makes the deduction all the more confusing is that any student not going to a public school would have funding follow them.

For students at CHS, the per-student funding amount is approximately $5,500, among the lowest in the state, according to Swensson. If each voucher pays for approximately $4,500 of tuition, there appears to be $1,000 unspent. On top of that, new deductions in funding, at least $97,000 per semester from CCS alone, seem to leave a gap between what funding is withheld versus what goes to vouchers.

Requests to speak with Melissa Ambre, state director of school finance and the one who signed the memorandum, were forwarded to Alex Damron, press secretary for the Indiana Department of Education. Damron said to his understanding, funding for the voucher program is solely under a “money follows the student” principle.

“School corporations will not lose funding for kids who do not leave their schools,” Damron said.

In regard to the September memorandum, Damron said although the memorandum was sent, it was retracted and  “the information conveyed was not correct.”

“There was certainly a memo sent out originally that did not correctly convey the way in which the program would work, and we do our best to be transparent and proactive in our communications with the field,” Damron said. “After we sent that memo out, we did receive feedback from the field alerting us to their concerns, and we took a look at the memo and realized the information we conveyed was not correct, so we did send out a memo rectifying the situation and including more information as to how the payment schedule would work.”

Damron said the September memorandum was retracted immediately, and he supplied the documentation which stated the retraction.  McMichael said from what he understands, the retraction was simply a deferral of the deduction until this month.

On two separate occasions, Damron said he didn’t “have the language” in front of him in order to say how the program would be funded without the deduction that was spoken of initially in September.

Numerous attempts to speak with Tony Bennett, state superintendent of public instruction, were met with no response.

Of the cuts in funding, McMichael said the toughest part is dealing with the short period of time in which districts can make necessary adjustments to the budget.

Considering the deduction will be recurring for each successive semester, McMichael used the word “detrimental” when looking towards what the expense will cost in the long run.

“It’s painful enough, but when you’re given essentially no notice of (the funding deduction), and when the vast majority of your expenses are under contract, that makes it even more of a problem,” McMichael said.  “We’re not in a position to reduce our expenses (by) $100,000 overnight.”

Although some may argue money isn’t what makes a school more or less successful, Montgomery said regardless, schools operate on money. Once Montgomery graduates in 2015, CCS will have missed out on approximately $700,000, assuming the funding adjustment process does not change.

“If we had that extra (funding), we could make (the schools) that much better,” she said.

Swensson said the adjustment in funding will definitely have an impact on CCS, especially looking to the coming years.

“So the $97,000 comes out of the general fund,” Swensson said. “Well, the general fund is the way we pay for teacher salaries. Say we have roughly $200,000 per year that will disappear, or at least won’t be sent to us, and now we just won’t get it.

“At some point, not this year, but as we look into the future, if this continues to happen, and we lose at least $200,000 every year, contrary to what people may believe, I don’t have a secret basket under my desk where I simply pull out $100,000. We’re very concerned.”