The Duneland School Corporation was already bracing for a general fund shortfall of 8 percent next year, but the budgetary news worsened Monday with the announcement by Gov. Mitch Daniels’ that all schools will share evenly in nearly $300 million in statewide funding cuts.

Daniels said the state will cut $297 million to K-12 schools in 2010, with the reduction applied evenly to all school corporations using the current funding formula beginning in January. The reduction amounts to 3.5 percent of current state funding for the schools.

The governor wants schools to make the cuts without laying off teachers but by using alternatives such as outsourcing transportation and custodial services, cutting pay for administrators and school boards, changing insurance packages, and consolidating schools. Those and other suggestions are included in a “Citizens’ Checklist” prepared by the Indiana State Board of Education.

“Any district can find two or three percent savings without reducing teaching staff,” Indiana Superintendent of Public Instruction Tony Bennett said in a statement. “If everyone, including teachers themselves will pitch in, we’ll get through this recession just fine.”

The state took over the general fund operating costs for public schools beginning in 2009. While the takeover resulted in lowered local property tax rates, the reforms also included a statewide sales tax hike from 6 percent to 7 percent. But state revenues have fallen far short of projections, with the latest estimate showing that the state will take in $1.8 billion less than what was expected when state lawmakers passed a two-year budget earlier this year.

Daniels recently announced a series of state cuts, include 20 percent spending cuts at state agencies and 6 percent from higher education. On Monday, he announced his proposal for cutting K-12 funding. The statement released by his office said that if the new revenue forecast proves accurate, the K-12 reductions, coupled with the previous cuts and the use of most, if not all, of the state’s rainy day reserves, will keep Indiana in the black through the next 18 months.

“We reduced everything else first, and much more deeply, but K-12 education is half the entire budget and it became unavoidable for it to become part of the solution,” said Daniels.

K-12 spending is half of the state’s budget or about $6.5 billion annually. Daniels has said that education reductions were a last resort and that every other area would be trimmed first.

The State Board of Education plans to formally adopt its “Citizens’ Checklist” on January 8. Each school corporation and school board is expected to receive the checklist after its adoption. The full checklist, which can be found at the following address http://www.in.gov/gov/files/2009_isbe_checklist.pdf, calls for the following:

•Refrain from all salary and benefit increases for all school employees.

•Reduce insurance costs by changing plans, including joining the state health plan.

•Reduce school administrator and school board pay.

•Suspend retirement fund matches for all employees.

•Institute a corporation hiring freeze.

•Eliminate membership in professional associations and reduce travel expenses.

•Outsource transportation and custodial services and direct savings to a school Rainy Day Fund.

•Sell, lease or close underused buildings.

•Reduce operating and programming budgets to previous years’ levels.

•Consider school consolidation options within the school corporations and between corporations.