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Indiana’s education grades are getting worse and are in need of immediate attention.

Earlier this month, the Indiana Commission for Higher Education released its annual report, which should be setting off alarm bells across the state.

The headline of that report was that just 53% of graduating high school seniors in 2020 were moving on to college post-graduation.

That represented a 6-percentage-point drop from 2019.

Part of that drop is likely attributable to the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic, but don’t be fooled — this drop is not an isolated incident, as college-going rates are already in long-range decline.

In 2015, 65% of seniors were moving on to college, dropping to 64% in 2016, 63% in 2017, 61% in 2018 and 59% in 2019.

Indiana used to be middle-of-the-pack in terms of educational attainment nationally, but over the last decade has fallen farther and farther behind relative to other states.

“Indiana’s sharp one-year college-going decline is alarming, and we have to treat it as such. We know individual lives and the state’s economy depend on and thrive with an educated society,” said Indiana Commissioner for Higher Education Chris Lowery.

This drop is doubly alarming considering that, in the Hoosier economy, approximately 100% of net new jobs are being created for college-educated workers. The supply of non-college jobs is basically remaining flat, while the supply of college-educated positions is growing.

And Indiana has not been and will continue to fail to meet the educational demands for its future workforce, which is likely to result in stagnant and poor incomes for Hoosier workers and eventually cause high-paying firms seeking highly-educated workers to turn their gaze elsewhere.

CEO of the Indianapolis-headquartered Eli Lilly David Ricks said as much during a presentation before the Indiana Economic Club earlier this year, and Ball State economist Michael Hicks has also been ringing this alarm bell repeatedly.

Hicks notes often that, in terms of inflation-adjusted dollars, Indiana spends about 17.5% less on education now than it did in 2009-10.

Hoosier lawmakers have put some money into education recently, but the state is already way behind and not doing enough to catch up.

And that lack of investment is really starting to show.

Instead, the state is sending out automatic taxpayer refunds because it finished fiscal year 2021 with more than $4 billion — more than the statutory 12.5% of its annual expenditures — in reserve. And Gov. Eric Holcomb this months suggesting using $1 billion in current tax revenue surplus to send out another refund to taxpayers.

Refunds are popular, but the state has real needs right now, with education arguably being one area where Indiana should be doing much, much more.

Better education is strongly tied to better future economic performance. Indiana is already falling behind its peers. The state is flush with cash and therefore has means to make education a fiscal priority.

The 2023 legislative session is a “long” budget session and education needs to be paramount in the discussion.

An uneducated Indiana will eventually become a poor and economically depressed Indiana.

State lawmakers must address this issue now before the situation worsens further.

OUR VIEW is written on a rotating basis by Andy Barrand, Michael Marturello and Steve Garbacz. We welcome readers’ comments.

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