ANDERSON — At the end of a contentious special session of the Indiana General Assembly last month, Gov. Mitch Daniels made a comment that’s still striking a nerve with some area school leaders at the start of a new school year.

“I heard it said in floor debate, I think in overheated fashion, that this budget means the end of public education as we have known it, to which I say, ‘Thank goodness,’” the governor said.

Daniels was talking about changes in school-funding formulas in which money for school systems more closely follows student enrollment, but the remark became emblematic of a relationship between school districts and state government that education leaders say has become chilly at best.

“I was greatly offended by Gov. Daniels’ statement,” said John Trout, superintendent of Madison-Grant United Schools. “There seems to be an assault on public education today.”

“It’s kind of disheartening at times to read what elected leaders say about public education in general,” said Ronald Green, superintendent of Shenandoah Community Schools.

“I think people go into education because they have a sense of service, and that service being back to children,” he said. “We should be in a mode to try to build up public education in Indiana, not to tear it down.”

Daniels spokeswoman Jane Jankowski said that was what the governor was trying to do.

“From Gov. Daniels’ perspective, we’re always talking and listening to educators to see how we can improve the education system for educators and students alike,” she said.

“Our intent is that every student in Indiana has an opportunity to obtain the best education they can. That’s ultimately what we’re working for in Indiana,” Jankowski said.

Scott Jenkins, Daniels’ education policy director, said many education professionals are resistant to change despite foundering student achievement.

“This administration really is not satisfied with the performance of our schools on a very fundamental level,” Jenkins said. “We have concerns when we’re only graduating 75 percent of our students” statewide, with figures at 50 percent or lower in some urban schools.

“We want both sides to come to the table with ideas and suggestion and not just say ‘I don’t want change,’” he said.

But some recipes for reform from Daniels and Superintendent of Public Instruction Tony Bennett have been hard to swallow for local school system leaders.

“I think it’s strained because there are so many changes,” Alexandria Community Schools Superintendent Alice Mehaffey said of the relationship between state and local education leaders.

Among those changes, the new public school funding formula leaves many school systems staring down deficits for years to come. Anderson Community Schools, for example, will face a budget deficit this year of more than $10 million, largely due to declining enrollment.