Can Indiana cut $300 million from its K through 12 education budget without teacher lay offs?

That was the question before the Indiana State Board of Education at an emergency meeting held Thursday in Indianapolis.

The board took comments from the public. Some of the suggestions included a salary freeze for teachers, administrators and school staff, as well as a suspension of a variety of student tests.

On Friday, the board will hand a list of suggestions to Indiana Governor Mitch Daniels, who will make the final call—and has his own opinions on the subject.

“If a superintendent’s first resort is to lay off teachers, the school board’s first resort ought to be to find a new superintendent,” Governor Daniels told NewsCenter 16 during an interview in Indianapolis on Wednesday.

“We’ve got tons of administration, we’ve got overhead, we’ve got districts that could be at least cooperating on procurement, or back office activities, that haven’t done that yet,” Gov. Daniels said. “39 cents of every K through 12 dollar never makes it to the classroom.”

Not only does the governor believe that classrooms can be shielded from harm, he’ll soon be able to point to a concrete, real-life example of how it’s done.

“You’re going to see, finally in Indiana, the first school district administrations combining forces. Keeping the schools going, keeping the local policy control, but combining the back offices,” Daniels said.

When asked to name the cooperating corporations, the governor said he couldn’t say because “it hasn’t been announced yet.”

But the governor feels that the model may work well for additional districts. “We can combine the back offices we can provide busses and food service and maintenance and do the paperwork in one place, not two and free up those resources to keep teachers on the job and classrooms small.”