Brianne Marcos & Katelyn Bernth

Taki’s organization has been based in Indianapolis for 30 years promoting school choice in Indiana. This organization first lobbied in 2001 for Charter Schools to be an option for education. This was followed up in 2009 with a Tax Credit for private schools which eventually led to a statewide voucher program for K-12 students. Taki discussed the two sources of education funding, one being the state tax per student and the other source of education funding is property tax . About 90% of the state tax funding can be received if a student wants to go to a private school. 

Taki also discussed  briefly a new product –Education Scholarship (ESA) which can be potentially another source of funding for a student that wants to pay for the costs of attending a private school.

At the end of his presentation Taki  took  several questions from club members. The pro’s and con’s of the school voucher system were discussed in detail.

Daniel Granquist, Speaker Chairman for this meeting introduced today’ speaker Cynthia Davis with The North Central Community Action Agency.  The NCCAA recently celebrated its 59th anniversary serving seven counties in Indiana, including LaPorte County.

Right now, the NCCAA works with over 5,000 households offering energy assistance through its Energy Assistance Program. This program helps to heat homes of those in need.  They also  provide ramps for those who have difficulty climbing steps or require wheelchairs. Ramps are professionally built by a local contractor with volunteers assisting.

Cynthia discussed the Vision Screening service that NCCAA provides. Under the NCCAA Program, Head Start, Kindergarten, and Elementary aged children receive vision screening services. Last year over 3,333 children were assisted.

Cynthia also mentioned that the NCCAA also provides Youth Programs—examples of some of the youth programs include educational fishing trips, tours of local police departments and tours of local fire departments.

Major McGrath serves as Senior Marine Instructor at Michigan City HS, for the JROTC program.  He described the JROTC program not as a military program—but as a leadership program, focusing on leadership traits. Some of the classes discussed are financial planning, debate and history. The  MCAS  JROTC program typically provides hundreds of hours of service to the community each year, including participation in many patriotic events. The current JROTC program has over fifty students enrolled. Major McGrath summed up the objectives of the JROTC as:  being  respectful  of people, being prompt, and a person of integrity/a person of their word. 

Major Dale Simmons from the Salvation Army updated the club on a current projects. Dale talked about the twenty-eight recent graduates from the Bridges program. The program is designed to lift participants out of Poverty. Often, this means helping people get back on their feet with a job. He also commented on the homeless in the city—where many times the root cause is mental illness. The Salvation Army  is helping. Major Simmons concluded his remarks by thanking the Club and the community for their support. The Salvation Army  provides hot meals to the public on Mondays and as well as providing turkeys to families at Thanksgiving and hams at Christmas 

Jim Eriksson introduced today’s speaker: LaPorte County Parks Department Jeremy Sobecki Superintendent, Laporte County Parks Department. Jeremy is responsible for the five County Parks that make up the LaPorte County Parks system. This includes supervising eight full-time employees and ten seasonal employees. The Park system operates on a budget of approximately $570,000/yr.  Last year it is estimated that close to 400,000 people visited the LaPorte County Park system.  Jeremy  reminded club members that the Parks are no charge to visit, however if you want to, for example, rent a Park Shelter for an event there is a nominal charge. The Parks Department also had over sixty events last year as part of its in-school program. There were an additional ninety-eight public programs offered to the public last year as well. The Parks Department also keeps the public up to date on any events/programs that are scheduled in the near future with its Website. Just go to 

www. laportcountyarks.org/events.

• Mike talked about a wide variety of topics focusing primarily on the double track project which runs through four counties, Lake, Porter, La Porte, and St. Joseph.  He discussed progress on construction of the Michigan City Station and the parking garage which will hold over 400 vehicles.