SNAP cuts could hurt Indiana schools
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Congress is drafting a spending plan that is expected to call for deep cuts to federal financial assistance programs, including the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), often known as food stamps.
Why it matters: SNAP is part of Indiana's K–12 school funding formula. If the program is cut in a way that limits eligibility and reduces the number of Hoosiers receiving food aid benefits, schools could see funding cuts.
How it works: The funding formula starts with a base appropriation based on the number of students enrolled in each district.
- Districts get additional dollars for things like the number of students living in low-income households, receiving special education services, learning English and taking advanced classes.
- The additional dollars for students from low-income households is called the complexity index and the state bases it on the number of students in foster care, receiving benefits from the Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) program or receiving SNAP benefits.
Between the lines: Complexity is supposed to be a proxy for at-risk students, designed to give more funding to schools with a high proportion of students who have more needs.
State of play: If fewer families qualify for SNAP benefits, fewer students will be counted in the complexity index and their schools won't receive the extra dollars to support them.
- Schools have already argued that complexity undercounts the number of at-risk students they serve.
- On average, the complexity index is 65% lower than the percentage of students who qualify for free or reduced-price lunch — another proxy for low-income or at-risk students that Indiana previously used for calculating complexity.
- According to an analysis from the Indiana Urban Schools Association, 19 other states still use lunch assistance for their complexity grants.
What they're saying: David Marcotte, executive director of the association, told Axios that urban districts are very concerned about potential cuts to SNAP — both for the impacts on their families and on school budgets.
- "It has been a long-standing foundational understanding that educating students of poverty requires additional resources, mainly staffing, which is the reason the complexity index was established in the school funding formula," he said.
- "A reduction of the complexity index would have a negative impact on the amount of resources available for educating children in poverty."
Yes, but: The state has been moving toward a flatter funding model for years, in which the funding gap between schools is shrinking — regardless of their student demographics.
- The House Republican budget proposal keeps complexity funding flat for the next two years while increasing the base funding that schools get for all students.
What's next: Senate Republicans are expected to release their spending plan tomorrow, but leaders have said they don't expect to see changes to the funding formula.