Northwest Allen County School Board

Revealing educational statistics from Allen County

According to the Indiana Bureau of Education 91% of all Hoosier children are enrolled in public schools, 7% are enrolled in private schools, and 2% are being home schooled during the 2005-2006 school year.

Stats Indiana tracks school enrollment data county by county; the most recent data they have is for the 2004-2005 school year. Stats Indiana excludes home schooled children from its database. 34.6% of all children in Allen County are enrolled in private schools!

If you include children who are home schooled in these statistics then fewer then 64% of all children in Allen County are attending Public Schools; in fact, Allen County has the highest percentage of children enrolled in private schools in the entire state. Allen County has 5.4% of the total population of Indiana. Allen County has 21.3% of all children enrolled in Private schools in Indiana.

I believe that parental involvement is the key to a successful public education system. I often hear that we do not have enough parental involvement in our local schools. I find that statement to be completely untrue, at least in Allen County.

34.6% of all children in Allen County are enrolled by their parents in Private Schools. These parents spend their hard earned money to pay both their property taxes (to fund Public Schools) and these same parents pay fees to the Private schools their children attend. These parents feel that their children can get a better education in Private schools then Public schools. I think it is obvious that this shows a great deal of parental concern and involvement in their child’s education.

2% of all children in Allen County are Home Schooled by their parents. These parents pay property taxes to fund the Public School system and they spend a great deal of their own time and money to educate their children themselves. These parents are extremely concerned with their children’s education.

I think that these statistics demonstrate that a large number of parents in Allen County care deeply about the education of their children. I attended Public Schools in Allen County. I know that many parents of Public School children also care deeply about the education of their children. I think that parents in Allen County should be given a great deal of credit.

For some reason that I cannot fathom our Public Education system insists that the only way to improve our school system is to spend increasing amounts of money on education every year. Per the Indiana Department of Education’s website we are spending twice as much money per student as we were spending twenty five years ago. This statistic takes into account for and adjusts for inflation.

Spending more money every year is not the way to improve our Public School system.

Property taxes are increasing at an alarming pace all across Allen County. In Perry Township, our property taxes increased on average 63% last year. The final numbers are not in yet for this year; however, I am estimating that our property taxes will be increasing another 18% in Perry Township this year.

I am a product of the Public School system. My children will attend public schools in Northwest Allen County. I will do my best to help improve the Northwest Allen County School District. We have great teachers and we need to let them spend their time teaching students instead of following silly regulations dictated by Indianapolis and Washington D.C.

I have decided to run for The Northwest Allen County School Board in 2006. I want my children to receive a good education at a price that the property tax payers can afford. Please feel free to contact me by phone at 260-338-0833 or by email at Mike.Sylvester@Verizon.net if you would like to learn more about my campaign for School Board.

Mike Sylvester
President of The Valley Place Homeowner’s Association
Candidate for Northwest Allen County School Board in 2006