Chalkbeat

Irvington data center poses health concerns for school community — and could also impact enrollment

2026-09-10T20:44:30+00:00

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It’s quiet in the back yard of Irvington Community Elementary School, which sits along the Pennsy Trail on the east side of Indianapolis.

Inside, students are writing in notebooks — a break from screens in an effort to limit technology instruction. Yet hundreds of feet away, a digital infrastructure company hopes to build a controversial data center that the close-knit Irvington community is now fighting in court.

The charter school is in the crosshairs of a data center battle being fought in neighborhoods across the country. In Irvington, residents have voiced concern over the potential noise from the maximum 31 generators that the DC Blox company is proposing for its two-building, $2 billion data center. They’re also worried about construction kicking up potential contaminants from the property, once home to a Ford Motor Company car manufacturing plant.

School leaders have echoed these concerns and worry about the impact on students. The proposed facility also comes at an already challenging time for one of the city’s oldest charter schools, risking student enrollment as public schools statewide grapple with a decline in students and increasingly tight budgets.

Irvington Community Elementary in Indianapolis sits just north of the proposed DC Blox data center. According to a lawsuit challenging the project, the proposed data center campus would be about 850 feet from the school.

While families may be deterred from enrolling their children hundreds of feet from a data center, school leaders are focused on keeping the roughly 300 elementary students safe. The school is one of several plaintiffs in a lawsuit filed last month to stop the data center.

DC Blox did not respond to requests for comment.

“The fears about it from the general public are a given,” said charter network CEO Rachel Maldonado, of the proposed data center’s proximity to the school. “We don’t have enough research. And that’s, I think, the biggest issue.”

Commitments aren’t enough to quell concerns from school

The site at 305 Fintail Drive — which the lawsuit states is 850 feet from the school — is now classified as a brownfield, a designation given to many former industrial sites that could contain hazardous substances.

Activities on the former Ford site included coal storage, hazardous waste storage, wastewater treatment, and wastewater sludge burning, and some contaminants remain in the soil and groundwater, according to documents filed with the Indiana Department of Environmental Management (IDEM). The school opened next door about a decade before Ford ceased operations.

The data center won approval from the Metropolitan Development Commission just before the city enacted a moratorium on new data center applications through 2027, as the city crafts zoning regulations for these facilities. That leaves the DC Blox site as one of three that could continue as approved.The company plans to complete construction on the first building within two years.

DC Blox must test for or mitigate any contaminants in the air through a vapor mitigation system. The site must also include a two-foot soil and vegetative barrier in areas not occupied by buildings, parking lots, or sidewalks.

The company has listed a set of binding commitments, in accordance with state law — including the requirement to share generator testing schedules with the school. A sound study must show that sound levels at the edge of the data center campus do not exceed 65 decibels, which is roughly the level of a normal conversation or a business office.

Across the country, thousands of schools are less than a mile from an existing or future data center, according to an analysis reported by the 74 Million. Yet research on the effects on students is limited.

“We have kids that have asthma, and we have kids that have health conditions,” Maldonado said of the potential for soil contaminants to enter the school’s ventilation system. “We don’t know what the impacts of that would be yet.”

Past construction on the former Ford site was already enough to kick up dust toward the elementary school, documents show. In 2022, the principal reported that concrete demolition placed a dust film on staff cars, according to an incident report filed with IDEM.

School leaders visited a DC Blox center in Atlanta earlier this year, but that did not quell concerns.

Irvington Community Elementary, one of the city's oldest charter schools, is one of multiple plaintiffs in a lawsuit to stop the DC Blox data center.

Maldonado could hear the hum of the generator kick on from 700 feet away, she said, and the construction noise was loud enough to “potentially prohibit a conducive learning environment.”

“We’re only getting a snapshot,” Maldonado said. “And we’re getting the snapshot that they want us to see.”

Data center makes financial struggles even harder

As community members launch fundraising efforts for the legal battle against the data center, Irvington Community Schools faces a financial challenge of its own.

The network, which consists of three schools at locations throughout Irvington, ended with a $2.85 million deficit last school year due to declining enrollment, Maldonado said at a board meeting last month.

This year, the network also struggles to meet its projected enrollment of 817.

In response, the network has launched a three-pronged sustainability plan, including cutting programs like prekindergarten and their staffs, and seeking alternative sources of funding like grants.

But the backdrop of a data center could make increasing enrollment even harder.

Katie Welch, principal of Irvington Community Elementary in Indianapolis. Welch said parents have expressed concerns about the impact of a data center slated to be built near the school.

“I don’t know that the data center is hindering,” Maldonado said of DC Blox’s impact on enrollment. “But long term, it’s not helping.”

Principal Katie Welch has heard concerns from parents and staff about dust and noise.

“They have questions,” she said. “How will this impact learning? Will it impact my students’ health? They just want some answers.”

Amelia Pak-Harvey covers schools for Chalkbeat Indiana. Contact Amelia at apak-harvey@chalkbeat.org.

Virtual school enrollment has doubled in recent years, following pandemic-era surge

2026-08-27T20:29:44+00:00

Chalkbeat Ideas is a section featuring reported columns on the big ideas and debates shaping American schools. Sign up for the Ideas newsletter to follow our work.

Data analysis by Kae Petrin.

Remote learning during the pandemic was a nightmare for some students, but others have stuck with it, new data shows.

Just over 600,000 public school students attended fully virtual schools in the 2024-25 school year, the most recent data available. That’s about 1 in 80 public school children — a twofold increase since before the pandemic.

This reflects the growth of school choice: In more places, families who want to opt their children out of traditional schooling can and are doing so with public funding. Many families seek out online education because traditional schooling isn’t working for a variety of reasons. Yet prior research has raised pointed questions about the quality of virtual schooling. These concerns once drew significant attention, but ironically they have faded from the national discourse even as digital schooling has rapidly grown.

Virtual school enrollment spiked in the 2020-21 school year in the midst of the pandemic. Some families may have believed that a stand-alone virtual school would be better than the makeshift online programs that many school districts were standing up. This was not just a one-year blip, however, as the new data shows.

A majority of fully virtual students are in charter schools. Two companies that run online schools, Stride and Pearson, account for a large chunk of virtual enrollment. A recent earnings report from Stride said its virtual schools, known as K12, now enroll over 240,000 students in public and private schools. “Demand for educational choices remains strong,” the report said. In recent years, more school districts have also launched their own online options.

Among high school students, 1.6% were in fully virtual public schools, compared to 0.8% of students in grades 1-8.

The Education Department used to regularly report on the number of virtual school students, but like many other statistics, it has not updated these figures recently. Chalkbeat calculated up-to-date numbers, which had not been previously reported.

An additional 195,000 students were enrolled in schools that are categorized as primarily online with some in-person opportunities.

The federal numbers may undercount online school enrollment. For example, according to that data, 1% of Indiana students were in fully virtual schools in the fall of 2024. A Chalkbeat analysis using more detailed state data pegged enrollment at virtual schools at about 3% that year. States vary in the share of students in virtual schools, though differences in response rates and program structures mean cross-state comparisons should be interpreted with caution.

Several studies, based on data from before the pandemic, have found that students tend to make much less academic progress and graduate at lower rates in virtual charters. In 2016, prompted by concerns about quality, a trio of pro-charter school groups issued a high-profile call to close low-performing online charters. Reporting in states including Indiana and Colorado has raised concerns about misspending and inflated student enrollment in certain virtual charters.

Patrick Wolf, a University of Arkansas professor, noted that existing research may not be able to adequately account for the type of students who opt into virtual schools when assessing the quality of the education in these settings.

“Students who learn remotely may also perform somewhat lower than expected on in-person state assessments, not because of instruction quality, but because the testing environment itself is unfamiliar,” said Brooke Gabbert, a spokesperson for K12 virtual schools. “These students typically learn and test at home.”

A teacher at New York City’s district-run online school previously told Chalkbeat that students go virtual for a variety of reasons, such as disabilities that make attending a regular school challenging; flexibility for students who are caregivers; and difficulties in a prior school.

“Many of our students face social and personal challenges, so our work extends beyond delivering content,” said the teacher, Jude Julien.

Wolf says if test scores are a priority, online schooling is probably not a good option for most. “Parents should be informed about that reality and factor it into their decision making,” he says. The growth of virtual schooling is a sign of the times, though: The priority in education policy in recent years has been responding to parent demand rather than raising test scores.

Since online schools have grown rapidly, up-to-date and better research about the quality of education they’re providing seems like an urgent priority.

Matt Barnum is Chalkbeat’s ideas editor. Reach him at mbarnum@chalkbeat.org.

Indiana charter schools could receive over $49 million in new revenue from proposed tax increases

2026-08-18T11:00:00+00:00

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Indiana charter schools have tens of millions of dollars at stake in the upcoming ballot questions this November. But it’s unclear in many instances how they officially plan to spend that potential influx of revenue.

State law requires districts in four counties to share revenue from property tax increases approved by voters with charters enrolling students who live within those districts’ boundaries. This year, only districts in two of those counties, Marion and Lake, are seeking those tax increases in November. Nearly all the revenue would go to charters in Marion.

Eight school districts running referendums have reported to the state that they will share that revenue with about 60 charter schools. Altogether, the referendums have a maximum annual total of nearly $200 million, and an estimated $49.5 million of that would go to charter schools.

The potential funding represents the largest amount charters could receive from ballot questions in state history. And one charter can benefit from multiple ballot measures.

Yet only four of the eight districts have included referendum spending plans for individual charter schools in documents submitted to the state. And of the $49.5 million, nearly all of it — $48.7 million — is not accounted for in those official spending plans, although several charters did discuss their plans for the money with Chalkbeat.

Generally, funds from these ballot measures can be spent on day-to-day operations, such as staff salaries, academic programs, and transportation.

State law requires districts to submit spending plans from charter schools that would benefit from the tax increase to state government, alongside their own plans.

Yet there is little oversight of this process. Some charter officials say districts did not ask them to submit a spending plan, while some districts have said certain charter schools failed to provide them when asked.

The Indianapolis Public Education Corporation, which is floating a ballot question for Indianapolis Public Schools and charter schools that could provide the most money, did not include charter school spending plans in its documents submitted to the state. But the corporation plans to track spending of future potential referendum dollars, its acting director Michael O’Connor said.

The estimated funding for individual charters is tied to the number of a school’s students who live in the district asking for a tax increase.

Christel House Academy South stands to gain an estimated $2.5 million — the highest amount for a single charter school — if voters approve all three referendums it’s participating in. Most of that funding would come from the Indianapolis Public Education Corporation’s ballot question. Over 90 percent of its 975 students lived within IPS borders last spring, according to state data.

Christel House Indianapolis CEO Emily Masengale anticipates spending much of that funding on staffing and transportation. Christel House Academy South provides transportation to over 450 students, and in recent years its transportation costs have increased by 28%. Transportation costs for both the South and West campuses within the Christel House Indianapolis charter network amount to over $1 million annually, according to the network.

“Transportation and staffing are always really big expenses,” she said. “We wanted the best teachers in front of our students, so we always strive to ensure that we have comparable pay to districts.”

The charter networks with the most to gain include Phalen Leadership Academies, which has six schools eligible for ballot measure funding through IPEC and the Metropolitan School District of Wayne Township. Phalen could receive up to nearly $6 million. And Paramount Schools of Excellence, which has four schools eligible for funding across four districts, could gain $4.1 million.

KIPP Indy could get up to $3.6 million in new revenue if voters approve referendums for IPEC and the Metropolitan School District of Decatur Township pass. The charter network plans to use funding for professional development and initiatives to increase student attendance, among other things.

“Because the referendum funding would represent a significant new investment in our schools, we want to be thoughtful about aligning those dollars with the strategies we believe will have the greatest impact on students,” the charter network said in a statement.

At Purdue Polytechnic High School, which has two Indianapolis campuses that could gain roughly $2 million, CEO Keanna Warren said the network would use the money on “competitive teacher compensation, transportation, and student support,” she said in an email.

The general election is Nov. 3. Early voting starts on Oct. 6.

Amelia Pak-Harvey covers schools for Chalkbeat Indiana. Contact Amelia at apak-harvey@chalkbeat.org.

Zero charter schools have applied to take over the Denver schools that might close for low performance

2026-07-14T22:10:41+00:00

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Denver is set to announce this fall which schools are at risk of closure or replacement because of low test scores. And there won’t be any charter schools waiting in the wings to take over.

Denver Public Schools solicited applications from charter schools to serve as replacements but none applied, district officials said.

A few charter schools asked about the process, said Paige Neuharth, the district’s director of authorizing and accountability. But it’s likely that the high level of uncertainty, coupled with the hard task of reversing a school’s academic trajectory, meant that charter schools decided not to raise their hands this time, she said.

“We anticipate there might be more interest in the future,” Neuharth said.

Denver has long been friendly to charters, encouraging high performers to add more schools as districtwide enrollment grew. But now that enrollment is shrinking and the political winds have shifted away from education reform, more charters have closed recently than opened.

Superintendent Alex Marrero unveiled a new policy last spring that calls for “reimagining” charter and district-run schools that have four years of low state ratings.

Persistently low-scoring charter schools could be closed. Persistently low-scoring district-run schools could be closed or replaced, meaning the school would get a new staff, programming, and curriculum, and potentially a new name or operator, which could be a charter school.

Four schools could be at risk under the policy, called the School Transformation Process, when a new round of state ratings are released this fall. They are:

Rocky Mountain Prep Noel, a charter school
Academy 360, a charter school
Oakland Elementary, a district-run school
John F. Kennedy High, a district-run school

To prepare for the possibility of replacing the district-run schools, DPS put out a call for charter schools interested in serving that role. The district also submitted applications for a new district-run elementary school and a new district-run high school.

The school board was supposed to vote in June on the applications that met its bar for quality, pre-approving them to serve as potential replacements. But since no charter schools applied, the district withdrew its own applications.

“Once there was no competition, it seemed unnecessary for the district to have a standalone application in a competitive process against nobody,” said Joe Amundsen, the district’s executive director of school transformation.

If the school board votes to replace a district-run school, Amundsen said the district would bring its application back and work with that school community on a redesign.

“It felt premature for us to say we have a fully baked plan to replace those schools when we’re doing everything we can to improve those schools so they don’t get there,” he added.

Separate from the School Transformation Process, homegrown charter network DSST Public Schools submitted applications to open three new schools: a DSST College View Elementary, a DSST Elevate Elementary, and a DSST Gateway Elementary, according to emails obtained by Chalkbeat in a public records request.

But the emails revealed that DSST notified DPS it was withdrawing the applications this spring, before the school board could vote.

“After careful consideration, we determined that withdrawing the applications was the best decision to support our strategic priorities and ongoing commitment to students and families,” DSST spokesperson Daniela Di Napoli said in a statement.

The three schools would have been the first elementary schools for DSST, which has seven middle schools and seven high schools in Denver and one of each in neighboring Aurora.

DSST has a College View middle and high school in southwest Denver and an Elevate middle and high school in northeast Denver. Gateway is a northeast Denver neighborhood, and it’s an outlier. While lower birth rates and high housing prices are causing student enrollment to decline in most other parts of the city, Gateway is the only neighborhood where the student count is expected to grow as new houses are built.

DPS is predicting that it will need a new elementary school in Gateway by 2028. When DSST withdrew its Gateway Elementary application, the network’s head of growth confirmed that DPS would solicit applications for a new elementary school in that neighborhood next year.

Melanie Asmar is the bureau chief for Chalkbeat Colorado. Contact Melanie at masmar@chalkbeat.org.

This Memphis charter school cut chronic absenteeism to only 3 students. Here’s how.

2026-07-14T11:00:00+00:00

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The year after COVID-19 hit, Memphis principal Kamie Cowan knew she needed to get students back in their seats.

More than half of the students at Compass Berclair, a local K-8 charter school, were chronically absent in 2022, meaning they missed at least 18 days of school, or more than 10% of the school year.

Last year, only three of the school’s 230 students met that mark. Cowan said that dramatic drop started in the 2022-23 school year, when she put together an attendance team that met every other week to review attendance data and problem solve.

“We just started paying attention, I guess, which sounds simple,” she told Chalkbeat. “But that consistent time of paying attention, that’s where this shift started to happen.”

Cowan said she believes any school can reduce chronic absenteeism with similar strategies. The key, she said, is relying on talented school staff and setting realistic goals.

“It can be very daunting,” she said. “So making that team is really important, and then picking goals that are really clear and bite-sized to start, so you get some quick wins.”

Memphis-Shelby County Schools leaders ramped up chronic absenteeism interventions this past year, aiming to reduce chronic absenteeism rates for the first time since 2017.

High chronic absenteeism is one of six criteria state Republicans included in the law creating an appointed board to seize control of key MSCS decisions, including charter authorizations and contract approvals.

The oversight board, which a federal judge temporarily blocked from operating last month, is meant to address district management and what Republicans say are years of academic underperformance. Students who are chronically absent are less likely to read on grade level by third grade and more likely to drop out of high school.

An MSCS spokesperson told Chalkbeat that official absenteeism numbers for the district are currently under state embargo. In February, district leaders said 27% of MSCS students were at high risk for chronic absenteeism. That’s down from 31.5% in June 2025 and just above the district’s year-end target of 26.5%.

They also said that close to 40% of MSCS high schoolers, or 12,000 total, were at risk of being chronically absent. That represented a 1 percentage point drop for Memphis-Shelby County high schoolers compared to last year. But it’s significantly higher than the state’s average high school chronic absenteeism rate of just over 23%.

This past year, MSCS expanded its spending on efforts to combat chronic absenteeism. The district invested $4.4 million to place 78 attendance liaisons in schools across the region. It also launched a door-knocking initiative that yielded mixed results.

Compass Berclair students monitor their own attendance data

Cowan, the Compass Berclair principal, credits most of her school’s success in reducing chronic absenteeism to the attendance team she formed, which includes herself, the school secretary, counselor, and dean of academics.

“All those roles are super significant,” Cowan said. “But if the principal is not on board and really supporting and navigating it, it can only go so far.”

The secretary makes daily attendance calls to families of any student that’s absent. Each quarter, the team plans a field trip or out-of-uniform days to celebrate students or classes that improved their numbers. The school counselor meets with classes weekly to go through attendance data with the students.

“The students at our school can tell you how many days they’ve been absent and how close they are to being chronic,” Cowan said. “It’s really important for them to be aware of that.”

Cowan and her team sort students into tiers of risk level for chronic absenteeism to better tailor interventions. They host family meetings once a student reaches five absences.

The meetings help school leaders identify specific barriers to attendance, Cowan said, most often including transportation.

“Our demographic does not have a lot of grandparents and aunties and uncles that live in Memphis,” she added. “And it’s really hard to get kids to school, especially when you don’t have many people to lean on.”

One strategy that’s worked well for her school is arranging parent carpools, Cowen said.

Compass leaders also focus on creating a school culture that makes students want to show up and show up on time, she said. Every school day starts with a morning meeting where teachers play games or answer random questions with students.

Cowan also uses free online resources from Attendance Works, a national nonprofit that works with schools and districts to boost attendance, to design the school’s tier system and brainstorm solutions. Compass Berclair also received coaching from Attendance Works through funding from the local nonprofit Hyde Family Foundation, which also is a Chalkbeat funder.

Bri Hatch covers Memphis-Shelby County Schools for Chalkbeat Tennessee. Reach Bri at bhatch@chalkbeat.org.

IPS school board approves Cold Spring School’s bid to be an innovation charter school

2026-06-26T01:04:09+00:00

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The Indianapolis Public Schools board reversed its decision from last year and approved Cold Spring School’s request to remain in the district’s Innovation Network as a charter school.

The board also approved two new innovation schools: a second campus for Global Prep Academy and a new Monarca Academy high school. Both schools are already in the Innovation Network.

Innovation schools are independently run but receive some services from IPS such as transportation, food service, or building space. While many innovation schools are charter schools, some are not. Those schools rely more heavily on IPS for student services such as special education and English learner support.

The changes are all for one year, as contracts for Cold Spring, Global Prep, and Monarca are all up for renewal this year, according to Ricky Ritter, IPS director of innovation schools.

IPS superintendent Aleesia Johnson told the board that she expects more clarity around the district’s future and finances ahead of the renewal votes.

Here’s an overview of the changes.

Cold Spring School will become a charter school

Cold Spring School, which serves grades K-8, is an innovation school that wants to become a charter innovation school. Last year, the IPS school board rejected that request, saying the city’s education policy landscape was in flux.

This year, the board approved an amendment to Cold Spring’s innovation school contract that allows it to be a charter school.

Cold Spring Chief Operating Officer Cody Stipes told the school board that becoming a charter school would allow the school to access about $1.8 million more in state funding along with opportunities for federal and grant funds. The school can expand programming and academic offerings with the added money.

With the change, Cold Spring will contract with IPS for custodial and food services, while IPS would continue to provide transportation and the school building. As a charter school, Cold Spring will take over services for students with disabilities and English language learners from IPS, saving the district more than $800,000, per Stipes.

Global Prep Academy splits into 2 campuses

Global Prep Academy is expanding from one building to two to free up space at its current location at Riverside School 44. The existing campus will serve students through fifth grade, while a new location, Global Prep at the Monon, will serve grades 6-8.

The IPS board approved a one-year innovation school contract for the new school and amended its contract with Global Prep at school 44 to reflect the grades served at that location.

Global Prep owns the new building and will manage IT, custodial services, and food services. IPS will provide transportation for the schools. IPS will also save more than $96,000 a year by removing a modular classroom from school 44.

Monarca Academy adds high school

Monarca Academy, which is co-located at Northwest Middle School, is splitting into a middle school and a high school but remaining in the same building.

The IPS board approved a one-year innovation school contract for Monarca Academy High School and amended the existing contract for Monarca’s middle school to reflect the grade changes.

IPS will continue to provide custodial services, food service, transportation, and building space for both schools.

MJ Slaby oversees Chalkbeat Indiana’s coverage as bureau chief. Contact MJ at mslaby@chalkbeat.org.

Teacher merit pay in Indianapolis charter schools gets millions in new aid from philanthropies

2026-06-12T14:47:08+00:00

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Courtney Buuck thought there was some kind of mistake.

When she learned that she received a $40,000 bonus payment on top of her base teacher’s salary last fall, she was in shock. Like other staff at United Schools of Indianapolis’ three charter schools, she was eligible for a bonus based on her year-end evaluation score.

She just didn’t think she’d come out on top.

“I am just really hard on myself as an educator,” said Buuck, who teaches kindergarten at the Avondale Meadows Academy K-4 school. “And then once the shock wore off, I was just really proud of myself.”

Buuck plans to save her bonus to help her purchase her first home.

Buuck’s bonus comes from the $12.5 million Vigilance in Teaching and Learning — or VITAL — Trust, which launched in 2024 and pledged to support performance-based bonuses for staff at the charter network for 25 years. In the first year of awards, she received nearly $16,000.

Now, another venture with essentially the same name is expanding merit bonuses to 11 more Indianapolis charter schools this year in an effort to attract and retain high-quality educators. In April, the philanthropic VITAL Foundation awarded roughly $1.3 million in its first round of grants for teacher bonuses at high-needs schools that could range from $1,000 to $10,000.

The two initiatives differ in a few respects, but both are a substantial investment in merit pay in Indianapolis, where dozens of charter schools and multiple school districts compete for educators. The federal government has promoted the concept over the years through billions of dollars given to states to create performance-based pay systems, which the Trump administration also embraces.

The big question: Will it work? Research suggests that it could, if implemented in certain ways. But other studies suggest that narrowly focused merit-pay systems don’t deliver particularly well. And there are concerns dating back years that merit pay in general has little effect on student performance.

VITAL Foundation head Kelly Herron understands that money alone can’t solve the educator shortage. Instead, she said, the grants are part of a broader system to retain teachers.

“You have to create a culture in which this can work,” said Herron, who studied each school’s culture prior to awarding grants through school visits, staff focus groups, and surveys. “You can’t go into a school that already has a broken culture, and think that this is the magic wand.”

Merit pay hopes to address charter hiring challenge

Roughly 15 years ago, President Barack Obama’s Race to the Top initiative incentivized states to adopt merit-based pay structures.

But today, state law does not tie teacher pay directly to student performance. Instead, school districts can bargain differentiated pay based on a teacher’s evaluation. The state Teacher Appreciation Grant also gives money to up to 20% of a district or charter school’s teachers using specific performance criteria.

Charters and district-run schools can face different challenges when it comes to hiring and keeping teachers. Starting salaries can vary based on the schools. And charters don’t have to adhere to collective bargaining.

In the hiring game, charters may have the upper hand in at least one key respect. Charters received nearly twice as many applicants per opening as traditional school districts, according to a 2025 paper from the Center for Analysis of Longitudinal Data in Educational Research, or CALDER. The center analyzed teacher applications for 43 districts and charter school organizations nationwide using the Nimble application platform — a common hiring tool in Indiana.

But charter leaders can also have distinct hiring challenges that Herron, a former executive director of the United Schools of Indianapolis network, has experienced firsthand.

Some may struggle to keep up with the competitive base pay of nearby districts, she said. Others may have longer hours than traditional district-run schools or lack traditional districts’ name recognition.

The VITAL Trust bonuses, entering its third year, is based on a staff member’s numerical evaluation rating. The top 30% of performers receive an award that is weighted based on their score. In the program’s first two years, awards have averaged $10,000, with the top performer earning the $40,000 maximum. All staff members, not just teachers, are eligible for an award.

The new VITAL Foundation grant operates a bit differently.

Charters were awarded $3,000 per certified teaching position, and can only give bonuses to teachers designated as effective under the school’s performance system. How much each teacher receives also depends on their exact numerical evaluation score.

Schools that applied for the grants provided the foundation with their performance rubrics, which may rate teachers on academic outcomes along with other measures.

Neither the VITAL Foundation nor the VITAL Trust discloses its donors.

At Enlace Academy — which was a pilot school for the VITAL Trust that received $5,000 per certified teaching position — 40% of teacher evaluations is based on student academic outcomes. The rest is based on school-wide goals such as staff attendance and professional practice measures, such as response to feedback from teaching coaches.

Longer hours and lower pay is a challenge when it comes to recruiting teachers, said Katie Dulay, executive director of the Neighborhood Charter Network that operates Enlace.

“But the people who do well and are at Enlace for the long haul are here because they’re amongst peers who deeply care about their community and deeply care about getting strong outcomes for kids,” she said.

How can merit pay for teachers be successful?

Researchers suggest that there are two ways that merit pay could improve the existing teacher workforce.

“Pay would induce people to work harder or to get invested in themselves in ways that make them better,” said Dan Goldhaber, the director of CALDER who has studied teacher pay systems. “And it could also change the quality of the workforce by encouraging the right people to stay or come into a system.”

Some research suggests that certain merit pay structures — like one-time bonuses tied to year-end test score increases — don’t work well, Goldhaber said.

And merit pay like the state’s Teacher Appreciation Grant has fostered competition rather than collaboration, said Indiana State Teachers Association President Jennifer Smith-Margraf. Some districts declined the grant because of those tensions, she said.

Ultimately, Smith-Margraf said pay for performance is not what motivates teachers.

“What motivates them is wanting to be good at their job for their students,” she said. “And what keeps them from being focused on that is having to take care of doing two to three and four jobs instead of focusing on the one job of being an educator.”

On the other hand, a 2020 meta analysis of merit-pay systems found a positive effect of merit pay programs on student test scores.

Systems like those in the VITAL initiatives that distribute bonus amounts based on a teacher’s relative performance to others are more likely to have a positive impact on test scores, the analysis found. And those competitions did not appear to generate unhealthy competition.

Successful performance pay structures base teacher evaluations on factors beyond just student achievement, Goldhaber said. They also make the bonuses permanent by increasing base salary after multiple positive evaluations, for example, he said.

Matthew Springer of Basis Policy Research, an author of the meta-analysis, said it’s important to look at the “continuous quality improvement of the program and its design, as well as the overall effect of what the program is having on the system as a whole.”

How merit pay can change the teaching pool

At the United School of Indianapolis, administrators say they’re already noticing a difference two years into the VITAL Trust award program.

“I definitely think that the type of people that we get is becoming different,” Ciara Jones, principal of the Avondale Meadows Middle School within the charter network, said of the hiring process. “It’s the people (who) want to be recognized and have opportunity to work hard and receive something.”

Teacher retention rates dropped across USI schools since the first round of the VITAL Trust awards from 2023-24 to 2024-25, according to data from the Richard M. Fairbanks Foundation. But leaders say they expect to see retention rates fluctuate from year to year while they focus on retaining high-performing teachers.

Damien Plaza, a social studies teacher at Avondale Meadows Middle School, was the recipient of the top $40,000 VITAL Trust prize in its inaugural year. "I think for all the people who received different levels of this award, it validates the feeling of excellence as a teacher," he said.

In the first two years of awards, 98% of bonus recipients returned to a USI school the following year, the network noted.

Damien Plaza, a social studies teacher at Avondale Meadows Middle School who won the $40,000 award in its first year, said he’s seen teachers increasing their level of commitment in response to the award.

“I think for all the people who received different levels of this award, it validates the feeling of excellence as a teacher,” he said. “Teachers working here have a big lift on their shoulders. The receipt of this award is just a rubber stamp of, ‘You’re going in the right direction.’”

Amelia Pak-Harvey covers schools for Chalkbeat Indiana. Contact Amelia at apak-harvey@chalkbeat.org.

The red-state Democrat upending the politics of school vouchers

2026-06-02T14:11:10+00:00

Chalkbeat Ideas is a section featuring reported columns on the big ideas and debates shaping American schools. Sign up for the Ideas newsletter to follow our work.

Over the last several years, Republicans have offered a fairly unified message on education. They want to expand school choice, eliminate certain liberal ideas from school curriculum, and close the U.S. Education Department.

Democrats, on the other hand, have been casting about for an educational vision. A vocal contingent within the party has said they need to embrace school choice, perhaps even vouchers for private schools. This perspective has received much ink in major publications.

In Iowa, however, State Auditor Rob Sand is taking a different tack in his run for governor. A Democrat in an increasingly red state, Sand is aggressively campaigning against the state’s education savings account, or ESA, program, which passed in 2023. The state now provides publicly funded vouchers for families to pay for private-school tuition and expenses.

“We’re talking about this everywhere we go,” Sand said at an event in April hosted by the Iowa state teachers union. “This is just basically a siphon of hundreds of millions of dollars away from public schools.”

Co-opting the language of conservatives, Sand is fashioning himself as a fiscal hawk — “the taxpayers’ watchdog” — who will rein in wasteful spending, including in the state’s ESA program. Republican candidates for governor are arguing with each other about the program, which suggests Sand has landed on an effective wedge issue.

Sand’s campaign is hardly quixotic: He’s leading in some early polling. Nationally, his strategy is significant because it shows the different ways that various Democrats are approaching K-12 education — and the divide within the party on how to do so.

I spoke with Sand via Zoom. I wanted to hear why he’s putting the ESA program at the center of his campaign. Beyond that, I was interested in what ideas he had for improving public schools in the state.

Heather Doe, a spokesperson for the Iowa Department of Education, declined to make anyone available for an interview but said Sand’s critique of ESAs is partisan and without merit. “It is regrettable that the Auditor has used his official capacity to waste time and taxpayer money in an effort to run for governor by targeting a program that is helping Iowa families exercise their statutory right to school choice,” Doe said in a statement.

My conversation with Sand has been edited for length and clarity.

Why is the ESA program an important part of your campaign?

I believe that the vast majority of Iowans think that oversight is important, and we should want public oversight of public money.

We should have income limits on the program. It shouldn’t be going to the wealthiest Iowans. We shouldn’t be allowing private schools to take 7,500 bucks from the state and then just jack up tuition by $7,500, leaving it equally unaffordable. We ought to be able to audit the program.

[Earlier this year, Sand’s office released an audit of the ESA program that did not identify any significant problems. He said then that the governor’s office failed to provide sufficient time for a thorough audit. Gov. Kim Reynolds, a Republican and ESA champion, countered that Sand’s comments were “just another manufactured opportunity for the auditor to use his official office to advance his political agenda in his run for governor.” Doe said in her statement that the department provided Sand’s office with extensive information. “The politicization of what’s meant to be the Department’s independent, unbiased annual audit is deeply concerning,” she said.]

What would you say to Iowa parents who are using this program and appreciate it?

Everything that I have proposed is reasonable, and I hear from parents literally every week who say, ‘Yeah, I’m glad we have the program, but geez, I want to make sure this money is spent responsibly.’

Do you ultimately want to repeal the ESA program?

[shrugs] There’s no chance of that happening. I mean, we’re talking about a legislature where it’s near supermajorities of Republicans.

Well, I’m asking what you would want in your ideal world.

I hear you asking me, and I’m answering you. I don’t deal with hypotheticals. If we can work really hard and get it to a better place, we’ll see where we are.

Some will hear the various rules you’re proposing and say that’s a stealth way of making it so private schools won’t participate.

If you’re telling me you don’t want tax dollars unless you can have them without oversight, that’s your problem, not mine.

What is your positive vision for Iowa’s public schools?

When I was growing up in Decorah, way up in Northeast Iowa, we were always in the top for public education. I want our schools to be at the top again, and I’m open-minded about how we get there. I’m not ideological about that.

We’ve got to have competitive teacher pay, not just for beginning teachers but also for teachers who have three, four, or five years’ experience, when studies show they are beginning to get very good at their craft. I think that we could be using AI one-on-one tutors right now to help kids learn to read more effectively. I’m a believer in phonics. Iowa did a requirement for phonics, so I think that that’s a good change. I was never bought into the whole language idea.

But the vast majority of our conversations around education are about how that ESA program works. What’s so interesting to me is the people who are advocates for it, say, ‘Oh, we want school choice.’ Well, I want public oversight of public money, and when you allow private schools to take public money but reject students, then you actually haven’t promoted school choice because the school is the one that gets to make the choice.

There are a number of national Democrats who are pushing your party to embrace school choice, even vouchers, and to distance itself from teachers unions. What do you think of that advice?

I know there are people out there like that. I haven’t been paying much attention to it. Specifics matter. Each program is different. I will continue to talk about the ways in which I think Iowa’s program is an invitation to fraud and doesn’t actually promote school choice. [Doe, the Iowa education spokesperson, said Sand’s office’s audit “identified zero financial discrepancies, once again affirming the Department’s responsible stewardship of taxpayer funds.”]

I’m proud to have the [Iowa teachers union’s] endorsement. But I’d say what I say to every other group: I’m independent-minded. You’re not going to get 100% of what you want from me, because there’s nobody that I agree with 100% of the time.

What do you disagree with teachers unions on?

That’s a better question for a different time. I’d have to go through what their wish list would be here in the state. I’m just making a point in general.

If you were governor, would you participate in the federal tax-credit school scholarship program?

I don’t think I have been following that one.

Do you consider yourself a fiscal conservative?

Yeah, I mean to me the phrase that’s more important is fiscal responsibility. But I’m open-minded to the importance of making investments that are going to pay off. Oh — you asked about what else we want to do for public education. I want universal early childhood education. If you just did income restrictions in the school vouchers program, you could fund early childhood education [for more students]. To me, that’s money that is well invested.

Matt Barnum is Chalkbeat’s ideas editor. Reach him at mbarnum@chalkbeat.org.

Amid charter sector turmoil, Chicago school board delays charter school renewals

2026-05-29T13:10:00+00:00

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After a lengthy and tense debate about oversight of charters, the Chicago school board postponed Thursday a decision on renewing six of seven charter schools or networks serving 8,300 students until after the end of the school year.

After two years of intense charter scrutiny and relatively brief renewal terms, district officials this year touted a new process for monitoring charters and also recommended longer renewals. They wanted most schools to get four-year contracts, with one, Academy for Global Citizenship, earning a seven-year renewal recommendation. The Acero network was cleared for a five-year renewal on the heels of its announcement last school year that it would close seven campuses and the school board’s unprecedented decision to absorb five of them.

District officials said the longer renewals will cut down on red tape, while a new process of sizing up all charters midcycle and flagging nascent financial issues before they escalate will make for stronger oversight. But school board members aligned with the Chicago Teachers Union — the charter sector’s fiercest critic — pointed to a stretch of intense fiscal turbulence and closure announcements in Chicago’s charter sector to argue they had more outstanding questions and wanted the new process to have more teeth.

Some held up Acero as an example, arguing that what they described as an abrupt announcement in fall of 2024 that campuses would close at the end of that school year should count against the network.

“An accurate sense of finances has been eluding us, resulting in harm to students and costs to the district,” said board member Karen Zaccor, who moved to table the renewal votes.

But other board members praised the new process and argued the board should trust the expertise of the district’s evaluation team.

“We can’t keep moving the goalpost because the data, the process, or the recommendations do not produce the political conclusion someone wanted from the beginning,” said board member Angel Gutierrez, who was elected with strong backing from charter advocates.

Superintendent Macquline King and board President Sean Harden, who both usually abstain from weighing in on board debates, took the unusual step of pleading with board members to approve the contracts and continue to work closely with district officials on fine-tuning the oversight process. King noted thousands of largely Black and Latino students would wrap up the school year without certainty about their schools’ future.

“We’ll cause instability and concern,” an unusually emotional King said. “For us, it may seem like, ‘It’s just two weeks.’ For a child, this can be a lifetime.”

But in tabling the decisions until a June 10 meeting in a 11-to-8 vote, board members signaled they had no intention of denying the renewals but rather just wanted leverage to push for more CPS oversight. The University of Chicago Charter School eventually got a four-year renewal on a technicality.

The board did amend the contract for Urban Prep Academy for Young Men to wind down its Bronzeville campus and consolidate its operations on its Englewood campus. That charter was among several that appealed to CPS for a mid-school year cash advance to make payroll, and the district said the merger will help stabilize the school’s finances. Another charter, Rowe Elementary, is also merging its two campuses into one building.

For Chicago charters and contract schools, recent years have brought a string of fiscal implosions. Following the unprecedented move to save the Acero campuses, the district also came to the rescue of the Chicago High School for the Arts, a contract school, when its board announced last fall its financial model was no longer sustainable.

CPS steered additional dollars to EPIC Academy, a South Side charter high school, so it could finish up the school year before closing permanently. And the district scrambled to accommodate displaced students when it closed two high schools in the ASPIRA charter network after months of financial turmoil.

Charter advocates have argued that underfunding by the district, along with citywide enrollment declines, precipitated these crises. But critics of the sector said financial missteps contributed and argued that CPS officials should have done more to see the closures coming.

Members appointed by Mayor Brandon Johnson or elected with backing by his allies at the CTU hold a majority on the board and have embraced shorter renewals. Last year, a majority of the 16 schools up for renewal received two-year terms.

At the Thursday meeting, Jennifer Conant, the CTU’s charter division chair, argued for keeping renewals shorter, saying some of the schools on this year’s renewal list are budgeting in a way that fails to reflect their declining enrollments — “magical thinking” that she said contributed to EPIC’s and ASPIRA’s closures. But at the same time, she said Acero’s move to close campuses last school year — a decision the network said was necessary to adjust to enrollment drops — should disqualify it from a five-year renewal.

“If that has no effect on their renewal length, you are sending an invitation to more charter operators to do the same,” Conant said.

Meanwhile, several students at Chicago Collegiate Academy argued the school should get five more years. They said the school has worked to stabilize its finances and is moving to a new building that will allow for student growth in the fall.

“A four-year renewal does not reflect where our school is headed,” said honors student Laila Cruthurd. “It’s a limit.”

The advocacy group Illinois Network of Charter Schools criticized the trend of shorter terms, arguing it forces charters to expend too much energy and resources on frequent, time-consuming renewals. Andrew Broy, the network’s executive director, said this spring’s longer renewals are a step in the right direction. He also praised some aspects of a new framework for evaluating charters that the district used this spring, in which charters’ academic performance carried more weight.

But he decried the late date of the renewals that he said makes it harder for schools to plan for the coming year and said a behind-the-scenes push to shorten the contract terms reveals an anti-charter bias on the board.

Conrad Timbers-Ausar, the district’s acting chief portfolio officer, touted what he described as an extensive, data-driven process for evaluating charters and the district’s new financial early warning system, flagging issues such as spending that exceeds budgeted amounts. He compared it to checking in on students’ academic performance throughout the year rather than waiting to fail them on a final exam.

“This is not a rubber stamp process, and it’s not just a compliance exercise,” he said.

Chicago Collegiate Charter School, Chicago Mathematics and Science Academy, Christopher House Charter School, and Intrinsic Charter School would have received four-year renewals.

In other business, the board backed a resolution calling on state lawmakers to pursue progressive sources of additional revenue to raise more money to schools. That vote came after a lengthy and heated debate of an ultimately unsuccessful amendment member Che “Rhymefest” Smith proposed that would have also called on the city to steer more revenue from a special tax program to spur development to CPS.

In remarks to the board at the start of the meeting, superintendent Macquline King said cuts to school budgets her team proposed earlier this month reflect state and federal revenue haven’t kept up with the district’s rising expenses.

”It breaks my heart to deliver the budgets I had to deliver,” she said.

This story has been corrected to reflect the eventual approval of the University of Chicago Charter School’s renewal.

Mila Koumpilova is Chalkbeat Chicago’s senior reporter covering Chicago Public Schools. Contact Mila at mkoumpilova@chalkbeat.org.

Believe Schools pivots from second location in Pike to serve credit-deficient, non-traditional students

2026-05-21T11:00:00+00:00

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Believe Schools is changing its plan to open a second Indianapolis high school in Pike Township to instead launch a small school for students who school leaders say are underserved.

The Believe Accelerator school, which plans to launch in the fall, would begin with a target of 35 students and three staff members and serve three types of learners: multilingual students aged 16 to 19 who may be credit-deficient; other credit-deficient students aged 16 to 19 who don’t thrive in a traditional school model; and motivated, independent 15- to-16-year-olds who want to graduate high school early.

The model comes in part from the experience of leaders at Believe Circle City, which launched in 2020. The school’s graduation rate dropped from 90% in 2024 to roughly 82% in 2025. Staff have been examining why students have been dropping out.

One major reason, they found: Students need to work to support their families.

Believe Accelerator’s goal is to serve students who are not interested in traditional school.

“A lot of things have changed post-COVID, as we all know. Education does not look the same as it did pre-2020,” Believe founder Kimberly Neal-Brannum told Chalkbeat. “The three profiles come from our lived experience and what I not only see locally as trends with kids, but also nationally.”

The plan is a shift from the charter operator’s pitch to open a location in Pike Township — a proposal that faced vocal opposition from charter critics there when the Indianapolis Charter School Board approved Believe’s second school in 2022. The charter board approved the school before the creation of the Indianapolis Public Education Corporation, which will determine which charter and traditional schools have access to school buildings while creating a transportation plan for both school types.

The model, based off of a similar Believe school in St. Louis, is an attempt to fill a need rather than fight to stay in a community opposed to a new charter school, Neal-Brannum said.

“We are not interested in just opening schools for the sake of opening schools,” she told the charter school board earlier this month. “We want to make sure that what we’re doing is in lockstep with what the community of Marion County needs.”

Believe Accelerator plans to serve about 100 students on the second floor of the Believe Circle City High School building located just off Fall Creek Parkway near the Crown Hill neighborhood. The size is smaller than the intended Believe Pike Academy, initially proposed to open in 2024 or 2025 and grow to 270 students.

The change in plan does not require any additional action from the Indianapolis Charter School Board, according to the mayor’s Office of Education Innovation that houses the charter board. Charter schools with substantive changes to their original application instead return to the board to convey those changes.

OEI will still determine if it would evaluate the school based on alternate academic metrics, said OEI director Shaina Cavazos.

The Accelerator is also modeled off of Believe’s Middle College school in St. Louis for students who previously dropped out or were at risk of not graduating. The school there also launched with a small cohort.

“We only started with 12 kids — we’re up to 50 now, in one year,” Neal-Brannum said of the St. Louis school. “That showed us that the demand for that type of model was high, and we’ve had great success with the students — high attendance rates, kids invested. And with that particular population, getting kids to just come in the building is half the battle.”

Believe Circle City, which opened in 2020 with 54 students, has since grown to 307 students and emphasizes earning free dual college credits or various certifications in high school. More than 90% of the school population is Black or Hispanic, and roughly 73% of students qualify for free or reduced-price meals, according to the latest state enrollment data.

Believe Circle City became the most recent charter to join the Innovation Network of autonomous schools within Indianapolis Public Schools, giving the school access to IPS transportation.

School leaders say they are still working on a transportation plan for Accelerator students.

IPEC will ultimately assume responsibility for transportation and buildings for district schools and for charter schools, although schools can opt out of giving up control of their buildings.

Amelia Pak-Harvey covers Indianapolis and Lawrence Township schools for Chalkbeat Indiana. Contact Amelia at apak-harvey@chalkbeat.org.

Indiana charters edged traditional public schools in academic gains after COVID, study says

2026-05-20T11:00:00+00:00

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Indiana’s charter school students have experienced greater academic growth in the years following the pandemic than their peers in traditional public schools, according to a new preliminary analysis.

The study from eight researchers posted through Brown University’s Annenberg Institute also found that the gains were particularly pronounced for Black and Hispanic students, and for those who were among the lowest-performing and economically disadvantaged.

The findings could hold important lessons for how schools can recover from learning loss, and have sparked researcher interest in what tactics charter leaders adopted to do that. While there are many studies examining the impact of charter schools on student outcomes, the authors note that there has been almost no research on charter school performance since the pandemic.

The findings tracked students from 2017-18 to 2023-24, focusing on how ILEARN test scores improved from their baseline levels during the pandemic in 2020-21. They have prompted researchers to examine how certain schools responded in the years immediately following the 2020-21 school year.

“What really matters is, what is it that these schools were doing?” said Joseph Waddington of the Institute for Educational Initiatives at the University of Notre Dame, one of eight authors of the study. “We’re not so much interested in telling a story of how did this sector (perform) versus the other sector — we want to understand why. We want to understand the variation.”

The analysis, which is undergoing peer review, examined students who stayed in brick-and-mortar charter schools and in traditional public schools throughout the entire study period.

Charter students were matched with traditional public school peers who most closely resembled them based on a variety of factors, including their socioeconomic status, geographic location, and their 2021 ILEARN test score.

Most of the state’s charter schools are in Indianapolis, but the study also examined all counties in which charter schools are present. The analysis included few rural students, Waddington said, because of the lack of charters in those areas.

During the 2020-21 school year, charter students performed the same as their traditional public school peers in math and modestly outperformed them in English, according to the study. But after 2020-21, charter students outperformed traditional public students in all years in English, and nearly all years in math.

The difference was modest in 2021-22, but grew in 2022-23 and 2023-24, according to the study.

“The findings in this analysis suggest a shift occurred during the pandemic and its aftermath,” the study concludes. “Not only are students in Indiana’s charter schools experiencing more accelerated test score gains than their (traditional public school) peers, but these impacts appear to be growing over time in the post-pandemic period.”

Chronic absenteeism and instructional delivery — whether in-person or virtual — did not account for the differences in achievement, the study found. Charter schools were more likely to offer virtual learning for more of the 2020-21 school year than traditional public schools.

In Indianapolis, charter schools as a whole have posted higher rates of Black and Hispanic students reaching proficiency in both math and English, compared with those run by Indianapolis Public Schools, according to a Chalkbeat analysis of the 2025 ILEARN results.

The study’s authors are examining what could contribute to the differences in outcomes between charters and traditional public schools by surveying school leaders in both sectors across Indiana, Waddington said.

The changes could be attributed to additional instructional time, or differences in instructional type, such as having students spend more time in smaller pull-out groups, he said. He also said some schools may have added certain types of staff, or utilized certain partnerships to bring in tutors.

The study’s findings mirror broader research on charter school students’ performance that finds positive impacts for Black students, those from lower-income households, and the lowest-performing students, Waddington said.

But the researchers are hoping to learn more details from survey results about how schools responded to COVID learning loss.

“There may be something in the story about differences in how the sectors responded to the pandemic that can actually be illustrative for all sectors going forward in terms of best practices associated with learning loss recovery,” he said.

Amelia Pak-Harvey covers Indianapolis and Lawrence Township schools for Chalkbeat Indiana. Contact Amelia at apak-harvey@chalkbeat.org.

What happened when Los Angeles parents got better school choice information?

2026-05-19T09:47:00+00:00

Chalkbeat Ideas is a section featuring reported columns on the big ideas and debates shaping American schools. Sign up for the Ideas newsletter to follow our work.

In the fall of 2019, thousands of parents in Los Angeles received letters in the mail designed to help them choose a high school for their eighth graders. Many of these letters included novel data on how effective different high schools were at helping students learn.

What the families probably didn’t realize is that they were part of an unusual experiment designed by University of Chicago economist Chris Campos, in partnership with the Los Angeles school system. Campos was looking to answer a long-discussed question: Can better information help families make better decisions about where to send their children to school?

At a moment when school choice is expanding, this is a crucial issue across the country.

Campos, who had previously studied school choice in Los Angeles, spent months working on how to communicate information about school performance. Many parents may assume that schools with the highest overall test scores are the ones where students make the most progress — but this often isn’t true.

Campos calculated measures of student learning himself, using a complex statistical model, while also conducting focus groups with parents on how to explain these numbers clearly. Such figures are often unavailable or hard to make sense of. Campos also designed a video, disseminated to families, describing the difference between student growth and the incoming test scores of schools’ student bodies.

The letter-sending experiment was remarkable. Such an undertaking is rare, especially at a large scale in a large school system. Yet it turned out the letters on their own didn’t make much of a difference. Parents and students selected schools as they always did, seemingly unmoved by this new information.

But Campos was also testing out an additional idea. What would happen if large numbers of families at a single school got letters with information on student growth? Campos’ theory was that choosing a school is fundamentally a social process, both for students and their parents.

The data bore this out. When a middle school was saturated with informational letters, more students tended to choose high schools with higher growth scores. That was even the case for families that did not get their own letter. In other words, what mattered more than individual information was a community-level shift in thinking. “There seems to be a tipping point,” Campos says.

He continued to track these students as they moved through high school. Those from middle schools where growth information was widely shared were more likely to enroll in college and to report more supportive high school environments. Campos’ theory for why is simple: They benefitted from choosing better high schools based on better information.

The high school choice system in Los Angeles is not a zero sum game since many schools are not filled to capacity. When one student chooses a school, that doesn’t necessarily mean another is bumped out of it. The letters seemed to have led to a modest migration toward more successful schools.

Campos is hopeful that if families prioritize growth measures, that will pressure struggling schools to improve. “They’re going to have an even stronger incentive to perform better on these metrics,” he says.

The findings offer two important, albeit still-tentative insights. First, families do seem to value data on student growth, but they often don’t have access to it. Second, to change parents’ thinking, information needs to be widely shared across a broad network of connected families, not just a handful of individuals.

Campos’ results are intriguing but limited. They should be taken as provisional until they are replicated by other researchers in different settings. Successful pilot experiments like this sometimes don’t work when brought to a larger scale. The study also comes in a context in which the vast majority of students are lower-income. Moving the preferences of advantaged families may be much harder.

Campos’ paper is currently going through the academic peer review process. He is still working with officials in Los Angeles to study and improve its choice system. Now, though, all parents are sent letters he’s designed providing information on student growth.

Matt Barnum is Chalkbeat’s ideas editor. Reach him at mbarnum@chalkbeat.org.

New York Gov. Kathy Hochul intends to opt into federal tax-credit scholarship

2026-05-08T15:01:12+00:00

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New York Gov. Kathy Hochul intends to opt the state into the federal tax-credit scholarship.

The announcement represents a major win for supporters of private school choice who have been lobbying Democratic governors to participate in the program. However, Hochul’s office said she intends to review the details before making the decision official.

The American Federation for Children, a national school choice advocacy group, said Thursday night that Hochul first made the announcement at a private gathering. The meeting was with Agudath Israel, an organization that supports Jewish religious education, according to an Agudath spokesperson.

Emma Wallner, a spokesperson for the governor, confirmed Hochul’s plans to opt in to the tax credit.

“Governor Hochul is supportive of the federal tax credit scholarship and its potential to help New York students and schools,” Wallner wrote in a statement. “Our office awaits information from the federal government on the program and will thoroughly review the details of the policy for poison pills that could harm New York’s education system.”

The Treasury Department is still in the process of developing guidelines for the program, which will clarify, for example, how donated money might benefit public school students or whether states can prevent scholarship-granting organizations from discriminating against certain students.

The tax credit was approved last year as part of the Republican-backed One Big Beautiful Bill Act. It allows taxpayers to get a dollar-for-dollar credit up to $1,700 on their federal taxes if they donate money to an eligible scholarship-granting organization. These organizations could give students money for private school tuition, tutoring, and other educational expenses.

Governors, however, have to opt into the program for students in their state to benefit.

“Finally, school choice is coming to New York, thanks to the courage of Governor Hochul and the tremendous advocacy of countless families, educators, and supporters who have worked for generations to advance options for kids who need them,” American Federation for Children CEO Tommy Schultz said in a press release.

Some New York Democrats, and the city’s teachers union, criticized Hochul’s decision.

“While this tax credit may appear enticing, there will undoubtedly be long-term damage to the ability of states to provide public education,” said state Sen. John Liu, who chairs the New York City Education Committee. “Many governors and legislatures around the country have recognized this tax credit for the Faustian bargain it is and have already opted out, and I sincerely hope that New York will opt out as well.”

According to a tracker maintained by Ballotpedia, 29 states, nearly all of them led by Republicans, have opted into the tax credit. That list does not include New York.

Colorado Gov. Jared Polis is the only Democratic governor to have officially opted in. Under pressure from Republican lawmakers, North Carolina Gov. Josh Stein said last year that he intends to do so after the rules are released.

Some Democratic governors have been strongly opposed. In Wisconsin, which launched one of the nation’s earliest voucher programs, Democratic Gov. Tony Evers vetoed Republican-backed legislation that would have opted that state in. In a veto statement, he cited the lack of any accountability measures in the federal program.

Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear also vetoed opt-in legislation, as did Kansas Gov. Laura Kelly, but Republican-controlled legislatures overrode vetoes in both states.

Other Democratic governors are taking a wait-and-see approach. Democratic backers of expanding school choice argue that families want more options and that states that don’t opt in risk their own taxpayers donating to scholarship groups in other states. Opponents say the program undermines public education and threatens funding, even if indirectly.

Nationally and in New York, supporters of religious education have lobbied for the tax credit as a way to ease the tuition burden for families.

“This is extraordinary news for Jewish families and for every community across our state,” said Sydney Altfield, the CEO of Teach NYS, an organization that lobbies for public funding for Jewish schools. “Blue states across the country will now be watching closely.”

Hochul has courted the Orthodox Jewish community, an influential voting bloc, as she faces reelection in November. Along with state legislative leaders, she previously pushed to weaken oversight of private schools, a measure that would largely benefit certain yeshivas that do not always provide a basic secular education. The state’s education commissioner, Betty Rosa, called the move a “travesty.”

Hochul has backed other efforts to expand school choice since taking office nearly five years ago, drawing pushback from other New York Democrats. In 2023, she proposed to significantly expand the number of charter schools in New York City, even as the publicly funded yet privately managed schools have fallen out of favor among many left-leaning elected officials. State lawmakers rejected Hochul’s sweeping proposal but ultimately approved a more modest expansion.

Hochul has also touted her commitment to funding traditional public schools and has presided over increases in state spending. State officials indicated Thursday that schools should expect at least a 2% bump in the state’s forthcoming budget, which is more than a month overdue and has yet to be finalized.

“I’m proud of the resources we have put into education,” she told reporters Thursday.

This story has been updated with additional details about the private meeting where Hochul announced her support for the tax credit, as well as additional background about Hochul’s approach to private school oversight.

Correction: This story has been updated to accurately reflect how many states have opted into the tax-credit program.

Erica Meltzer is Chalkbeat’s national editor based in Colorado. Contact Erica at emeltzer@chalkbeat.org.

Alex Zimmerman is a senior reporter for Chalkbeat New York, covering NYC public schools. Contact Alex at azimmerman@chalkbeat.org.

IPS plan for becoming a charter school authorizer focuses on enrollment, discipline, test scores

2026-05-07T18:11:56+00:00

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In its plan to become a charter school authorizer, the Indianapolis Public Schools board wants to use growth on state assessments, discipline, and enrollment targets to judge charters.

The school board submitted that information to the Indiana Department of Education last week. It’s the first step for IPS to become an authorizer, which has the power to allow charter schools to open and to close them.

Becoming an authorizer would give IPS more power over charters at a time when the school board is losing authority. Although state lawmakers limited the number of charter authorizers in IPS, they also created the Indianapolis Public Education Corporation, which will manage transportation and facility needs for both district and charter schools while also taking over the school board’s power to raise property taxes.

State law allows the IPS school board to become an authorizer. The board made an attempt to authorize charter schools after Indiana passed its charter law in 2001, but never authorized any. In a statement in December, the board said the move would be a “step toward unparalleled local accountability” that it said has been inconsistent among the state’s multiple charter authorizers.

In its authorizing plan, IPS also wants to draw on its work with the Innovation Network, in which the district grants some schools a greater degree of autonomy than traditional district-run schools while letting them use certain IPS resources.

Charter schools seeking authorization by IPS would begin the application process through a letter of intent submitted every March.

New charters would undergo a roughly eight-month application process that would require a mission plan, financial projections, and evidence of community support for a school. Existing high-performing charters could apply under a roughly four-month application timeline that includes an audit of their academic and financial history.

The district would have a standardized rubric to evaluate charter applications, which also would be reviewed by a panel of academic and external experts, the district said in its registration. District officials would also interview members of the school’s leadership team.

State law gives the State Board of Education 60 days to register the IPS school board as a charter authorizer. The district estimates opening its authorizing office in August.

IPS prioritizes academics, discipline, enrollment in charter evaluations

IPS plans to evaluate charter schools using the same academic, financial, and governance metrics it uses for its 30 Innovation Network schools, and which existing authorizers also frequently use to evaluate schools.

IPS created the Innovation Network schools, most of which are charters, after state lawmakers created “innovation” schools in 2014 as a way for autonomous and district schools to work together.

“We have built over a decade of relationships with charter schools with our Innovation partnerships,” Rachel Santos, director of external affairs for IPS, told the school board last week. “Our strategic vision is to say that we are continuing that work. We are well equipped to do it, with our office that already oversees 30 relationships.”

In the 11 years of the network’s existence, IPS has not renewed three schools — two of which were charter schools — citing concerns with academic performance. A fourth, Kindezi Academy charter school, closed after failing to agree with the district on a renewal agreement.

According to the information it submitted to the state education department, the district would consider proficiency in English and math on the state ILEARN exam, while also accounting for students’ year-to-year growth on these tests and how 10 specific student subgroups perform compared to their peers. These subgroups include Black and Hispanic students, as well as English language learners and students with disabilities.

The district does not specify exact ILEARN proficiency goals. Authorizers often compare a school’s performance to nearby schools with similar demographics.

The district would also aim for its charter schools to have a 90% pass rate on IREAD.

IPS would also set a 95% attendance rate target, and monitor suspension rates to “reward equitable discipline.”

The district would measure a school’s financial health by assessing the days of cash on hand, among other financial metrics. It would also assess schools on whether they reach at least 95% of their budgeted enrollment each year.

IPS would rate charters on their governance model based on compliance with the state’s Open Door Law, which deals with government transparency, and laws concerning students with disabilities. The district would also assess leadership stability and the charter school board composition to ensure that members offer a diverse set of skills.

Charter renewals would last up to 5 years

Although state law allows for authorizers to renew charters for up to 15 years, IPS would only offer charter terms for up to five years.

The deputy superintendent for IPS would oversee the district’s charter schools alongside the existing director of Innovation schools and director of strategy. The district projects that for those staffers, 30% of their work would be dedicated specifically to charter authorizing, IPS said in the information it submitted to the state.

The district projects an annual authorizing budget of $561,000 that would already be part of the district’s general fund.

IPS said it would implement an authorizing fee, which charters pay to their authorizer usually determined by a percentage of per-pupil state funding. But the district did not specify what percentage would be. State law allows authorizers to charge a fee of up to 3%.

Correction: This story was updated to accurately reflect the district’s history as a charter authorizer.

Amelia Pak-Harvey covers Indianapolis and Lawrence Township schools for Chalkbeat Indiana. Contact Amelia at apak-harvey@chalkbeat.org.

Meet the 9 appointees who will control buildings and transportation for public schools in Indianapolis

2026-04-27T10:00:00+00:00

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Inadequate transportation. Declining enrollment. An impending financial cliff.

These are the challenges that the nine-member Indianapolis Public Education Corporation must tackle as it creates an educational ecosystem that gives district-run and charter schools equal access to resources while holding them to the same academic standards.

The new corporation has assumed key financial powers previously reserved for the elected Indianapolis Public Schools board. This includes the power to determine property tax rates for both IPS and charter schools beginning in 2027. In 2028, IPEC will assume responsibility for transportation and buildings for both district and charter schools.

The state law establishing IPEC gave Mayor Joe Hogsett the power to appoint all nine members. The law required three to be community members with certain expertise, three to be charter school leaders, and three to be members of the IPS school board.

Common themes connecting IPEC’s members include a history of working in or supporting charter schools, and promoting the importance of testing and alternatives to traditional school governance.

The IPEC board includes four charter school leaders, including one who founded the prominent Mind Trust nonprofit that has helped grow the city’s charter school sector. It also includes a prominent Republican lobbyist involved in a contentious suite of education policy changes adopted nearly 40 years ago that expanded Indiana’s power to take over underperforming schools, among other changes.

The board also includes IPS school board members elected with the backing of school choice supporters, and a founding board member of a charter school serving a large population of English language learners.

Asked about the new board’s connections to the charter school sector, Hogsett said through a spokesperson that he selected the members after an “extensive review process.” He said the most important factor in his decision to pick them was their focus on “the best interest of all the families and children living in the Indianapolis Public Schools boundary, regardless of the type of public school those families choose.”

Below are key facts about each member.

Patricia Castañeda, community leader

Patricia Castañeda has spent more than two decades working at the intersection of the city’s public institutions and the communities they serve.

She is a vice president at KeyBank’s Community Banking Group, and is a founding board member of Enlace Academy, a K-8 grade charter school on the northwest side. Currently, she is a member of the Goodwill Education Initiatives Board, which oversees the The Excel Center adult high schools.

Castañeda was born in Lima, Peru. She briefly attended Ben Davis High School before graduating. Her two sons graduated from Shortridge High School.

Patricia Castañeda, vice president of Key Bank, is sworn in as a member of the Indianapolis Public Education Corporation at its first public meeting.

In 2000, Castañeda became the first Hispanic services coordinator at the Marion County prosecutor’s office — a role built largely on direct outreach.

Castañeda also co-chaired the Indianapolis Race and Cultural Relations Leadership Network during the multiyear dispute over “E Pluribus Unum” — a commissioned sculpture of a freed Black slave planned for the Cultural Trail near the City-County Building. The project drew widespread objections and was eventually cancelled in 2011.

“That’s really where you learn,” Castañeda said of debates about the sculpture. “So sometimes it comes with a lot of ire, yes, and it’s OK, that’s how we grow, and that’s how we heal and grow together.”

She later worked for the Central Indiana Regional Transportation Authority.

Castañeda said her role on IPEC is to share community perspectives. She wants to ensure schools are safe and accessible for all students.

Castañeda said the new board’s credibility will rest on what it does, not what it says.

“Actions speak louder than words,” she said. “If we’re saying we’re going to be transparent, then we want to make sure that we are transparent.”

John R. Hammond III, community leader

John R. Hammond III helped former Gov. Robert D. Orr push a sweeping education overhaul through the Indiana General Assembly in 1987. The package known as A-Plus required student achievement exams and created a new accreditation system based on school performance.

Hammond said that sort of experience can inform his work with the Indianapolis Public Education Corporation. He also believes IPEC can bring stability to all city schools.

“This is really the right approach to really begin to get our hands around some of the issues that have created some of the financial concerns,” Hammond said, “so that we can really serve these kids, no matter where they come from or what school they’re served in.”

John Hammond, partner at Taft Stettinius & Hollister law firm, attends the first IPEC meeting virtually.

Hammond served as Orr’s senior executive assistant for legislative affairs and education policy from 1981 to 1988. He was later a partner at Ice Miller and is now a partner at Taft’s public affairs strategies group. He represented Indiana on the Republican National Committee for 12 years and is a founding board member of Herron Classical Schools, led by fellow IPEC member Janet McNeal.

Hammond has lived in the IPS district for 36 years. His wife, Diana Hamilton, served on the IPS Foundation in the early 2000s.

“I feel committed to the Center City,” Hammond said, “and that’s what we’ve made our home and our living.”

David Harris, charter school leader and IPEC board chair

David Harris is the CEO of Christel House International, a global nonprofit school operator that’s the umbrella organization for Christel House Indianapolis, which runs three charter schools and an adult charter school network in Indianapolis. Those schools provide their own transportation and include two schools and an adult high school that operate in an IPS-owned building.

When Harris worked in Mayor Bart Peterson’s administration as an assistant deputy mayor, he supported the state’s charter school law that gave the mayor the power to authorize charter schools. He then served as charter school director for the city, a position known today as the executive director of the mayor’s Office of Education Innovation.

Harris later founded the influential Mind Trust nonprofit in 2006, which has helped launch most of the city’s charter schools and recruit many charter leaders.

David Harris, CEO of Christel House, is sworn in at the IPEC's first meeting. Harris serves as chair.

Harris left the Mind Trust to help found the City Fund, a national education organization that raised millions to promote school reform in several major cities, including Indianapolis.

Harris said the city’s quality of education has improved over the past few decades, but that it’s “not anywhere near as good as it needs to be.”

“This is an opportunity for all schools to get better,” he said.

Harris said IPEC’s work will allow all schools to focus their energy on education without having to be “consumed with operational challenges that are a headache.”

Janet McNeal, charter school leader

Janet McNeal, president at Herron Classical Schools, knows what it’s like to work in different kinds of schools.

After a short stint teaching in South Korea, she spent 10 years as an English teacher at a public school district in southern Indiana. She worked for another 10 years at Cathedral High School — a private, Catholic school near Lawrence.

After that, she helped launch a new classical arts charter school in 2006, Herron High School, working closely with Harris of the city’s charter school office.

Herron High School quickly cemented itself as a top academic performer in the city, though the school has historically served fewer economically disadvantaged students and English language learners than other IPS schools.

Janet McNeal, president of Herron Classical Schools, is sworn in at the first IPEC meeting.

In 2016, McNeal started a second high school, Herron-Riverside. The school, located in the former Heslar Naval Armory, serves a student body more demographically and academically similar to IPS than Herron High.

The charter network opened its first K-8 school, Herron Preparatory Academy, in 2021.

Students attending Herron High and Herron Prep Academy get to school primarily through parent drop-offs or discounted rides with IndyGo. Herron Classical Schools has offered limited transportation in recent years to Herron-Riverside students.

McNeal is considering whether to opt her schools into a shared facilities system like one IPEC could create, though it’s unlikely the charter network would want to relinquish its buildings. Herron Classical Schools owns all three of its school properties.

“We did not build our buildings on taxpayers’ dollars,” McNeal said. “We built our buildings on fundraising.”

Eddie Rangel, community leader

Eddie Rangel, founding CEO of Adelante Schools, listens during IPEC's first meeting.

Eddie Rangel is the founder and CEO of Adelante Schools, which took over Emma Donnan Elementary and Middle School as a part of an IPS plan to improve chronically underperforming schools.

School choice shaped Rangel’s life trajectory as a child in California. His parents found a way to enroll him into a different district school — which had a strong music program — than the one he was zoned for.

Rangel became the first in his family to graduate college, where he studied music education and performance. He came to Indianapolis in 2012 through Teach For America and taught at Key Learning Community School in IPS.

He later became a principal in the Tindley charter school network.

Rangel was also a fellow in the Mind Trust’s Innovation School Fellowship, launching Adelante in 2020 as a charter operator that would take over Emma Donnan. As an IPEC board member, he hopes to draw on his experience building back the trust of the Emma Donnan community.

“It’s important to approach this work with humility, which is something that we leaned heavily into as we embarked on leading Emma Donnan,” he said. “For the IPEC role, it’s important to recognize that no single model or perspective will have all of the answers — especially in a system as complex as Indianapolis.”

Hope Duke Star, IPS school board president

Hope Duke Star was elected to the school board in 2022, serving an area that represents core Indianapolis neighborhoods from Meridian-Kessler to Martindale-Brightwood. She earned the backing of Stand for Children Indiana and RISE Indy, which have supported charter schools.

Star grew up in the area she now represents. She attended the district’s former Northwest High School and was the first in her family to graduate college with the help of the Association for Loan Free Education, which focused on helping first-generation college students.

Hope Duke Star, IPS board president, sits with members of the IPEC board at the group's first meeting.

She later worked for that same organization and served as a dean at North Central High School and a counselor at the KIPP Indy charter network.

Star’s past few years on the board have featured numerous battles between supporters of charter schools and IPS. During her tenure, the school board has also called for a moratorium on new schools.

As she serves on the IPEC board, she hopes that the city’s education leaders are willing to do what’s fair.

“I’m hopeful that we won’t continue to open schools while we try to clean up what we’ve already created and make what we have make sense,” she said.

Dexter Taylor, charter school leader

Dexter Taylor is the director of Paramount Schools of Excellence’s K-8 Brookside campus, one of five Paramount schools in Indianapolis.

He worked for the Carmel-Clay school district for about five years before joining the Paramount network of charter schools in 2017, according to his LinkedIn profile. Taylor eventually became school director in May 2019.

The network is known for its rigorous academics. Paramount Brookside consistently reports strong math and reading test scores. But parents have raised concerns about school discipline.

Dexter Taylor, director of Paramount Brookside, is sworn in as a member of the IPEC board at the group's meeting.

A recent WFYI analysis found that last school year, Paramount schools suspended students with disabilities at a rate about three times higher than the state average.

School leaders told WFYI last fall that suspensions are lower than past years due to increased training for teachers.

Taylor was not available for an interview before the deadline for this story.

Paramount currently operates buses for just two of its Indianapolis campuses — Andrew J. Brown Academy and Girls in STEM Academy. According to property records, Paramount owns all but one of its buildings that fall within the IPS boundary.

Its Englewood school shares space in the PR Mallory Campus on East Washington Street with Purdue Polytechnic High School.

Ashley Thomas, IPS school board member

Ashley Thomas serves as the District 1 IPS commissioner, where she represents portions of the far east and southeast sides. She was first drawn to advocacy more than a decade ago when her son’s IPS school was targeted for a major overhaul.

After several years of failing grades from the state, George H. Fisher School 93 was converted into an Innovation charter school — a type of school still in the IPS system but run by its own board.

Ashley Thomas, IPS board member, speaks during the first IPEC board meeting.

To learn more about that change, Thomas started attending workshops organized by Stand for Children. It wasn’t long before she began facilitating workshop discussions

“Our school felt like a forgotten-about school,” Thomas said. “I got to see the picture of what it looks like when parents, students, teachers and leaders all work together collaboratively.”

Thomas then spent almost eight years as an organizer with Stand for Children. She worked for another two years with RISE Indy before running for IPS school board in 2024.

Thomas was endorsed by Stand for Children. Campaign finance records show she accepted donations from Stand, RISE Indy, and several high-profile leaders in the charter sector.

“Stand’s endorsement committee were all parents that had kids in different schools from different public school types,” Thomas said. “I’m honored to be endorsed by parents.”

She also chairs the board’s legislative committee and runs an education consulting business. Her children attend Believe Circle City High School and Paramount Brookside.

The single mom of three said all of these experiences will inform her work on the new IPEC board.

Deandra Thompson, IPS school board member

Deandra Thompson is an IPS at-large school board member and founder of A Learning Bee Academy, an early learning center.

She previously served on the founding leadership team of Providence Cristo Rey High School, a private Catholic school. She also served as national director of enrollment for the Phalen Leadership Academies charter school network.

Deandra Thompson, one of three IPS board members appointed to the IPEC board, listens during the first IPEC meeting.

Thompson, who has a third grader in public school, was elected to the school board in 2024 with the backing of Stand and RISE Indy.

Thompson has said that she sees the value in having appointed members of a public board who can offer expertise in areas such as business or finance. The three IPS school board members on the IPEC board, she said, will ensure that the community is involved in the corporation’s work.

“I think we have to trust the people that were voted for, for one,” she said of IPS school board members on the new corporation board. “And trust that we can come together and make sure we bring community along with us.”

Correction: This story was updated to include the correct email addresses for Janet McNeal and Hope Duke Star.

Mirror Indy reporter Carley Lanich covers early childhood and K-12 education. Contact her atcarley.lanich@mirrorindy.org or follow her on X@carleylanich.

Amelia Pak-Harvey covers Indianapolis and Lawrence Township schools for Chalkbeat Indiana. Contact Amelia at apak-harvey@chalkbeat.org.

Eric Weddle is WFYI’s education editor. Contact Eric at eweddle@wfyi.org or follow him on X at@ericweddle.

Competition or coexistence? Denver school board puts charter school next to district-run school

2026-04-24T22:41:17+00:00

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Despite pushback from parents, students, and teachers at a district-run elementary school that’s more than 100 years old, the Denver school board voted Thursday to allow a charter elementary school to move in next door.

KIPP Sunshine Peak Elementary will relocate this fall from a cramped rented church building to a newer, more spacious building that already houses KIPP’s southwest Denver middle school. The middle school building is so close to district-run Valverde Elementary that the two share a parking lot. Standing outside of KIPP’s middle school, it’s possible to see Valverde’s playground and hear the squeals of children at recess.

The close proximity of charter and district-run schools has long been a sore spot for charter critics in Denver, and the arrangement resurfaces familiar arguments in a difficult context.

Enrollment is declining sharply in southwest Denver, and schools are competing for the students that remain. Valverde families worry that KIPP’s relocation will spell the end of their neighborhood school, which has thus far survived closure threats.

“You don’t see a Home Depot next to a Home Depot,” said parent Averi Littlewolf, who has two children at Valverde. “So for an elementary school to be next to an elementary school that has already been there for over 100 years, it’s – I’m speechless.”

KIPP Sunshine Peak Elementary is located in a rented former church building. It doesn't have a gymnasium, and its cafeteria used to be a classroom.

But Denver Public Schools Superintendent Alex Marrero said he’s confident the schools can co-exist. KIPP’s building only has the capacity to house 420 students from kindergarten through eighth grade. And as part of the move, KIPP agreed to give up its preschool classes.

Valverde will keep its preschool, which Marrero said gives Valverde an advantage because many young students end up staying at the elementary school where they went to preschool.

“This not only works for KIPP, for obvious reasons, but also the Valverde community because this will not allow KIPP to grow,” Marrero told the school board before the vote.

KIPP leaders also promised not to actively recruit Valverde students, a move that district officials said shows an unprecedented willingness to collaborate. But the promise could be difficult to enforce. Colorado law allows any student to apply to attend any public school in the state, and DPS can’t stop students from transferring.

“We want to partner, and we don’t want there to be a feeling of competition,” said Taamiti Bankole, KIPP Colorado’s chief external affairs officer.

To add an extra layer of protection for Valverde, Marrero said the district will buy the school a digital marquee sign to help with marketing. Valverde will also get a bit more money, though the exact amount is unclear. DPS owns KIPP’s middle school building, and KIPP pays a fee to use it. That fee will increase when more students move in, and DPS will give the extra money to Valverde for the remaining two years of KIPP’s contract, Marrero said.

KIPP is a national charter school network founded in Texas more than 30 years ago. The network has six schools in Denver, including three in the southwest. Denver school board member Kimberlee Sia was the CEO of KIPP Colorado Public Schools from 2013 to 2019.

KIPP’s willingness to give up its preschool, coupled with the space constraints of the newer building, were cited by a majority of school board members who voted for the relocation.

KIPP Sunshine Peak Academy's building has the capacity to house 420 students in kindergarten through eighth grade.

Board member Monica Hunter, a former teacher who works for the statewide teachers union, said she was also swayed by the poor condition of KIPP’s rented elementary school building. It has no gymnasium, and its tiny cafeteria used to be a classroom. Some of the school’s 146 students learn in trailers near the playground because there’s not enough space inside.

“While I will never be accused of being pro-charter,” Hunter said, “I do believe all children are our children. And every child deserves access to a high-quality building.”

Valverde Elementary School has been serving students in southwest Denver for more than 100 years.

Board President Xóchitl Gaytán was the only board member to vote no. Gaytán represents southwest Denver and has long accused charter schools of taking students from district-run schools. She said the same could happen to Valverde, which currently has about 350 students.

“Understand that will happen, and your vote will have those repercussions going forward,” Gaytán told her fellow board members.

Board member John Youngquist, who once served as principal of a different district-run elementary school in southwest Denver, called for DPS to come up with a longer-term plan for enrollment in that part of the city “so there’s a level of predictability.”

Two southwest Denver elementary schools, Schmitt and Castro, were shuttered at the end of last school year due to declining enrollment.

Melanie Asmar is the bureau chief for Chalkbeat Colorado. Contact Melanie at masmar@chalkbeat.org.

Indianapolis Public Education Corporation announces date and location for first meeting

2026-04-10T20:54:35+00:00

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A new governing body for Indianapolis schools will meet for the first time on April 14.

The Indianapolis Public Education Corporation, or IPEC, will govern key aspects of public schools in the city. It will oversee buildings and transportation for charter schools and Indianapolis Public Schools. The corporation will also have power to ask voters for funding for schools through a referendum, and will create an accountability system that could be used to decide which schools close.

IPEC will meet at 4 p.m. April 14 in Room 221 of the City-County Building, 200 E. Washington Street, Mayor Joe Hogsett’s office announced. An agenda was not available on Friday.

The nine members of the board, appointed by Hogsett, were announced by him late last month and include three IPS board members, three representatives of charter schools, and three experts in areas relevant to the corporation’s work as required by state law.

One of the appointed experts is also a charter school leader. Additionally, David Harris is the board chair. Harris was the charter schools director under former mayor Bart Peterson, and the duo co-founded the Mind Trust, an influential nonprofit that helps launch charter schools.

IPEC’s creation by state lawmakers means less power for school boards in the city, including the elected IPS board. However, school boards will still have power over day-to-day tasks including setting budgets, curriculums, and hiring and firing the superintendent or school leaders for charter schools.

IPEC was formed following the December 2025 recommendations of the Indianapolis Local Education Alliance, which was a state-created task force. The corporation’s powers will phase in with key powers over finances and referendums starting this year and powers over buildings and transportation in 2028.

The April 14 meeting will also be livestreamed on Channel 16.

MJ Slaby oversees Chalkbeat Indiana’s coverage as bureau chief. Contact MJ at mslaby@chalkbeat.org.

What does a school board do, anyway? The answer is changing for IPS and charters — here’s your guide.

2026-04-01T14:54:39+00:00

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Big changes are coming to Indianapolis Public Schools and the power of its elected board.

The Indianapolis Public Education Corporation, or IPEC, is a new public entity with a nine-member board announced on Tuesday. The corporation will have the power to determine property tax rates on behalf of both IPS and charter schools. It will also eventually be responsible for running transportation and managing IPS buildings for both school types.

But the IPS school board — and the school boards of more than 50 charters within district borders — will still retain some powers over the day-to-day operations of schools.

While the IPS school board manages traditional district schools, charter school boards oversee one school or multiple schools that are part of the same charter network. Charter schools that are part of the district’s Innovation Network are run by their charter school board and not the IPS school board.

Lawmakers created IPEC to manage key aspects of both school types.

State law dictates the roles and responsibilities of the IPS and charter school boards. Below is a breakdown of their major responsibilities, how board members are selected, and what rules may change with the creation of the new corporation.

Who can serve on school boards and IPEC?

The IPS board is a seven-member board elected by residents who live within IPS borders, with two at-large members and five members who each represent a district.

Charter school boards — including those in the IPS Innovation Network — are not elected. Charter schools typically list their founding proposed board members in the application they submit to the authorizer, which must include a governance plan. Each charter school may have its own rules on board composition, including the number of board members, their term length, and the process for filling a vacant board seat. (The five Innovation schools that are not charters also have their own unelected boards.)

Charter school boards are ultimately accountable to charter school authorizers, which approve new charter schools and have the power to revoke or not renew the contracts that allow charter schools to operate.

Beginning in April, the only entities that can authorize charter schools within IPS boundaries are the mayor’s Office of Education Innovation, the Indiana Charter School Board, and the IPS school board, which has expressed interest in becoming an authorizer.

An Indiana law adopted last year also requires charter schools receiving property taxes — nearly every charter in the city, excluding virtual schools and adult high schools that do not qualify for such funding — to have one member appointed by the mayor.

Mayor Joe Hogsett’s Office of Education Innovation told Chalkbeat last year that Hogsett tapped existing members of the city’s charter school boards for those appointments.

State lawmakers created IPEC earlier this year. It has a nine-member board appointed by the mayor. Three members come from the IPS school board, three come from the charter sector, and three are experts in areas related to the corporation’s work, such as facilities, transportation, or working with vulnerable students.

What are the financial responsibilities of school boards and IPEC?

The IPS board sets and approves an annual budget, and is required by state law to approve contracts above $75,000.

But the new IPEC board will assume control of key financial powers previously held by the IPS school board.

Most notably, the IPEC board will set the tax rates for residents living in IPS boundaries beginning in 2027, taking into account funding needed for charter schools as well.

That means that future district budgets will need to be crafted based on the funding that it receives through IPEC’s formula — a funding source that IPS had historically exclusively controlled.

And beginning this year, the IPS school board loses the authority to put a referendum for additional property taxes on the ballot. Instead, the IPEC board assumes that authority.

The county auditor will then distribute property taxes to both district and charter schools through formulas that are both dictated in state law and created by IPEC.

IPEC will also assume the responsibility of issuing debt to fix school buildings throughout the district, a power previously reserved for the IPS school board.

Although charter boards are also responsible for their school’s finances, they are less affected by the creation of IPEC than the IPS board. Charter boards approve and oversee the school’s annual budget, and control the state and federal funds the charter school receives. The charter school board can also apply for public or private grants, and also must submit an annual audit to the state.

But because charter schools have historically not received property tax funds, charter school boards do not control property tax rates.

What else are school boards and IPEC responsible for?

The IPS board selects a superintendent to run the day-to-day operations of the district. The superintendent, in turn, makes employment recommendations to the board, which approves the hiring or firing of employees.

The IPS board also sets policies that help guide the district, the superintendent, and IPS employees in their daily operations. These policies can include rules on transportation, homework, field trips, and athletics, for example.

Similarly, charter boards can hire or dismiss school leaders and approve policies that help the school function on a daily basis — such as a hiring policy or a policy on electronic student devices.

IPEC, meanwhile, will assume responsibility for transportation and buildings for district and charter schools in the 2028-29 school year. Charter schools can choose not to cede control of their buildings to IPEC, although they would forfeit a portion of property taxes by doing so.

What powers will the IPS board keep, even with IPEC?

The IPS board will still retain authority over many day-to-day district operations.

For example, the IPS board will still set an annual budget for the district based on its state and local property tax funding. The board will also still retain control over the superintendent, oversee hiring and firing of employees, and set the policies that establish how schools run on a daily basis.

When and where do school boards meet?

Both the IPS board and charters are subject to the state’s Open Door Law, which requires the posting of every meeting at least 48 hours in advance at the district’s main office.

The IPS board typically meets at district headquarters at 120 E. Walnut St., and has a calendar of upcoming meetings on its website. Many charter schools also post their upcoming board meetings on their website.

The IPEC board is also subject to the Open Door Law, although information on its meeting schedule and location has not yet been made public.

Correction: This story was corrected to reflect that the county auditor distributes property taxes.

This story was also updated to reflect that IPEC will set property tax rates for IPS and charter schools, and that both state law and IPEC will determine how property taxes are distributed by the county auditor.

Amelia Pak-Harvey covers Indianapolis and Lawrence Township schools for Chalkbeat Indiana. Contact Amelia at apak-harvey@chalkbeat.org.

Indianapolis Public Education Corporation members announced by Mayor Hogsett

2026-03-31T21:48:42+00:00

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Mayor Joe Hogsett announced the members of the new Indianapolis Public Education Corporation on Tuesday.

The nine-member board represents a significant change to education in Indianapolis. The corporation will oversee buildings and transportation for district and charter schools, while also assuming the power to collect property taxes. The board will also create a system of accountability that officials could use to decide which schools close.

These changes diminish the power of school boards including the elected Indianapolis Public Schools board. School boards will still have power over day-to-day policy decisions like setting their budgets and curriculums, and they’ll maintain the power to hire and fire the superintendent or school leaders for charter schools.

The corporation’s members are:

Hope Star, IPS board president.
Ashley Thomas, IPS board member.
Deandra Thompson, IPS board member.
David Harris, president and CEO of Christel House International.
Janet McNeal, president of Herron Classical Schools charter network.
Dexter Taylor, director of Paramount Brookside charter school.
Patricia Castañeda, vice president of Key Bank.
John Hammond, partner at the Taft Stettinius & Hollister law firm.
Edward Rangel, founding CEO of Adelante Schools charter network.

Harris, who served as charter schools director under former mayor Bart Peterson and later helped found the Mind Trust nonprofit that helps launch charter schools, will serve as the IPEC board chair.

The board was created by state lawmakers in this year’s legislative session following recommendations issued by the Indianapolis Local Education Alliance, or ILEA, which met in the second half of 2025. The state law establishing the corporation says that three of its nine members must be charter school leaders, three must be IPS school board members, and three must be experts in areas related to the corporation’s work, such as capital planning or transportation.

The board would assume key powers over finances and referendums beginning this year, and would begin managing school property and transportation in 2028.

“These dedicated leaders possess the expertise necessary to ensure our schools are able to operate efficiently and serve our students equitably,” Hogsett said in a statement. “I believe in their combined ability to make the difficult – but important – decisions that will create a sustainable public school system in Indianapolis for years to come.”

The city also extended its contract with Michael O’Connor of Bose Public Affairs, who led the ILEA through its brainstorming sessions last year. The original contract, paid for by the city with a maximum cost of $340,000, allowed the city to renew its agreement with O’Connor to help implement the ILEA’s recommendations. The extension runs through May and allows for an additional maximum of $200,000.

The date of the corporation’s first meeting has not been announced.

Amelia Pak-Harvey covers Indianapolis and Lawrence Township schools for Chalkbeat Indiana. Contact Amelia at apak-harvey@chalkbeat.org.

Indianapolis charter school switches authorizers, avoiding potential closure

2026-03-12T17:40:05+00:00

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An east side charter school successfully switched authorizers on Thursday and avoided a looming decision that could have led to its closure.

The Education One board approved Rooted School Indianapolis for two separate charters. One charter gives Rooted the green light to continue operating its 7-12 school within Eastern Star Church in the Arlington Woods neighborhood. The other gives Rooted permission to launch a K-6 school, starting with sixth grade in 2028.

Thursday’s decision is a lifeline for the school of roughly 150 students, which aims to give students a path to financial freedom with high-wage careers. The approval comes just weeks before Education One will lose its ability to authorize schools within Indianapolis Public Schools borders.

Authorizers grant charter schools permission to open and operate, and can revoke or not renew their charter at the end of its term for various issues.

The approval came despite concern from its current authorizer — the mayor’s Office of Education Innovation, or OEI — that the school was trying to change authorizers in order to avoid accountability. In a letter sent to Education One last month, OEI Director Shaina Cavazos said the office was preparing not to renew the school’s charter, a decision that could have led the school to shut down.

Education One director Emily Gaskill took a different view.

“The proposed transfer to another authorizer should not be interpreted as an effort of the school to avoid accountability,” Gaskill said at the meeting. “If anything, when someone moves to us, there is going to be an automatic increase in accountability.”

Rooted’s founder, Ma’at Lands, told Chalkbeat last week that the school had been considering a change in authorizers since October and was attracted to Education One’s support systems and frequent in-person school visits.

Education One disputes concerns about Rooted charter school

The charter school and OEI haven’t seen eye-to-eye on a variety of issues.

In 2022, for example, OEI put Rooted on notice for failing to comply with laws for English language learner students, including providing a teacher of record for English language learner students. The office also took issue with the school’s teacher licensure rate of 50%, which is below the state law requiring a 90% rate for charter schools.

Lands said the school later addressed the teacher-of-record requirement, and OEI later confirmed with the school that it boosted its teaching licensure rates.

OEI also took issue with the school’s enrollment, noting that Rooted missed enrollment targets for 2022-23 and 2023-24 by over 10%. The school has grown from 58 ninth-grade students in 2020 to 153 this school year, according to enrollment records.

In a letter to Education One, Cavazos also noted concerns about Rooted’s academic outcomes.

Roughly 21% of Rooted’s seventh- and eighth-graders reached proficiency in English on the state’s latest ILEARN exam and roughly 10% reached proficiency in math — although other schools in OEI’s portfolio show lower results. The most recent SAT results indicate that just 1 of 20 students met the state-designated benchmark in both the English and math sections.

But at Education One’s Thursday meeting, Gaskill noted that the school met or exceeded most standards, based on a recent site visit from OEI. And she said the office was only looking at enrollment targets the school filed in their application, not the figures the school based its budget on.

“They are so strong financially that it’s very clear that whatever their enrollment is currently, it’s serving itself on an organizational and an academic playing field,” Gaskill said.

Cavazos told Chalkbeat that OEI does consider how a school’s actual enrollment compares to what it budgeted for.

And the school’s launch during the pandemic means there is only a few years’ worth of data by which to measure academic progress, Gaskill noted. She also pointed to an increase in proficiency on the ILEARN from last year.

“It’s reflecting that academic improvement is there, rather than stagnation or decline,” she said.

Rooted’s current charter school will switch to Education One beginning next school year. The board approved its second charter for the planned K-6 school with a few conditions, including that the 7-12 school meets Education One’s standards for growth.

The existing school must also demonstrate full compliance with laws related to special populations, including students with disabilities and English language learners.

New law restricts charter school authorization in Indianapolis

A new law that overhauls control over resources for district and charter schools in IPS restricts charter authorizing to OEI, the Indiana Charter School Board, and the IPS school board, which has expressed interest in becoming an authorizer.

Schools authorized by other authorizers like Education One before April 1 of this year can continue operating through the term of their charters. But after those charters expire, the new law requires the schools to seek authorization with one of the three approved entities.

Education One had objected to losing its power to authorize schools in IPS borders, arguing that high-quality authorizing is not determined by the location of the authorizer or its type.

Trine University is located over two hours away from Indianapolis.

This story has been updated to include a comment from OEI on how it considers enrollment in the context of budgeting.

Amelia Pak-Harvey covers Indianapolis and Lawrence Township schools for Chalkbeat Indiana. Contact Amelia at apak-harvey@chalkbeat.org.

Future of IPS hinges on possible tax increase proposed by a new corporation, not the school board

2026-03-03T18:33:40+00:00

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The future of Indianapolis Public Schools could hinge on whether voters approve a tax increase proposed not by the district’s elected school board, but by a new corporation with appointed members.

The Indianapolis Public Education Corporation, or IPEC, is slated to take control of several aspects of the district’s finances as soon as April, under state legislation passed last month. That bill gives the corporation, not the IPS school board, the power to put a proposed tax increase on the ballot. The corporation’s members must first be appointed by the mayor.

IPS’s current operating referendum, which voters approved in 2018, expires this year. The district already projects ending this year with a $40 million cash deficit, and by next year will have entirely depleted its reserves, according to IPS documents.

In other words, without that voter-approved funding, the district will be out of money by 2027, producing consequences that could range from staff layoffs to school closures.

Although IPEC could decide not to put a tax referendum to voters, observers have not expressed fears about that possibility. Declining to propose one could also undermine the corporation’s other work related to operations for district and charter schools. In creating IPEC, lawmakers also outlined specific ballot language that IPEC must use for a referendum.

While some recent developments in the state’s fiscal climate could make voters less inclined to approve the referendum in November, others could make its path easier.

In a statement, IPS said that it is committed to “critical collaboration” with IPEC.

“We have a great sense of urgency to promote the stability for all students in the IPS boundary through this transitional period,” the district said.

Mayor Joe Hogsett has until March 31 to appoint IPEC’s nine members, who in turn will have four months to place a referendum question on the November ballot.

One factor that might aid a November tax referendum is that, for the first time, local charter schools that enroll students living within IPS borders can opt into receiving money from it. That shared interest could help IPS and the charter sector work together, which has often proven very difficult recently.

“IPS and the charter schools may be fighting it out, and IPS may not like having to turn the money over. But once the referendum is on the ballot, the charters and IPS go for it,” said Larry DeBoer, a professor emeritus at Purdue University who specializes in tax referendums. “Even if they don’t like each other, they’re on the same side.”

IPS finances struggle after years of extra support

Recent property tax relief is projected to leave IPS and government entities statewide with less property tax revenue than they would have otherwise collected.

That tax relief lawmakers passed last year will reduce the district’s local property tax base by 1.9% annually through 2031, according to the district. Although the referendum’s odds of success might benefit from charters’ support of it, charters would also benefit from revenue that in past years would have gone to IPS.

All that could lead IPEC to propose an operating referendum that is more expensive than the current one, which added roughly 19.6 cents in taxes per $100 of assessed value.

The last time voters approved a referendum to fund district schools with 72% of the vote, it produced better results than IPS expected.

IPS projected the current operating referendum, passed in 2018, to bring in $220 million over eight years. But changes in property values led the total anticipated amount to soar to roughly $323 million, a nearly 47% increase over the initial projection, IPS documents show.

The district credits that funding for increasing teacher salaries significantly. In 2017-18, the district’s minimum starting salary of $40,000 was among the lowest in Marion County. Today, IPS offers the highest out of all districts in the county. In 2021, the district also agreed to share some of the funding with charters in its Innovation Network.

Not all plans for referendums have turned out as smoothly.

In 2022, the district proposed another operating referendum. But amid pressure from charter parents and supporters to share that funding with all local charter schools — and facing opposition from the city’s chamber of commerce — the school board tabled the measure.

IPS officials said the proposal would have generated about $50 million in additional funds annually over eight years to help fund the expansion of specialized academic programs under its Rebuilding Stronger reorganization, and to support continued competitive staff compensation.

The district continued with its Rebuilding Stronger organization, closing six schools and expanding programs such as dual language and Montessori, without the tax increase. Officials said at the time that they would cut costs in central services and operations to implement the reorganization plan.

Tax hike could be tougher sell than in 2018

Several factors could make a referendum harder to pass.

Under a change to state law in 2025, Indiana now requires school districts to float referendums in general elections in the fall — when historically they were less likely to pass than in the spring, DeBoer said. At the same time, voters are more likely to approve a referendum that is a continuation of the current one, he said.

From 2016 to 2019, 76% of referendums statewide passed. But from 2020 to 2025, that fell to 68%, according to an analysis from DeBoer.

“I would guess that the environment now is a little less favorable than it was back in 2018,” he said. “We were eight years into an economic expansion. People were probably in a somewhat better mood than they are now.”

Another concern is that having an appointed board receive property tax dollars raises serious concerns about accountability, said Monica Shellhamer of the Indianapolis Education Association.

“We’re not quite sure yet what it means to have our new IPEC board,” Shelhamer said.

But most voters don’t care about such technicalities about how referendums work, DeBoer said.

Taylor Hughes, chief strategy officer for the Indy Chamber, said the organization wants to balance the need for a “world-class education” in the state’s capital without overburdening the taxpayers.

“We’ve had significant inflation for a long time. The politics of affordability is a bipartisan cry. This is something that everybody is feeling squeezed on,” Hughes said. “I think that is a dynamic that we need to be mindful of.”

IPS supporters have called for adequate funding for public education. But the Chamber would want to know what a fully funded school system looks like, Hughes said. If there is a need for a referendum, he said, it’s really important that everyone is “singing from the same song book.”

“If this becomes a fight,” he said, “I think that’s probably a lose-lose for everybody.”

Amelia Pak-Harvey covers Indianapolis and Lawrence Township schools for Chalkbeat Indiana. Contact Amelia at apak-harvey@chalkbeat.org.

Indianapolis charter school focused on students with autism to acquire shuttered IPS building

2026-02-26T01:40:30+00:00

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Indianapolis Public Schools will sell the Raymond Brandes School 65 building for $1 to a charter school that serves students with autism.

The school board’s approval on Wednesday to sell the building to Dynamic Minds Academy could mark the last time the district sells a building under a state law that requires traditional school districts to provide shuttered or underutilized buildings to charters or state educational institutions for $1.

The building, which was constructed on the district’s southeast side in 1961. It would provide a critical second campus for Dynamic Minds, which operates a K-12 school on the northeast side of Marion County. The school partners with the Hope Source clinic that offers applied behavioral analysis, a service known as ABA therapy that serves students with autism, for an experience that combines therapy with school.

The school enrolled 135 students this year, according to state records, but it has about 160 students on its waitlist, education director Samantha Bandy told Chalkbeat last month. She anticipates the need to grow even more, as state efforts to cut Medicaid spending impacts ABA centers that rely on such funding.

“We’re getting a lot more interest from families that aren’t ready for traditional public school but they’re being pushed out of their ABA center,” she said.

The school plans to open in the fall of 2027 to grades K-12 and is seeking approval from Education One at Trine University, which authorizes its existing campus.

The $1 sale could be the last of its kind, because lawmakers are considering a bill that would exempt IPS from the law and establish a new corporation to manage school buildings and transportation for district and charter schools.

A state appeals court ruled last year that the district must sell School 65 to any interested school.

Both Dynamic Minds and Damar Charter Academy — another charter school serving students with behavioral and developmental challenges — expressed interest in the building. State law dictates that if more than one charter school expresses an interest in an unused building, a committee of charter school authorizers must select which school receives the facility.

IPS will list School 68 on open market

The school board also voted Wednesday to list Susan Roll Leach School 68 as available for sale on the open market after no charter schools or institutions expressed interest in buying the property for $1.

The building in the near eastside neighborhood, built in 1938, had the lowest overall facility quality rating in the district, according to a previous study that IPS commissioned.

No charter schools expressed interest in purchasing the former Susan Roll Leach School 68 building on the east side of the district.

IPS will hire a broker to oversee the building’s potential sale.

The board also voted to transfer roughly 18 acres of the former John Marshall school property on the Far Eastside to the city’s parks department. IndyParks plans to use the land, which includes the school’s athletic fields, as part of its master plan for Grassy Creek Regional Park.

Amelia Pak-Harvey covers Indianapolis and Lawrence Township schools for Chalkbeat Indiana. Contact Amelia at apak-harvey@chalkbeat.org.

As lawmakers push to unify operations for Indianapolis schools, charters could get an edge

2026-02-24T18:49:47+00:00

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An attempt to unify operations for traditional public and charter schools in Indianapolis is proving to be a complex task that could ultimately favor charters over district schools in critical ways.

At the heart of the matter: ownership and control of school buildings, some of which are privately owned or leased by charter schools and some of which are publicly owned by Indianapolis Public Schools. The future landscape for the roughly 42,000 students in IPS and charter schools could be shaped by how easily schools can access or control these buildings.

The move to centralize control over buildings comes as Indianapolis has grappled with a fractured education system of two different school sectors— traditional and charter — operating with different access to buildings and different transportation systems using different funds.

That divide is what a state-established task force known as the Indianapolis Local Education Alliance, or ILEA, sought to bridge through recommendations in December that have formed the basis for legislation advancing in the Indiana Statehouse.

But in the broader attempt at efficiency, at least some charter schools appear to be gaining what could be key advantages. Whether charters maintain that edge will depend heavily on the actions of a mayor-appointed board over the next two years.

Lawmakers last month made key changes to legislation that would create the Indianapolis Public Education Corporation, or IPEC, to manage transportation and facilities for district schools as well as charters within IPS boundaries. The revision would allow charters to opt into or out of the bill’s mandate that schools turn over control of their buildings to the proposed corporation.

Another addition to the legislation directs the corporation to create a process to close “inefficient” school buildings based on underutilized capacity.

The opt-out provision could favor the nearly two-dozen charters that already own their buildings by making it easier for them to maintain control of those facilities even after IPEC launches. In addition, due to enrollment trends, the process focused on shuttering underutilized schools could ultimately create a net benefit for charters by closing several IPS-run school buildings that the corporation could give to charters.

The legislation is based on recommendations from the ILEA. The debate over the bill mirrors recent and at times bitter political disputes between IPS and charters. IPS supporters have argued that the new corporation will not solve problems facing the city’s schools. Charter advocates, meanwhile, say charters should not be forced to give control of privately owned buildings to a public entity such as IPEC.

Republican Rep. Bob Behning, the bill author, said his goal is to create a facilities plan that every school would want to participate in so that school leaders can focus on academics.

IPS Superintendent Aleesia Johnson said other parts of the bill could streamline operations across both district and charter schools. But it depends on how the bill is actually implemented.

The bill gives the corporation until 2028 — the same year charters will start receiving property taxes — to enact a transportation and facilities plan across all school types.

“[The] devil’s in the details in terms of how the execution works, in terms of how there’s collaboration across different entities, in terms of how we all think about the trade-offs that might be necessary to actually make this work,” Johnson told Chalkbeat. “And that we don’t know yet.”

Charters schools want to keep control over buildings

Behning has said his intent is for the corporation to own all school buildings. But his legislation, HB 1423, only says that IPEC would “control” buildings through the facilities plan.

Schools that opt out of that plan would not receive property tax dollars reserved for building needs. But the nearly two-dozen charters that already own their buildings might prefer to opt out and prioritize maintaining control over their facilities over gaining access to that revenue starting in 2028. Their need for that revenue to acquire or lease buildings could be minimal or non-existent.

Meanwhile, charter schools operating in IPS buildings and charter applicants aiming to start a school could benefit by allowing IPEC to control their buildings, because they could still gain access to new or different buildings for their schools.

The legislation includes the same opt-out provision for IPS. But that flexibility is “almost symbolic,” Behning admitted. That’s because if the district opted out, it would lose the very property tax funding it currently relies on to pay for buildings.

In addition, forcing charters to relinquish control of their buildings — which might be a privately held asset — to a public entity could create legal problems, some charter advocates say.

As of 2024-25, over 20 charter schools owned their buildings, while another 19 leased space and 12 operated in IPS buildings as part of the school’s Innovation Network, according to a report from the mayor’s Office of Education Innovation.

At Circle City Prep, owning its school building on the Far Eastside allows the charter to pursue quick improvements and modifications, executive director Megan Murphy said in an email. The school would want to preserve that flexibility and autonomy, she said.

“It is in the best interest of our scholars and the community we serve to be able to be adaptive to the needs of our school and student population,” Murphy said.

Meanwhile, closing underutilized buildings would likely hit IPS particularly hard and also could affect charter schools struggling with enrollment.

At least eight schools run by IPS, which recently experienced its biggest drop in enrollment since the pandemic, are operating at a building capacity of 50% or lower, according state enrollment data for this year and a previous IPS study. Previously, lawmakers have used that 50% threshold to determine when certain traditional school districts would have to offer underenrolled buildings to charter schools for $1.

Building usage across charter schools is less clear. But at least four charter schools were operating at below 50% of their stated capacity in 2024-25 — a figure based on the number or students the school intends to serve rather than on the dimensions of a physical building, according to a mayor’s office report.

IPS supporters fear what lawmakers are planning

Lawmakers have stressed the district’s impending financial cliff as reasons for the drastic changes in HB 1423. The district anticipates ending the school year with a $40 million cash flow deficit.

While charters will gain access to property tax revenue in two years, IPS is projected to lose significant funding from property taxes due to various changes at the state level. In addition, IPS funding from a property tax hike that voters approved several years ago expires in 2026.

But the district’s supporters say traditional IPS schools need adequate education funding from the state, not the looming overhaul to key aspects of how the district works. They worry that recent events like the evolution of Behning’s bill point to the gradual demolition of IPS in favor of charters.

“Let me be clear what compromise looks like when you’re negotiating with people who want to dismantle you,” IPS parent Courtney Hawk, part of the Fully Funded, Fully Public campaign that wants an elected school board to maintain control of IPS assets, said at a district board meeting last month. “It looks like surrender in slow motion.”

The bill doesn’t match the charter sector’s priorities in some respects, however. Some charter advocates have pushed back on a requirement that all schools offer transportation, for example. Charters have struggled to offer transportation without property tax funding.

Behning’s legislation says all traditional public and charter schools inside district boundaries must provide for transportation for all students, a service that IPEC would manage. The requirement reflects a recommendation from the ILEA, and supports an argument from some school choice advocates and many parents that true choice is not possible without a way to get to school.

But Scott Bess of the Indiana Charter Innovation Center, a charter advocacy group, pointed out that state law doesn’t require school districts to offer transportation, and it should therefore not be required for any schools within IPS boundaries.

There’s some truth to the different concerns from both IPS and charters, said Barato Britt, who served on the ILEA. But if lawmakers follow the task force’s intent as closely as possible, he said, “we will have made progress to transform an already evolved educational landscape in a more connected fashion.”

“We can’t act like our trajectory without it was promising, whether it was the traditional space or the charter space,” said Britt, who serves on the board of the KIPP Indy Public Schools charter network. “Something had to be done.”

Ultimately, the pressure will be on IPEC’s board to address the big challenges lawmakers are poised to ask it to solve.

Indiana’s legislative session is due to end Friday.

Amelia Pak-Harvey covers Indianapolis and Lawrence Township schools for Chalkbeat Indiana. Contact Amelia at apak-harvey@chalkbeat.org.

Monarca Academy expands to high school with boost from $2 million grant

2026-02-19T18:01:04+00:00

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When families come to tour Monarca Academy, founder Francisco Valdiosera sometimes shows them a picture of himself and his wife — both first-generation college graduates of Latino heritage — surrounded by their parents at their Stanford University graduation.

The middle school’s embrace of the Latino culture and the immigrant experience has attracted those families since it launched in 2022 on the west side of Indianapolis. Seeing someone from that community who has obtained a prestigious education, Valdiosera said, speaks to them.

“I show them that picture, and I say, ‘This is what I want for your children. That’s me, but that’s your son,’” he said. “‘That’s my wife, but that’s what I want for your daughter.’”

That kind of pitch has helped the school grow from just 41 sixth-grade students in 2022 to 217 across grades 6-8 this year at its location within Northwest Middle School in Indianapolis Public Schools. Monarca plans to add a ninth grade in the fall — and eventually hopes to add grades 10-12 as allowed in its charter —with help from a $2 million grant from the Lilly Endowment.

It’s a significant step for a charter school serving a majority Latino population that, like many other schools, must navigate the fears of federal immigration enforcement and its impact on families. The expansion into high school also comes as Indianapolis Public Schools and charters face an unknown future in how transportation and buildings are distributed to schools.

The grant will help fund a counselor as well as intensive tutoring that staff hope will particularly help the school’s many multilingual students.

The funding complements a $200,000 grant the school received from the endowment in June. That boosted its arts and extracurricular programming — which includes ballet folklórico from Mexico and the Brazilian martial art of capoeira — helped the school implement restorative justice discipline practices, and supported a multilingual learner specialist.

“As we’ve been able to expand every year with our programming, with our athletics, with our arts, it’s been amazing to see how different kids are feeling more connected to school,” said founding Principal Felicia Sears.

Monarca’s pillars encourage students to celebrate their roots

Monarca, Spanish for “monarch,” is inspired by the monarch butterfly that represents transformation and migration.

“As a school name, Monarca Academy signals that students are not defined by where they begin,” the school said in a statement. “They are in motion. They are becoming.”

The school, which exists in the culturally diverse part of northwest Indianapolis, is rooted in three values: academic rigor through “ganas” or perseverance, community or “comunidad,” and pride — “orgullo” — that encourages each student to embrace their culture.

Staff say that approach is particularly helpful in the country’s current political environment. Amid fears of Immigration and Customs Enforcement, they encourage students to talk to the school’s social worker and try to see all the challenges the student may be bringing with them into the classroom.

“The approach of, ‘I’m going to see you and love you as a human first’ is absolutely essential to all the work that we’re doing and all the barriers that we’re trying to remove,” said seventh grade English teacher Danielle Boylan.

A significant portion of the $2 million grant, which will be used over five years, will help fund a counselor position to focus on academic and emotional support for students and help the school’s existing social worker — a key position as the school continues to grow.

Staff hope that tutoring funded through the grant will also help English language learner students improve fluency and understand English language arts content. Over 76% of the school’s students are English language learners this year, according to state enrollment records.

In the future, the school also plans to add a college and career readiness coordinator.

Monarca, which is part of the IPS Innovation Network of autonomous schools, plans to stay in Northwest Middle School as it grows.

But state lawmakers are considering legislation that would create an Indianapolis Public Education Corporation to control school buildings throughout IPS. The corporation would determine which schools have access to certain buildings, a process that could be based in part on a school rating system it would develop.

“We feel confident that whatever happens and whoever has control of this building, we will have a place for Monarca Academy students here,” Valdiosera said.

Loani, an eighth grader, was attracted to Monarca because the school “wanted people to show up as themselves.” Chalkbeat is not providing the last names of students due to the current political climate around immigration enforcement.

As she discussed high school options with her mother, she realized that she wanted to stay for ninth grade.

“It wasn’t just like a school — I was close with everyone, every staff, every student,” she said. “I’ve known them personally for years. So that’s why I’m going to stay.”

Amelia Pak-Harvey covers Indianapolis and Lawrence Township schools for Chalkbeat Indiana. Contact Amelia at apak-harvey@chalkbeat.org.

African American Coalition: Parents of color ‘not a monolith’ in supporting IPS overhaul

2026-02-12T23:52:44+00:00

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A coalition of Black community groups is accusing education reform organizations of misrepresenting opinions in the African American community in a bid to pass legislation that would significantly reduce the power of an elected Indianapolis Public Schools board.

“African Americans are not a monolith, but claims made by organizations and institutions with little or no authentic connection to the Black community do not reflect the public record and are deeply concerning,” said the statement released Wednesday by the African American Coalition of Indianapolis.

The statement reflects months of tension between lawmakers, reform groups, and residents over the future of Indianapolis Public Schools and comes as lawmakers are debating a governance overhaul. House Bill 1423, based on recommendations from the Indianapolis Local Education Alliance, would create a new corporation to oversee key aspects of district operations as well as the many charters within district borders. The elected school board would be left with much less authority.

A lead employee at the Mind Trust, a nonprofit that supports the bill and helped start many Indianapolis charter schools, told lawmakers last week that white parents opposed the controversial House Bill 1423 while parents of color supported it.

“You all heard from a number of parents who look like me and live in my neighborhood today — one even claimed to be from among the wealthiest — and they have opposed this bill,” said Kim Preston, the Mind Trust’s senior vice president of policy, who is white. “By comparison, I’ll point out that parents of color have shown up today and throughout the ILEA process to support this effort. Their voices matter and their students deserve our support.”

But the African American Coalition said it has expressed “serious concerns” about the bill, including removing the elected board from a district that primarily serves Black and brown students.

The bill would create the Indianapolis Public Education Corporation, which would take control over transportation and school buildings in IPS and assume the power to collect and levy property taxes. It comes at a time when IPS is led by its first Black female superintendent and overseen by its first school board consisting entirely of women of color.

Any major changes to IPS would affect a student body that is roughly 38% Black and 37% Latino, according to state enrollment records.

The coalition statement speaks to broader racial dynamics that have long been at play in the push to expand charter schools in Indianapolis.

Charter advocates like the Mind Trust have consistently highlighted that Black and Latino charter school students score higher on the state’s standardized ILEARN exam than their peers in IPS. Parents of color affiliated with Stand for Children Indiana, meanwhile, have pushed for IPS to expand charter schools that produce better outcomes for Black and Latino students.

Both organizations are led by white men.

The Mind Trust declined to comment.

Stand for Children said in a statement that it agrees with the coalition’s call for listening to families and that many families support the types of changes called for in House Bill 1423.

“We’re blessed to be affiliated with remarkable parent leaders who have spent literally thousands of hours digging deep on education policy and talking directly with their neighbors and elected leaders for many, many years,” Stand for Children said. And those parent leaders consistently say “they want transportation for all, greater accountability for every school type, and a focus on growing schools that are actually closing the achievement gap.”

AACI spokesperson Marshawn Wolley told Chalkbeat that the way race has been used in the broader fight is a “manipulation” of Black people and “reeks of paternalism.”

“What’s really frustrating about the comment from the Mind Trust is it’s like they only want to listen to certain Black people,” Wolley said.

Wolley questioned the success of some charter schools, noting that high suspension rates may drive out some students and bolster claims of higher academic performance. And across all school types, proficiency rates in Indianapolis are still largely well below statewide averages.

“My concern is that we’re making radical changes for systems that in the aggregate only have marginally better outcomes, if that,” Wolley said. “And it’s completely disruptive.”

The Greater Indianapolis NAACP — which is part of the coalition — has also opposed creating an appointed entity over IPS.

“Elected school boards answer to the public,” Chrystal Ratcliffe, the branch’s president, said in a statement in December. “Appointed boards reduce transparency, weaken community participation, and erode trust in decisions that affect every neighborhood in Indianapolis, particularly historically marginalized communities.”

The Concerned Clergy of Indianapolis, a group of pastors created during the Civil Rights Movement, has also joined the IPS Parent Council and the Central Indiana Democratic Socialists of America in opposing plans to dilute the power of the elected school board.

Amelia Pak-Harvey covers Indianapolis and Lawrence Township schools for Chalkbeat Indiana. Contact Amelia at apak-harvey@chalkbeat.org.

Corrections and Clarifications: This article has been updated to include the correct name of the IPS Parent Council.

PPHS to close South Bend campus to focus on Indianapolis schools amid declining enrollment

2026-02-10T12:00:00+00:00

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The Purdue Polytechnic High School board of directors will close the charter network’s South Bend location amid financial challenges while it focuses on the long-term stability of its two remaining Indianapolis campuses.

The decision comes amid declining enrollment at both its South Bend and Broad Ripple campuses that could signal a broader enrollment challenge for both traditional public and charter schools. The South Bend location served 112 students this year, according to state enrollment records.

PPHS declined an interview through a public relations professional and did not answer specific questions about the South Bend closure. And it’s unclear if the network still has plans for a third Indianapolis location as previously planned.

In June, OEI issued a notice of deficiency for the network’s two Indianapolis campuses that cited concerns over financial reporting and missed enrollment targets at the Broad Ripple campus.

But in a statement last week, OEI Executive Director Shaina Cavazos said the school is well-positioned to build strong fiscal health based on recent performance and enrollment trends.

“Throughout my communication with the board and school leadership, it has been clear the focus remains on building strong fiscal health for the Indianapolis schools,” Cavazos said.

In South Bend, a partnership with the Career Academy Network of Public Schools — another charter network with four schools in South Bend — allows PPHS South Bend students to be offered priority enrollment at Career Academy schools next school year, the network said in a press release. South Bend staff members will also be able to interview for open positions at Career Academy locations.

Fast growth in first campus sparks quick launch of two others

PPHS launched in Indianapolis in 2017 with the support of former Governor and then-Purdue University President Mitch Daniels. The high school model focuses on science, technology, engineering, and math with a goal of increasing the number of historically underserved students of color attending Purdue University.

The network’s first location in the east side area of Englewood, approved by the mayor’s Office of Education Innovation, grew by one grade each year and has since seen year-over-year enrollment growth with 617 students this year, according to state enrollment records.

The network launched two other locations in quick succession. In 2019-20, PPHS North, also approved by OEI, opened with 64 students and later moved into Broad Ripple Middle School through a partnership with Indianapolis Public Schools. The next year, PPHS opened its South Bend campus.

But both of those locations have been losing students in recent years. In Broad Ripple, enrollment has dropped from its high of 283 in 2022-23 to 220 this school year, well below the maximum 600 threshold that the school pitched to the mayor’s office in its application.

In South Bend, enrollment peaked in 2023-24 at 154 and now sits at 112. In its application to the Indiana Charter School Board — which authorized the South Bend campus — it planned for a capacity of 500.

Another charter authorizer, Education One at Trine University, approved PPHS to open a third high school in Indianapolis in 2023. That opening date has been repeatedly delayed.

The school’s spokesperson did not answer a question on whether it would still open that campus.

Education One executive director Emily Gaskill said in an email that the school was approved but a charter agreement was never executed. If a charter is not executed for a school, then the school would need to reapply, she said.

Focusing on the network’s Indianapolis schools will strengthen the Purdue brand in Indianapolis, a spokesperson for PPHS said. Purdue University is expanding its presence in the city with the creation of Purdue University Indianapolis, which launched in 2024 after Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis split into two schools.

Amelia Pak-Harvey covers Indianapolis and Lawrence Township schools for Chalkbeat Indiana. Contact Amelia at apak-harvey@chalkbeat.org.

Power over Indianapolis school closures and buildings would shift in revised bill

2026-01-29T22:48:37+00:00

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The Indianapolis Public Education Corporation would not have the direct authority to close public schools, and charters could keep control of their school buildings, according to a bill amendment lawmakers approved Thursday.

Under the amendment to House Bill 1423, charter authorizers and Indianapolis Public Schools — not the proposed Indianapolis Public Education Corporation — would maintain the power to close schools. But if they fail to do so, the corporation could appeal to the state board of education to close the school. The state board would ultimately have to approve the school closure.

In addition, the amendment — introduced by Rep. Bob Behning, the Republican chair of the House Education Committee — would allow charters within IPS boundaries to opt into or out of a facility management plan overseen by the new corporation.

The proposed changes to how school closures work and who controls buildings is part of a broader plan to change key aspects of how public schools work in the city and shift some resources from IPS to charter schools.

The amended bill clarifies that both charter authorizers and IPS must agree on a universal performance framework that could be used to determine which schools must close. IPS has closed several school buildings in recent years, while a large share of charters have shut down over the last few decades.

The revised bill says IPS would still be required to cede authority over their school buildings to the corporation, and also give up power over transportation and the ability to collect and levy property taxes, to the Indianapolis Public Education Corporation, or IPEC. But Behning said during House discussions Thursday that he would commit to allowing IPS to opt out of the mandate to give up control over its buildings.

Such a move could further reduce the proposed corporation’s ability to unify oversight of key aspects of how the city’s public schools work.

Shortly after that comment from Behning, IPS released a statement blasting how the revised bill created a carve-out for charters. The district said it created “a glaring double standard” because it would grant “charter schools the power to opt out of management and control of school property by the Indianapolis Public Education Corporation Board while denying that very same flexibility to IPS.”

Before the House discussions, Behning said his amendment came in response to concern from charter schools that paid for their buildings with private dollars. Since charters have not historically had access to property tax funding for such expenses, they have relied on other funding resources to acquire facilities.

But there would be significant consequences for charter schools that choose not to participate in facilities management, like losing capital referendum and debt service funding, and the charter school facility grant once charter schools have access to more resources, Behning said during discussions with other House lawmakers.

“If I’m a charter … I would have to figure out how I’m going to do all my operations, pay for everything out of those operating dollars, which they have never had to do,” Behning said. “I don’t really think any of them are going to do it.”

Within district borders, over 20 charter schools owned their buildings in the 2024-25 school year, while another 19 leased space and 12 operated in IPS buildings as part of the school’s Innovation Network, according to a report from the Mayor’s Office of Education Innovation.

The amendment allows charters that lease or own their buildings to decide whether to give control of the facility to IPEC. But if charters do opt out, they would not receive property tax dollars for capital needs.

During Thursday’s House discussion of the bill, Behning said his amendment didn’t outline how charter schools with privately owned buildings, or even IPS with outstanding bonds, would participate in facilities management. That’s a task for IPEC to determine in its feasibility study before assuming control of buildings in 2028-29, he said. The bill directs the new corporation to complete that study to examine building management by Nov. 30, 2027.

“If I was a charter that had privately built a building with private dollars, not with public dollars, if I want to be part of this, that’s going to be something they’re going to have to figure out,” Behning said. “My guess is, you can’t just come in and take away a private asset.”

Charters that own their buildings but are then forced to close could dispose of the building as they see fit if they don’t opt in to the corporation’s facility management plan, according to Behning. The corporation would not assume control of the building.

In theory, the new corporation would ultimately own all district buildings, Behning said. But there could be legal challenges to transferring ownership of buildings with remaining debt attached to them.

HB 1423 is eligible for a final reading in the House on Monday. If passed, it would move on to the Senate.

This story has been updated to include additional comments from Rep. Bob Behning and IPS, as well as the outcome of votes on Behning’s amendment.

Reporter Aleksandra Appleton contributed to this story.

Amelia Pak-Harvey covers Indianapolis and Lawrence Township schools for Chalkbeat Indiana. Contact Amelia at apak-harvey@chalkbeat.org.

As more states opt in, Republican senators tout Trump-backed school choice tax credit

2026-01-29T00:50:43+00:00

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School choice promotes creativity and competition. School choice unfairly siphons funding from public schools.

Both are well-worn arguments in the battle over public and private K-12 education.

But those arguments took on new importance Wednesday as U.S. senators made the case for and against the new federal tax-credit scholarship program during a hearing Wednesday.

The landmark program was established by last year’s One Big Beautiful Bill and enthusiastically supported by President Donald Trump. The tax credit could potentially generate billions for families’ private school tuition, as well as homeschooling and academic enrichment costs. But states have to opt in.

At least 23 states, mostly led by Republican governors, have officially opted into the program, according to a tally from the Education and Treasury departments released Tuesday. State-level voucher programs are also proliferating across the country.

Now the pressure is on Democratic governors to either opt in or stay out. So far just two — Gov. Jared Polis in Colorado and Gov. Josh Stein in North Carolina — have said their states will likely participate. Other Democratic governors are facing pressure from both supporters and opponents of the program, which is set to launch in January 2027.

“It’s not about public school versus private, not about teachers versus parents, not about Republicans versus Democrats,” Sen. Bill Cassidy, a Republican from Louisiana who chairs the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions. “It’s about giving the parent access to the innovative educational program best for her child.”

But Sen. Bernie Sanders, an independent from Vermont, used the hearing to blast the program, saying it would deepen educational inequality.

“We should not be creating a two-tier education system in America, private schools for the wealthy, and well-connected, and severely underfunded and under-resourced public schools for low-income, disabled and working class kids,” he said.

Nearly all 23 states that have opted in are led by Republican governors: Alabama, Alaska, Arkansas, Georgia, Idaho, Indiana, Iowa, Louisiana, Mississippi, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, Nevada, North Dakota, Ohio, Oklahoma, South Carolina, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas, Virginia, West Virginia, and Wyoming.

Virginia’s situation stands out: Former Republican Gov. Glenn Youngkin said his state would opt in, just before successor Gov. Abigail Spanberger, a Democrat, took office in January. Spanberger’s office did not respond to a request for comment about whether the state would change course.

In addition to the Democratic governors of Colorado and North Carolina, the GOP governors of Florida and Utah have also indicated their states will opt in, Education Week reported.

Shelby Wieman, a spokesperson for Polis, wrote in an emailed statement that Colorado still plans to opt in and will formally notify the federal government “shortly.”

Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker, a Democrat, is getting pressure from both ends of the political spectrum. Republican lawmakers say the state shouldn’t leave money on the table for children’s education. But advocacy groups that are urging the governor to reject the program have cited concerns about transparency.

Pritzker’s office has said the governor is still considering the issue, local station 25NewsNow reported.

Under the program, families can donate up to $1,700 to scholarship-granting organizations and receive an equivalent tax credit back. But key aspects of the program must still be determined by the federal government.

The Treasury Department is developing draft rules for how much authority states will have over the program. Those rules could determine how easily donations made under the tax credit could be used to benefit public school students alongside private school students. Such decisions could influence whether Democratic governors get on board.

Wednesday’s hearing took place during National School Choice Week, an annual event celebrated by groups that support programs like vouchers and charter schools nationwide.

Proponents of the tax credit said in Wednesday’s hearing that it will fuel innovative models of education to serve vulnerable kids.

John Kirtley, the chairman of Step Up for Students, which administers scholarships through Florida’s Education Scholarship Accounts program, said the state has become a “hotbed of innovation” for unique education programs, such as science lessons from a marine biologist for home-schooled children. Parents not satisfied with public schools have used education savings accounts successfully, he said.

“Giving the parent the flexibility not just to find a different school, but to customize their education with the education savings account to a great degree really is a lifesaver for them,” he said.

But in Arizona, which has several private school choice programs, there’s an “illusion of choice” because private school is still more easily available for wealthy families than low-income families, said Marisol Garcia, an educator and president of the Arizona Education Association.

“Private school tuition in Phoenix has exceeded $20,000 a year, leaving families thousands of dollars short,” she said.

Organizations have been working to increase the tax credit’s impact. Earlier this week, the American Federation for Children, an organization that’s long supported voucher programs, announced the launch of its own scholarship fund to accept donations via the federal tax credits.

Estimates for how much money Americans will claim under the tax credit have been as high as $51 billion, but it could be much less.

Updated: This story was updated to add a comment from a spokesperson for Colorado Gov. Jared Polis.

Correction: Jan. 28, 2025: A previous version of this story misidentified Sen. Bernie Sanders’ political affiliation. He is an independent who caucuses with Democrats.

Lily Altavena is a national reporter at Chalkbeat. Contact Lily at laltavena@chalkbeat.org.

How will we know if new school choice programs are helping students learn?

2026-01-27T22:30:19+00:00

In 2023, the research firm RAND received a large grant to study education savings accounts, which provide parents with stipends to support various forms of private education.

Susha Roy, a researcher on the project, was eager to figure out whether these rapidly growing programs were helping students learn. Roy and colleagues began looking for places to study. Perhaps Arizona, they thought, which launched the country’s first ESA with universal eligibility in 2022. This quickly proved to be a dead end, though, because the state doesn’t require ESA students to take any sort of standardized test.

Continue reading this article here.

IPS surpasses state graduation rates for Black, Hispanic students

2026-01-22T12:00:00+00:00

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When Donnessia Dancy was acting out, staff could hear her yelling clear across the halls of George Washington High School.

Now a high school senior, Dancy admits she was a “difficult child.” There were times when she lost all hope of graduating. But her teachers kept her on track.

“They gave the hope back,” she said. “Now, I start to believe that I am going to graduate — and now that they told me that I got two more credits left to graduate, I’m there.”

This year, Dancy is on track to join a cohort of graduating students that has grown at George Washington and across Indianapolis Public Schools since 2022. The overall IPS graduation rate — which includes charter schools that are part of the district’s Innovation Network — has risen in that time frame from nearly 80% for the Class of 2022 to 93% for the Class of 2025, surpassing the state’s record-setting rate of 91.8%, according to data the state released earlier this month.

The percentage of IPS students graduating without waivers from certain graduation requirements has also gone up recently. The record rates come on the eve of more changes to the state’s high school diploma, with new graduation requirements taking effect for all students in 2028-29.

IPS officials credit several district-wide initiatives for the improved rates. In 2018, Future Centers opened in each of the four district-run high schools to help students plan for life after graduation. In 2023, the district created writing centers to help with assignments and provide other academic support.

At George Washington High School, which has previously ranked lowest or second-lowest in graduation rates among the four traditional IPS high schools, the percentage of students graduating without a waiver has grown from roughly 73% for the Class of 2022 to about 89% for last year’s class.

“We had to create a culture around high expectations,” Principal Stanley Law said, referring to when he took over the school in 2018. “That you are expected to graduate in four years, and that we as a staff are going to do everything that we can to make sure that that happens.”

How an Indianapolis principal tracks student graduation info

Dozens of student names are neatly listed in color-coded columns on Law’s whiteboard. It’s a tracking tool for this year’s seniors that’s used district-wide.

Seniors must earn a minimum of 40 credits to graduate, but also must demonstrate employability skills and postsecondary readiness. They can meet these requirements by completing a work-based learning experience, for example, and by taking a standardized exam such as the ACT, SAT, or the ASVAB used for military enrollment.

The goal: to move every student over into Column A, where students have at least 30 credits and have completed the employability and postsecondary requirements.

“We track them every week in what we call a cohort meeting,” Law said. “We look at the grades, behavior, attendance, social-emotional — whatever other kind of barriers that exist for them, and we have conversations with several of these kids.”

Like the district as a whole, George Washington’s Black and Hispanic students graduated at higher rates than their peers statewide last year. The school graduated 91% of Black students and nearly 94% of Hispanic students — including those who graduated with waivers — compared with the statewide figures of roughly 87% and 90%, respectively.

IPS also graduated 97% percent of students receiving free or reduced-price meals, compared with 93% statewide.

At George Washington High School, many students come from difficult backgrounds and carry different traumas, Law said.

Dancy felt like nobody had her back before coming to the school, she said.

But she attributes her turnaround to Law’s decision to send her to Positive Supports Academy, an IPS program for students with behavioral challenges.

The experience last year prompted her to change, and over time she realized the school community was there to help. She visited the school’s Writing Center frequently to help with her schoolwork.

“They accept me for who I am and they actually want to help me,” she said. “Instead of just putting me in a classroom and telling me to sit down or something — they actually helped me go through the tough time.”

Herron-Riverside wants students to feel like they belong

Among charter high schools in the Innovation Network, Herron-Riverside High School posted the largest non-waiver rate jump since 2022, when the school graduated roughly 64% of seniors without the use of a waiver. Last year, the charter graduated 89%.

Students walk the halls at Herron-Riverside High School, a charter school in the IPS Innovation Network where there's been a significant jump in its non-waiver graduation rate since 2022.

Head of School Emanuel Harper credits the jump in part to an emphasis on making school enjoyable and creating a sense of belonging.

Herron-Riverside opened in 2017 to replicate the classical education provided at Herron High School downtown — but with the goal of serving a different, more diverse body than its flagship campus in the northwest part of the city, Harper said.

Students have a daily seminar to help sharpen their academic management skills. But the school has also leaned into more fun activities to keep students engaged — such as games students play throughout the day that are connected to larger school-wide goals, Harper said.

“Over the past four years, [we were] really thinking about, ‘Okay, we can shore up our academics, but do students feel like they belong?” he said. “Do they feel known? Do they feel loved?”

Herron-Riverside senior Willinda Chapel has embraced the school’s extracurricular offerings — she is a captain for three school sports. Chapel plans to play volleyball at Grace College as a biology major.

“There’s — especially here at Riverside — so many adults who care about not just the number that you are in the school but your personality,” she said. “They care about how you’re doing.”

Amelia Pak-Harvey covers Indianapolis and Lawrence Township schools for Chalkbeat Indiana. Contact Amelia at apak-harvey@chalkbeat.org.

IPS experiences biggest enrollment loss since pandemic, state records show

2026-01-20T12:00:00+00:00

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Indianapolis Public Schools experienced its greatest annual enrollment decline since the pandemic while charter school enrollment also dropped — trends that could signal fundamental challenges for both school types.

IPS enrollment dropped by 6% since last school year to 19,774 in 2025-26, while enrollment across both independent charters and charters in the district’s Innovation Network dropped nearly 3% from last year to just under 22,000 students, according to a Chalkbeat analysis of state enrollment data.

Overall, 41,663 students attend IPS or charter schools, with roughly 47% at IPS and about 53% at charters. (The analysis also includes charter schools just outside of IPS where a majority of students live in district borders.)

Across most Marion County school districts, there were also slight enrollment declines.

The enrollment dips come as schools across the country experience a continual post-COVID population drop that could stem from a number of factors, including declining birth rates, stricter immigration policy, and other school options. In Indianapolis, the declines could exacerbate a financial crunch schools are expecting through incoming property tax reforms estimated to cost school districts millions. In addition to property tax revenue, schools receive state funding that’s based on enrollment.

The declines also come with major changes on the horizon for Indianapolis public schools. Lawmakers are considering creating a new Indianapolis Public Education Corporation that would eventually own all school buildings and run transportation services, as well as levy and collect property taxes for schools and create an accountability system that includes closing low-performing schools.

“The reality facing public schools across the U.S. is that enrollment has been decreasing,” IPS said in a statement. “We will continue to thoughtfully navigate these shifts while also working hard to be the preferred choice for more families.”

In the charter sector, school mergers — which have occurred in recent years as schools have struggled with finances or enrollment — could be a solution if enrollment continues to decline.

“We do think that’s a really thoughtful strategy to both work to increase the number of kids that are attending higher quality operators, and to make sure that schools are operating as near to their capacity as possible,” said Brandon Brown, head of the Mind Trust nonprofit that has launched many of the city’s charter schools.

IPS enrollment drops by over 1,000 students

Enrollment at IPS schools declined by 1,281 students from last year to this year, the greatest drop since losing 2,681 students after the 2019-20 school year. These schools include traditional IPS schools and those in the Innovation Network that are not charter schools.

The decline mirrors broader demographic trends. State records show the number of students living in IPS attendance boundaries fell from 49,721 in October 2024 to 48,869 October 2025, a 1.7% drop. These figures exclude students attending private school without a state-funded voucher or those who are home-schooled.

A demographic report commissioned by the district and released in 2021 projected that enrollment in seventh and eighth grades, as well as the elementary school population, would decline.

But the district’s greatest declines occurred at the high school level, with high school enrollment dropping 9% to 5,115 across its four high schools and smaller high school programs. Ninth grade saw the highest percentage decrease at roughly 20%, or a loss of 281 students over last year.

Middle school enrollment dropped nearly 6% to 3,626.

Meanwhile, enrollment at independent charters dropped by 740 students — the largest year-over-year drop in at least seven years — while Innovation Network charters grew by 113 students.

(The analysis includes prekindergarten students in total counts, and excludes adult charter high schools and virtual or blended charter schools not affiliated with the Innovation Network.)

Across the nearly 60 charter schools, overall enrollment dropped from 22,516 to 21,889 — a loss of 627 students, or nearly 3%. These schools primarily lost students in the lower elementary grades.

But IPS noted that enrollment in its portfolio of schools — which include both traditional schools and those in the Innovation Network — has remained “remarkably stable.” That total figure dropped by roughly 4%, from over 32,000 students last year to under 31,000 this year.

The Mind Trust, meanwhile, noted that more students are attending autonomous schools — charters and Innovation Network schools, both charter and non-charter — than traditional district schools.

IPS, charter demographics remain largely unchanged

Racial and ethnic demographics have largely remained the same across district and charter schools.

Independent charters continue to have a higher proportion of Black students but a lower proportion of English language learners than IPS schools and charters in the Innovation Network.

Although immigration enforcement efforts have raised concerns about enrollment declines nationwide, the proportion of English language learners as a percentage of total enrollment has remained relatively stable.

The percentage of IPS students receiving free or reduced-price meals jumped from roughly 59% to nearly 68%, although both Innovation and independent charters continue to enroll a higher share of such students.

State data on enrollment levels of students with disabilities across the different school types is not yet available.

Amelia Pak-Harvey covers Indianapolis and Lawrence Township schools for Chalkbeat Indiana. Contact Amelia at apak-harvey@chalkbeat.org.

Global Prep to open second location near Martindale-Brightwood to accommodate growth

2026-01-15T12:00:00+00:00

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Global Prep Academy will expand its middle school grades to a second site near Martindale-Brightwood with the $2.7 million purchase of a building directly off the Monon Trail.

The new building at 1002 E. 25th St. sits on a former industrial site and will be renovated to house up to 325 middle school students, according to Global Prep founder Mariama Shaheed.

The pre-K-8 charter school’s enrollment has more than tripled since launching as an autonomous Innovation Network school within Indianapolis Public Schools in 2016. The charter was tasked by the district with turning around the underperforming Riverside School 44 and started that year with 269 students. Today, it enrolls more than 800.

The second building, which Global Prep said will open in the fall, will free up space at School 44 roughly three miles away, where seventh and eighth grade students currently learn in a modular classroom outside the main building.

The expansion comes on the eve of what could be a transformation for IPS. State lawmakers are considering legislation that would force IPS to relinquish control of all its buildings to an independent authority, which could award space to deserving, high-performing charter and district schools.

But capacity has been a challenge at Global Prep for years, Shaheed said. Prior to deciding to open a second site near the Monon Trail, the school had planned to expand its program within Harshman Middle School as part of the district’s Rebuilding Stronger plan — but the district later abandoned this plan after pushback from the community there.

Shaheed attributes the enrollment growth in part to the school’s dual language model, as well as its support for all students, including those with disabilities.

“We’ve always had the approach that if you come to our doors, we’re going to serve you and serve you well,” Shaheed said.

Second site could help Global Prep’s founding mission

Shaheed said she was attracted to the site not only for its availability, but also because of her initial intent in founding Global Prep: to bring dual language education to more Black families.

The site is on the edge of Martindale-Brightwood, an area that has been home to working-class Black families and industrial companies, according to the Encyclopedia of Indianapolis.

The new location shares a transportation zone with the lower school in Riverside, remaining just on the edge of Zone 1. Families who live in Zone 1 and Zone 2, the northwestern and northern parts of the district, receive transportation to Global Prep.

Shaheed said the school is working with the district to get transportation to its second site, but added she hopes nearby students will also walk to school.

“We want kids to walk to school,” she said. “We want to be right there and serve that community.”

Since Global Prep transformed School 44 into a dual language program, its demographics have changed from majority Black to majority Hispanic.

Shaheed is working to increase the Black student population, with more intentional recruitment efforts at the kindergarten and pre-kindergarten level, she said.

New location for Global Prep has a railroad history

The middle school’s new location was once part of a railroad switching yard and a motor machinery warehouse, among other industrial uses, according to documents filed with the Indiana Department of Environmental Management, or IDEM.

Global Prep Academy, a charter school in the Riverside neighborhood, will open a second location at a former printing facility off of east 25th Street near Martindale-Brightwood. The school, which has grown since taking over Riverside School 44, will place its middle school grades at the new site.

Given its past, it was classified as a brownfield — a federal and state classification given to sites that could have hazardous substances or contaminants.

But as long as the school adheres to a restrictive covenant placed on the land, it can have a “safe redevelopment of any kind,” officials with the Indiana Brownfield Program said in a statement.

That restriction requires the land owner to submit a soil management plan approved by IDEM before digging up soil. The soil management report commissioned by the school in 2025 and later approved by IDEM ultimately found that there were no hazardous concentrations of any contaminants in the soil, Indiana Brownfield Program officials said.

Shaheed said the school is also avoiding digging at the site altogether, instead working to renovate the existing building.

“We’ve done our due diligence in terms of bringing on the right people who know that work to make sure that as we move forward, we’re safe for kids,” she said.

Amelia Pak-Harvey covers Indianapolis and Lawrence Township schools for Chalkbeat Indiana. Contact Amelia at apak-harvey@chalkbeat.org.

What Colorado’s ‘public Christian school’ means for the nation

2026-01-14T00:01:26+00:00

What some are calling a “public Christian school” has opened in Southern Colorado.

Riverstone Academy is unusual in many ways. A grade school, it has just 31 students and sits in a former office building outside the small city of Pueblo. It promises “trades-based learning” with a “Christian foundation.” Riverstone is receiving public funding, but it remains in a legal gray area. In fact, the school was created to test legal boundaries, according to an email obtained by Chalkbeat Colorado, although it is not yet the subject of any litigation.

Riverstone faces an additional barrier. Local authorities recently ordered the school to close its building because of various fire and safety concerns. Its future is in flux.

Read the full story here.

Legislative proposal would create a new mayor-appointed board over Indianapolis schools and charter schools

2026-01-08T18:36:04+00:00

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A much-anticipated proposal that would give the Indianapolis mayor more power over schools while reducing the power of the existing elected school board has been filed in the statehouse. The bill marks the next step toward a fundamental shift in how Indianapolis Public Schools and charter schools operate, and could go into effect in just a few months.

HB 1423 largely falls in line with the recommendations of the Indianapolis Local Education Alliance and would create an Indianapolis Public Education Corporation made of nine board members appointed by the mayor. The new body would have the authority to control and manage school property, as well as to establish and oversee a transportation plan to transport all students within Indianapolis Public Schools boundaries — the two primary goals lawmakers had for the work of the Indianapolis Local Education Alliance.

The Indianapolis mayor would need to appoint members to the corporation body by June 1, 2026.

The bill would require all schools within district boundaries — district and charter — to offer transportation. Currently, fewer than half of independent charter schools offer bus services, while roughly half of charters in the IPS Innovation Network use IPS bus services, according to a report from the mayor’s Office of Education Innovation.

In a significant shift of power, the district would lose its authority to levy and collect property taxes or issue debt, powers that would instead go to the new corporation. The legislation tasks the corporation with developing a formula by which to distribute property tax funds to schools.

The bill does not, however, mention the need for additional special education funding — a recommendation from the ILEA that does not appear to have been adopted.

The legislation comes after months of heated public meetings during which parents, students, school leaders, and community members debated the future of schools in Indianapolis. Supporters of IPS decried efforts to take power from the elected school board, voicing concern over publicly funded, privately run charter schools. Charter school supporters, meanwhile, pushed back against any attempts to limit charter school growth and advocated for more student transportation options.

The bill will be heard on Monday at 9:30 a.m. in the House Education Committee, according to committee chair and bill author Rep. Bob Behning of Indianapolis. If it passes the committee, it will head to a vote in the full House, then the Senate.

Bill limits charter authorizers, requires closure of low-performing schools

The legislation would also limit charter authorizing within IPS boundaries to the mayor’s office, the Indiana Charter School Board, and the IPS school board, which has expressed interest in becoming an authorizer. Schools overseen by other authorizers would be able to remain with those authorizers until the end of their charter term.

Indianapolis Local Education Alliance backs plan to create new education authority to oversee IPS, charter schools

The corporation board would be composed of three charter school leaders, three IPS commissioners, and three other members who have expertise in capital planning, facilities, transportation, or logistics or experience working with vulnerable student populations, as recommended by the ILEA. Each member’s term would be four years, though they would be eligible for reappointment.

Under the proposal, the new body would establish and manage a unified enrollment system, as well as a single school performance framework.

The school rating system must be based on academic performance and assessments, student discipline, enrollment, condition of school property, and the health of the school’s finances, organization, and governance. The framework must also close chronically low-performing schools.

School boards would still be responsible for running day-to-day operations of district and charter schools, retaining the power to hire and fire employees or create their own school budgets.

Bill sets deadlines for transfer of financial responsibilities

The bill would ultimately shift financial responsibility of taxes and bonds from the IPS school board to the corporation.

The corporation would assume the power to seek voter-approved tax increases for operating or capital expenses in April. That’s when the corporation would also become liable for all the outstanding debt of the district — typically used for larger expenses such as building maintenance or construction projects — which would no longer be able to issue bonds for debt.

How a fractured Indianapolis school system reached the verge of a huge power shakeup

However, the existing operating and capital referendum funds, approved by voters in IPS in 2018 and 2023, respectively, would still go to IPS to cover costs that voters specifically approved at the ballot.

The bill also exempts IPS from a state law requiring school districts to give unused or underutilized school buildings to charter schools for the sale or lease price of $1.

The bill could still see significant amendments during the 2026 session. Behning previously expressed skepticism about giving the Indianapolis mayor authority to appoint all nine members of the body. He did not immediately respond to a question from Chalkbeat Thursday.

Following the bill’s filing on Thursday, Mayor Joe Hogsett’s office declined to comment beyond a previously published op-ed by the mayor in the Indianapolis Star. In it, Hogsett, who chaired the ILEA, expressed support for the groups’ recommendations and asked for “our local voices to remain at the forefront” of the conversation at the statehouse.

Scott Bess of the Indiana Charter Innovation Center, which advocates for charters around the state and in Indianapolis, said the group is generally supportive of the bill, but raised concerns about limiting charter authorizers and requiring schools to offer transportation.

IPS said in a statement that the district was still analyzing the bill language.

This story was updated to include more background information and responses from Mayor Joe Hogsett’s office, the Indiana Charter Innovation Center, and Indianapolis Public Schools.

Amelia Pak-Harvey covers Indianapolis and Lawrence Township schools for Chalkbeat Indiana. Contact Amelia at apak-harvey@chalkbeat.org.

Aleksandra Appleton covers Indiana education policy and writes about K-12 schools across the state. Contact her at aappleton@chalkbeat.org.

How a fractured Indianapolis school system reached the verge of a huge power shakeup

2025-12-19T21:57:06+00:00

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In December 2011, a well-funded nonprofit group founded by two powerful Democrats — a former Indianapolis mayor and his one-time charter school chief — floated a bold idea.

It was a plan to radically remake Indianapolis Public Schools, which was struggling academically and losing students to the city’s growing charter school sector.

One of the policy prescriptions in The Mind Trust’s 2011 Opportunity Schools report was a somewhat wild notion: that the mayor could take charge of the school system through a new local board that was appointed. The elected IPS school board would be effectively sidelined.

Fourteen years later, it could be on the verge of happening.

A state-mandated task force called the Indianapolis Local Education Alliance, composed mostly of members connected to the charter sector, voted this week to recommend that a mayoral-appointed board oversee a new agency in charge of both city school district and charter schools.

The action now shifts to the Republican-controlled statehouse, where lawmakers are expected to craft legislation drawing from the recommendations but may not follow them faithfully.

That the city’s schools sit on the cusp of such radical change is the culmination of over half a century’s worth of educational, political, and social disruption for Indianapolis schools that opened the door for education reformers and their allies to advance their vision.

“You get what you can when you can,” Paul Hill, founder of the Center on Reinventing Public Education, said of the steps it took Indianapolis to get here. “I do think that there were people — and probably in Indianapolis more than some other places — where people really were just kind of taking one step at a time.”

Understanding the factors that led Indianapolis schools to this moment requires going back to 1954 and a landmark U.S. Supreme Court decision that reshaped the country’s schools.

Desegregation sparks decades of declining IPS enrollment

As schools nationwide desegregated following the Brown v. Board of Education ruling of 1954, Indiana lawmakers were pondering what might have seemed like a very different issue: how to make Indianapolis both bigger and more unified.

The solution they adopted in 1969 was to merge local government services into a city-county system known as Unigov.

But leaders did not merge IPS with the surrounding township schools in Marion County. That was because combining the mostly Black IPS district with the mostly white township districts would have sparked a political firestorm and threatened the bill’s passage.

“Unigov was not a perfect consolidation,” then-Mayor Richard Lugar previously told Chalkbeat. “A good number of people really wanted to keep at least their particular school segregated.”

A portrait of basketball team at Crispus Attucks High School and their coach, EJ Hooper, in Indianapolis in the late 1920s. (Photo by Underwood Archives/Getty Images)

Isolating IPS schools and putting off desegregation would have long-term ramifications.

In 1971, a federal judge found IPS guilty of maintaining racially segregated schools. Judge S. Hugh Dillin’s 1971 order to integrate schools — later tied up in a yearslong legal battle — arrived at the start of an IPS enrollment decline that continues today, eroding district finances.

Many white families left the district. In 1981, IPS lost more students when it bused thousands of Black students to six surrounding township districts under a court order.

That year, desegregation and declining enrollment forced the district to close 10 schools. Enrollment ultimately plunged from 108,000 in 1971 — the same year as Dillin’s ruling — to just 47,000 by the early 1990s.

Mandated busing to townships ended in 2016, when the busing order ended. By then, the district had already closed at least 23 additional schools, according to board documents, news articles, and archives from the Indianapolis Public Library.

This year, there are only about 21,000 students in schools IPS runs directly, or about 80% below district enrollment just over half a century ago. IPS enrollment consists overwhelmingly of students of color. And in 2022, the IPS school board voted to close six schools as part of a sweeping overhaul of facilities and curriculum.

The mayor who made charter schools his focus

In the late 1990s and early 2000s, IPS was plagued with headlines about students’ poor academic performance.

That negative attention helped open the door for a new type of public school: the charter school. And a former Indianapolis mayor was at the heart of charter schools’ ascent in the city.

When Indiana passed a law permitting charter schools in 2001, it was part of a national wave of education reform enabled by the federal No Child Left Behind Act of 2002 and the systematic expansion of standardized testing, said Sarah Reckhow, a political science professor at Michigan State University and co-author of “Outside Money in School Board Elections,” which profiles Indianapolis.

But how the city decided to end up authorizing charters ultimately set Indianapolis apart from others during this era, she noted.

The law passed with the backing of Democratic Indianapolis Mayor Bart Peterson. It gave the mayor the power to authorize charter schools. Some hailed charters — which are publicly funded but privately run — as a potential solution to traditional public schools’ struggles.

“I believe the charter schools were really the right kind of middle ground approach, and could eventually potentially be a consensus — could build an alternative to the kind of polarized hostility that existed back then,” Peterson previously told Chalkbeat.

Peterson’s connection to charters continued when he left office. In 2006, he co-founded The Mind Trust with David Harris, who was director of charter schools in his administration. Its goal: to “transform the public education system” in the city, in part by developing new schools and recruiting talented leaders to guide them, according to tax filings at the time.

Although not all the city’s charters have had the group’s support, ultimately the group contributed significantly to the charter sector’s rapid growth. In 2006, there were about 15 charter schools within IPS borders. Today, there are over 50. (The Mind Trust’s funding through contributions and grants has also grown from under $1 million in 2006 to over $28 million in fiscal 2024, according to tax information.)

Mind Trust CEO Brandon Brown credits Peterson with building the foundation for the city’s charter schools.

“To have a mayor that happened to be a Democrat run for office in support of charter schools and support and utilize the ability to serve as a charter school authorizer was nationally unique,” Brown said. He added that the mayor’s role provided a way “to pursue school reform without necessarily needing to take over an entire school district.”

This year, Peterson served as a member of the Indianapolis Local Education Alliance. He was one of eight task force members who voted to adopt its recommendations.

Education reform takes root in Indianapolis

Other advocacy groups supporting education reform emerged in The Mind Trust’s wake. Stand for Children launched its Indiana affiliate in 2011, organizing parents to speak at board meetings on topics such as closing the opportunity gap for students of color. RISE Indy formed in 2019, focused on promoting policies and programs to advance educational equity. Both groups advocate for charters too.

Beginning in 2012, money from out-of-state school choice advocates also flowed into IPS school board races, including from PACs associated with those groups.

“What made the school board elections really important in the eyes of especially school choice advocates nationally — and what made them rise to the level of attracting this outside money — is that there was this sort of local discretion about how charter schools would grow or not grow,” Reckhow said.

In 2014, charters’ influence increased when they gained access to district resources through a law brokered by statehouse Republicans and then-IPS Superintendent Lewis Ferebee.

That arrangement led to the district’s Innovation Network, which 25 charter schools now participate in.

Today, charters serve around 40% of the roughly 49,000 K-12 public school or voucher students living within IPS borders, according to the most recent state data.

How IPS lost its grip on property taxes

Charters gained significant support in Indianapolis over time. But even as they grew, they lacked access to a critical source of revenue: local property taxes that help traditional districts pay for transportation and facilities.

Instead, for many years, they relied on philanthropic funding from organizations like The Mind Trust to cover those costs.

The public funding inequity created a political problem for IPS. In 2022, IPS planned a referendum for $413.6 million in property taxes for the following year. Though the district planned to give some of the funding to its Innovation Network charters, it resisted giving any to independent charters, citing concerns about transparency and accountability.

Charter school leaders and advocates publicly pressured the district to share more of those dollars. They cited a gap in per-pupil spending between district and charters that would reach over $10,000 for independent charters if IPS didn’t share money from the referendum.

Early in 2023, IPS decided not to put the referendum on the ballot. That was a major blow to the district’s finances: IPS projects it will run into the red shortly after the 2018 referendum expires in 2026.

All the while, lawmakers at the statehouse were watching.

After seeing these fights over financial and other issues play out, Republican lawmakers drafted a bill in 2025 that would dissolve IPS and replace it with charter schools. They cited the high number of students opting out of IPS and the district’s poor finances.

“The goal is to get them into a financial spot so that they can continue to exist,” Rep. Jake Teshka, a Republican who co-authored the bill, previously told Chalkbeat. “Nobody woke up one day and said, ‘We really want to dissolve IPS. We want to attack IPS.’”

The bill failed. But it foreshadowed GOP lawmakers’ priorities in 2025: They created the ILEA to address how the district could share its transportation and building resources with charters.

On top of that, charters secured significant funding wins. Perhaps most significantly, lawmakers passed legislation that required IPS to share its property tax revenues with all charter schools that enroll students living within its boundaries.

Lawmakers also adopted property tax relief during the 2025 session that will hurt district coffers statewide. Both measures combined are expected to cost the district millions annually.

The recommendations the ILEA adopted on Wednesday include giving the new Indianapolis Public Education Corporation the power to impose property taxes for district and charter schools.

That could lead IPS to lose still more control over its finances — and by extension, its future.

Amelia Pak-Harvey covers Indianapolis and Lawrence Township schools for Chalkbeat Indiana. Contact Amelia atapak-harvey@chalkbeat.org.

NJ’s interdistrict school choice program is limited in reach, new data shows

2025-12-18T22:40:56+00:00

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New Jersey’s Interdistrict Public School Choice Program has remained steady over the years, offering the option to a relatively small and consistent number of students, mostly from affluent districts, rather than expanding its access on a broader scale, state data obtained by Chalkbeat shows.

The state’s choice program was created to allow students to attend public schools outside their home district, but it has been stalled for more than a decade due to a lack of funding.

Participation in the program has stayed consistent, averaging around 5,000 students annually, according to a Chalkbeat analysis of the program’s data over the last 10 years. That figure has been largely unchanged even as some school districts across the state experience declining enrollments.

There are 119 participating “choice districts” spanning counties such as Hudson, Morris, Passaic, and Burlington, but no Essex County districts, including Newark, currently participate. Traditional public school districts must opt in as choice districts and can set limits on the number of students they accept.

Gov.-elect Mikie Sherrill has expressed support for expanding the program, mainly as a way to desegregate the state’s public schools. The program is currently budgeted for $62 million and in 2012-13, Gov. Chris Christie’s administration capped the program at 5% growth annually. Some participating superintendents said that left the program underfunded and incapable of meeting the demand for seats.

To operate the program, the state provides the receiving district with money to cover the cost of educating a student. But experts have warned that paying for students isn’t the same everywhere because of differences in tax levies across cities and towns.

Supporters of the program say scaling up would help desegregate schools, support districts facing enrollment declines, and give students more options to specialized programs.

In many cases, the sending and receiving districts are close neighbors, suggesting that families are choosing districts that are close to home, according to Chalkbeat’s analysis. Sending school districts must pay for up to 20 miles of a student’s transportation. After that, parents must cover the cost to send their child to school, which shapes who is able to take advantage of the program and determines where a student can go.

In 2024, Winslow Township Schools in Camden County sent 473 students to other districts, the highest of any sending district in the program, followed by Jersey City Public Schools in Hudson County and Middle Township Public Schools in Cape May County, which both sent 134.

Also in 2024, Hammonton Public Schools in Atlantic County received 224 students, the highest of any choice district in the program, followed by the Englewood Public School District in Bergen County that received 215, and the Folsom School District in Atlantic County that received 207.

The data also shows that participation is concentrated among a few communities. While some districts send or receive hundreds of students, many others see little to no movement through the program. Lawrence Township Public Schools stands out as a “choice-neutral” district because it sent and received 80 students in 2024, while several smaller districts showed a similar trend but on a much smaller scale.

Although the program has been around for more than two decades, there’s little data available about how it is currently working, which students are participating, and the financial impact on sending and receiving school districts.

Supporters of the program have signaled that an expansion into Essex County could be next. That could have implications for Newark Public Schools, where enrollment has increased by nearly 20% over the last five years. The latest state figures show Newark enrolled roughly 44,000 pre-K through 12th grade students in the 2024-25 school year, up from roughly 36,600 in 2019.

Education experts also said that expanding the choice program could strain district budgets, especially in districts like Newark, where state aid makes up 84% of its budget this school year. But in affluent districts with higher property taxes, the program has yielded positive results.

In the Glassboro Public School District in Gloucester County, former Superintendent Mark Silverstein previously told Chalkbeat that the state cap set by the Christie administration in 2012-13 prevented his district from growing the choice program. During Silverstein’s tenure, about 200 students from neighboring school districts participated. That program helped boost student achievement and strengthen academic programs, Silverstein added.

Jessie Gómez is a reporter for Chalkbeat Newark, covering public education in the city. Contact Jessie at jgomez@chalkbeat.org.

Charter school advocates fear their future at the Labor Department

2025-12-18T12:35:16+00:00

Unlike many other education advocacy groups, the National Alliance for Public Charter Schools stayed publicly silent after the Trump administration announced last month that it was outsourcing key parts of the Education Department.

Privately, though, leaders there were worried — and busy.

In an initial email to supporters, which I obtained, National Alliance CEO Starlee Coleman listed a string of “concerns that are top of mind.” One fear, Coleman wrote, was that Labor Secretary Lori Chavez-DeRemer, whose department would manage a number of education programs, was too aligned with labor unions.

Click here to read the full story.

IPS school board says it wants to be charter authorizer

2025-12-16T23:42:50+00:00

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The Indianapolis Public Schools board said it will start the process to be a charter authorizer, a major step announced the day before a vote that could lead to less power for the elected school board.

The statement sent to Chalkbeat comes on the eve of major changes to IPS and charter schools. The Indianapolis Local Education Alliance is considering proposals that would dilute the school board’s power, creating one entity to oversee both district and charter schools and is set to vote Wednesday on final recommendations to send to state lawmakers.

The move by the IPS board means it would have the power to open or close charter schools and hold the schools accountable based on certain standards. Adding IPS as a charter authorizer is not part of the formal proposals the ILEA is considering, despite suggestions from education advocacy groups.

State law allows the IPS school board to become an authorizer. The board made an attempt to authorize charter schools after Indiana passed its the charter law in 2001, but never authorized any. Instead, charters open in IPS borders today are overseen by one of three authorizers: the mayor’s Office of Education Innovation, the Indiana Charter School Board, and Education One at Trine University.

State law requires school boards to register with the state board of education for chartering authority within district boundaries.

In its statement, the board said that its partnerships with charters in its Innovation Network of autonomous schools have set the foundation for charter authorizing. While those charters are approved by an authorizer to open, they must also strike an agreement with IPS to operate as an Innovation Network school. Those agreements can be renewed or non-renewed.

The board also said the decision to start the authorization process would be a “step toward unparalleled local accountability.”

“For too long, the accountability we have sought has been inconsistent across authorizers,” the IPS board statement said. “We believe we can, and must, lead the pack, by establishing the rigorous and consistent standards necessary to serve our incredible 41,000 students and set the benchmark for quality education in our city.”

Amid public fervor over the ILEA’s proposed governance changes, some groups have called for the school board to become an authorizer.

Stand for Children Indiana, which has advocated for the expansion of high-performing charter models, has called for a partially elected, partially appointed school board that serves as the charter authorizer. The group’s proposal has also called for an end to district-run schools and for all schools in IPS to become autonomous — either as an Innovation school or a charter school — with their own boards.

A coalition of groups supportive of traditional IPS schools, meanwhile, has called for a fully elected school board to serve as authorizer and oversee both district and charter schools.

Earlier on Tuesday, Superintendent Aleesia Johnson and Mayor Joe Hogsett — both members of the alliance — voiced support for limiting charter authorization to two entities: the Office of Education and the Indiana Charter School Board.

Charter advocates have opposed having one charter authorizer in Indianapolis.

Correction: This story was updated to accurately reflect the district’s history as a charter authorizer.

Amelia Pak-Harvey covers Indianapolis and Lawrence Township schools for Chalkbeat Indiana. Contact Amelia at apak-harvey@chalkbeat.org.

Parents, students skeptical of ILEA proposals to change who oversees Indianapolis schools

2025-12-11T03:19:59+00:00

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Parents and others have expressed skepticism about a task force’s proposals to change who oversees charters and Indianapolis Public Schools, arguing the plans would create additional bureaucracy without improving education.

Roughly 100 people attended a public input session at KIPP Indy Legacy High School on Wednesday, just one week before the Indianapolis Local Education Alliance votes on recommendations to make sweeping changes to IPS and charters. Their recommendations will go to state lawmakers.

The alliance will consider two proposals that would significantly dilute the power of the elected IPS school board. One gives oversight of both charter and IPS schools to a collaborative board consisting of IPS, mayoral, and charter school appointees. Another gives oversight to an independent Indianapolis Education Authority within the mayor’s office.

But both proposals encountered virtually universal criticism on Wednesday. In a breakout group during the session that focused on the best structure for governing schools, supporters of both IPS and charter schools said either option could result in more bureaucracy.

“One of the reasons that our school system is failing our students is because we keep on inventing new ways of creating structures that don’t really care about the learning inside the classroom,” said Bony Georges, an IPS teacher who is also an advocate with Stand for Children Indiana, which has supported expanding charter school models. “At the end of the day, I’m confident it will fail. Why? Because parents, students don’t care about school systems that we are creating, models that we are creating — they care about good education.”

Other parents questioned how these proposals would foster collaboration between IPS and the charter sector, or how they would close the opportunity gap between students of color and their white peers.

Groups supporting IPS have pushed the ILEA to consider giving the elected IPS school board expanded powers, including becoming the sole authorizer of charters in district boundaries.

Meanwhile, Stand for Children’s advocates have proposed that a new hybrid IPS school board, partly elected and partly appointed by the mayor’s Office of Education innovation, should serve as the charter authorizer. The plan also calls for district-run schools to become Innovation or charter schools with their own boards.

Samantha Douglas, president of the Far Eastside Community Council, said her experience has shown that the city’s current boards with appointed members already consist of individuals who do not represent their residents well.

“What you’re proposing is that we have more boards with more appointees that will continue to not represent general residents well,” she said.

ILEA members at Wednesday’s meeting explained their support or opposition to the various models.

Former mayor Bart Peterson said he did not favor a model that would put an elected IPS school board in charge of boh district-run and charter schools. He pointed out that the district has never chosen to authorize a school — even though state law gives IPS that ability.

“I don’t think the charter school community would believe — I don’t believe — that that is the environment in which all of the decision-making ought to occur,” Peterson said.

Another ILEA member, Tobin McClamroch, said the two proposals that would reduce the current IPS board’s authority prioritized collaboration. By bringing charters and district schools together under one entity, he said, it would create an economy of scale that would make IPS sustainable as it faces serious long-term fiscal concerns.

Students from charter and district schools also voiced skepticism that the proposals would make a real impact in their classrooms or affect how they get to school. Instead, they cited the need for help with other problems students face: gun violence, mental health challenges, and getting to and from school safely.

KIPP Indy Legacy High School senior Dazlyn Delarosa said both options under consideration by the ILEA that would dilute the elected school board’s power are unpopular with the public and do not address the issues at hand.

But she also criticized the lack of input from students who, like her, have struggled with challenges like housing instability. In their own breakout group Wednesday, she said, students discussed the importance of safety.

“That is what they care about — that’s all they care about. They want to be safe when they go to school,” she said. “They want to know that there are adults with them. They want to know that security is available. They want to feel safe coming to school, being in a safe building.”

The task force is also considering two sets of proposals for how transportation and facilities could be shared by district and charter schools.

In one model, schools participate in and pay into a collaborative that handles transportation and building services. In another model, an independent authority collects property taxes and oversees those services.

The next public listening session is on Monday from 12-2 p.m. at the Madame Walker Legacy Center at 617 Indiana Ave. The ILEA’s final vote on which recommendations to adopt will be held on Dec. 17 at the City-County Building at 200 E. Washington St.

Amelia Pak-Harvey covers Indianapolis and Lawrence Township schools for Chalkbeat Indiana. Contact Amelia at apak-harvey@chalkbeat.org.

Corrections and clarifications: This story has been updated to include more details on Stand for Children’s proposal.

Groups backing IPS slam proposals advanced by task force that would reduce elected board’s power

2025-12-04T23:55:45+00:00

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A coalition supporting Indianapolis Public Schools is blasting a task force’s proposals to dilute the power of the elected school board, and is also calling for IPS to have the power to authorize charter schools.

The coalition’s response on Thursday comes on the heels of recommendations advanced by the Indianapolis Local Education Alliance on Wednesday that would dramatically alter how district and charter schools in the city are governed. The groups in the coalition — the Central Indiana Democratic Socialists of America, the Concerned Clergy of Indianapolis, the Indianapolis Education Association, and the IPS Parent Council — have been critical of the growth of charters.

The coalition also shared an alternative proposal, authored by the Central Indiana DSA, for changing how schools are run that would provide the elected IPS school board more power, not less.

Kristen Phair of the IPS Parent Council said at a press conference that the alliance’s proposals ignored the wishes of more than 1,000 families who signed a letter calling for an elected school board to serve as the sole authorizer of charter schools.

“Parents have consistent serious concerns: the weakening of democratic oversight, the creation of new authorities with unclear accountability over transportation, facilities, and public funds, and a rushed timeline that has allowed only limited and shallow engagement,” Phair said. “There is no evidence that these changes will benefit our kids.”

The charter school community, meanwhile, welcomed some aspects of the ILEA’s preferred recommendations while cautioning the alliance not to restrict charter schools’ autonomy. The Mind Trust, an influential Indianapolis nonprofit that has helped start many local charters, applauded the alliance’s work, saying it has recognized “the need for multiple quality charter school authorizers.”

The Indianapolis Local Education Alliance advanced two proposals for changing oversight of public schools for further public input on Wednesday. One would create an advisory board made up of appointees from the mayor’s office, IPS, and charters. It would collect and levy taxes, and both charters’ boards and the elected IPS board would report to this board. The other would concentrate more power in the hands of the mayor, who would appoint a new secretary of education and make appointments to a nine-member board. Both models leave open the possibility for more than one charter authorizer.

Public pressure is mounting on members of the alliance as they consider recommendations for how to address falling IPS enrollment, long-term fiscal concerns for traditional public schools, and the growth of charters in the city. After gathering more public input, the alliance will vote Dec. 17 on final recommendations to send to state lawmakers. Many Republican legislators have sought to divert money and other resources away from IPS in recent years.

Voice and a Choice plan emphasizes IPS authority

The Voice and a Choice plan supported by the pro-IPS coalition would keep authority under an elected school board, which would also gain the sole power to open and close charter schools.

IPS would continue operating buildings and transportation services for charter and district schools, and an elected school board would set policy that would hold both district and charter schools to the same standard.

The coalition’s model differs sharply from the transportation and facilities proposals advanced by the task force, which would strip the district’s authority over those services and instead move it to either an advisory board or an independent authority.

“The ILEA’s other proposed options add needless complexity and create further opportunities for wealthy, private actors to personally profit rather than address the real issues: underfunding, systemic racism, and a lack of public accountability,” said Adrea McCloud, an IPS teacher and co-chair of a campaign run by the Central Indiana DSA in support of traditional public schools.

In general, shifting control of transportation and buildings away from IPS is something pro-charter advocates have supported.

“Even with the best intentions, we can play favorites,” said Sashah Fletcher, a parent affiliated with EmpowerED Families, said at the alliance meeting on Wednesday. “When we talk about sharing assets specific to school transportation, I believe the best path is a transportation and authority that is not housed in any school system.”

The proposals the ILEA advanced represent wins for charters in other respects, although the ILEA could change them before putting them to a final vote.

The ILEA has discussed a moratorium on new public schools in the city while it undergoes structural changes, but it did not include that in the proposals it advanced this week. Charter leaders have opposed such a moratorium. They also argued against restrictions on the number of charter authorizers, and the ILEA did not move forward with such proposals.

“Eliminating independent authorizers concentrates authority in ways that increase political risk,” said Tommy Reddicks, the CEO of Paramount Schools of Excellence, a network of charters. “A ban on charter expansion denies families access to proven models.”

Mind Trust CEO Brandon Brown also cautioned the task force against concentrating too much power in a small group of officials.

“As the ILEA continues its deliberations, we encourage members to guard against creating a new overarching governance structure that could unintentionally infringe upon school autonomy,” Brown said.

Amelia Pak-Harvey covers Indianapolis and Lawrence Township schools for Chalkbeat Indiana. Contact Amelia at apak-harvey@chalkbeat.org.

Q&A: School choice’s progressive roots get the spotlight in Joseph Viteritti’s ‘Radical Dreamers’

2025-12-04T20:17:37+00:00

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The modern school choice movement has complicated roots.

It connects to the free-market theories of economist Milton Friedman; Catholic activists’ efforts to put their schools on equal footing; white parents’ efforts to circumvent federally mandated school integration; and the Black Power movement that fought for community control of education.

Friedman’s vision appears to be winning. A growing number of Republican-led states are adopting universal vouchers or education savings accounts that give public money to families, regardless of their economic status or access to high-performing public schools.

In “Radical Dreamers: Race, Choice, and the Failure of American Education,” political scientist Joseph Viteritti turns the focus back to the most progressive thread of the school choice story, chronicling the contributions of education researchers, lawyers, theorists, and activists — many of them Black men and women — who believed that all children could learn and that what happens in schools matters.

Joseph Viteritti is a professor of public policy at Hunter College in New York.

Viteritti, a professor at Hunter College in New York, describes his front row seat to fitful efforts to improve public schools, his evolution into a supporter of school choice, and the uneasy alliance between conservatives and Black activists that shaped early school choice policy.

After the Brown v. Board of Education decision, disillusion with integration efforts drove support for community control of schools, historically Black independent schools, and school choice policies targeted at the most disadvantaged students. In that context, Viteritti challenges the notion that it is “conservative” to support school choice, or “progressive” to oppose it.

Viteritti has had close personal and professional relationships with many of the people profiled in his book.

There is Ron Edmonds, a researcher on effective schools who sought to disprove the idea that demographics determined students’ destinies. There is Derrick Bell, the father of critical race theory, who argued that white power structures only support Black interests when they converge with white interests.

Howard Fuller, the civil rights activist, former Milwaukee Public Schools superintendent, and fierce champion for school choice, gets two chapters. So does Diane Ravitch, an education historian who helped persuade Viteritti of the merits of school choice, only to become one of the most vocal critics of that movement.

Viteritti still believes in school choice as a critical tool for educational justice. He dismisses the idea that modern school choice traces back to the South’s whites-only “segregation academies,” — “segregation began in the public schools,” he notes. But he acknowledges that critics like Ravitch have proved prescient as more states expand vouchers without any accountability measures or limits on who participates.

This conversation has been edited for length and clarity.

What prompted you to write this after being less involved with education policy for a good while?

Someone asked me how I arrived at my positions, and I realized that I had an opportunity to work very closely with some major movers and shakers in education policy: Ron Edmonds, Jack Coons, Diane Ravitch, Howard Fuller. They all interacted with each other, looking through the history of school reform, going back to the days of desegregation and bussing, battles over fiscal equity, the frustration of Black families demanding community control, where they said, “If you’re not going to educate our kids, let us do it.”

And when community control didn’t work, they said, “We need access to good schools.”

And what do the people you feature tell us about the evolution of choice and the education moment that we’re in now?

Ron Edmonds was a researcher at Harvard when he came to work in New York as deputy chancellor for instruction. And I was on the chancellor staff. He was kind of a mentor. Ron was very much against segregation, but he said there was so much of an obsession with desegregation among white civil rights attorneys that they really left out the importance of students getting access to good schools. He said you cannot have equity in education if kids aren’t learning.

In "Radical Dreamers" Joseph Viteritti disputes the claim that it is conservative to support school choice and progressive to oppose it.

Jack Coons argued the first case in California court [Serrano v. Priest] to demonstrate that rich school districts spend more than poor districts and that was inequitable. He developed a model of progressive choice, an alternative to the Milton Friedman market model.

Diane is the one who convinced me [of the merits of school choice], and she finally turned around and said, “well, it doesn’t work.” I would say we haven’t done enough to make it work. She makes some very important points that we agree on about where the choice movement has gone, and what the consequences are.

Howard Fuller is the real deal. He’s the one who helped realize the vision of the progressive school choice model. One distinct lesson I got from him, as a political scientist, is that choice is not just about opportunity. It’s about power.

Derrick Bell really explains it when he talks about systemic racism, about racism as a perpetual feature of American life. It sounds provocative, but when you look at it, when you look at the whole story of interest convergence, it makes sense.

You wonder why people are angry and frustrated? Look at the numbers today. The schools are segregated, and kids are not performing. Race and class are still the best predictors, the most reliable predictors of educational achievement in this country.

Today’s school choice policies have moved away from a focus on low-income students or students in low-performing schools. What is the ability of these policies to fulfill the school choice vision that some of the folks that you write about advocated for?

If you look at the beginning of the [modern] choice movement, we were basically trying to meet the needs of underserved, underprivileged Black and brown kids, for the most part. And the biggest opponents to that were people who identified with liberal causes, for example most Democrats, the teachers unions, civil rights organizations like the ACLU, and First Amendment advocates like Americans United for the Separation of Church and State.

What you have now is a conservative movement that’s really taken over the momentum and they’re spending with abandon, and it’s not clear what kind of checks there will be and how much spending will result from all of this.

One thing [liberal and conservative approaches] both have in common is who gets hurt. It’s Black and brown and disadvantaged kids. Derek Bell had a theory called the interest-convergence dilemma, and what he said was that white people will support Black people only so long as their interests converge. School choice history is a perfect illustration.

Charter schools have a lot more accountability for their outcomes than private schools. What does this suggest to you about the regulatory structure we might want to have?

I think if you’re accepting public money, then you should be susceptible to public scrutiny. And that’s not where it’s going. We have a lot of schools opening up because of money. It’s going to get worse when the federal [tax-credit scholarship] law hits. Who’s opening the microschool? The lady or the guy down the block? They might be very nice neighbors. Should they be running schools? I don’t know. This is moving so quickly it concerns me.

There are certain people within the school choice movement who support universal programs because they think that’s what’s politically tenable. Universal programs, Social Security for example, get more political support.

What do you make of that argument for universal programs?

Milton Friedman said if you let the market do its thing and create competition, parents will choose the better schools, poorer schools will close, and all will be fine. And there are people who believe in that. I don’t.

I think we need to be reminded of how this could be designed to work better, because I don’t think it’s sustainable. There’s no understanding of how much money is going to be spent on it.

But I don’t think people who identify as liberal or progressive can continue to pretend that leaving children in underperforming [public] schools generation after generation is an example of educational and political justice.

At some point, reality will hit, and maybe we will have an honest conversation when it becomes unsustainable for conservatives who all of a sudden are spending all this money, and unsustainable for progressives to continue to warehouse children in failing schools.

If there was a world in which white liberals had a different response to these earlier iterations of choice, whether it was charter schools or more targeted voucher programs, where do you think that we would be today?

This started as an alliance between Blacks and conservatives. You look at the case studies of Milwaukee and Cleveland, that’s who got this through. Liberals should have been part of that conversation. Instead, they just kind of closed their eyes, stamped their feet, and said, “No, we’re not doing it.”

We could say that there were Republicans who wanted to do a full Milton Friedman model all along. And that’s true, some of them did. But it would have been a lot better to start off with a cooperative agenda focused on poor kids.

I’m not suggesting at all that choice is going to resolve all the problems. What I did believe and still believe is that, if crafted in the right way, it can move us in the right direction.

Erica Meltzer is Chalkbeat’s national editor based in Colorado. Contact Erica at emeltzer@chalkbeat.org.

Here’s when the Indianapolis Local Education Alliance will meet next

2025-11-26T17:38:55+00:00

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The Indianapolis Education Alliance will meet Dec. 3 to narrow down possible recommendations for changing who oversees schools and how school buildings and buses are managed.

The meeting is from 4 to 5:30 p.m. in the public assembly room of the City County Building, said Shaina Cavazos, director of the mayor’s Office of Education Innovation.

ILEA members acknowledged at their last meeting that in order to recommend changes to building and transportation management — the main task assigned to them by state lawmakers — they need to address school oversight. The group heard four options for doing so, including ones that would drastically limit the power of the elected board for Indianapolis Public Schools.

On Dec. 3, the ILEA is expected to go over the options for how to change the management of facilities, transportation, and school oversight, and narrow them down. The alliance could decide to not pick one of the presented options, and instead combine elements to create a new option, or choose something entirely different, ILEA consultant Michael O’Connor previously told Chalkbeat.

A majority of alliance members told Chalkbeat that they don’t yet have a preferred option for how to change school oversight. However, multiple members said they are considering appointed board members for schools, as well as reducing the number of charter authorizers. Other members, however, support elected school boards.

After the meeting, the ILEA will host public input sessions on the transportation, facilities, and governance models that the group likes best, before voting on its final recommendations to city and state leaders on Dec. 17.

The time and location of that meeting has not yet been announced.

Give the ILEA your feedback on the options for governance, transportation, and facilities from the November meeting here. You can also send general feedback to the ILEA by emailing ILEA@indy.gov.

Chalkbeat reporter Amelia Pak-Harvey contributed to this article.

MJ Slaby oversees Chalkbeat Indiana’s coverage as bureau chief. Contact MJ at mslaby@chalkbeat.org.

How much power should the school board have? Indianapolis Local Education Alliance members respond.

2025-11-26T11:00:01+00:00

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Authority over schools in Indianapolis could change in the near future. And while some members of a state-mandated task force want to maintain an elected Indianapolis Public Schools board, others see value in having an appointed authority.

The Indianapolis Local Education Alliance could soon suggest a change to who’s in charge of charter and IPS schools. At the group’s meeting last week, ILEA members said changes to the local education power structure may be necessary in order to help the group address its primary assignment from state lawmakers: suggesting changes to how schools share facilities and transportation resources.

Two of the potential options unveiled by ILEA consultant Michael O’Connor at last week’s meeting would dilute the power of the elected IPS school board — and one would eliminate IPS school board elections entirely.

The four options include maintaining an elected IPS board; creating an advisory board of mayoral, IPS, and charter school appointees; creating an Indianapolis Education Authority appointed by the mayor; and replacing the elected IPS school board with mayoral appointees.

A majority of alliance members have yet to say which option they like the most. But some have shared their preferences for how specific facets of school governance should change. When it comes to charter authorizers, for example, some want fewer of them for Indianapolis.

The ILEA will meet in the first week of December to select from one of these governance models, although the alliance could decide to combine elements of certain options or choose a different model altogether. It will also select from options presented last week for how charters and district-run schools can share transportation and facilities. Alliance members could also tweak the transportation and facilities options as they decide on a final model for both services.

The ILEA will then host public input sessions on the selected transportation, facilities, and governance models before voting on the final recommendations to city and state leaders on Dec. 17. The time and location of that meeting has not yet been announced.

Below, members of the ILEA weigh in on different options for changing who oversees Indianapolis schools, including whether the IPS board should be elected or appointed and how many charter school authorizers there should be.

Tina Ahlgren, superintendent appointee

Tina Ahlgren, an IPS parent, teacher, and union member, said she hasn’t had the chance to delve further into each governance option.

But she said she is hesitant about giving control of schools to mayoral appointees, given the unique city-county arrangement commonly known as Unigov. In Indianapolis, the mayor represents a county that consists of 11 school districts. More mayoral control would give the mayor authority over just one of the 11.

Voters in IPS boundaries would be only a fraction of the voters electing a mayor, Ahlgren said.

“We’re never going to have a critical mass of voters in the IPS boundaries,” she said.

Ahlgren also said she supports having fewer charter authorizers, but that she is also listening to suggestions from charter advocates.

“What I would prefer is probably different than I think what they would prefer,” she said. “But I also have zero experience in that world.”

Barato Britt, IPS board president appointee

Barato Britt said he is exploring the options and sees value in having appointed board members. He noted that appointees could bring expertise that may not be guaranteed in elected board members.

Britt said he is not in favor of limiting charter authorization to one entity.

Mayor Joe Hogsett, chair

In a statement, a spokesperson for Hogsett did not indicate which governance model he would prefer and instead stressed his desire to get more perspectives from the public.

“Over the coming weeks, there will be more opportunities for public input on the options that were detailed last Wednesday night, including through in-person listening sessions and by submitting digital comments,” the statement said. “Mayor Hogsett will consider this feedback from families, residents, and stakeholders as he continues to evaluate which option would be the best step forward for students.”

IPS Superintendent Aleesia Johnson

Superintendent Aleesia Johnson made clear at last week’s meeting that she supports an elected IPS school board. She reiterated that sentiment in a video released by the district last Friday.

“Why would we remove decision-making power from leaders elected by our community, especially in a city where communities of color have fought hard to make their voices heard?” she said in the video. “Any option that eliminates elected board members risks doing exactly that.”

She said IPS should continue to own its schools’ buildings. And she opposed creating an independent transportation authority — which she said would be “disruptive, complex, and even more costly.”

Maggie Lewis, mayoral appointee

City-County Councilor Maggie Lewis did not respond to a request for comment through a spokesperson by deadline.

Tobin McClamroch, mayoral appointee

In an email, Tobin McClamroch said he prefers the Indianapolis Education Authority option.

“The best model would be an independent authority that would own and manage and deliver facilities and transportation services,” he said. “An independent authority will best incentivize participation among all public schools and thereby create economies of scale.”

Andrew Neal, superintendent appointee

Andrew Neal said he has not yet decided on his preferred model.

But he said he is in favor of an option that incorporates appointees to the board, noting that democratic representation has limits.

“Children can’t vote, undocumented families can’t vote, many low incomes families vote at disproportionately lower rates,” he said, echoing sentiments he shared at the ILEA meeting last week. “I think appointed members have an opportunity to represent some of those populations if the appointees are done well.”

He said he is in favor of one charter authorizer, with an option for charter schools to appeal that authorizer’s decision.

Bart Peterson, mayoral appointee

Former mayor Bart Peterson declined to say what his preferred outcome is but told Chalkbeat last week that he is “still in the learning mode.”

“I realize we only have a month left,” he said, “but I think we have a long way to go.”

He said he’s interested in hearing what other people have to say.

But he said he does not think the ILEA would be bound by any one option presented last week.

“They also have elements that could be mixed and matched,” he said. “The final result doesn’t have to be one of those four things in my opinion.”

Peterson said he’s not prepared to say whether there is a specific number of charter authorizers the ILEA should propose. But he highlighted his previously stated concerns about the number of charter authorizers growing too large.

Angela Smith-Jones, mayoral appointee

Angela Smith-Jones said she does not have a preferred model yet, but said she is considering what is best for students and families and also what state lawmakers would support.

She said she has also not determined whether she would be in favor of a governing body that is elected or appointed.

Amelia Pak-Harvey covers Indianapolis and Lawrence Township schools for Chalkbeat Indiana. Contact Amelia at apak-harvey@chalkbeat.org.

Officials could soon recommend changing how Indianapolis schools are run. Here are the 4 options.

2025-11-25T18:11:38+00:00

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Indianapolis schools could be on the verge of a seismic shift.

An advisory panel is weighing recommendations that would drastically alter who runs local schools. Several of the options presented at the Indianapolis Local Education Alliance’s meeting last week would dilute or eliminate the power of the elected Indianapolis Public Schools board. More broadly, they would mean big changes for district-run schools as well as charters.

While an elected seven-member board oversees district schools, charter schools have their own nonprofit boards. Indianapolis charter schools are overseen and authorized by one of three authorizers — the mayor’s Office of Education Innovation, Education One at Trine University, and the Indiana Charter School Board. But state law places no limit on the number of charter authorizers, which can also include school boards.

In each of the four models floated by ILEA task forces last week, one authority would oversee both district and charter schools of all types.

The ILEA will meet in the first week of December to narrow down the options for changing school governance. The ILEA will then host public input sessions before voting on the final recommendations to city and state leaders on Dec. 17. The time and location of that meeting has not yet been announced.

Alliance members could change or combine each one as they settle on a final governance model, ILEA consultant Michael O’Connor told Chalkbeat. Members could decide to add more charter authorizers to certain models, for instance.

Each model would also likely have an appeals process for charter schools that seek to open or challenge a decision made by the charter authorizer, O’Connor said.

Separately, the ILEA will also consider suggestions for changing how district schools and charters share transportation resources and facilities.

Of the 54 charters within IPS borders that the ILEA is studying, 25 are part of the IPS Innovation Network of autonomous schools. Fifteen of the Innovation Network charter schools operate in IPS buildings, 12 of them use IPS transportation, and 11 do both. Another 29 charters are independent.

Here is an overview of each of the four governance models the ILEA could consider.

Maintain IPS as an elected board, add charter oversight

In this option, the IPS board would oversee both district and charter schools. While independent and Innovation charters would maintain their own individual school boards, all charters within IPS borders would report up to the school board.

Only the IPS board would have the power to authorize charter schools in district boundaries. Charter schools whose applications are denied by the IPS board — or those that have their charters revoked or not renewed — could appeal to the Office of Education Innovation.

The IPS school board would have the power to levy and collect property taxes. It would also set rules for all schools regarding transportation access and which schools would have access to buildings.

Create an appointed advisory board

Another option would create a “collaborative compact advisory board” to oversee district and charter schools. The board would have the power to levy and collect property taxes for schools, and also serve as the charter authorizer. The Office of Education Innovation could also serve as a second authorizer.

The board would consist of appointees from IPS, the mayor, and charter schools, and would set policy. Exact details on appointees — whether IPS appointees would be chosen by the school board or superintendent or would be school board members themselves, for example — could be determined by state lawmakers. The IPS and charter school boards would report up to the advisory board.

Create an Indianapolis Education Authority

The third option would create an Indianapolis Education Authority overseen by a nine-member policymaking board and led by a secretary of education appointed by the mayor.

The board would be appointed by the mayor, with four members selected from the seven-member elected IPS board. This policymaking board would work with the secretary of education within the authority, which would serve as charter authorizer.

The authority would hire building and transportation staff.

IPS and charter school boards would report to the policymaking board, which would levy and receive tax dollars.

Replace an elected IPS board with an appointed one

Out of all four options, this one would give the mayor the most control over schools. The mayor would appoint all members of the IPS school board, which would oversee district schools. The mayor’s Office of Education Innovation would serve as charter authorizer, while the Indiana Charter School Board would serve as an appealing body for charter schools. Both independent and Innovation charter school boards would report to the IPS school board.

The board would levy and receive property taxes and would set policy on transportation and facilities.

Amelia Pak-Harvey covers Indianapolis and Lawrence Township schools for Chalkbeat Indiana. Contact Amelia at apak-harvey@chalkbeat.org.

The ILEA is eyeing changes to who runs Indianapolis schools. Education groups are speaking up.

2025-11-21T22:42:16+00:00

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The Indianapolis Local Education Alliance is considering a variety of governance options that would significantly dilute the power of the elected Indianapolis Public Schools board — potential changes that some community groups have rallied against.

Changing who oversees schools could be a key component to solving how district and charter schools could better share transportation and building resources. An authority governing both charter and district schools could set universal policy on transportation, discipline, students with disabilities, school accountability, and school closures.

The four options unveiled at Wednesday’s ILEA meeting differ when it comes to how much they would change the way schools are currently run. In addition to the elected board that runs Indianapolis Public Schools, the mayor’s Office of Education Innovation, Education One at Trine University, and the Indiana Charter School Board authorize charter schools.

The ILEA, which state lawmakers established earlier this year, does not have the power to make policy but can make recommendations to state and local officials. The group is expected to recommend one of the four options during the week of Dec. 1, although it’s also possible it could combine two or more of the options.

While the IPS school board hasn’t issued an opinion on the options, several organizations representing teachers and parents have called for an elected board to oversee both charter and district schools. Groups that support charter schools have not coalesced around support for a particular option.

The first option would keep an elected IPS school board, which would serve as the charter authorizer responsible for making policies for building usage and transportation. District and charter schools would report up to the board, and charter schools whose applications were denied could appeal to the mayor’s Office of Education Innovation.

The second option would create a “collaborative compact advisory board” consisting of appointees from the mayor, charter schools, and the IPS school board. While IPS and charter schools would retain their individual school boards, both sectors would report to the advisory board, which would serve as charter authorizer and set policy.

A third model would create an Indianapolis Education Authority, led by a secretary of education appointed by the mayor. Underneath the secretary of education would be a nine-member policymaking board — also appointed by the mayor — that would serve as the charter authorizer. The mayor would select four of these members from the current seven-member elected IPS board.

A fourth option would replace the elected IPS board with members appointed by the mayor. This appointed board would serve as the charter authorizer, although appeals could be sent to the Indianapolis Charter School Board.

Several groups supportive of both district and charter schools have previously urged the ILEA to consider various options for governance. Here are the reactions to the options unveiled Wednesday from a few major community groups, in alphabetical order:

Central Indiana Democratic Socialists of America

In a statement, the Central Indiana Democratic Socialists of America — which has run a “Fully Funded, Fully Public” campaign to support traditional IPS schools — did not select any of the four options as the best choice.

Instead, it called for a fully elected school board to serve as charter authorizer without the opportunity for denied charter schools to appeal to the OEI. The school board would operate facilities and transportation for all school types.

“Under this plan, charter students and parents will finally have an accountable board that represents them democratically without sacrificing their school choice,” the group said. “Similarly, IPS and innovation school parents will have the flexibility to exercise school choice without exiting their stable public school system.

Indianapolis Education Association

In a statement, the Indianapolis Education Association said the first option allowing IPS to serve as the charter authorizer is the best.

“This ensures that governance is responsible to the people that they serve and provides a clear structure for community engagement when the time for new programming in specific parts of the city is necessary,” the teacher’s union said. “IEA feels that any attempt to outnumber an elected body that serves IPS is harmful to the community and a board with more appointees than elected officials sends a message that the community can’t be trusted with our schools.”

IPS Parent Council

Kristen Phair of the IPS Parent Council, a roughly 400-member parent organization that formed to support IPS during the last legislative session, said the only option her group would support is the one in which IPS is the sole charter authorizer.

“We just don’t want to see local control diluted by appointees,” she said.

The council circulated an online letter signed by over 700 IPS parents this week that suggested that IPS become the sole authorizer of all charter schools within district boundaries.

IPS school board

School board president Angelia Moore said the board hasn’t had time yet to meet in executive session to discuss the governance options.

She said she is focused on a lawsuit by Attorney General Todd Rokita alleging that IPS hindered federal authorities in the deportation of a man whose son was an IPS student. The board is seeking the public’s support as it crafts a response to the lawsuit.

The Mind Trust

In a statement, the leader of the nonprofit Mind Trust that has helped launch many charter schools in Indianapolis did not give an opinion on overall governance.

“We are pleased to see discussion of an independent facilities and transportation authority, which should exist without consolidating system-level governance,” said CEO Brandon Brown.

Brown also emphasized two separate letters that charter school leaders sent to the ILEA this week.

In one, seven leaders of independent charter schools opposed limiting charter authorization to one authorizer. In the other, nine leaders of charters in the IPS Innovation Network suggested the mayor’s office and the Indiana Charter School Board serve as the only authorizers within IPS borders.

“Out of respect for the ILEA’s work, we will withhold further judgment until the final recommendations are released,” Brown said.

RISE Indy

RISE Indy, a nonprofit with ties to school choice advocates that has supported both traditional public and charter schools, did not voice explicit support for one of the four options.

Instead, the group said it supports an elected board that oversees academics and an appointed board that oversees facilities and transportation.

“An elected board allows community voice and representation to remain at the forefront of education decisions while an appointed board of local experts in facilities and transportation can allow every kid to have the resources and services they need to succeed, no matter the school model,” the group said.

Stand for Children Indiana

Stand for Children Indiana, which organizes parents who have pushed IPS to expand high-performing charter schools, said in a statement that it is in the process of sharing the details of the presentation with its advocates.

The group reiterated its call for a better transportation system and a school performance framework that holds schools of all types accountable to high standards.

Amelia Pak-Harvey covers Indianapolis and Lawrence Township schools for Chalkbeat Indiana. Contact Amelia at apak-harvey@chalkbeat.org.

Suburban Chicago charter appeals to state after local board votes to close its campuses in 2027

2025-11-20T20:31:25+00:00

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Two suburban Chicago charter schools are appealing to Illinois’ state superintendent to stay open after the local board of education voted to close the campuses in 2027 unless contract renewal terms can be reached.

The charter closure decision and subsequent appeal comes as North Chicago District 187 is transitioning away from state oversight. Like Chicago, the school district will have a fully elected school board in 2027 after roughly a decade of state control. It will continue to have a state Financial Oversight Panel until 2031.

North Chicago District 187’s Independent Authority, which is a hybrid school board made up of state appointees and elected officials, voted in late September to wind down the operations of two LEARN charter school campuses, citing the inability to reach a contract agreement. Earlier this year, the same board voted to grant LEARN a seven-year contract renewal.

“We’re in this gray area of operating schools without a contract to do so,” said District 187 Superintendent John Price. LEARN 6 and LEARN 10 campuses have operated without a formal charter contract since 2021 and 2022, according to the resolution and documents obtained by Chalkbeat.

Price told Chalkbeat Wednesday the first preference would be to reach a contract agreement, rendering the wind-down plan moot. “Clearly, the district wants the schools to be open. We’ve offered a seven-year renewal,” he said.

Andrew Broy with the Illinois Network of Charter Schools said it’s “very common” for a charter school to operate without a contract or under the terms of a previous one after the authorizing school board votes.

“Just like if a union contract is pending for years, it rolls over,” Broy said. “The same thing happens in charter school contracts today.”

One key sticking point in the contract talks between District 187 and LEARN has to do with a school building on the Naval Station Great Lakes base that LEARN has directly leased from the federal government since it opened in 2012. District 187 said it has applied to directly lease the building and is proposing to sublease it to LEARN under the same terms. But the two parties have not reached an agreement on the arrangement.

District 187 is also currently building a new facility for district-run Forrestal Elementary with federal funds.

LEARN President and CEO Greg White has said the network cannot agree to a new contract until all the financial terms, including the building lease for LEARN 6, are sorted out. He said closing the campuses would be short-sighted given their success.

“It was actually the work of ISBE and the Navy and families in North Chicago is why we’re there,” White said. “We’ve had a long-term relationship, a very positive relationship, with the Illinois State Board.”

He said Thursday ISBE should grant the appeal because state law says “if a district chooses not to renew a charter, it must be able to place every student in a higher-performing school. There are no higher-performing elementary schools in North Chicago.”

LEARN’s two campuses in North Chicago are rated “commendable” on the most recent state report card and collectively, they serve 800 of the district’s more than 3,500 students. LEARN officials noted no other District 187 elementary schools received a commendable or higher rating. The local high school, however, is also rated “commendable.” ISBE is in the process of revising those labels for school performance.

In Illinois, charter schools can only be authorized by local school districts. If a local school board denies a charter application or terminates it, charters can appeal to the state superintendent. There are currently nine state-authorized charter schools that won appeals in the past.

LEARN’s appeal was submitted on Tuesday, kicking off a process involving a third-party hearing officer who makes a recommendation to ISBE. The timeline would not likely result in a decision before February or March.

Nevertheless, more than two dozen parents of LEARN students from North Chicago showed up at ISBE’s monthly meeting Thursday to urge state officials to keep the two campuses open beyond 2027.

Jennifer Jerez, a parent of three current and former LEARN 6 students, said she enrolled her older children at the school because they were struggling “academically, mentally and even emotionally” at their previous school.

“They were struggling to read and write at 13 and 15,” she said. “I was desperate for help as any other parent, and so I applied to LEARN 6. There, my eldest flourished. He found his voice. He got into the honor roll, and he got accepted to a prestigious high school. He is now 22 in his third year at [Northern Illinois University], and is majoring in psychology.”

Jerez said her 6-year-old is now in first grade at LEARN 6.

“I am begging you to please, please, let him have the same opportunities that my eldest had,” she said.

“LEARN has given my children and so many others the opportunity to reach higher than they ever thought possible,” said Michelle Malcom, a parent of three current and former LEARN 6 students. “I ask you to grant LEARN’s appeal and reverse the district decision to close our schools. Keep these schools open. Keep hope, choice, high expectations alive for North Chicago.”

Tension between charter schools and their authorizing school boards is not new. But in recent years, in Chicago and Illinois, there have been more instances of charters closing.

Some charter closures have been voluntary, such as recent decisions in Chicago by charter operators to not continue operating certain campuses, prompting the city’s school board to intervene and keep some of the charters open as district schools. Others have been prompted by conflicts or financial mismanagement.

The state board has not always granted appeals. Last year, it denied an appeal by a charter school in Peoria after the local school board there voted to end its contract with the school.

Becky Vevea is the bureau chief for Chalkbeat Chicago. Contact Becky at bvevea@chalkbeat.org.

Indianapolis Local Education Alliance hears options for overhauling schools, limiting school board power

2025-11-20T04:47:32+00:00

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Members of the Indianapolis Local Education Alliance are grappling with who should govern Indianapolis Public Schools and charter schools — and it remains uncertain how drastic an overhaul they will recommend as they work toward creating a more unified system.

The group heard a range of ideas for new ways of overseeing schools on Wednesday night, including the creation of a mayor-controlled oversight board for district and charter schools.

Members also heard potential solutions for how to overhaul the buildings and transportation infrastructure so IPS and charter schools receive equal resources.

The list of solutions presented by task forces within the group could guide its final recommendations, which would then be sent to state lawmakers as well as city and district leaders next month. Those could lead to sweeping changes for the landscape of Indianapolis Public Schools as well as charter schools in the area.

The potential solutions come as community leaders and groups continue pressing the ILEA for a flurry of changes. Some parents are pushing to safeguard traditional public schools, while others want charter schools to receive what they believe are proper resources. Roughly 100 people signed up for public comment on Wednesday.

The alliance is adding a meeting the first week of December to vote to narrow its support to one of several solutions presented for each transportation, building, and governance topic. The date is yet to be determined. The group will then host listening sessions throughout the city for further public input on the selected models, ILEA consultant Michael O’Connor said at Wednesday’s meeting.

The ILEA will then vote on its final recommendations at a Dec. 17 meeting at 6 p.m. at a location to be announced.

Advisory board or independent authority could lead transportation

The cost of transportation for district and charter students depends on the amount of school choice.

The first transportation option would feature the creation of a “collaborative compact advisory board.” The board would determine levels of service, transportation zones, walk zones, and other logistics for schools that participate in the compact. Participating schools would pay a fee for the service, which IPS would run.

The second option would create an independent transportation authority, which would directly receive property tax dollars for transportation. The authority would make logistical decisions around zoning and would provide the service.

Some ILEA members on the transportation task force believe that schools should be required to offer transportation, O’Connor said at the meeting. But others found that it would be hard to support mandatory participation without an independent transportation authority.

Members Tobin McClamroch and city-county councilor Maggie Lewis said they supported the second option of an independent authority over the first.

“The most important word is independent — it’s an independent building authority," McClamroch said, noting that the first option may be a continuation of the status quo in which IPS and charter schools each worry about their own entities.

But Superintendent Aleesia Johnson said many charters choose to participate in a service offered by IPS today, and said she does not believe an independent authority is the solution.

She added that all schools should be required to offer transportation, an opinion also offered by member Angela Smith-Jones.

“If you receive property tax dollars and you don’t want to participate, that could be your choice, and then you do not receive those funds,” Johnson said.

Building solutions depend heavily on who governs schools

The possible solutions around school buildings are overshadowed by larger questions around governance, including who should set any accountability standards that could determine which schools receive existing buildings and who should have the power to open or close charter schools.

One option would include the creation of another “collaborative compact advisory board” with statutorily binding policies that determine which schools to open and close. Accountability and performance standards would be set as policy by voting members of the compact. Schools would pay a fee for facility services.

Another option includes the creation of an independent building authority staffed by facility experts that would receive the property tax dollars meant for facility costs. The authority would make decisions on bids for public building projects.

A third option would designate IPS as the facilities provider. Property tax dollars for buildings would go to schools, which would then pay a fee for the use and maintenance of the buildings.

A fourth option — which O’Connor said was perhaps the least supported by task force members — would be for the Indianapolis-Marion County Building Authority to assume ownership and operations of existing school buildings. The authority would receive property tax revenue directly.

Governance options range from IPS as authorizer to appointed school board

O’Connor also presented four potential governance options.

In one, IPS would serve as the charter authorizer. Schools denied a charter could appeal to the mayor’s Office of Education Innovation, which is the current authorizer for a majority of charter schools in IPS boundaries.

Another model creates an advisory board of members appointed by IPS, the mayor, and charter schools. Both charter and district schools would report to this board, which would serve as a charter authorizer and would make policies to determine which schools to open and close.

A third model creates an Indianapolis Education Authority featuring a secretary of education under the mayor. Both district and charter schools would report to a board of five mayoral appointees and four elected IPS school board members, which would set policy on school accountability, transportation, and closures.

A fourth option would replace the elected IPS board with a board appointed by the mayor. The Office of Education Innovation would continue authorizing independent and innovation charter schools, with appeals sent to the Indiana Charter School Board.

Corrections and clarifications: This story has been updated to correct the charter authorizing and appeals authority in the fourth governance model.

Amelia Pak-Harvey covers Indianapolis and Lawrence Township schools for Chalkbeat Indiana. Contact Amelia at apak-harvey@chalkbeat.org.

Mayoral control over Indianapolis schools could untangle big knots — or create new headaches

2025-11-13T12:00:00+00:00

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Should the mayor hold more power over Indianapolis Public Schools and charter schools?

Control over public education in the city is fractured now. An elected board governs Indianapolis Public Schools, where enrollment has been falling and the financial outlook is grim. Oversight of the city’s 50-plus charter schools is spread across multiple authorizers, including the mayor’s office, resulting in a patchwork of accountability. And as school choice has expanded, tensions over money and political power have been rising too.

All that makes the role of the mayor a notable one that could be addressed by the Indianapolis Local Education Alliance, which has been tasked by lawmakers with recommending systemic changes for IPS and charters.

The state-mandated group must submit recommendations by the end of 2025 on two narrow issues – changing transportation and building use. But it could also make suggestions on other topics like calling for some enhanced form of mayoral control, which would dramatically reshape the hierarchy running schools.

Some groups support this change, which would follow in the mold ofNew York City, where the mayor appoints the schools chancellor, and Washington, D.C., where the mayor appoints the schools chancellor and nominates members of the charter school board.

In its recommendations to the ILEA, Stand for Children Indiana, a nonprofit that mobilizes parents who support school choice, said that school board members appointed by the mayor could bring “experience as educators, or understanding facilities management or accountability systems — so they can add to the elected board’s experience.”

Yet the city-county structure of Indianapolis would create unique challenges. The mayor, a charter authorizer who governs a county featuring 11 school districts, would have sweeping influence over just one.

And consolidating power under one elected office could tie control of schools to the election of just one official every four years who oversees much more than just education.

This month, New York City voters elected a new mayor, Zohran Mamdani, intent on ending mayoral control. And in Indianapolis, some potential Democratic candidates for the 2027 mayoral election support elected school boards and are skeptical of charter schools and support limiting charter school authorizing.

Research into mayoral control over schools has found mixed results when it comes to academic performance and other factors.

A spokesperson for Mayor Joe Hogsett declined to share his thoughts on mayoral control, saying it would be unfair to the “ongoing and important work” of the ILEA. Hogsett is the ILEA’s chairperson.

An executive-driven school system can streamline governance under someone the public clearly recognizes as in charge, said Kenneth Wong, a professor emeritus of education policy at Brown University who has studied mayoral control for over 20 years. Given that IPS is the largest district in Marion County, he said, there could be a case for having mayoral control exclusively over one district facing a “dramatic educational crisis.”

“One could make the argument that because of the complexity and the amount of money involved in IPS, that needs coherence and accountability,” he said in an interview.

But some school board members, parents, and community members have called strongly for IPS to maintain a fully elected school board. They view the idea of having one person pick people to oversee the district as a blow to transparency and democratic control.

“Choosing our own representation is reflective of the community. Appointments would be a step backwards,” said Samantha Douglas, a Far Eastside resident, during a district-hosted town hall earlier this month. “We never hear from folks who are appointed.”

Unigov could complicate Indianapolis school governance changes

Mayoral control doesn’t mean the mayor runs schools like a superintendent. And it isn’t necessarily an all-or-nothing proposition.

A school board partially elected and partially appointed by the mayor could control IPS schools. The mayor’s office could serve as the sole charter authorizer — or as one of a maximum of two, as some groups have suggested. Stand for Children has also suggested a hybrid appointed and elected IPS board that would also act as the sole charter authorizer.

But the 1970 state legislation known as Unigov complicates matters.

Unigov consolidated nearly all city and county services for Indianapolis and Marion County. But school districts were not part of the merger and continued to operate independently.

Today, the mayor represents the city of Indianapolis and a county with 11 school districts: IPS, eight township school districts, and the school districts for Beech Grove and Speedway, two municipalities within the county with their own mayors that were excluded from Unigov consolidation.

Under mayoral control, the mayor would oversee only one out of the 11 school districts. But voters in other school districts — the majority of Marion County — would still cast votes for a mayor.

Through the Office of Education Innovation, the mayor’s office also already authorizes most charters within IPS borders.

In his 2007 book “The Education Mayor,” Wong found that mayor-controlled systems performed better academically than those without mayoral control — particularly in elementary school English language arts.

“While the data is dated, the basic premise remains relevant – mayors, when given accountability, will connect public schools to quality of life improvement,” Wong said in an email. “Mayors tend to focus resources to address the achievement gap.”

But he said one downside is the sentiment that community voices are not heard when mayors control schools.

Chicago highlights arguments from both supporters and detractors of mayoral control.

Mayoral control across three administrations from 1995 to 2020 coincided with increased academic performance in Chicago. Yet decisions to close schools also led to a public uproar and galvanized the teacher’s union to push for state legislation that would end it.

And in 2023, voters there picked an opponent of mayoral control when they elected former teacher and union organizer Brandon Johnson as mayor. Chicago began phasing out mayoral control this year, and it will end in 2027 when the board will be fully elected.

Several potential candidates skeptical of mayoral control

Mayoral control gained steam in the 1990s and garnered support from Democrats supportive of education reforms like charter schools. But it has drawn criticism from teachers unions and progressive groups.

If Hogsett, a Democrat supportive of charter schools, runs for reelection but loses to a candidate critical of charter schools’ growth, that could disrupt the smooth relationship the charter sector has enjoyed with both Republican and Democratic administrations.

The Mind Trust, an influential local nonprofit that has helped grow the city’s charter sector, called for an IPS board appointed by the mayor and city councilors in 2011. Today, though, it does not have a public stance on who should govern schools.

“We continue to think that that is a worthy conversation,” CEO Brandon Brown said of mayoral control. “We also think it’s one of many questions that need to be answered over the next few months, and we’ve not taken a formal position on it.”

Given the support that charter schools have from local Democrats and statehouse Republicans, Brown said, he does not see future administrations posing a significant risk to charter schools.

Of course, it’s not clear whether state lawmakers would move forward with expanding mayoral control in time to affect the 2026 school board elections or the 2027 mayoral election, even if they are interested.

Other potential candidates have differing views.

Democratic state senators Andrea Hunley and Fady Qaddoura — who are rumored to be mayoral candidates in 2027 but told Chalkbeat they have not yet decided whether to run — said they support an elected school board. Both are skeptical of charter schools and support restricting the number of charter authorizers.

Marion County prosecutor Ryan Mears, who’s also weighing a 2027 run, told Chalkbeat that the mayor could play a helpful role in setting an accountability standard for all schools.

“I’m certainly more partial to an elected board,” he said. “But I also think there’s room for what role mayor appointees can [do].”

Pike Township Trustee Annette Johnson, who objected to the opening of a charter school in Pike Township and confirmed she plans to run, said she favors elections instead of mayoral control.

“It just seems like it would be a lot of responsibility for mayor, with everything else that we have to contend with within our day-to-day duties as mayor of this city,” she said.

Former IPS school board member Will Pritchard, a charter school supporter who is also considering a run, said mayoral control might be feasible — if the county only had one school district.

“To have the mayor control one district but not the other 10 does not make sense,” he said. “And to have a large portion of the city voting for the mayor while a smaller portion of the city has their school district controlled by the mayor presents an awkward division.”

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Amelia Pak-Harvey covers Indianapolis and Lawrence Township schools for Chalkbeat Indiana. Contact Amelia at apak-harvey@chalkbeat.org.

Chicago school board votes to keep ChiArts open, close EPIC Academy

2025-11-05T00:08:46+00:00

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The Chicago Board of Education voted Tuesday to end agreements with independent operators of two high schools after those operators decided they could no longer run the campuses.

The school board decided to keep Chicago High School for the Arts, or ChiArts, an integrated arts high school serving 559 students who had to apply and audition, open as a district-run school and provide $1.5 million for the transition. The contract school is known for its arts conservatory, which has special departments for creative writing, dance, music, theater, and visual arts.

After a contentious debate at a special meeting, the board also voted to wind down EPIC Academy, a charter school in South Chicago with 244 mostly Black students enrolled and provide the school with $1.4 million to stay afloat through the end of the school year. EPIC’s operators previously said they faced closure in the middle of this school year if they couldn’t find additional funding.

For ChiArts, several students, teachers, and parents who spoke to board members Tuesday demanded the board maintain the school’s arts “conservatory” and keep its teachers and “teaching artists” intact.

“You hold the livelihoods of more than 60 arts teachers, you hold the sanctuary of over 600 art students run toward in a world that frequently tells us we aren’t necessary,” said Maya Davis, a senior at ChiArts who said the school has helped her flourish as a young actress. “Let it be the haven I’ve experienced it to be.”

The debate around EPIC’s future began last week at the board’s regular monthly meeting for October. That’s when elected board member Jitu Brown introduced an amendment attempting to keep EPIC’s students and staff together at a high-performing school next year. But a vote was delayed to Tuesday after district officials raised concerns about the tight timeline for producing a plan and other board members asked for the district’s general counsel to review it.

Ultimately, the board voted to require the district to offer enrollment to students at a district-run school, as well as job opportunities for “qualified” EPIC staff at receiving schools. An amendment to Brown’s amendment removed the term “high-performing.”

“I can support it if this would get us to a resolution,” Brown said. “But historically, 88% of the people that have been impacted by school closings have been Black students. The overwhelming majority of those students did not go to a better school.”

Past research from the University of Chicago found that not only did the city’s school closings disproportionately impact Black children, but most of those students did not go to better performing schools.

“How do we make sure a child doesn’t go from one school that’s closing its doors in the middle of the night, then they end up at a school that’s going to be in discussions for school closings the next year?” Brown said. “This has happened over and over and over and over again, and this is the concern. Now if that’s acceptable, then say that.”

Elected school board member Che “Rhymefest” Smith, whose district includes EPIC Academy, said he doesn’t want to limit parents’ options.

“Parents choose different schools for different reasons,” Smith said. “What one person may consider high-performing may be subjective to another person. I speak with parents who send their children to a school because it’s the safest school in the district for their kid to go to, even though another school may have better academics.”

Some board members echoed concerns raised by the principals union about hiring autonomy. Other board members said the language merely offers opportunities for teachers to apply and doesn’t require principals to hire them.

During the meeting, appointed board member Debby Pope added an amendment — later approved by the board — that commits CPS to preserving ChiArts’ conservatory “to the greatest extent practicable” and look for other ways to financially support the school’s model going forward, including through partnerships with other groups. It committed board members to reconvene on the issue of funding to support ChiArts transition to a district-run school by its January board meeting, after it engages with the school community.

The board spent about four hours in closed session where it planned to discuss interviews it had conducted with candidates for CPS’ next CEO and decide on a list of finalists, Jessica Biggs, an elected board member helping to lead the district’s CEO search committee, told Chalkbeat before the meeting.

Becky Vevea and Mila Koumpilova contributed.

Reema Amin is a reporter covering Chicago Public Schools. Contact Reema at ramin@chalkbeat.org.

Interdistrict Public School Choice Program could expand with bipartisan support amid funding, equity hurdles

2025-11-03T18:51:20+00:00

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In a race defined by radically different approaches to education, school choice may be one of the few things New Jersey’s gubernatorial candidates agree on.

Both Democrat Mikie Sherrill and Republican Jack Ciattarelli say they support expanding the state’s Interdistrict Public School Choice Program, which lets some students attend public schools outside their home district. Sherrill says the program could be used to integrate New Jersey’s persistently segregated school system, while Ciattarelli wants to pair it with a Florida-style private school voucher program.

The candidates’ focus could bring life to a program that’s been stalled for more than a decade because of lack of funding. It could also mean that Newark and other districts in Essex County might participate for the first time since the program’s inception in 1999.

There are currently 119 so-called “choice districts” and about 5,000 students who participate in the program, with another 2,500 students on a waitlist, said Wells Winegar, executive director of the New Jersey Policy Institute think tank, who worked under former Gov. Chris Christie. He added that expanding the program could help districts that are facing enrollment declines while giving families more school options.

“It was designed to help families find public schools that fit their child’s needs,” Winegar said, while providing parents “an overall kind of better environment for their child without having to pay private school tuition.”

No Essex County districts currently participate in the program as receiving districts, but if the state’s next governor provides the first serious push in years to expand it, that could change, potentially affecting Newark’s enrollment and transportation costs.

Supporters — including many from New Jersey’s Republican policy circles — say that the program helps keep kids in public schools while boosting enrollment in districts that have lost students. They also note that it gives students access to schools with stronger academic programs, art, sports, and music classes. But skeptics warn that expanding the program could worsen funding gaps and make it harder to distribute resources fairly across districts.

What is the Interdistrict School Choice Program?

The program started as a small five-year pilot in 1999, hailed by then-Republican Gov. Christie Whitman as a way to give parents more choice while improving the public school system statewide through increased “competition.”

It’s not a charter or voucher program. Instead, it allows traditional public school districts to opt-in as choice districts, opening seats to students who live outside district boundaries. Typically, choice districts have experienced declining enrollment, financial strain, or are looking for new funding to launch new programs or strengthen their academic offerings. If there are more students requesting admission to a school than there are available openings, state law requires a district to hold a lottery to determine which students are admitted.

The choice program is budgeted for $62 million, Winegar said. To fund it, the state provides the receiving district with money to cover the cost of educating the student. But paying for students isn’t the same everywhere because of differences in tax levies across cities and towns, according to Danielle Farrie, research director at the Education Law Center. The state provides categorical funding in the amount equal to the tax levy per pupil in the receiving district, Farrie added, but depending on where students are transferring to and from, the costs could add up.

“So essentially, the state is covering both sides. Normally, there’s the state and the local share. But now the state is also picking up the local share,” Farrie added.

Though the program has been around for more than two decades, there’s little data available about how it is currently working, which students are participating, and the financial impact on sending and receiving districts. As of publication, a spokesperson for the state Department of Education said they would “look into” making such data available to Chalkbeat.

A 2005 Rutgers University report on the program found it was having some positive results. Increased choice revenue allowed some participating districts to increase enrollment, hire additional staff, reduce class sizes, offer new programs, and avoid tax increases and program cuts.

Farrie, the research director at ELC, said if the program were to expand, equity should be at the forefront. Early analyses of the pilot showed that participating students were overwhelmingly white. Black and Hispanic students, as well as students with disabilities, were not served quite as well as others, the Rutgers researchers found. A few receiving districts reported that their student body became more diverse because of the program.

But to understand the impacts of the choice program and potentially, help desegregate schools as Sherrill has proposed, the state has to provide data “to analyze which students are leaving which districts, going to which districts, is that improving segregation, is making it worse by either race or income,” Farrie said.

“We don’t really have the answers to those questions right now,” Farrie added.

In 2012-13, Gov. Chris Christie’s administration capped the program at 5% growth, which some participating superintendents said left it underfunded and incapable of meeting the demand for seats.

Former Glassboro Superintendent Mark Silverstein said the state cap prevented his district from growing the program. During his tenure, about 200 students from neighboring school districts participated in the choice program. That program helped boost student achievement and strengthen academic programs, Silverstein said.

In the program’s first year, Silverstein said, the district’s valedictorian was a choice student who came from outside Glassboro.

“That’s how I thought about school choice — it provides increased academic opportunities and maybe forces districts to provide programs they would have not done,” Silverstein said.

A 2023 review of the program determined there was little evidence to say whether students’ academic experience was improved.

Because funding follows the student, sending districts lose state aid for every student who participates, as they are no longer counted in the district’s enrollment. Those districts must also pay for up to 20 miles of a student’s transportation to their new school. After 20 miles, parents must cover the cost to send their child to school, causing more concerns over who can participate, Farrie added.

“Not everyone can do that. Some people need bus stop close to their house to get around,” Farrie said.

What would expanding the school choice program do?

Supporters of the program have signaled that an expansion into Essex County could be next, and growing attention from Sherrill and Ciattarelli may make that more likely. Researchers and experts have also said expansion and an increase in funding could improve the program and allow it to serve students more equitably.

But if the program were to expand, Farrie says the state should think about providing compensation to school districts that may experience a significant enrollment loss or higher transportation costs.

In their fiscal analysis of the program, NJPI experts lay out a scenario where roughly 5% — approximately 4,230 students — in “alleged highly segregated districts” (East Orange, Irvington, Newark City, Orange City, New Brunswick, and Perth Amboy) would move into new choice districts within Middlesex and Essex counties.

That could have implications for Newark’s enrollment and funding. Newark’s enrollment is on the upswing. Over the past 5 years, Newark Public Schools have added over 7,000 students. But experts warn that expanding the choice program could strain district budgets, especially those like Newark, where state aid makes up 84% of its budget this school year.

Farrie added that if the state’s next governor chooses to expand the program, they should look at who has the opportunity to change school districts and ensure those opportunities are distributed more equitably across communities.

“If we are going to expand it, it needs to be done in a much more careful way to make sure that it’s realizing the goals of what we want New Jersey public education policy to actually look like,” Farrie added.

This story is part of the NJ 2025 Reporting Fellowship, which collaborates with 15 local and community news organizations, the Center for Cooperative Media at Montclair State University, and NJ Spotlight News. The stories in this collaboration focus on immigration, education, healthcare, the economy, and the environment, highlighting the perspectives of diverse communities in New Jersey.

Jessie Gómez is a reporter for Chalkbeat Newark, covering public education in the city. Contact Jessie at jgomez@chalkbeat.org.

Denver, D.C officials share lessons on school systems with Indianapolis Local Education Alliance

2025-10-23T03:26:58+00:00

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In the future, Indianapolis’ traditional public and charter schools could answer to a single authority, like a mayor or an elected board. They could have a universal accountability system and an enrollment structure that ensures district and charter schools enroll students in certain subgroups — like those with disabilities — at a similar rate.

These were some of the takeaways from what current and former officials in Denver and Washington, D.C. public schools shared with the Indianapolis Local Education Alliance at its fifth meeting on Wednesday.

The presentations came from the perspective of two urban systems that feature a hybrid of traditional and charter schools and could offer both potential solutions and cautionary tales for the alliance as it crafts recommendations on the future of IPS.

In some ways, Indianapolis shares some features of these cities, like a centralized enrollment system — Enroll Indy — that nearly all schools within IPS enrollment borders use. But in other ways, the cities are different: Both Denver and Washington, D.C. have only one entity that authorizes new charter schools. Existing Indianapolis charter schools are overseen by one of three authorizers.

Mayor Joe Hogsett, chair of the ILEA, said the alliance invited the guests to present not with the intention of Indianapolis emulating either city’s model, but to help the ILEA understand “that there are multiple options, and each have their strengths as well as their own shortcomings.”

Universal accountability, enrollment in Denver Public Schools

In Denver, charter and district schools agreed in 2010 to adhere to similar standards while receiving similar levels of funding, said Alyssa Whitehead-Bust, a former top official at Denver Public Schools who is now a partner at the Attuned Education Partners consulting firm.

That means, for example, that charters had to serve a proportional share of some of the hardest-to-serve and most expensive students, including those with disabilities.

Enrollment in Denver Public Schools is now declining. But when it was growing, a “Strategic Regional Analysis” helped guide the district on when and where to open schools. Schools that meet needs outlined in the annual analysis can operate in a district-run facility and are part of a shared transportation system with district schools, she said.

Those that don’t meet needs identified in the analysis can choose to opt in to yellow bus service, she said.

Denver schools are graded on a universal school performance framework. The district had its own framework for many years. But the school board got rid of it in 2020, and now uses the state’s school rating system.

A student-based budgeting formula distributes money across both school types based on certain criteria, with additional funding given for English language learners or students in poverty, for example.

In Washington, D.C., mayor has oversight

In Washington, D.C., a single charter school board appointed by the mayor authorizes schools. The mayor also hires the school chancellor responsible for traditional public schools.

In the early days of the charter sector, charters had the right of first refusal to vacant district buildings, said Paul Kihn, deputy D.C. mayor of education. Now that the city no longer has any available buildings, charter schools receive additional money for facilities.

Kihn said traditional schools are meant to serve as neighborhood school options while charter schools offer more innovative educational models.

But even without an elected school board, Kihn said engaging with the public still matters. And, he said, getting two sectors to think as one ecosystem has taken decades.

“It’s important to put in the time, but it doesn’t happen, I don’t think, by magic,” he said. “And it also doesn’t happen with the wave of a particular policy wand. You’ve got to have these constituent elements working together.”

What else can Indianapolis learn from Denver and D.C.?

ILEA member Tina Ahlgren noted that in contrast to Washington D.C., residents in IPS are just a fraction of the city-county residents who elect a mayor. Having mayoral control of the school system could mean that some voters elect a mayor based on the success of IPS and charter schools, while other voters in the county’s other school districts do not.

In public comment, Bryan Duarte, a taxpayer and education professor, urged the ILEA to maintain a fully elected school board. He pointed to Chicago Public Schools, which is transitioning from an appointed to an elected school board.

Khai Vuong, an Indianapolis educator, said Indianapolis could learn lessons from Denver and D.C.

“We learned a lot about how we don’t need to point fingers and start conflict,” Vuong said. “But we have a clear case study of how IPS, innovation and charter schools can have a clear example of what a unified network looks like.”

The alliance must submit recommendations to state lawmakers by the end of the year. The next ILEA meeting is scheduled for 6 p.m. Nov. 19 at a location to be determined.

This story has been updated to include more recent information on Denver Public Schools.

Amelia Pak-Harvey covers Indianapolis and Lawrence Township schools for Chalkbeat Indiana. Contact Amelia at apak-harvey@chalkbeat.org.

Indianapolis charter, private schools approved for three-year state facilities and transportation pilot

2025-10-21T21:15:31+00:00

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The Indiana Department of Education approved a three-year pilot for more than 50 Indianapolis public charter and private schools to collaborate on how to best use transportation and building resources.

The state’s approval, announced Tuesday, allows 28 independent charter schools and 22 charters affiliated with the Indianapolis Public Schools Innovation Network to test new solutions for facilities and transportation. Those are two of the most challenging topics for charter schools, which have historically not received property tax funding. The Oak Academy’s three private school campuses are also participants.

The pilot, which will begin in the 2026-27 school year, allows participants to receive waivers from certain state requirements regarding school buildings or transportation. It’s unclear which state laws the department may waive. Indiana law has a number of requirements for school transportation, including requirements for school bus drivers, school bus inspections and registration, and school bus safety.

The department also approved Eastern Hancock Schools and the Career Academy Network of Public Schools, a charter network in South Bend, to participate in their own pilot programs.

“Through this pilot, schools will have an opportunity to try out new, innovative solutions, learn some lessons, and ultimately, create a model that others can adopt and adapt to meet their unique needs,” Indiana Secretary of Education Katie Jenner said in a statement.

The coalition of Indianapolis schools is led by the Indianapolis-based nonprofit TogetherEd, formerly known as the Center for Innovative Education Solutions, which has assisted charter schools with finding cost-effective services.The group said in its application that it could consider coordinating procurement of services and equipment, such as furniture and HVAC systems, across multiple schools. The group also pitched pooling rides across different schools or collaborating on transportation for certain activities.

The programs aim to “foster innovation, efficiency, and collaboration” by reimagining how schools manage buildings and deliver transportation, the department said in a press release.

The state-created Indianapolis Local Education Alliance also must submit recommendations to state lawmakers by the end of the year on how schools can effectively use transportation and facilities resources across the charter and IPS sectors.

Amelia Pak-Harvey covers Indianapolis and Lawrence Township schools for Chalkbeat Indiana. Contact Amelia at apak-harvey@chalkbeat.org.

IPS school board opposes any plan for an all-charter system, calls for elected board in letter to ILEA

2025-10-03T17:52:17+00:00

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The Indianapolis Public Schools board on Friday opposed any plan to create a future all-charter school system in a letter to the Indianapolis Local Education Alliance that listed seven requests for the group to consider as it rethinks the city’s school system.

The letter to the ILEA from the seven-member school board is among a litany of requests the ILEA has received in recent months. The letter, signed by all seven board members, is the first public list of requests the board has made to the group.

The group — created by state lawmakers and composed of Mayor Joe Hogsett, Superintendent Aleesia Johnson, and mayoral and district appointees — is tasked with providing recommendations for more efficient transportation and facility agreements across the city’s fractured charter and IPS school sectors. But the group could also submit other recommendations to lawmakers, such as a new governance structure for all school types.

The IPS board said in its statement that members “reject the notion” that a shift to an all-charter system “is the solution for education in our community.”

“Twenty years after the launch of charter schools in our city, student achievement remains low, with collective proficiency rates yet to reach 30% regardless of school type,” the statement said. “This is not criticism of charter schools—we proudly partner with multiple charter schools doing incredibly difficult work to serve students well.”

ILEARN rates for the charter sector as a whole range from roughly 10% proficiency in both English and math for independent charters to roughly 18% for charters associated with IPS and its Innovation Network, according to the latest 2025 results. Results for the district are at roughly 14%.

In its letter, the IPS board reiterated previous calls in ILEA and IPS board meetings to keep the school board democratically elected and noted school board elections for surrounding Marion County districts.

“The communities in each of these districts vote for their school board representatives, and there is no justifiable rationale why this practice should be different within IPS,” the statement said.

The letter follows the board’s recent public discussion on what it should ask the ILEA to consider. While most board members supported an elected board, member Deandra Thompson said at a meeting last week that she sees value in having some appointments to the board, such as a finance professional or attorney.

In their letter, IPS board members noted that examples from Newark and Chicago “demonstrate that communities are returning to elected governance models, recognizing that appointed boards diminish community voice and accountability.”

While Newark returned to an elected school board after years of state control, Chicago’s school board has transitioned from being fully appointed by the mayor to partially appointed and partially elected. The board there will be fully elected by 2027.

The IPS board also called for a moratorium on new schools and asked that the mayor’s Office of Education Innovation serve as the only authorizers of charter schools within IPS boundaries. Currently, three authorizers — Education One at Trine University, the mayor’s Office of Education Innovation, and the Indiana Charter School board — oversee such schools. Historically, 1 in 3 charter schools in Indianapolis has closed.

The board also called for transportation services to be safe while ensuring access for all students, including those with disabilities. Facilities belong to the taxpayers, the board argued, and any buildings no longer necessary for schools should be used for other “critical community needs” such as housing or early learning centers.

And the ILEA must acknowledge “the reality of adequate funding for public education,” the board said.

“We challenge the ILEA to present both the maximum and minimum of what it takes to educate a child in Indianapolis—and ask our community to decide what services and supports they are willing to fund,” the board said. “Our schools provide not only K-12 academic instruction but also Pre-K, health services, food pantries, mental health supports, and wraparound services that address barriers to student attendance and success. These services exist not because we receive specific funding for them, but because our schools are integral to our community.”

In some ways, the board’s proposal mirrors what other groups, including those who do and don’t support charters, have advocated for in ILEA meetings.

The Central Indiana Democratic Socialists of America have advocated strongly for a fully democratically elected school board, and called the IPS board’s letter a “powerful, principled stance” in a statement.

Meanwhile, parents affiliated with the Stand for Children Indiana, a nonprofit supportive of charter schools, have published a plan calling for both democratically elected and appointed school board members. A petition supporting the plan has garnered over 2,000 signatures, according to Stand.

In a statement, the Mind Trust nonprofit that has helped launch charter schools in the city said the board’s recommendations don’t provide solutions for improving student achievement and fail to address the district’s projected $44 million budget deficit for this year.

The next ILEA meeting is Oct. 22 at 6 p.m. at a location to be determined.

This story was updated to include a statement from the Central Indiana DSA.

Amelia Pak-Harvey covers Indianapolis and Lawrence Township schools for Chalkbeat Indiana. Contact Amelia at apak-harvey@chalkbeat.org.

Legal Prep charter school secures downtown location to serve grades 6-12

2025-09-30T22:09:26+00:00

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Legal Prep, the Chicago-based, legal-themed charter school opening a campus in Indianapolis next year, will launch at a onetime Indianapolis Public Schools building that currently operates as a coworking space.

The school’s downtown location at 525 S. Meridian St., currently known as the Union Campus, is central to Legal Prep’s desire to be close to the city’s legal and business community.

The school, approved by the mayor’s office in June, aims to launch in the 2026-27 school year with 225 students in grades 6 and 9. It will add one grade every year to its middle and high school grades until it reaches a total 825 students in its fourth year, according to its application.

The charter school will be one of the first to open since a divisive legislative session that pitted supporters of traditional IPS schools against charter school proponents. State lawmakers created the Indianapolis Local Education Alliance to examine how IPS and charters can share transportation and buildings.

Legal Prep founder and CEO Samuel Finkelstein said a nonprofit that works with charter schools, Epic Change Education, will purchase the building, and lease space to the school, which will occupy roughly 20,000 square feet on the third floor. The annual cost to the school will be a bit more than the $200,000 estimated in its charter school application, Finkelstein said.

Eventually, the school aims to purchase the building.

“This location is so exciting, because it just is going to allow us to do so many new things,” Finkelstein said.

The building sits on nearly 1.6 acres downtown, less than a mile from Monument Circle, the Indiana Convention Center, and Lucas Oil Stadium. (Chalkbeat Indiana is a current tenant of the Union Campus).

The building is the site of the city’s former Industrial Training School, which opened in 1895 with a focus on vocational education and later became known as the Manual Training School. When Manual — later renamed Charles E. Emmerich Manual High School after the school’s first principal — moved 2.5 miles south in 1953, the school at the original site became known as Harry E. Wood High School.

The campus has changed ownership multiple times since IPS sold the buildings in 1981, according to the Encyclopedia of Indianapolis.

Finkelstein said the school is still hoping to attract students from historically disadvantaged communities.

As Legal Prep prepares to launch, proponents of traditional public schools and IPS school board members have been calling for a pause in new schools. Last school year, Indianapolis had roughly 9,000 more seats than students enrolled across IPS and charter schools, according to data from the city’s centralized enrollment system.

Still, Finkelstein said he thinks the school will be able to recruit its target of 225 students in year one.

“We think we’re going to be able to get there, and I won’t say easily — it’s going to take a lot of work,” he said. “But what we’ve found as we’ve been talking to students and families about what we’re offering, they’re really excited about it.”

The school will have an open house at 5:30 p.m. Oct. 29 at the Union Campus building.

This story has been updated to include details for an open house.

Amelia Pak-Harvey covers Indianapolis and Lawrence Township schools for Chalkbeat Indiana. Contact Amelia at apak-harvey@chalkbeat.org.

Indianapolis Public Schools makes former Susan Roll Leach School 68 building available for $1

2025-09-26T00:14:03+00:00

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Indianapolis Public Schools has made the former Susan Leach School 68 building in the near eastside neighborhood available to interested charter schools or other educational institutions for $1.

The school board voted on Thursday to list the building as available for the purchase or lease price of $1 in accordance with a controversial state law requiring districts to make unused buildings available to charter schools. The move marks the end of its most recent uses in the district as storage space and winter shelter.

The vote comes as a state-mandated group considers which recommendations to make to state lawmakers to improve a fractured school system. One of the group’s tasks: to suggest how to use facilities more efficiently across IPS — which has shuttered schools and where enrollment has steadily declined — and charter schools, which routinely open and close in the city and struggle to find buildings.

A 2020 building study commissioned by the district concluded that the brick building — built in 1938 — had the lowest overall facility quality in the district, with a rating of 50. Buildings with ratings in the 60s were considered poor, while those with ratings below 60 were considered unsatisfactory.

IPS closed the school in the late 2000s after years of declining enrollment. The district leased the facility to the Indiana Juvenile Detention Center from 2015 to 2019 to operate Marion Academy, a high school for students in juvenile detention.

In 2021, the district began partnering with the city to use the space as winter shelter for families experiencing homelessness.

If no educational entity is interested in the property, the district can sell it without the $1 restriction.

Amelia Pak-Harvey covers Indianapolis and Lawrence Township schools for Chalkbeat Indiana. Contact Amelia at apak-harvey@chalkbeat.org.

Over 50 Indianapolis schools apply to collaborate on transportation, facilities

2025-09-08T20:56:03+00:00

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Over 50 Indianapolis charter and private schools have applied to share transportation and school building resources as part of a new pilot program.

The application submitted to the Indiana Department of Education is from TogetherEd, an Indianapolis-based nonprofit that assists charter schools. It lists a collective of 28 independent charter schools and 22 charters affiliated with the IPS Innovation Network as applicants, as well as the Oak Academy’s three private school campuses.

The pilot is supposed to help charters tackle some of their biggest challenges as they have grown in Indianapolis. As smaller entities, they have limited purchasing power for services such as transportation. And with historically limited access to property tax funding, they have frequently struggled to acquire and maintain building space.

Schools and school districts can opt into the pilot, which is statewide, to create independent boards that oversee school facilities and transportation across all pilot participants.

As part of the facility pilot, the schools would explore creating a catalog that tracks all available facilities across school partners, according to TogetherEd’s application. They would also consider coordinating the procurement of services and equipment — such as furniture, HVAC systems, and lab supplies — on behalf of multiple schools for potential cost savings through shared purchasing power.

Meanwhile, schools would consider pooling rides across multiple schools or collaborating on transportation to specialized learning experiences such as career and technical education, the application states. They would also look at improving transportation access for students experiencing homelessness.

Lawmakers created the pilot earlier this year, after a confrontational legislative session in which Republican legislators called for more efficiency in the Indianapolis school environment where there has been intense competition between Indianapolis Public Schools, charters, and private schools that accept state-funded vouchers.

Andy Seibert of TogetherEd said the application is not a step-by-step blueprint, but rather an opportunity for schools to collect data and an understanding of existing facility and transportation assets and challenges.

“Part of what we know is going to be true is really going to work to foster ongoing collaborative conversations with schools and partners,” Seibert said. “And the beautiful thing of the pilot is that we can be responsive.”

Seibert said TogetherEd hopes to hear from the state regarding its application in October.

One of the schools listed as a charter on TogetherEd’s application, the Cold Spring School, applied to become a charter, but IPS rejected the move in June. Cold Spring is part of the Innovation Network.

Amelia Pak-Harvey covers Indianapolis and Lawrence Township schools for Chalkbeat Indiana. Contact Amelia at apak-harvey@chalkbeat.org.

Detroit school district approves proposed charter school for struggling youth

2025-09-08T19:41:41+00:00

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The Detroit school district has approved a new charter school to serve students experiencing homelessness, chronic absenteeism, and interactions with the juvenile justice system.

Purpose Charter Academy, which is expected to open for prekindergarten through eighth grade students in the 2026-27 school year, will aim to “reengage disconnected youth,” according to the Detroit Public Schools Community District, or DPSCD. Projected enrollment for the charter the year it opens is 225 students. By 2029-30, it’s expected to be 400.

Since Superintendent Nikolai Vitti took the helm of the school system in 2017, DPSCD has authorized fewer charter schools. At the time, he said he wanted the district to use its resources to improve its traditional public schools.

Entities, such as school districts and community colleges, can authorize charters, meaning they approve charter applications and monitor the schools’ contract compliance.

More than half of school-age children in the city attend charter schools, with 62 charters in Detroit, according to state data compiled in May.

As the number of charters in the city and its suburbs increased over the last 30 years, enrollment in the Detroit district declined. But, rather than competing for students, Vitti said Purpose Charter Academy’s model could address student needs that are not otherwise met in the school system.

According to the charter’s development team, the most vulnerable student populations in Detroit often face significant and overlapping barriers in traditional public schools. The charter aims to combine targeted interventions, wraparound support, and culturally responsive programming that will allow the flexibility necessary to meet the students’ needs.

The new charter will be comparable to an alternative education program run by educators with trauma-informed training.

The Detroit district currently has one alternative education campus for kids in grades 6-12, which can enroll up to 500 students each year. There is no such program for children in the lower grades in the school system.

“A single school where the Board of Directors, budget and staff are all focused on serving the most at risk students allows a unique level of focus and program design around supporting deep-rooted trauma and instability that is not always easily achievable in a larger district with multiple other priorities,” he said in an email.

Detroit’s poverty rate is nearly three times higher than the national average. Nearly 85% of students in the Detroit district are identified as being from low-income households.

About 455 children experienced homelessness in Detroit, Hamtramck, and Highland Park last year, according to a January point-in-time count by the city. The count is an estimate and provides a snapshot of how many people experience homelessness on one night.

In the 2024-25 school year, more than 60% of DPSCD students were chronically absent, Vitti said at a recent board meeting.

Staffing requirements at the charter will focus on specialized expertise, such as staff with knowledge of the juvenile justice system and trauma-informed care, according to the district. The charter will be better positioned to coordinate services through other agencies such as shelters, courts, and mental health providers, according to plans for the school.

The main reason the district can’t implement the same model is cost, Vitti said.

“The District is not in a position to expand alternative education options for K-8 when the cost of those programs is typically much higher than traditional school settings,” said Vitti.

The charter plans to work with the district to enroll students in the school system when they are ready to return to a traditional school setting.

The nine-member development team behind Purpose Charter Academy includes Michigan Third Circuit Court Judge Cylenthia LaToye Miller, attorney Lamar Moreland, as well as educators, mental health practitioners, and civic leaders, said Board member Sherry Gay-Dagnogo.

The development team has not yet determined if the charter will be self-managed or if a management company will be chosen to operate the school, according to the district.

Charters, also known as public school academies, are public schools and must follow state and federal education law. In Michigan, anyone can operate a charter. The operator handles key functions, such as hiring teachers and managing payroll. Many charter schools in the state hire for-profit companies to fill the role.

The Detroit district’s board voted in July to approve a three-year contract with Purpose Charter Academy. The charter must meet all of the state’s requirements before the contract is signed.

The board also voted last month to approve a lease agreement for the charter to use its vacant school building formerly occupied by the Detroit Lions Academy on East Canfield Street.

The charter will pay 9% of the per-pupil state funding it receives by 2028-29 for the lease. There will be an option for the charter to buy the property through August 2028.

The district will get a 3% fee for authorizing the charter, which would amount to around $81,000 in 2026-27, according to a financial analysis.

Hannah Dellinger covers Detroit schools for Chalkbeat Detroit. You can reach her at hdellinger@chalkbeat.org.

Andrew J. Brown Academy charter school celebrates new life in old IPS Forest Manor Middle School

2025-08-28T19:49:51+00:00

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The former Forest Manor Middle School was once rich in resources: Two fountains flowed on either side of the building and the 5.5-acre campus featured a baseball field and a pool.

But by the time Indianapolis Public Schools sold the building in 2020, it was in dire need of a makeover: The roof was deteriorating. Groundwater was leaching up from the pool. And the fountains — which rested in ponds tucked on both sides of the property — no longer functioned.

On Wednesday, over 500 students occupied the once-shuttered building as officials with the Andrew J. Brown Academy charter school celebrated building renovations in their second year on the property.

“We turned the pool into a gym,” School Director Garrett Gammons told visitors as they walked in for a tour. “You’ve got to check it out.”

The building dedication is the latest chapter in the transformation of the school, which last month joined the Paramount Schools of Excellence network that operates seven other charter schools statewide.

Forest Manor Middle closed in the early 2000s and was later used for staff training. It also housed a small charter school until 2022-23. The building is roughly seven miles west of the location Andrew J. Brown operated in for decades.

The school’s change in location follows a split from the for-profit charter operator National Heritage Academies that had run the school since its inception in 2003. Last year, the academy board tapped Paramount, a nonprofit, to run the school instead. But the shift meant that the school needed to leave its Far Eastside building, which was owned by NHA. (NHA, which attempted to open a charter school in the same building, told Chalkbeat it no longer plans to submit an application for a school).

Paramount used a loan to purchase the building for $4.25 million, moving students into the space last school year while investing $6 million in upgrades. Now, the leaky pool is one of two new gyms, the roof is new, and the fountains outside are flowing.

“It’s just phenomenal that we get a chance to ignite the community with high standards for our kids, high standards for our families,” said Gammons, who as a child participated in an old Forest Manor baseball league and played football at the Wheeler Boys and Girls Club just two miles away. “We’re going to continue the tradition and the data-driven efforts of Paramount here at Andrew J. Brown, and it’s going to be amazing.”

New operator hopes to boost test scores, enrollment

The change in operators and location cost the school some students and staff. Andrew J. Brown lost 135 students — the biggest dip in recent years of declining enrollment — from 2023-24 to 2024-25, according to state enrollment records. Over 50 of those students went to the neighboring Metropolitan School District of Lawrence Township, according to a district presentation in November.

Now, Reddicks anticipates growing back up to a population of 600 students next year while slowly increasing test scores on the state’s IREAD and ILEARN exams that have remained largely stagnant.

Roughly 50% of Andrew J. Brown students are Black, with another 41% Hispanic, according to state enrollment records from last school year. A little over half of the students are English language learners.

Facility renovations will continue at the school, which doesn’t yet occupy the building’s second level and is only using some of the building’s 16 boilers. Reddicks said he hopes one day to find a high school interested in partnering with Paramount and sharing the site for a full K-12 experience.

As part of its merger with Paramount, Andrew J. Brown Academy — named after a local civil rights leader — will have two board members on Paramount’s board, one of which will be a permanent legacy member, Reddicks said.

Physical classrooms or books aren’t the only things that make Andrew J. Brown special, eighth-grader Ja’layah Jackson told the crowd at the ribbon-cutting.

“What really makes our school special is the great sense of family,” she said. “When you walk through the halls, you feel welcomed. You feel like you belong.”

Amelia Pak-Harvey covers Indianapolis and Lawrence Township schools for Chalkbeat Indiana. Contact Amelia at apak-harvey@chalkbeat.org.

After public pushback, Irvington Community Schools board chair steps down

2025-08-28T02:12:57+00:00

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The board chair of the Irvington Community Schools charter network resigned her position on Wednesday and a second board member was voted off the board.

The board’s vote to accept chair Rashay Foster’s resignation and remove another board member, Ashli Adams, follows a contentious start of the school year for Irvington Community Schools, which faced criticism from parents, students, and staff over a CEO search that included Foster as a candidate.

After a protest earlier this month, the board reopened the search for the CEO while still calling Foster a “qualified and dedicated educational leader” who applied for the position in good faith. The CEO will lead the charter network, which typically serves over 900 students in K-12 across three separate schools.

ICS staff told Chalkbeat they found out that Foster, the chair of the network’s board of governors, was a “top” candidate at a virtual meeting in the first few days of the school year. Students and staff said that was a conflict of interest. At the protest, they voiced concerns that Foster participated in a hiring process for a position for which she had applied and questioned her qualifications for the job. Staff also took issue that Adams, perceived as a close friend of Foster’s, would vote to decide the next CEO.

In a statement submitting her resignation, Foster nodded to her qualifications. She said she had a teacher’s license, passed an administrator’s exam, and had completed a master’s program in administration and a school management and leadership program at Harvard University.

“My belief in Irvington remains unwavering. My passion lives here, and my commitment to our students has not changed,” Foster said. “That commitment does not depend on holding the title of CEO or board chair.”

Foster said after the meeting that she would not reapply for the CEO position.

In public comment after her removal from the board, Adams said the ouster was an act of retaliation in part for reporting a sexual assault against her by a staff member.

She told Chalkbeat that she reported the assault in May to the board chair and later to the school’s legal counsel. The school’s attorney did not confirm the initial report by deadline.

Earlier this month, she said she also expressed concern to the board that students were encouraged by adults to spread misinformation to the board about the CEO search process.

“Once I brought up both of those concerns, I was asked to recuse myself from further discussion because I was too emotional,” she said. “And so I did recuse myself, because I didn’t want to become a conflict of interest that had been insinuated against me.”

In her statement read before the crowd, Adams said she was not part of the hiring committee, its deliberations or scoring, or who it selected as finalists.

“Legal counsel and our authorizer were consistently consulted by the board throughout the process,” she said. “It is both inaccurate and unfair to shift blame toward me for decisions I had no role in.”

In a statement sent through its attorney after the meeting, the board said that its decisions to remove Adams from the board was for governance reasons and not connected to her public allegation of sexual assault.

“That decision was made for governance reasons—including the Board’s need to preserve impartiality, avoid the appearance of impropriety in ongoing leadership decisions, and maintain effective Board function,” the statement said.

The board said the network is treating the matter as a report following her public disclosure, and that it “immediately initiated the steps necessary for a formal investigation.

“Because these issues involve confidential personnel matters, ICS will not be discussing details publicly while the investigation is underway,” the board said. “We ask our community to allow this process to proceed without speculation.”

Board adopts conflict of interest policy, adds new members

The board on Wednesday also adopted a conflict of interest policy that would prohibit members from being employed by the district while holding office. The policy also states that a current board member cannot apply for any open employment position unless they first resign their position on the board.

The remaining four board members also passed an anti-retaliation policy for board members and appointed three new members.

While charter schools are public schools, the governance of charter schools is left to the charter school organizer, and their boards can be appointed.

In public comment, staff members asked the board for more transparency on board meeting dates and decisions moving forward.

Milo Kaminski, a sophomore at Irvington Preparatory Academy, asked the entire board to step down.

“I currently do not think this board is the right fit for our schools,” Milo said. “They have proven that unless we bring attention to their actions and hold them responsible, they will act on their own like spoiled, unsupervised children.”

The board invited other community members interested in serving on the board to reach out.

Amelia Pak-Harvey covers Indianapolis and Lawrence Township schools for Chalkbeat Indiana. Contact Amelia at apak-harvey@chalkbeat.org.

Years after New Orleans ditched district schools for charters, will Indianapolis do the same?

2025-08-26T17:18:55+00:00

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Indianapolis Public Schools leaders made a tough decision in 2008 to close six underenrolled schools.

“Each of the selected schools serves far fewer students than the building’s capacity can accommodate,” the superintendent said at the time. “We simply can’t continue to operate this way.”

One school is now a senior living center. Another is a private school. And two of them are charter schools.

This is how the education landscape has transformed in Indianapolis. Since the creation of charter schools in 2001, IPS — which had already been losing students for decades — has had to compete with other public schools within its borders.

Today, that landscape does not look favorable for the district. There are roughly 49,000 students living within IPS borders who attend public schools or get private school vouchers. Just 38% of them attend schools run by IPS, according to state transfer data from the spring of this year. The district is projected to go into the red by 2028, unless voters approve another tax increase. As the overall pot of property tax revenue available to public schools shrinks, IPS is projected to lose millions in property taxes as charters gain new access to those dollars.

Earlier this year, a bill in the state legislature called for dismantling the district completely in favor of charters. Although that proposal didn’t get far, lawmakers did establish a task force that must submit recommendations about the district’s future to the GOP-run legislature, which fully embraces school choice. Most members of that task force, the Indianapolis Local Education Alliance, have ties to the charter sector.

These realities have revived an existential question that some have wondered for years: Is it inevitable that IPS will be completely replaced by charter schools?

Education experts and local observers say that kind of transformation — akin to what transpired in New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina — isn’t inevitable. But it’s more likely than ever, due to statehouse politics, shaky finances, and declining enrollment that recently led IPS to hire a public relations firm to recruit students.

Indianapolis Public Schools has faced intense competition for students, especially in the wake of the pandemic.

The influential pro-charter Mind Trust nonprofit, for example, has not called for IPS to become all charter. But it says giving schools and educators more autonomy, among other changes, would help IPS avoid collapse.

IPS Superintendent Aleesia Johnson said in an interview that she doesn’t know what the future holds, but acknowledged that leaders must answer big questions.

“We are at a really critical juncture as Indianapolis Public Schools,” said Johnson, who is on the Indianapolis Local Education Alliance, or ILEA. “And what do we mean by Indianapolis Public Schools? What do we desire for IPS to be?”

Key aspects of city public schools don’t look especially healthy regardless of who runs them. Across IPS-run schools and charters, test scores remain below the statewide average. One-third of charter schools have closed since 2001. IPS has closed at least 18 schools in that time, and many schools operate at well below their building capacity. And while IPS schools offer transportation, not every charter school can.

Although other outcomes are possible, Indianapolis may be one of several cities that are “slowly tipping towards becoming all-charter school systems,” said David Griffith, an associate director of research at the pro-charter Thomas B. Fordham Institute.

The challenging part, he said, is the period that Indianapolis is going through — the transformation.

“It may not be something that people want to say out loud necessarily,” Griffith said. But if the district continues to lose 3.7% of its students per year, Griffith said, “Then in 20, 25 years there will not be a district.”

ILEA weighs options for fractured education system

Although many charter schools have come and gone in Indianapolis, overall enrollment in charters has increased from roughly 3,000 students in 2005-06 to over 22,000 last school year. (That population includes those in IPS Innovation Network schools, the majority of which are charters.) Charters can get the green light to open by one of several authorizers.

Meanwhile, over that same time period, IPS has lost roughly 44% of students in the schools it runs directly, or over 16,000 kids, bringing enrollment to 21,055 at the start of last school year.

The future supply of students could dwindle even further: A 2020 demographic study commissioned by IPS predicted the student population would decline by anywhere from 152 to 478 students annually from 2025 to 2030.

Students already move freely to neighboring township school districts, and can also use private school vouchers in the state’s choice-friendly environment.

Figures from the city’s centralized enrollment system, Enroll Indy, indicate that Indianapolis had roughly 9,000 more seats than students enrolled in the 2024-25 school year in both IPS and charter schools. The majority of those — nearly 7,000 — were on the IPS side. And while excess seats can allow students to move to schools that may be a better fit for them, they can also spread resources such as teachers very thinly across schools.

That could mean more school closures for IPS, which has nearly one-third of its school buildings operating at less than 60% capacity, according to a review of state enrollment records and a building analysis the district conducted in 2020, the most recent available.

Perhaps 15 or 20 years from now, the system will have right-sized and IPS “will either have taken on a more efficient way of operating or given up,” said Paul Hill, founder of the Center on Reinventing Public Education. He said certain charter school operators may leave.

“But in the meantime, the transition is pretty nasty,” he said, “and a lot of kids are getting less than they might.”

Unlike New Orleans, Indianapolis education has changed slowly

New Orleans and Indianapolis carry the same historical problems that have plagued urban school districts nationwide: the flight of white students from the inner cities, the subsequent underenrollment of the school system, and high rates of poverty.

In Louisiana, Hurricane Katrina triggered the complete transformation of New Orleans Public Schools.

After the storm hit in 2005, the state’s Recovery School District took over most New Orleans schools and eventually converted them all into charters. In 2017, the state began returning those charter schools back to the control of the local school board, which had a few charter schools of its own.

Today, all but one school in New Orleans Public Schools are charters authorized by the school board. A few other charter schools in the city are authorized by the state.

By contrast, in Indianapolis the transformation of schools has been slow but steady.

Students walk the halls of Victory College Prep, one of the largest charter schools in Indianapolis, in 2023.

Democratic Mayor Bart Peterson helped usher the creation of charter schools into state law in 2001. In 2006, he helped found the Mind Trust to build school leaders and launch charter schools in the city.

In 2012, pro-charter political action committees and out-of-state donors began boosting the profile of school board races, starting an ongoing trend of giving tens of thousands to IPS school board candidates. And in 2014, IPS Superintendent Lewis Ferebee forged a deal with charter schools that resulted in the Innovation Network of autonomous schools. Most of them are charters.

Now, the district’s future could be in the hands of the ILEA, which includes Peterson, Johnson, and others with experience in education reform.

To traditional public school advocates like Alejandro Samaniego, there has long been an unspoken plan to turn Indianapolis into New Orleans — just without the natural disaster to spur it.

“We’re being kind of sold the school choice [model],” said Samaniego, an IPS parent and teacher who is the lead member organizer for the local teachers union. “And it is a process of convincing people that this is the correct model.”

But Peterson said he viewed charters as a way to avoid the bureaucracy of a large district that can impede individual schools’ success, and not as a way to achieve some “final, ideal state.”

“There might have been some people who thought, you know, eventually every school would be a charter school, period. End of discussion. IPS wouldn’t exist,” he said. “I never thought that way, and I don’t think most people thought that way.”

Students at Shortridge High School, an IPS high school, walk to class on the first day of school in August.

Parents affiliated with charter-supportive groups, such as Stand for Children Indiana and EmpowerED Families, say they see an opportunity to create a system where every school is great, regardless of type.

Many charter schools are also underperforming and have low enrollment, said Katrina Anderson, an education advocate at EmpowerED Families, whose daughter and granddaughter attended charter schools.

“I don’t think it would be all charter — it should not be,” she said of the district. “There’s IPS schools that are doing well, just like there are charter schools.”

There are models Indianapolis could follow other than the one in New Orleans — like that of Washington, D.C., where enrollment is split roughly evenly between charter schools and the district.

Becoming an all-charter school district is not the sole path to success, Johnson argued.

“You don’t actually have to have that be the outcome in order for schools to come together and say, ‘Actually, we’re going to all operate by X system, X policy,’” she said. “Everyone would have to be committed to doing that in service to a greater good.”

Some say IPS governance, charter authorizing should change

While Indianapolis might not evolve to mirror the top-down approach in post-Katrina New Orleans that relied exclusively on charters, the idea of unified control in key areas could have broad appeal.

For example, having a single governing body oversee schools based on one set of standards could support good schools and shut down bad ones if they don’t improve, regardless of school type. And having just one charter authorizer, instead of the several the city has now, could be a strong gatekeeper and ensure there aren’t too many or too few charters.

Advocates affiliated with Stand for Children Indiana recently pitched some of these solutions to the ILEA, such as an accountability framework by which to determine school closures.

Their plan calls for a new IPS board of elected and appointed members that also has the sole power to authorize charter schools.

Johnson told Chalkbeat she would be open to the board acting as the one authorizer — like in New Orleans — because “it would create a level of coherence we don’t have right now.”

Whether current authorizers would easily give up power over charter authorizing is another issue.

The unified policies in New Orleans for day-to-day life in schools could be a goal for Indianapolis schools as they evolve.

For example, although nearly all New Orleans public schools are still charters, the school board has established a universal discipline policy, and a single district office conducts things like expulsion hearings. Meanwhile, IPS has its own discipline policy, while charters and charter networks in Indianapolis can adopt their own.

But opinions are mixed on whether New Orleans is a good model for Indianapolis. While test scores and graduation rates have improved overall since the hurricane, the city still struggles with transportation costs and declining enrollment, according to a 2025 report from the Cowen Institute at Tulane University. Wealthier and white students enroll in the city’s higher-performing schools at a disproportionate rate.

The approach in New Orleans is designed to ensure equity across schools, said Carlos Luis Zervigón, the vice president of the Orleans Parish School Board, which oversees New Orleans schools.

“If they want to be like New Orleans, I’d say an elected body is responsible under a unified structure of governance under a guardrail of equity measures, to make sure everyone is playing by the same playbook in the interest of fairness to children,” Zervigón said. “No one gets left behind. No one gets different treatment.”

Amelia Pak-Harvey covers Indianapolis and Lawrence Township schools for Chalkbeat Indiana. Contact Amelia at apak-harvey@chalkbeat.org.

Indianapolis Public Schools to sell a building, put another up for sale or lease to end legal battle

2025-08-25T15:06:26+00:00

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Indianapolis Public Schools will put one closed school building up for lease or sale to charter schools for $1 and will sell another to a local nonprofit, the district announced Friday.

The transfer of the buildings that used to house Raymond Brandes School 65 and Francis Bellamy School 102 stems from an Indiana Court of Appeals ruling in a lengthy battle over the state’s so-called $1 law, which requires districts to transfer unused school buildings to charter schools for the sale or lease price of $1. The court ruled in May that IPS must sell School 65.

The announcement also comes as the Indianapolis Local Education Alliance ponders how to solve facility challenges for both IPS, which continues to lose students in its traditional schools every year, and charters, which frequently struggle to acquire school buildings.

The district said in a statement that Damar Charter Academy, a school for students with developmental and behavioral challenges in Decatur Township, had reached out to IPS to express interest in School 65 — which is located on the southeast side of IPS. The district does not have the power to pick which charter school it will sell a building to — if more than one charter school is interested, state law requires a committee to decide.

On Monday, Damar confirmed to Chalkbeat that it is interested in School 65.

In the statement, the district said it would prefer to “move forward with disposition” of School 65 through a collaborative community process.

“But, we respect the court’s decision and will proceed in full compliance with that order,” IPS Superintendent Aleesia Johnson said. “If the building is claimed by a charter school, we think Damar has a strong record of serving some of the most vulnerable and underserved students in our city and I have confidence that acquiring Raymond Brandes will allow them to expand their operations to serve even more students.”

Meanwhile, the district will sell School 102 to Voices, a nonprofit that works with youth, for $550,000. The district had already leased the school on the Far Eastside to Voices, which also shares the space with two other youth programs.

“Indianapolis Public Schools is committed to continuing to engage with our community on thoughtful re-use of our facilities and to being good stewards of our public assets,” Johnson said in a statement. “We are excited to move forward with our planned sale of the Francis Bellamy 102 building to VOICES and to see their impact in serving our community continue for many years into the future.”

Amelia Pak-Harvey covers Indianapolis and Lawrence Township schools for Chalkbeat Indiana. Contact Amelia at apak-harvey@chalkbeat.org.

IREAD scores jump for IPS-run schools and charters, get close to pre-pandemic levels

2025-08-22T11:00:00+00:00

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Spanish flows easily between students during recess at Enlace Academy on the west side of Indianapolis.

The school has a large Spanish-speaking population, as well as students who speak other foreign languages. Here, the Haitian-Creole speaking population is roughly equivalent to the English-speaking population, school leaders say. In class, teachers sometimes flip between English and Spanish.

The charter school in the International Marketplace neighborhood has historically had a majority of English language learners as its student population. That made this year’s administration of the third-grade literacy test particularly stressful: Under state law, 2025 marked the first time students could be held back for failing to pass the IREAD exam. And at the time of the test, lawmakers hadn’t yet passed an extension on the retention requirement for certain schools that would ultimately give Enlace some relief.

Despite the odds, Enlace posted significant improvements on the test. The percentage of students passing the exam increased from 40.5% to 60%, while the share of English language learners who passed the test jumped from 38% to nearly 61%.

The results mirror trends across Indianapolis Public Schools and charter schools in the district’s borders, the majority of which had higher IREAD pass rates over last year. The pass rate for IPS jumped about 10 percentage points from 59.8% to 69.8%. And the share of English learners in the district passing the IREAD rose from 42.4% to 56.7%. For independent charters and those in the IPS Innovation Network, the combined pass rate was about the same as in IPS at 70%.

The increase did not come out of nowhere. Pressured by the new retention law and a statewide requirement to adopt science-backed literacy curriculum, schools focused an infusion of funding on second- and third-grade literacy in the years following COVID. Lawmakers also tweaked the law to add more supports this year, required summer school for students who did not pass, and gave students up to five chances to pass the test — extra retakes that staff at Enlace say also helped.

After Enlace’s students took the IREAD, legislation passed in the spring that exempts schools from retention until 2027 if at least 50% of their third graders are English language learners. That exemption applies to 17 IPS and Indianapolis charter schools, including Enlace, and 38 statewide, according to an Indiana Department of Education memo.

Without the extension, roughly one-third of Enlace’s third graders would have been retained this year.

Enlace staff give the most credit to their students.

“They knew what the end goal was, and I think that really helped them,” said Enlace third grade master teacher Bailey Rager. “But also, they had a very good work ethic when it came to learning to love to read.”

IPS, charters schools post similar IREAD gains

Within the charter sector, independent charters posted a slightly higher overall pass rate at roughly 73%, compared with 66% for Innovation Network charters.

The latest improvements still leave the IPS and charter sector just below the pre-COVID proficiency rates of 2019.

The IREAD gains follow a number of early literacy initiatives that district and charter schools adopted in the years following COVID. They include overhauls to literacy curriculum, the Circle City Readers program that will operate at 10 schools this year, the Indy Summer Learning Labs that offered summer school at over 50 sites across Marion County this summer, and several tutoring programs that IPS has launched at certain schools.

The district’s largest tutoring initiative, led by Tutored by Teachers, paired second- and third-grade students at 19 IPS schools with virtual tutors multiple times a week for small group instruction.

IPS Chief Learning Officer Lela Simmons credited the jump to a variety of measures, including last year’s new literacy curriculum — Amplify Core Knowledge Language Arts — that was paired with a K-2 phonics curriculum the district adopted in 2023. The district also created IREAD plans for students that did not pass.

“It’s really a very intentional daily effort with our kids and our families and our teachers to ensure that we are intentionally teaching these skills — and then assessing whether or not they’ve learned them in a very cyclical way,” Simmons said.

The district has since announced a $10.5 million investment from the Lilly Endowment that will be used to support reading proficiency in elementary schools over the next five years. The money includes continued funding for Tutored by Teachers, which will serve high-risk second- and third-graders across 23 schools in preparation for next year’s IREAD exam.

Struggling schools improve, as do students of color

Chronically underperforming schools also largely showed improvement in both the district and charter sector.

All eight of the district’s “restart schools” — chronically underperforming schools in the Innovation Network of autonomous schools through the IPS turnaround process — improved from last year. Nearly all of these schools also surpassed pre-pandemic levels of 2019, and all but one of them are charter schools.

Among the district-run chronically underperforming schools, known as “emerging schools,” all nine that enrolled third graders also improved their IREAD scores over last year. Four of those schools have reached or surpassed pre-COVID pass rates: Eleanor Skillen 34, James Whitcomb Riley School 43, Brookside School 54, and Charles Warren Fairbanks School 105.

Nearly all student subgroups in IPS saw improvement over last year, including double-digit percentage point increases for Hispanic, Black, and English learner students.

Within IPS, white students have exceeded pre-pandemic proficiency levels with a pass rate of 87.9%. Black students are just behind their 2019 rates at 65.7%, while Hispanic students still have not caught up to pre-pandemic levels of 67.6%.

Racial breakdowns for charter schools and the charter sector as a whole are less reliable because public-facing data for those racial subgroups are often suppressed for student privacy, due to the small number of students tested in those subgroups.

Enlace embraces extra funding for English language learners

Enlace Academy hit a post-COVID low in 2023 with an IREAD pass rate of 38.7%. Today, it’s in the fourth year of its literacy initiative that focuses on the science of reading and has also trained all K-3 staff in the Orton-Gillingham approach that features systematic lessons on phonics.

Students in grades K-3 were separated into phonics and small-group reading instruction every day. Extra funding from a $3.3 million federal grant paid for multilingual instructional assistants, a reading interventionist, and high-dosage tutoring. And the school partnered with the National Center for Family Learning to provide English classes for families.

All those changes were put to the test when students began taking the IREAD in March, before lawmakers gave schools like Enlace a two-year extension on the retention requirement until 2027.

“I’ve given IREAD so many times over so many years, but this year, I think our kids were really feeling the anxiety,” said Lauren Perkins, the K-8 reading specialist who helped craft the school’s literacy plan. “I could just really see it on their little faces on test day in March. Some of them had that throw-up look on their face.”

As the school prepares for 2027, another $338,000 from the Lilly Endowment will help maintain some of the school’s literacy efforts. Staff will also focus on making sure kindergartners and first graders are on grade level.

“I think what fuels us every day is we’re looking at the whole picture,” said school leader Stephanie Campos.

Amelia Pak-Harvey covers Indianapolis and Lawrence Township schools for Chalkbeat Indiana. Contact Amelia at apak-harvey@chalkbeat.org.

Indianapolis Local Education Alliance to host more public meetings this year

2025-08-19T20:02:54+00:00

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The Indianapolis Local Education Alliance will host at least four more public meetings in addition to the three that were previously announced, including Wednesday’s meeting at Emma Donnan Elementary and Middle School.

The nine-member group established by the state legislature must recommend how to improve efficiencies across both Indianapolis Public Schools and the many charters in its borders. The group will suggest plans for facility and transportation usage across school types, and could suggest new governance models for the city’s fractured education landscape. It could also recommend school closures.

The group is exempt from the state’s Open Door Law that requires government entities to hold meetings in public. However, the group must publicly vote on the final plan it submits to lawmakers. Mayor Joe Hogsett’s office initially announced three public meetings earlier this year.

The mayor’s Office of Education Innovation confirmed four other tentative meetings on the group’s website will be public, but it’s unclear when the group may hold closed-door discussions and how often.

The remaining meetings on the schedule that the group has confirmed will be public are set for 6 p.m. for the following tentative dates, with locations shared closer to the date:

Sep. 24, 2025.
Oct. 22, 2025.
Nov. 19, 2025.
Dec. 17, 2025.

The group’s Wednesday meeting at Emma Donnan will also take place at 6 p.m. The group has met two times so far. At its last meeting in July, it faced calls from the public for a moratorium on charter schools and heard from charter school leaders who want to buy IPS school buildings that they already occupy.

Those who would like to give in-person or online public comment and sign up to do so using this form. Comments may be submitted starting at noon two business days before each meeting and must be submitted by noon on the day of each meeting. Speakers are limited to three minutes per person.

The Indianapolis Local Education Alliance must submit its recommendations to the state legislature by the end of the year.

Amelia Pak-Harvey covers Indianapolis and Lawrence Township schools for Chalkbeat Indiana. Contact Amelia at apak-harvey@chalkbeat.org.

Uber for students: HopSkipDrive rideshare service looks to expand alongside school choice

2025-08-15T19:32:06+00:00

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When Melissa Zivicki’s local public school district offered a personalized ride service to transport her son to a private school for an individualized education program, she was initially skeptical.

“I thought it was really weird sending my kid with a stranger,” Zivicki said.

But if Zivicki drove her son to school, she said she would be late to work every day and have to leave her job early as well. It felt untenable. So she accepted the offer, and before long began regularly sending her son to school through HopSkipDrive, a student-focused rideshare service.

Zivicki got more comfortable when she learned about the company’s background checks, and she liked that she could follow her son using in-app mobile tracking. Plus, each morning, she’d get a text with a picture of her driver and the time that they would arrive.

Started in California in 2014, HopSkipDrive began as a service to help busy parents get their children to soccer practice. The company now pitches itself as the solution for some of the biggest transportation problems in modern education.

The largest share of its business stems from students who have a federal right to school transportation, but whose needs don’t easily fit with the traditional yellow school bus transporting a lot of kids on a fixed route and schedule. These children include foster youth, homeless students, and students who have disabilities.

But HopSkipDrive also offers its routing software to school districts so they can plot more efficient school bus routes and sends drivers to far-flung neighborhoods to help schools boost their enrollment. In states across the country, it’s lobbied to change laws so that it can contract with school districts — transporting some of the most vulnerable students — while being regulated more like Uber or Lyft.

And increasingly, HopSkipDrive is tying its business to the explosion of school choice. This year the company is expanding into Kansas, Florida, and Louisiana, where it’s working on partnerships in Baton Rouge and New Orleans, which both operate districts that are nearly all charter schools. It’s also adding service in Maryland, North Carolina, Oklahoma, and Texas

“We’re not going to figure out how to do choice equitably and at scale without making transportation part of the conversation,” said Joanna McFarland, the founder and CEO of HopSkipDrive.

Observers say HopSkipDrive and other companies like it fill a real need — school choice is only as good as students’ ability to get to the school. But the expansion of HopSkipDrive also raises questions about cost, equity, student safety, and the growing privatization of school services.

The turn toward contracting with private rideshares coincides with a decline in the number of bus drivers on the road. But experts are skeptical that the added cost of contracting with private rideshares represents a sustainable solution. School districts’ transportation problems are driven in part by low wages related to ongoing budget challenges, which can be exacerbated when students leave neighborhood schools for other options.

“A lot of these solutions, although they might chip away at the problem, it’s not going to be as comprehensive,” said Sebastian Hickey, an analyst at the Economic Policy Institute who has studied school transportation issues.

Personal drivers for vulnerable students

Foster youth and homeless students protected under a federal law known as McKinney-Vento are guaranteed a federal right to continue at the same home school even after they move.

Schools are required to provide them transportation, but some foster students face a choice between an unsustainable commute and a stable education.

After just two weeks of driving her foster daughter to her home school around 20 minutes away from their house, Akira Bailey recalls feeling overwhelmed. Between gas prices, commute time, and driving another child to school, “I was like, ‘Wait, I don’t think that I can actually do this moving forward till the end of the year,’” said Bailey.

A co-worker recommended looking into HopSkipDrive. The school district covers the cost since her daughter is in foster care. Bailey now drops her daughter off at the nearby house of another foster student using the service so that they can ride to school together.

Kids who have to travel long distances to school often show up already tired, and they might miss out on extracurricular activities. For foster youth and homeless students there’s an added stigma of taking specialized bus services, Bailey added.

Still, parents have understandable safety concerns about HopSkipDrive. And advocates for students with disabilities have raised questions about the lower level of training and regulation on HopSkipDrive, when compared with school district bus drivers.

The company says the people they call CareDrivers all undergo comprehensive background checks and have at least five years of caregiving experience, which includes being a parent.

But HopSkipDrive’s costs can add up, which limits which districts are able to contract with the service — and to what extent.

Despite using HopSkipDrive in the morning, Bailey’s foster daughter takes the bus back home in the evening, which she doesn’t like very much. But the district can’t afford to offer a HopSkipDrive ride both there and back.

Transportation can make or break school choice

The expansion of school choice has complicated the transportation picture.

In some states, families are on their own if they want to enroll their children in charter or private schools. In others, public schools are required to provide transportation for students attending private and charter schools. In Ohio, these mandates have left many public school districts unable to transport their own students to school.

Partnering with public, charter, and private schools, HopSkipDrive is one of many companies building a new economy out of the growing movement for school choice and a broader fragmentation of education.

The company has lobbied in Missouri, Colorado, and Kansas to change state law to make it easier for school districts to use their services, and worked with the Georgia State Board of Education to change transportation regulation. Louisiana just passed a law that allows the company to partner with school districts.

Students in New Orleans have lots of choices for their education, but no guaranteed enrollment at a neighborhood school. While in theory the system champions choice, transportation constrains family’s realistic options, a study from the Education Research Alliance for New Orleans found.

“If you can’t get your kid to a school, that school isn’t actually available to you,” said Jon Valant, director of Brookings’ Brown Center on Education Policy and a co-author of the study.

More choice also means more competition for students and the funding attached to them. HopSkipDrive pitches itself as a solution for families seeking more educational choices, and as a solution to schools looking to increase enrollment in an increasingly competitive environment.

“Rather than cutting transportation as a cost issue, actually increasing transportation options can be a way of increasing enrollment,” McFarland said.

In Arizona, HopSkipDrive helped Tolleson Union High School District, an open-enrollment district west of Phoenix, increase enrollment by transporting students who lived outside of their district boundaries. HopSkipDrive’s private vehicles picked up around 200 students at their home and dropped them off at the nearest school bus stop.

The district received a $2 million private grant for the initiative. But after two years, the money ran out and the grant expired, forcing the district to end its partnership with HopSkipDrive.

In a statement, Tolleson Union said that while students and parents “loved” HopSkipDrive, “the price point was the only major hurdle.” The district said the service would be a great program “if it was partially subsidized by the State with the parent opting in to cover the difference.”

Hickey, the Economic Policy Institute analyst, worries that a loss of funding driven by school choice can make it harder for districts to solve their transportation problems by hiring more drivers or increasing pay.

HopSkipDrive says it has a solution: It offers an AI-powered bus routing software to deal with bus driver shortages and optimize district costs. Students whose bus stops are cut can be shuttled to school in a private rideshare instead.

At one charter school, rideshares remove stigma

At KIPP Kansas City, nearly 6% of all students arrive in cars driven by HopSkipDrive drivers — some 60 students in kindergarten through 12th grade. Most of them are in foster care or homeless.

“It’s been able to open doors for us to have a lot more diversity in the population we serve,” said Shauna O’Brien Baska, director of student support services.

Though KIPP Kansas City also contracts with a traditional bus service for most students, it’s considering expanding their HopSkipDrive offerings.

Since the cars are like any other, foster youth or students with housing instability aren’t singled out in the carpool line. The flexibility of HopSkipDrive also allows these students to attend football practice, club meetings, and before-school activities.

KIPP Kansas City tried out a variety of other supplemental services prior to HopSkipDrive, including taxi cabs. But Baska said HopSkipDrive is far more reliable and cost effective.

And since parents can track the whole ride from a mobile app on their phone, Baska can expect a call from parents asking why their child’s rideshare hasn’t moved if there’s traffic in the carpool line.

Norah Rami is a Dow Jones business reporting intern on Chalkbeat’s national desk. Reach Norah at nrami@chalkbeat.org.

Irvington Community Schools charter network restarts CEO search after staff absences, public protest

2025-08-13T18:11:41+00:00

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Irvington Community Schools will restart its search for a new CEO after pushback from staff, students, and parents over a hiring process that included the network’s board chair as a top candidate.

The decision announced by the charter network’s board of governors on Wednesday follows a rocky return to school for ICS, which typically serves over 900 students at three separate elementary, middle, and high school campuses on the eastside of Indianapolis. Former CEO Häns Lassiter resigned from the position in February, although a message to parents from the board chair did not explain why.

ICS staff say the board hosted a virtual meeting Aug. 4 in which Rashay Foster, chair of the network’s board of governors, was presented as a “top” candidate for the CEO job. In response, staff at the high school called out sick en masse before a public meeting of the board on Aug. 8, which was later canceled. The call-outs forced students into a virtual learning day, and drew parents’ attention to a search that some of them did not know much about.

“The concerning thing is that we don’t know what’s going on,” parent Shannon Abbott said on Friday, when she was trying to figure out why in-person learning was canceled. “As a parent, I feel like I should know what’s happening in my child’s school system. We were promised transparency, and there has been a great lack of transparency in this entire process.”

Dozens of students, staff, and parents gathered outside Irvington Preparatory Academy, the network’s high school, on Tuesday to demand a different CEO, citing staff concerns that Foster participated in the hiring process for a position for which she had also applied. The board also met in a closed-door session Tuesday to discuss the network’s leadership plan.

Staff and students at Tuesday’s protest also expressed concerns with Foster’s qualifications for the job.

Foster has previously served as a teacher and a literacy coach and consultant, and is listed as a manager for The New Teacher Project Teaching Fellows program in Indianapolis. Staff told Chalkbeat they desire a candidate with experience as an administrator.

A day after the protest, the board said in a statement that it was reopening the search for a new CEO. It acknowledged that school leadership must be supported by ICS in order to be successful.

At the same time, the board’s Wednesday statement also called Foster a “qualified and dedicated educational leader” who applied for the position in good faith and participated in a thorough interview process just like other highly ranked candidates.

The board’s statement did not lay out a timeline for the next steps of the search process. It also did not indicate whether Foster participated in the hiring process for other candidates.

Foster did not respond to multiple attempts to reach her for comment.

“I feel like with what’s happening, you’re just kind of ruining the essence of what the school is and not listening to the people who matter at the school, which are the teachers,” senior Oliver Lutzke said at the protest Tuesday. “And those teachers aren’t really being heard.”

Parents also questioned whether the hiring process was ethical.

“How are we teaching children, especially this age group, to grow up to be adults without teaching them integrity?” parent Danielle Beam said during the protest. “This is unethical, what they are doing. How they are handling it is wrong.”

But the board said its members are “deeply concerned” about the tone and content of recent public and social media commentary regarding Foster.

“While healthy discussion about school leadership is important, certain statements have crossed the line into personal attacks and unfounded allegations, including claims that are not supported by fact,” the board said. “This kind of rhetoric undermines not only the integrity of our process, but also the example we set for our students.”

Amelia Pak-Harvey covers Indianapolis and Lawrence Township schools for Chalkbeat Indiana. Contact Amelia at apak-harvey@chalkbeat.org.

First day of school in Indianapolis showcases evolution of student transportation

2025-08-04T18:08:56+00:00

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On her first day of third grade Monday, Aravis Flora waited for her yellow Indianapolis Public Schools bus sporting a scrunchie decorated with school buses and stop signs.

Her mother, Vanessa Flora, had glanced at her phone minutes earlier to check when a different IPS bus would arrive in their Fletcher Place neighborhood to pick up her middle child Emmett, who was starting seventh grade. She gave him an update on its estimated arrival time as he ate breakfast.

Vanessa Flora takes a photo of her three children, Elias, Emmett, and Aravis, on Monday, Aug. 4, 2025, the first day of school in Indianapolis.

But it was Elias, her oldest child who was starting junior year at Shortridge High School, who got out the door first. He took the city’s public transportation system. He walked about five minutes to the nearest IndyGo bus stop on the Red Line.

His classmate Darrick Colon gets off at the same Red Line stop by Shortridge, but his path to get there is different. As he rides the IndyGo 8 bus across the White River to get to the Red Line, he sees downtown businesses and the Indianapolis Zoo waking up. Despite a brief delay, he got to school before the 9 a.m. bell.

One mile up the road from Shortridge, some students arriving at Believe Circle City High School this week have the option of using the charter school’s bus service.

Thousands of Indianapolis students are returning to school this week, but how they get there can vary greatly. That’s one outcome of the evolving education environment in Indianapolis. On the one hand, there’s the traditional IPS district. On the other are nearly 60 charter schools spread out within or near the district borders.

Elias Flora walks to the IndyGo city bus on Monday, Aug. 4, 2025.

A new state-mandated group, the Indianapolis Local Education Alliance, is tasked with addressing an unequal environment in which IPS schools offer transportation, but not all charter schools can afford to do so. As the group ponders solutions, current partnerships could offer some ideas for the group to scale up.

On his commute, Elias reflected on the prospects of junior year — the hardest year, he admitted.

“I should be able to work through everything,” he said. “All I need to worry about is keeping up with the work load.”

Elias Flora rides the city bus on Monday, Aug. 4, 2025. Elias is a junior this year, and he said it'll be the hardest year.

Existing transportation partnerships could inform ILEA’s proposals

This year, more than 1,400 IPS high school students will ride IndyGo through a partnership that began with a pilot program in 2018. Over 19,000 students will ride the yellow school bus service that the district pays First Student for.

IPS estimates spending roughly $2,300 per student for transportation annually.

Elias Flora waits for the city bus on Monday, Aug. 4, 2025.

In the charter sector, the transportation picture is less straightforward. Some charters in the district’s Innovation Network receive transportation from the district at no charge. Other independent charter schools contract for their own yellow bus service — but at prices that can be steep for a smaller school entity. And some even run their own passenger van bus service and hire drivers.

But this year, the Rooted School and IPS have teamed up to give kids a way to and from school.

The independent charter school on the eastside that starts classes on Wednesday will partner with IPS this year to bring First Student transportation to 200 students at a lower cost than what it would pay for under its own contract with the company. It’s the charter’s latest attempt to solve the challenge. Previously, it operated its own 14-passenger van and contracted through a different company.

Shortridge High School students get off the bus for the first day of school on Monday, Aug. 4, 2025 in Indianapolis.

To school founder Ma’at Lands, the partnership is a perfect example of picking collaboration over competition.

Some of the school’s students have siblings who attend Sankofa School of Success at Arlington Woods 99, an IPS Innovation Network school that is just across the street. The new arrangement will remove a barrier for families with students attending multiple schools in the neighborhood, Lands said.

But making the partnership work also means adopting flexible schedules. Rooted School is moving its start time an hour earlier this year to 7:30 a.m. so that the buses can shift to serving IPS students afterward, Lands said.

“Now, being up under IPS ... we have this cost savings,” Lands said. “They just have a robust transportation department that really is just not a heavy lift on our school.”

Other charter school leaders are trying to collaborate with each other.

The recent merger of Ace Preparatory Academy with Circle City Prep allows the schools to provide transportation to older siblings who have been dropped off by families at Ace Prep, a K-6 school, and are continuing their education at Circle City, a K-8 school.

The solution helps Ace Prep become an option for families with multiple students looking for a more streamlined K-8 experience.

When IPS broke up its K-8 schools last year, Circle City Prep received a lot of families who still wanted to have their elementary and middle school child at the same school, Circle City Prep founder Megan Murphy told Chalkbeat in May after her school merged with Ace Prep.

“Now at Ace Prep, yes they won’t have the eighth grade there, but you can have one site in which your kids are going to second grade and eighth grade, and we provide that transportation to the eighth grader,” Murphy said. “I think it helps a little bit to make a one-stop shop for families.”

Amelia Pak-Harvey covers Indianapolis and Lawrence Township schools for Chalkbeat Indiana. Contact Amelia at apak-harvey@chalkbeat.org.

Charter leaders want IPS to transfer building ownership to their schools

2025-07-24T02:37:29+00:00

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Charter school leaders running schools in Indianapolis Public Schools facilities say transferring or selling the buildings to them could save the district over $37.5 million annually.

Yet supporters of traditional public schools say the district must be allowed to charge charter operators the full cost of services the district provides to charters in its Innovation Network, such as the opportunity to operate in IPS buildings.

The requests are some of many that the nine members of the state-mandated Indianapolis Local Education Alliance must contend with as it works to submit recommendations on transportation and facility usage to city, state, and district leaders by the end of the year. The requests came during the ILEA’s second public meeting on Wednesday.

Leaders for 20 of the 25 charter schools in the district’s Innovation Network — and one Innovation school that just won approval to become a charter school — floated the building transfer idea to the ILEA in a letter submitted as public comment.

The alliance, which is tasked with reducing inefficiencies across the multiple traditional and charter schools in IPS borders, should consider this option as it brainstorms future facility plans, the letter said. The ownership change would give school leaders complete control to make decisions about the buildings they occupy, the leaders said.

“We know that there is a moment of urgency for our city and for the decisions that the ILEA needs to make,” Eddie Rangel, CEO of Adelante Schools, which operates in Emma Donnan, told Chalkbeat ahead of the meeting. “And we want to be good stewards of what needs to happen for the facility at Emma Donnan.”

Innovation schools are independently run but contract with the district for services such as custodial and transportation. Some services — such as rent and transportation — are offered to Innovation schools at no cost, while others may come with a charge. Most of the district’s 30 Innovation schools are charters. A law passed last year restricted how much IPS could charge Innovation schools for services.

Earlier this month, the IPS Parent Council — formed as IPS faced existential threats in the most recent legislative session — called for IPS to charge charter schools the full cost of operating in an IPS school.

The group also called for a repeal of the $1 law that requires IPS to sell vacant school buildings to charters for $1. Instead, the district must “regain full authority” to lease or sell buildings at market value, the group urged.

Accountability system crucial to future decisions, some say

At its second public meeting on Wednesday, ILEA members reviewed school enrollment and property tax data, focusing in part on how schools are funded and implications that the state’s latest tax reforms could have on schools.

Beyond facilities and funding, several public commenters called for a universal accountability system by which to determine whether to close underperforming schools regardless of type.

Virginia Ramos told the alliance during public comment that her grandson was failed by both IPS and charter schools.

As a teacher, she said, one of the most important things to be recommended is an accountability system that looks not only at state test scores, but teacher retention rates, teacher credentials, attendance rates before and after count day, suspension rates, and the achievements of English as a second language and special education students.

“It’s not until we hold all those things, all those data points, can you have a complete picture of how schools are doing,” she said.

Charter leaders cite Innovation contracts in bid for building ownership

The letter from charter leaders referenced a clause in some Innovation contracts for the schools represented in the letter. The clause indicates the district could be open to selling or transferring the buildings to the operators in the future, and states that by the end of this year, the district will develop criteria that the operator must meet to be eligible to own the building. The letter did not address how much, if anything, charters would pay for the buildings.

“For those of us ready to pursue this option, owning facilities presents exciting opportunities for our school communities,” the letter said. “Having complete control over the space where our educators teach, students learn, and families connect would benefit both the district and the city as a whole.”

Rangel said the leaders estimated $37.5 million in cost savings to the district across all of their schools based on district cost estimates for running those buildings.

At Adelante, Rangel said, owning the building would allow the school to expand its fine arts programming by building a stage.

Another option, the leaders said, could be using the facility authority created as a three-year pilot program under newly enacted state law. The authority, a seven-member board, was written into the same bill that created the ILEA, giving other school districts the option to participate in a pilot program. The pilot would make the authority responsible for overseeing and managing school facilities.

Superintendent Aleesia Johnson, who is also an ILEA member, said after the ILEA meeting that the district has engaged with a couple of schools that have expressed interest in ownership but is examining whether all the signatories to the letter would like to acquire their buildings or would be supportive of an independent authority.

It’s unclear how or whether the charter schools could afford to pay for those services on their own. Rangel said charter leaders have been discussing the potential of individual schools to band together to purchase services.

The leaders also asked that future facilities assessments be conducted by experts “who understand the unique education landscape in our city” and called for that report to be made public.

Four Innovation charter schools operating as the only school in IPS buildings — Global Prep, Matchbook Learning, KIPP Indy, and Phalen Leadership Academy at Francis Scott Key 103 — operated at over 100% capacity for the 2024-25 school year, according to a Chalkbeat analysis of state enrollment data and the target capacity of IPS buildings provided in a building assessment that the district commissioned in 2020.

Across all IPS buildings that are still operating as schools, 17 of 57 buildings are operating at below the district average of 60% capacity, according to the data. That includes a few Innovation charters, including Liberty Grove Schools, Phalen Leadership Academy at Louis B. Russell School 48, and Adelante Schools at Emma Donnan Elementary and Middle School.

Parent council calls for limitations to charters

Parents with the IPS Parent Council also called for the group to consider a moratorium on all new charter schools through 2035.

“This pause will allow time to assess long-term needs and avoid unnecessary school closures that … disrupt families and communities,” said Anh Nguyen, a parent of two IPS students.

The request is more stringent than a state law legislators passed this year that only allows the mayor’s office to open new charter schools through the rest of 2025.

The group’s petition calls for Innovation and charter schools to employ licensed staff, offer school counselors, and provide transportation and uniform assistance in order to partner with IPS and share its resources. State law requires at least 90% of a charter school’s teaching workforce to be licensed or in the process of obtaining a teacher’s license.

The group also wants all Innovation contracts to be limited to a five-year renewal limit to “ensure safeguards to guarantee accountability.”

The next public meeting of the ILEA is August 20 at the City-County Building.

Amelia Pak-Harvey covers Indianapolis and Lawrence Township schools for Chalkbeat Indiana. Contact Amelia at apak-harvey@chalkbeat.org.

Indianapolis Local Education Alliance emphasizes collaboration, data collection, and student focus at first meeting

2025-06-26T01:26:00+00:00

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The first meeting of the Indianapolis Local Education Alliance set the stage for the group’s work, emphasizing collaboration and maintaining focus on students and their experiences while also keeping historical context and accountability in mind.

“We are here tonight to begin a new chapter of collaboration for the future of education in the city of Indianapolis,” said Mayor Joe Hogsett, chair of the ILEA, at the beginning of the meeting.

The nine-member ILEA was created by state lawmakers earlier this year and could shape the future of charter and traditional public schools in Indianapolis. The group is tasked with examining solutions for facility and transportation management across Indianapolis Public Schools and the charter schools within its borders, as well as addressing school governance structure and efforts to increase efficiency.

The group includes Hogsett and IPS superintendent Aleesia Johnson as well as their appointees and must provide a set of recommendations to IPS, city, and state leaders by the end of 2025.

The recommendations will be a “data driven and actionable plan” that will lead to a “more rational, more equitable, and more sustainable system of school facilities and transportation that benefits all students in Indianapolis,” Hogsett said.

He said the plan will be a roadmap for collaboration between schools and could include ideas such as co-locating, sharing services, and consolidating.

The ILEA will start its work with data collection and members made several requests for data during the meeting. The group could also issue a request for qualifications for an outside firm to help with that work in addition to those from IPS and the mayor’s office already working on data collection, Hogsett said, adding there would be more details about that process at the next meeting.

Johnson stressed the need to also look beyond the data to the historical context and the impact of policy decisions over decades.

“As we are collecting data and doing those things, I don’t want us to lose sight of what has happened over 50 years ago to bring us to this place today,” she said, adding that she also wants to keep in mind the collaboration that has happened.

Wednesday’s meeting included a presentation from Andrew Strope, IPS deputy superintendent, and Shaina Cavazos, director of the Mayor’s Office of Education Innovation, that gave an overview of the history and the policies shaping education in the city such as the creation of Unigov in 1970, which intentionally left school districts out while unifying city-county government and the 2001 state law allowing for charter schools.

After spending the summer collecting data, the plan is to dive into the data in the fall and then spend late fall working on and refining recommendations before they are proposed by the end of the year, Hogsett said.

The introductory ILEA meeting follows a tense legislative session where the group was created, as well as a proposal aimed to dissolve IPS and replace it with charters. That bill ultimately failed, and a successful plan to redirect some property tax revenue from IPS to charters was approved. Starting in 2028, charter schools, which have grown in enrollment as IPS enrollment has dipped, will receive a portion of property tax funding that has been for traditional public schools in the past.

Money from property taxes is used by traditional school districts for operations including transportation and building maintenance. Charter school advocates have argued that the lack of property tax funding contributes to their struggle to offer transportation to students who want to attend.

And charters are tasked with finding buildings to open in. The $1 law allows charters to buy or lease vacant school buildings for $1, but is often formally challenged when schools try to use it.

During the legislative session, IPS called for a moratorium on new schools in its boundaries, and lawmakers prohibited new charters from July to December of this year, except for those schools approved by the mayor’s office.

On Tuesday, the Indianapolis Charter School Board approved Legal Prep Charter Academy to open in 2026, meaning it would be the first new school to open in Indianapolis since the end of the legislative session.

At the ILEA meeting on Wednesday, a dozen people spoke during public comment, urging the ILEA to make sure all children in Indianapolis have good schools to attend, regardless of the type. Speakers also stressed that a lack of transportation can limit school choice, asked the group to look at school collaboration models that are working, and called for greater school accountability, largely for charter schools.

They told the group it had the opportunity to change the competitive school choice environment in Indianapolis and collaborate in a way that benefits all students.

“You all are going to be asked to make some impossible decisions that will likely upset a lot of people, so thank you all for taking on that burden,” said Arion Clanton, who said he’s worked as both a teacher and a coach.

Clanton told the ILEA that solutions need to be longstanding and not one-size-fits all. He also urged the group to keep in mind the kids and families affected by the systems it is addressing.

Additional public comments submitted online were shared with the ILEA members and will be posted online, Cavazos said.

The ILEA is exempt from the state’s Open Door Law, which requires public agencies to make meetings open to the public; however, it does plan to have multiple public meetings like Wednesday’s. State law requires the group to meet publicly to vote on the final recommendations.

The next public meeting of the ILEA is 6 p.m. July 23 at the City County Building at 200 E. Washington St. A calendar of meetings and agendas is on the ILEA website.

MJ Slaby oversees Chalkbeat Indiana’s coverage as bureau chief. Contact MJ at mslaby@chalkbeat.org.

Indianapolis charter board approves new Legal Prep school for grades 6-12

2025-06-25T01:40:19+00:00

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The Indianapolis Charter School Board approved a legal-themed, college prep charter school on Tuesday, marking the first new school to open in Indianapolis since the end of a heated legislative session this spring that gave charter schools more local funding.

Legal Prep Charter Academy, which currently operates one high school on the west side of Chicago, would open in 2026 with 225 students in 6th and 9th grades, according to its application. The enrollment would grow to 825 in grades 6-12 by 2029-30.

The addition of another charter school is the latest change in the city’s evolving educational landscape. Beginning in 2028, charter schools — which have grown as Indianapolis Public Schools has shrunk — will receive a portion of property tax funding that has historically been reserved for traditional public schools. The legislative change made this year came amid tense opposition from supporters of traditional public schools, while IPS itself called for a moratorium on new schools in its boundaries.

Lawmakers did write into law a prohibition on new charter schools from July to December of this year, except for those schools approved by the mayor’s office.

The 6-1 vote to approve the school came with written support from current Legal Prep students and staff in Chicago.

The school hopes to open near the Monument Circle downtown and build partnerships with the city’s nearby legal community, according to its application. But leaders plan to recruit students across multiple zip codes, particularly those who are from low-income households and historically underserved neighborhoods.

The school faced a variety of concerns and questions from board members, particularly about its ability to recruit enough students and survive financially.

Staff, however, stressed the existing relationships they already have built with a variety of community organizations and law firms. They also pointed to experience at their school in Chicago, which opened in 2012.

“We went through years in Chicago where we had midyear budget cuts, where we had the rug pulled out from under us (in the) fourth quarter,” CEO and co-founder Sam Finkelstein told the board. “We’ve seen a lot when it comes to the way finances can change in a heartbeat, and what we do is we plan conservatively, we fundraise aggressively, and we stockpile for a rainy day.”

In Illinois, the school has a “commendable” rating in the state’s school accountability system — the second highest. The school also boasts a suspension rate under 2%, with only one expulsion since 2021, according to its application.

Legal Prep emphasizes social-emotional learning and a low student-to-counselor ratio that allows staff to adequately respond to student needs and trauma, the school said in its application. The proposed ratio of 70 students for one counselor provides a much lighter case load than the recommended 250 students per counselor.

Amorrie Parchman, an incoming senior at Legal Prep in Chicago, told the board she appreciated the exposure to the legal field and the opportunity to participate in groups such as National Honor Society.

“Being there I realized that if you work hard, you will receive numerous benefits in the end,” she said.

Marquan Morrison, a staff member who was in the school’s first graduating class of 2016, said he’s never doubted the belief and investment he’s received from the Legal Prep family.

The school taught him skills and gave him lasting relationships that ultimately helped him serve his community, he said.

At the Tuesday meeting, outgoing charter board member Andrea Neely cast the sole opposing vote after stressing to school officials that the city’s educational community is approaching a very difficult time. A state-mandated group known as the Indianapolis Local Education Alliance is tasked with providing lawmakers with recommendations on how both charter schools and Indianapolis Public Schools can use buildings and transportation efficiently.

“The model is amazing, but again it’s coming at a time of challenge,” she said.

Amelia Pak-Harvey covers Indianapolis and Lawrence Township schools for Chalkbeat Indiana. Contact Amelia at apak-harvey@chalkbeat.org.

Twelve years after merger, schools of choice battle rages on in Ypsilanti

2025-06-24T12:00:04+00:00

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When it was time to choose a school for his daughter, Mike Sotiropoulos debated selecting one outside of Ypsilanti Community Schools, his home district.

Under a longstanding state law, he had the option to look elsewhere. He considered Ann Arbor Public Schools, which has better test scores than Ypsilanti, but ultimately decided to stay in YCS because of its International Baccalaureate programming.

“A lot of times I feel like schools put too much emphasis on (test scores) and less emphasis on other things that we were more interested in,” said Sotiropoulous, whose daughter now attends Ypsilanti International Elementary School. “We just wanted to get our daughter to a school with caring staff and maybe a little bit more emphasis on learning by play.”

Another parent, Marissa Harding, made a different choice. A lifelong resident of Ypsilanti Township and a former paraprofessional in the school district, Harding believes the quality of instruction has suffered since Ypsilanti Public Schools merged with Willow Run Community Schools in 2013 and rebranded as Ypsilanti Community Schools, or YCS. She enrolled her child at Global Tech Academy, a charter school located across the street from Ypsilanti Community Middle School, on the east side of the district.

“I hadn’t been hearing the best things about YCS in the past few years,” Harding said, adding that part of Global Tech’s appeal was its small class sizes.

More than a decade after the two school districts merged, YCS has worked hard to get parents like Harding and Sotiropoulos to enroll their children, with aggressive marketing campaigns that promote the two communities, once fierce rivals, as “stronger together.” Still, more than half of the students who reside in the district’s boundaries choose to attend school somewhere else, according to state data.

With K-12 enrollment declining statewide, state officials have encouraged consolidation of schools, or even districts, as an option to pool resources. In many ways, what has happened in YCS is a case study of the ups and downs of mergers, a strategy that is often unpopular with school communities and families. In Michigan’s competitive school environment, it also can be difficult to stand out when families can select from an array of charter schools and schools outside their home district through the state’s nearly 30-year-old “schools of choice” program.

In a statement, Carlos Lopez, assistant superintendent in YCS, acknowledged that the appeal of neighboring school districts and charter schools can pose a challenge in attracting and retaining students. YCS’ boundaries, which encompass the City of Ypsilanti and two surrounding townships, include 8,227 K-12 students. Of those, 4,317, or about 53%, chose not to enroll in the district’s schools this year, state data shows.

After enrolling more than 4,500 students in its first year as a combined district, YCS saw an immediate decline, dropping down to 3,699 five years ago. Since then, the district has increased

its enrollment by 8% to 3,872. It also has seen an uptick in the number of students using schools of choice to enroll, with 488 this year — the highest total YCS has seen since the two schools merged.

Ypsilanti Community Middle School band teacher Derrick Shelton teaches his class on April 30, 2025

Lopez attributed the recent increase in enrollment to new, innovative programming, such as the K-12 International Baccalaureate, an elementary Spanish immersion program, and STEAM programs in every school.

The district also moved its middle school into the former Willow Run Middle School building last fall. The move was made, in part, to reconnect with the east side of the district, where some parents felt Willow Run’s roots had been neglected, Lopez said.

School district mergers are often an unpopular choice. But at the time of the merger, Ypsilanti and Willow Run were in such financial peril that the districts risked state takeover, said former Washtenaw Intermediate School District Superintendent Scott Menzel, who oversaw the process.

Other districts had set an example of what could happen: Detroit had undergone a state takeover. Inkster Schools was dissolved around the same time, with its students spread across four neighboring school districts. Consolidation seemed like a better outcome, he said.

“In order to get a different outcome than what we had seen previously, we had to really take advantage of the opportunity to truly hit the reset button,” Menzel said of the community support for the merger. “That meant doing some things that were uncomfortable and having people interview for their jobs. We had to tackle the difficult questions about how many buildings needed to be open and how do we ensure that both communities are served well in that transition.”

Still, district mergers remain uncommon. Rather than consolidate, other school districts in Michigan have opted to reduce the number of school buildings and make infrastructure improvements — efforts supported with “consolidation grants” awarded in April by the Michigan Department of Education.

Flint Community Schools, with a $35.9 million state grant, plans to close four of its 11 school buildings and build a “state of the art” high school, according to the state. Union City Community Schools, with a roughly $23.6 million grant, plans to demolish a middle school and renovate elementary and high school facilities, reducing its buildings from three to two.

And North Central Area Schools plans to use a state grant of $15.4 million to upgrade its facilities and decrease its footprint from two buildings to one. The project includes “investments in technology, flexible classroom spaces, and modern amenities that support innovative teaching and learning,” according to the state.

“The ability to keep our students safe and secure while also improving our aging facilities makes this a game-changing moment for our district and our entire community,” Union City Superintendent Chris Katz said of the grant. “We love our small-town atmosphere. These funds coupled with additional dollars from our voters will put us in a strong position for many years to come.”

YCS loses students to charters and neighboring districts

By 2012, the year before the merger, both Ypsilanti and Willow Run had steadily declining enrollment driven by academic achievement issues, families selecting charters or other public schools through schools of choice, and subsequent budget woes.

Voters approved a merger of Ypsilanti and Willow Run schools by a 61% vote that year.

Schools of choice, which passed in 1996, gave students additional enrollment options, including letting them select their school within the home district. While optional for districts to participate in, schools of choice also permitted local school districts to enroll students from other districts within the same intermediate school district.

In its final year, Willow Run’s enrollment was just 1,442, down by nearly half from 2,673 in 2003.

At first, Ypsilanti seemed like it was in a better position than Willow Run. It opted into schools of choice early on, gaining 1,091 students in 2009 from other school districts, while losing just 436 to other public school districts from within its boundaries.

Students get ready for band class inside Ypsilanti Community Middle School on April 30, 2025

That advantage wasn’t enough to cover the additional loss of students to charter schools, however, causing Ypsilanti’s budget issues to intensify, with the district losing nearly twice as many students to schools of choice as it gained by 2012.

Both school districts faced a “death spiral,” said Menzel, former superintendent of Washtenaw Intermediate School District, the intermediate school district for Ypsilanti and Willow Run.

Menzel, who facilitated the 18-month consolidation process between the two districts, said pitches from neighboring districts and charter schools drew some parents away as Ypsilanti and Willow Run grappled with budget issues and the prospect of closing school buildings.

While the legacy debt both districts carried into consolidation has been relieved by the state, YCS still struggles to keep its students in-district, he said.

“As soon as other neighboring schools saw that opportunity, because the money follows the kid, they took advantage of it,” said Menzel, who is now the superintendent of Scottsdale Unified School District in Arizona. “In a competitive choice and charter environment, people are always working to recruit kids, and those who had the ability to leave left.”

National Heritage Academies, which operates several schools within YCS boundaries and Washtenaw County, has been a strong competitor for the school district, increasing its enrollment in the Ypsilanti area after the two districts merged.

NHA schools account for more than 1,300 of the 2,600-plus Ypsilanti-area students who enrolled in charter schools, like Fortis Academy in Ypsilanti Township and South Pointe Scholars in the heart of the former Willow Run district.

NHA Spokesperson Leah Wheatlake said parents who choose charters are seeking educational opportunities for their children because they “want more for them than they had.”

“Choice provides parents that advantage – to choose the educational setting that meets their family’s needs,” Wheatlake said. NHA schools point to higher test scores, a “safe environment,” and character-building curriculum as some of the reasons that parents select them.

Ypsilanti Community Middle School, located at 235 Spencer Lane. The former Willow Run Middle School, which was built in 2004, had sat vacant since 2018, when the district moved its middle school students to the former East Middle School.

Ann Arbor Public Schools has been the most popular public school choice for families living within YCS’ boundaries, along with Lincoln Consolidated Schools and Van Buren Public Schools. Ann Arbor began participating in schools of choice in 2010 to counter the losses of its own prospective students. Of the 2,008 students who enrolled in Ann Arbor from other districts in the 2024-25 school year, 1,001 were from YCS, according to state data. That’s up from 220 in 2012-13, the year before the merger.

Dawn Linden, assistant superintendent in Ann Arbor, said the district uses schools of choice to cover expected shortages and to counteract the loss of its own students to neighboring school districts and charters. It offers seats to in-district students first, before opening remaining slots to students using schools of choice.

The law doesn’t allow school districts to select which students it wants to enroll or to control how many students come from a particular school district, Linden said.

“There’s no ‘Hey, we’re going to take a certain maximum from this school district and that school district,’” Linden said. “The rules for schools of choice do not allow for that, nor would we want to.”

Parents’ school choices reflect location, test scores, housing options

For parents considering Ypsilanti Community Schools, a number of factors are in play, from location to test scores to perceptions of the school system that have lingered since the merger.

After sending his son to Ypsilanti International Elementary through third grade, Djaun Boyd said he felt like teachers weren’t able to connect with him and challenge him to learn. He transferred him to the nearby South Pointe Scholars charter school last fall. His daughter, on the other hand, is enrolled in Lincoln Consolidated Schools’ early childhood program at Model Elementary.

Boyd said each family’s situation requires a different approach, but he has been happy with his decision to move away from YCS.

“My son is going to thrive wherever he’s at,” Boyd said. “We felt like it was better for him to thrive over there [South Pointe] because there wouldn’t be any more distractions.”

Harding said she couldn’t shake the feeling that Ypsilanti Community Schools hadn’t been embedded in the community the way that Ypsilanti and Willow Run schools were prior to the merger. She said she didn’t see the different student groups, like bands or choirs, at popular Ypsilanti events, or hear about the district’s accomplishments in the news.

“They were very successful, good graduation rates, you know, kids going to college, stuff like that,” Harding said of the district prior to the merger. “Even by the time I got there, it wasn’t as good as they had been in those years. It’s kind of just dropping off, getting worse in recent years.”

Those who remember the two districts before consolidation might view Ypsilanti Community Schools in a different light than those who moved into the district more recently.

Steve Kwiatkowski moved to the city with his family after a failed attempt to buy a home in Ann Arbor. He heard good things about the Ypsilanti schools from other families and decided not to pursue other options.

“I know [Ann Arbor Public Schools] has such a great reputation, but we already spent so much time in Ypsi, going to the coffee shops and restaurants and kind of like the vibe here,” Kwiatkowski said.

A sign advocating for parents to "SAY YES" to Ypsilanti Community Schools outside of Ypsilanti Community Middle School.

Matt Kirkpatrick, who has lived in Ypsilanti since 2014, said his child was offered a spot at Carpenter Elementary in Ann Arbor Public Schools, but ultimately decided to enroll his child at Ypsilanti International Elementary because of the pathway it offers to the well-regarded Washtenaw International High School.

“The school felt like our community,” he said. “We knew a lot of our parent friends were sending their children to school here, which is a factor, too.”

Sotiropoulous felt if he was going to live in the Ypsilanti community, he should support the local school system.

“We’re Ypsi residents, so we felt like if we could get her into an Ypsi school that would be better than sending her to Ann Arbor for schools of choice,” he said.

For many parents, school decisions are often circumstantial and can change.

Laura Herbert home-schooled her two children before her daughter expressed an interest in attending public school a year ago.

A Ypsilanti Township resident, Herbert didn’t give YCS serious consideration. She wasn’t impressed by the district’s test scores and described the school buildings’ conditions as “subpar.” She found a better fit at Washtenaw International Middle Academy, an Ypsilanti-based public consortium and International Baccalaureate school.

“I felt like it was the best option that we had for a public school, and because we’re in Ypsi, she can take the bus,” Herbert said.

Some parents attend Ypsilanti schools because they don’t feel the choices available are workable for their family.

“The reason why my kids go to Ypsilanti Schools is because it’s closer,” said Teaha Jackson, who has 10 children enrolled in the district and noted that transportation isn’t included in schools of choice.

Ypsilanti wants to replant roots in Willow Run

No building is more representative of Ypsilanti Community Schools’ recruitment efforts than its middle school. Constructed as Willow Run Middle School in 2004, the building sat vacant for nearly a decade before the district brought students back last fall.

The building has some advantages over the old East Middle School, where students had learned since the 2018-19 school year. It is 45 years younger and almost twice the size, offering two gymnasiums, a large auditorium, and “dens” for each grade level, which help avoid altercations by keeping grades separate during class transitions throughout the day.

Ypsilanti Community Middle School Principal Charles Davis talks with students in the halls of the former Willow Run Middle School on April 30, 2025. The district moved its middle school students back to the building after housing the middle school at the former East Middle School since 2018-19.

With newer amenities and more space, Ypsilanti Community Middle School Principal Charles Davis said he has made it his mission to make sure students don’t attend the charter school across the street.

“I want every fifth grader who attends [elementary in Ypsilanti] to attend school here — we want every last one of them,” Davis said. “We’re very intentional about keeping our students and welcoming others.”

The district has implemented a number of measures over the years to curtail fights in the middle school setting, including bringing in a team from the Detroit-based 180 Program to act as behavior interventionists who can free teachers and administrators from the burden of disciplinary referrals.

Several students said the new building has made them feel safer.

“In the old building, you were kind of scared of getting jumped,” Elovie Mazama, an eighth grader said. “It was more chaotic in the old building, and we would have fights every week. In this building we barely have any fights.”

Menzel, the former superintendent who facilitated the consolidation of Ypsilanti and Willow Run, said the combined district still faces some of the same challenges when it comes to attracting families in a competitive environment. But he believes YCS is stable with positive signs for the future.

“I think it’s a testament to the strength of the process that more than a decade later, Ypsilanti Community Schools still exist in serving kids in the community, and they’re doing some very innovative and creative things to try to draw people back into the system,” he said.

Indianapolis Local Education Alliance to host 3 public meetings where people can comment

2025-06-09T21:40:40+00:00

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A group that could shape the future of charter and traditional public schools in Indianapolis will hold at least three public meetings that allow public comments, Mayor Joe Hogsett’s office has announced.

The state-mandated group is tasked with examining solutions for facility and transportation management across both Indianapolis Public Schools and the charter schools within its borders. The set of recommendations that the group must provide to state leaders by the end of 2025 could feature more resource-sharing between IPS — which has gradually lost students for years — and the charter sector.

Although the group will hold public meetings, it is still exempt from the state’s Open Door Law — a caveat that sparked criticism from community members. The group could still meet in private “due to some of the complexities associated with the work and the definitive timeline to produce recommendations,” a spokesperson for Hogsett’s office said in an email.

Public meetings will take place at 6 p.m. at the City County Building at 200 E. Washington St. on the following dates:

June 25, 2025.
July 23, 2025.
Aug. 20, 2025.

Other dates will be shared when they are finalized, according to the mayor’s office.

Members of the public who would like to provide in-person comment can sign up to speak beginning at noon on the business day before the meeting. Each speaker will be limited to two minutes. The public can also use the same link to submit online comments at that time, the mayor’s office said.

The public can also share their experiences with school transportation by completing a survey, and can send general feedback on the group to ILEA@indy.gov.

Amelia Pak-Harvey covers Indianapolis and Lawrence Township schools for Chalkbeat Indiana. Contact Amelia at apak-harvey@chalkbeat.org.

Former superintendent of Indiana virtual charter schools pleads guilty to wire fraud

2025-06-05T20:29:59+00:00

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The former superintendent of the two virtual charter schools at the center of a statewide enrollment scandal has pleaded guilty to a conspiracy to commit wire fraud.

Percy Clark has agreed to pay a judgment of roughly $1.3 million, the amount he received as part of what federal prosecutors have called a broader conspiracy to defraud the Indiana Department of Education, according to a plea agreement submitted to a federal judge last week.

If accepted by the court, the plea deal would be one step towards recovering funds from the alleged scheme that generated both a federal indictment and a separate lawsuit from Indiana Attorney General Todd Rokita.

Both cases allege that Clark, along with school founder Thomas Stoughton and other defendants, falsely inflated enrollment figures at Indiana Virtual Academy and Indiana Virtual Pathways Academy. Federal prosecutors allege they defrauded the state of $44.6 million. Rokita’s lawsuit has alleged $154 million in fraud.

The legal actions follow a 2017 Chalkbeat investigation that found enrollment at the schools ballooned, and that state funds went to a for-profit company founded by Stoughton. After both schools closed in 2019, a 2020 Indiana State Board of Accounts report called on the schools to repay over $85 million in state money.

It’s unclear what party would receive Clark’s $1.3 million payment.

Clark has agreed to forfeit other assets if he is unable to pay back the judgment in full. He has also agreed to 60 months of probation, the first 24 of which he would be confined to his home without an electronic monitoring device.

Clark initially faced 18 counts of wire fraud and 11 counts of money laundering in the federal indictment, but prosecutors have agreed to dismiss the remaining counts.

Clark’s attorney did not respond to a request for comment. A person who answered a phone number listed for Clark said that he was not home.

Plea agreement acknowledges ‘high probability’ of fraud

In the plea agreement, Clark admits that there was a “high probability” that the schools inflated enrollment and that “he avoided learning whether or not that was in fact the truth, which it was.”

Separate from the monetary judgment, Clark has also agreed that the scheme ultimately requires $44.6 million in total restitution which he and other defendants in the federal case are responsible for repaying. But it’s unclear how much of that he could end up paying, or whether the $1.3 million monetary judgment could count toward his portion of the total restitution. The federal case involving Stoughton and a third defendant, Phillip Holden, is ongoing.

Other former employees who also faced federal legal action will be responsible for paying back the $44.6 million in restitution as outlined in their plea agreements — although exact amounts per defendant are unclear.

School operations manager Christopher King pleaded guilty in November 2023 of conspiracy to commit wire fraud, according to court documents. Kyle Schroeder, a manager of student service representatives, also pleaded guilty to concealing a felony in March 2024, according to court documents.

Federal prosecutors have also alleged that Stoughton ultimately used state money to make over $40,000 in campaign contributions to Republican candidates in 2018. He is also accused of using state funds to purchase a Cadillac, gold coins, Tiffany jewelry, and tuition to the private Park Tudor school.

The state’s lawsuit — which also lists Stoughton’s wife, Rhonda Stoughton, as a defendant — is ongoing.

Amelia Pak-Harvey covers Indianapolis and Lawrence Township schools for Chalkbeat Indiana. Contact Amelia at apak-harvey@chalkbeat.org.

As Indy charter struggled, ex-CEO’s school credit card shows charges for steakhouses, wine, StubHub

2025-05-28T17:29:38+00:00

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Thousands of dollars in alcohol, travel, restaurant, and entertainment expenses were charged to the company credit card of a leader of an expanding Indianapolis charter school network who was terminated in February, according to school records.

The more than $200,000 in charges were on the card assigned to Amy Swann, who was most recently Matchbook Learning’s chief compliance officer but served as its CEO from July 2019 to around the spring of 2024. They included over $40,000 in airfare, over $3,000 in alcohol purchases, over $10,000 in restaurants, $6,091 for a luxury hotel in India — and even $1,678 in charges for sommelier courses, according to a record of charges that occurred between December 2023 and June 2024.

Matchbook officials say that some of the charges benefitted students — such as nearly $45,000 in Amazon purchases. But they say they did not know the purpose of other purchases, such as $1,080 for the Daytona International Speedway, and did not authorize spending of school funds on alcohol. They also say they were initially unaware that Swann moved to Florida in 2023, which she said she made for health reasons.

Chalkbeat obtained the credit card charges through a public records request.

The lengthy period of questionable transactions raises concerns about oversight of Indianapolis charter schools, which receive state funding like other public schools. Charters will also begin receiving local property tax revenue in the coming years through a legislative win this year that angered supporters of schools run by Indianapolis Public Schools.

Matchbook Learning took over IPS’ K-8 School 63 in 2018 as part of the district’s Innovation Network — but the turnaround strategy has largely failed to improve academic results, according to state test scores. Matchbook opened its second school, a high school, last year.

The K-8 school has one of the highest shares of students from low-income backgrounds among all schools in Marion County, according to demographic data. It is also one of the most underperforming schools in the city, according to state math and reading test scores.

Swann was officially let go through a board vote terminating her employment with cause in February, records show — only about two months after Matchbook received a renewal of its charter from Mayor Joe Hogsett’s Office of Education Innovation in December 2024.

Swann, who was a 2017 fellow with the Indianapolis-based non-profit the Mind Trust along with Matchbook founder Sajan George, had been with the school for over a decade. She oversaw the K-8 school and the construction of the new high school.

She said that some of the expenses the board said weren’t authorized were for school purposes, such as alcohol for staff events and dinners with board members and vendors. Others she said were accidental, such as the trip to India. Swann said she reimbursed the school for the cost of the hotel for that trip, which the school confirmed. The sommelier charges, Swann said, stemmed from plans to do wine-based fundraisers for Matchbook. (Matchbook board minutes from August 2024 indicate the board discussed “Wine + Welding” when reviewing possibilities for investor tours and events.)

Swann also said multiple people had access to the card, and that she did not review bank statements. She said some charges she was not aware of — such as $1,629 for Stubhub and $915 to Ticketmaster — and that these might have been fraud. But according to the school, the records reviewed by Chalkbeat were only for a card number assigned to Swann. While Swann could have given her card to others, she was not supposed to, said Matchbook Learning Chief Operating Officer Don Stewart.

“I’m happy. I’m actually a lot better off,” Swann said of her termination from Matchbook. “Now I feel like I’m going to be made out to be this evil person.”

George, now chair of the Matchbook board, said he couldn’t elaborate on Swann’s termination, but that the spending in the expense reports was a factor. He said Swann’s role with the school was scheduled to end in April, but that the school terminated Swann in February in part for the unauthorized trip to India that included the luxury hotel stay, a timeline that Swann confirmed. Swann did not have approval to take time off or charge her company card for that trip, George said.

“You’re catching us where we should be, which is we took action on the things,” George said. “And honestly, if we had known some of these things, we might have taken that action earlier.”

It’s not clear whether the school will seek to recoup any of the other costs.

George also said school leaders were unaware of Swann’s move to Florida in 2023 and that it was among the reasons the network changed her title last summer from CEO to chief compliance officer. Swann said the title change occurred because she moved to Florida.

The 2024 charter renewal process included a review of financial information, such as the school’s annual audited financial statements, according to the mayor’s Office of Education Innovation. Officials there were aware of a “leadership transition” at Matchbook but were not made aware of “spending concerns” until after Swann was terminated in February, according to an OEI spokesperson.

George denied that the charter school waited to terminate Swann until after the mayor’s Office of Education Innovation renewed its charter to avoid disrupting that process. George said that the school’s authorizer was aware that Swann had moved to Florida and that the school had new leadership.

Charter school leader took frequent flights from Florida

The more than $40,000 for airfare on the credit card is the one of the largest categories of spending.

Much of that, George said, was to pay for Swann’s commuting expenses between Indiana and Florida, where she moved in the summer of 2023.

The board initially did not realize that Swann moved to Florida, he said, but agreed to retain her until she could finish some of her assigned projects — like the construction of the new high school. George said Swann flew from Florida to Indianapolis once or twice per month.

Swann said she moved to Florida in the summer of 2023 for health reasons, and in part due to a shooting that affected the school community in March 2023.

During that shooting, which occurred after a school basketball game, two gunmen targeted a Matchbook student. Swann said she walked toward two gang members with guns out who came into the gym looking for the student and convinced them to leave.

Swann said that some airfare charges were also for school board members who live out of state to travel to Indiana. State law does not have any residency requirements for charter school board members.

George said the school began to notice that the charges for the flights were not the least expensive possible, as required by the school’s policy. Among the travel expenses is a nearly $1,500 charge for the Delta lounge.

Still, George said it was important to the school to retain Swann because of her long tenure with Matchbook Learning, and because of the ongoing construction project she was overseeing. But after it became clear she would not return, the school changed Swann’s title and duties.

“School leadership is not a remote or hybrid job,” George said.

In the public records obtained by Chalkbeat, the school listed Swann’s salary at $187,000.

Swann is the third Mind Trust fellow to attract controversy in recent years.

In 2019, the nonprofit ended its fellowship with Tariq Al-Nasir after Chalkbeat uncovered his financial troubles and questionable academic credentials. A school launched by another Mind Trust fellow, Shy-Quon Ely, also faced a discrimination lawsuit in 2021 before the IPS school board voted to remove it from the Innovation Network later that year. The school later settled the lawsuit for $48,500, according to WRTV. The Mind Trust later supported the district’s decision.

In a statement, Mind Trust spokesperson Kateri Whitley said the vast majority of the organization’s more than 80 fellows have a “strong track record of leadership for the students and families they serve.”

The Mind Trust “had no knowledge of any allegations of misspending” regarding Swann, Whitley said, and noted that the group had no formal relationship with her once her fellowship ended in 2018.

“As with any school, whether it be traditional, charter, or private, we strongly believe excessive spending for travel, meals, and other expenses that are not directly related to student learning are not prudent uses of school funds,” the statement said. It also said the organization supports the Matchbook Learning board’s decision to terminate Swann’s employment if they found misconduct.

Charter school founder: Ex-CEO lacked good judgment

The credit card charges include roughly $1,525 for two meals at Harry and Izzy’s, $2,076 for two visits to Ruth’s Chris Steak House, and nearly $1,600 in charges to seafood restaurants in Florida.

Swann attributed these costs to meals with community partners, vendors, and staff.

She attributed roughly $1,343 spent at a Florida Costco to materials she would purchase for the school to later bring up in her suitcase for events. And while she was uncertain about charges totaling $1,080 for Daytona International Speedway, she later said that the school explored partnerships with Indy Car and NASCAR.

The card records also show charges to wine stores like Vivino and Total Wine in the first six months of 2024. These purchases were made after George told school leaders to stop paying for alcohol on the school’s tab in 2023, said Stewart, Matchbook Learning’s chief operating officer.

“It’s fair to say that any alcohol charges on the credit card after that were against what the board’s directive was to myself and the leaders in the school,” Stewart said.

But Swann said the policy not to purchase alcohol for staff was adopted after the charges, in the summer of 2024.

George and Stewart also said that board dinners took place once a year and only in Indianapolis. But the card charges include dozens of dinners at higher-end restaurants in Indianapolis and Florida.

Swann said the charges for high-end Indianapolis restaurants were for when board members who live outside of Indianapolis would come to visit, or to celebrate when teachers made good academic progress or other milestones. The Florida dining charges, she said, were for when community partners, vendors, and other people the school was working with would visit the state.

George said he was unaware of some of these charges until Chalkbeat highlighted them, adding that “we just don’t look at that level of detail” with the credit card statement. Yet he indicated the school previously had some concerns that led to Swann’s change of roles at the school.

“The details might be surprising or unknown to me previously, but the general lack of transparency and good judgment is not new to me, which is why we made those [title] changes,” George said.

Amelia Pak-Harvey covers Indianapolis and Lawrence Township schools for Chalkbeat Indiana. Contact Amelia at apak-harvey@chalkbeat.org.

Aleksandra Appleton covers Indiana education policy and writes about K-12 schools across the state. Contact her at aappleton@chalkbeat.org.

Indianapolis charter school gives students with academic and life challenges a second chance

2025-05-19T11:00:00+00:00

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Oralee Jane Burchfield fought the urge to drop out as a freshman at Herron High School.

The classes were harder and the expectations were greater than she anticipated. And the 30-minute IndyGo bus or Uber ride from her home on the south side of Indianapolis to the school’s campus on the near northside frequently deterred her from attending.

After transferring to Indianapolis Metropolitan High School her sophomore year, the 16-year-old is now set to graduate early from one of the city’s oldest charter schools.

“I felt really welcomed, “ Oralee Jane said. “And as it progressed, I started to come to school more — way more than I did before.”

Launched in 2004 by Goodwill Education Initiatives through the Goodwill of Central and Southern Indiana, Indy Met is an alternative option for students who experienced challenges at a previous school or have other barriers to learning — such as those who are pregnant, in foster care, struggling in class due to behavioral issues, or have fallen behind on credits.

The small school served just under 200 students this year in the same space off West Michigan Street where the ceremony for the Class of 2025 will cap the school’s 20th year of existence.

Indianapolis Metropolitan High School's graduation will cap the school's 20th year. Photos from previous school proms are showcased in one of the school's hallways.

Indy Met will celebrate the first of two graduation ceremonies for its Class of 2025 on June 7, near the end of a high school graduation season across Indianapolis that started this month. The school anticipates 50 graduates combined for its spring and summer graduations.

Indy Met initially opened as a neighborhood school to serve students in the Haughville neighborhood, said Betsy Delgado, chief mission and education officer for Goodwill of Central and Southern Indiana. But staff eventually realized that many students were navigating challenging systems, such as foster care or the juvenile justice system.

So about eight years ago, the school shifted focus from a general neighborhood school to one that responded to the challenges its existing students were facing.

“I think up until then, we were getting a bit lost and we were kind of making decisions based on accountability and who we were recruiting,” Delgado said. “Instead, we decided, ‘Well, let’s celebrate and recruit the students that are in the building.’”

Today, Principal Shannon Goings Brown said the school’s population generally falls into two categories: students who were academically unsuccessful at their previous schools, or students who had behavior issues at their previous schools. The two challenges often go hand in hand.

That’s why Indy Met creates a “Puma plan” — named after the school’s mascot — customized for each student based on answers they provide about their experiences, Goings Brown said.

“It asks questions like — not only what are your goals and things like that — but also what are your triggers?” Goings Brown said. “What are the things that in the past caused you to be kicked out of class?”

The school’s population leaves it with a graduation rate that’s well below that of other Indianapolis high schools. Last year, the school graduation rate for students who did not use waivers was roughly 45% compared with the average graduation rate for IPS of roughly 87%.

But the school typically sees a higher five-year graduation rate, Goings Brown said — its most recent five-year graduation rate was roughly 60%. It prides itself on not issuing waivers so that students are truly prepared for a career or college — in that same spirit, all students must earn either dual credits or an industry-recognized certification in order to graduate.

The school also stresses relationships with staff to keep students using coaches that engage students and families with supports they may need outside of school. That includes staff like Darryl Hutson Jr., a family empowerment coach whom Oralee Jane credits for her success.

“He did keep encouraging me to actually do my work and come to school,” she said.

Indy Met also offers other resources to keep students in school — a Gleaners food bank is on site in the school cafeteria, and Goodwill can also offer financial help for other challenges families may face through its “barrier removal” fund.

Braylin Stevens tapped the barrier removal fund when his car — which he used to get to school — broke down and needed a new battery. Now, he will graduate and attend Purdue University to study communications.

Looking back on her high school career, Oralee Jane realized how much she has changed.

“When I was a freshman I would’ve never thought about going to college,” she said. “I hated the idea of going to school for another four years.”

Today, she hopes to enroll in Indiana University-Bloomington or Ivy Tech Community College and pursue a career in psychology.

Amelia Pak-Harvey covers Indianapolis and Lawrence Township schools for Chalkbeat Indiana. Contact Amelia at apak-harvey@chalkbeat.org.

Appeals court says IPS must sell School 65, but can keep agreement with nonprofit for School 102

2025-05-16T23:04:13+00:00

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Indianapolis Public Schools must make the former Raymond Brandes School 65 building available to interested charter schools for a sales price of $1, a state appeals court ruled on Friday.

But the district can sell the former Francis Bellamy School 102 building to a nonprofit that has since leased the space.

The ruling ends a lengthy contested lawsuit over the state’s $1 law, which requires school districts to allow charter schools to buy closed buildings for $1. IPS has closed schools amid declining enrollment, while charter schools frequently struggle to find facilities in which to open or expand.

But the fight over facilities may be moot in the future: A new state-mandated group, the Indianapolis Local Education Alliance, has been tasked with analyzing how IPS could share its buildings and transportation with charters.

IPS sought relief from the law through a declaratory judgment in 2023, arguing that it was exempt due to revisions to state statute that lawmakers made that year. The change gave districts an exemption if they shared funding from voter-approved property tax increases meant to pay for operating or safety costs with “applicable charter schools.”

IPS claimed it was exempt because it shared funds from its 2018 property tax increase. Indiana Attorney General Todd Rokita, one of the parties the lawsuit was brought against, appealed the ruling.

IPS, meanwhile, offered a lease agreement for School 102 with the nonprofit Voices, which works with youth and allows two other youth programs — New B.O.Y. and Inner Beauty — to use the second floor.

State lawmakers in 2024 later tweaked state law to clarify that districts are only exempt if they share revenue from a ballot question in a resolution approved after May 10, 2023.

In its opinion, the appeals court ruled that the trial court correctly found IPS exempt from the $1 law under the 2023 amendments. It also argued that retroactively applying the 2024 amendments to state law would violate the state constitution by “impairing the (school) Board’s contractual relationship with Voices.”

But as for School 65, the court ruled that the school board failed to establish that applying the 2024 amendments retroactively “would violate any vested right or constitutional guarantee with respect to that building.”

In separate statements, both IPS and the Mind Trust, which has helped launch charter schools in Indianapolis, applauded the ruling.

“IPS is pleased with the court’s ruling and grateful to continue its efforts to responsibly engage community stakeholders and local organizations to ensure district buildings are re-purposed to serve the needs of the IPS community,” the district said in a statement.

The Mind Trust said making School 65 available for sale is a win for students and families.

“It is unfortunate that IPS chose to pursue this lawsuit almost two years ago when collaborative solutions to grow high-quality public school options existed,” said Mind Trust CEO Brandon Brown. “We look forward to working expeditiously with proven, local charter operators that are interested in claiming unused and underutilized IPS buildings so these community assets can continue to be used for educational purposes.”

Amelia Pak-Harvey covers Indianapolis and Lawrence Township schools for Chalkbeat Indiana. Contact Amelia at apak-harvey@chalkbeat.org.

State charter board approves merger of 2 Indianapolis schools, backs new microschool network

2025-05-08T22:22:13+00:00

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The Indiana Charter School Board approved the merger of two Indianapolis charter schools and granted a charter to an Indianapolis Public Schools school on Thursday.

Ace Prep Academy, a K-6 school near the city’s fairgrounds neighborhood, will transfer its charter to Circle City Prep, which runs an elementary and middle school totaling roughly 400 students on the far eastside. The move will make Ace Prep one of three schools in the Circle City network.

Meanwhile, the Cold Spring School in the IPS autonomous network of Innovation schools will convert to a charter school in a move that the school leader estimates will bring hundreds of thousands of dollars in extra revenue. Cold Spring is one of a few Innovation schools that is not currently a charter school, but still operates autonomously through its own nonprofit.

In addition, the charter board gave the green light to a collaborative of microschools hoping to launch east of Indianapolis.

School leaders at Ace Prep and Circle City Prep hope the merger of both charters will create cost efficiencies across a three-school network. Ace Prep will stay in its current leased building.

The small Ace Prep opened in 2016 and boasts strong academics — its most recent proficiency rate on the state’s third grade IREAD test stood at 90.5%. But its enrollment has fluctuated in recent years and is down from roughly 165 students in 2019-20 to 131 this year, according to state records.

“We just want to make sure we’re taking the steps to be as stable as possible financially so we can continue to offer the high-level academic rigor that we pride ourselves on,” Principal Amanda Liles told the board Thursday to justify the proposed merger.

Ace Prep will also be able to utilize Circle City Prep’s administrative staff to handle financial and hiring matters, leaders said. And the merger would allow Ace, a relatively small school, to team up with Circle City students for extracurricular activities such as basketball.

The merger will also provide school transportation for families with children who attend both Ace Prep and Circle City Prep, and an average $10,000 increase in salary for Ace Prep staff.

“We see this not as a turnaround or anything of that nature, but instead to support Ace to continue to do the real work that they are doing,” said Circle City Prep founder Megan Murphy. “Support them in infrastructure, to hit their enrollment targets, and also provide some extracurricular opportunities and clubs that their families have been asking for but they haven’t yet had the infrastructure to be able to provide.”

Cold Spring to convert to a charter school

Cold Spring, the first IPS school to opt into the Innovation Network in 2016, will also transition to a charter school after securing a 15-year charter.

The move will provide over $400,000 in additional revenue to the school, since as a charter school it will operate as a separate local educational agency instead of receiving funds through IPS, which allocates money using a student-based funding formula, Cody Stipes, Cold Spring’s chief operating officer, told the charter board.

Operating as its own local educational agency will also make Cold Spring eligible for more grants, he said.

“With that type of financial resources we can really invest in our students,” Stipes said, noting the possibility for more STEM opportunities and access to foreign language classes. “All those things their most affluent peers in the entire state have access to, we want to be able to make sure they have access to that.”

Cold Spring was one of the relatively few high-performing IPS schools that opted into the district’s Innovation Network.The K-8 school has continued to outperform IPS as a whole on state test scores.

The school will maintain its Innovation Network agreement with IPS. Cold Spring will still use IPS transportation, food, and technology services.

Charter approved for new microschool collaborative

The charter board also approved a charter for the Indiana Microschool Collaborative, a network of small schools that hopes to launch within the Eastern Hancock school district’s boundaries and eventually expand statewide.

The network will offer a shared “instructional framework” but will ultimately create several small schools, with each tailored to the community’s needs, according to the charter application.

Career Academy Network, which operates five schools in South Bend, also won approval to switch authorizers from Education One at Trine University to the state charter board. The school network said in its application that the switch would provide Career Academy a “tremendous” cost benefit.

The vote also includes approval for Career Academy Network to open a sixth elementary school in the fall of 2027 at a location yet to be determined.

Correction: 5/9/2025: A previous version of this story gave an incorrect opening year and enrollment trajectory for Ace Prep.

Amelia Pak-Harvey covers Indianapolis and Lawrence Township schools for Chalkbeat Indiana. Contact Amelia at apak-harvey@chalkbeat.org.

How Greg Abbott took a flailing school voucher movement and turned it into a winning issue

2025-05-02T19:12:40+00:00

This story originally appeared in the Texas Tribune and is republished with permission.

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Four years ago, the push for private school vouchers in Texas was rudderless.

Session after session, Democrats and rural Republicans drove home the point by passing a budget amendment to bar state dollars from being used for private school tuition. The provision never made it into the final budget, but that was beside the point. The amendment from Democratic Rep. Abel Herrero served as the yardstick to measure the House’s voucher resistance, forcing members to take an up-or-down vote that always proved lopsided.

In 2021, only 29 members of the 150-seat chamber registered support for vouchers by voting against the measure.

On paper, those were the odds confronting Gov. Greg Abbott when he grabbed the reins of Texas’ voucher push in 2022. In short order, he flipped the math on its head, ushering a $1 billion package through the Legislature with overwhelming support from Republicans in both chambers. Abbott is poised to sign the measure into law Saturday.

In unraveling the House’s bipartisan voucher blockade, Abbott tapped into a powerful national conservative movement that, paired with his own campaign war chest, turned legislative races into multimillion-dollar affairs. His brutally effective method of engineering the voucher turnaround represents a watershed moment in Texas politics that stands as a blueprint for deep-pocketed donors and interest groups to emulate — and that Abbott and future governors could employ on other priority issues.

But even before it came to that, Abbott unlocked a number of votes simply by lending his name to the movement, according to those at the forefront. Once a supportive yet muted voice, Abbott’s sudden move to adopt vouchers as his signature issue helped galvanize latent support among a number of House Republicans who backed the concept of “school choice” but saw no upside in voting against the Herrero amendment without sufficient political capital invested in the fight.

“That was clearly the biggest part of it, because without that torch bearer, it wasn’t worth — I believe, in their minds — the political energy that was necessary to lead the battle,” said John Colyandro, an Austin lobbyist who represents the voucher advocacy group American Federation for Children.

“The coalition against school choice, as evidenced by the Herrero amendment, was very strong,” added Colyandro, a former top Abbott aide. “So when the governor took up the cause the way he did, it was in some respects by necessity, because only through political action was the dynamic in the House going to turn.”

Rep. James Frank, a Wichita Falls Republican who has long supported the concept of education savings accounts, said it also made a huge difference getting an actual bill in front of members — something that could only happen once there was an organized push. The Herrero amendment “has always been kind of a ‘gotcha,’” Frank argued, “because there’s no policy tied to it.”

“The only thing you stood to do was make people mad over your vote,” said Frank, one of the 29 pro-voucher votes in 2021. “There were certainly more that liked the idea, but until there was policy, it wasn’t going to happen.”

A spokesperson for Abbott declined an interview request for this story.

After largely avoiding the “school choice” battlefield, Abbott threw his full-throated support behind vouchers during his 2022 reelection bid. By then, a growing number of states were offering vouchers in the form of state-funded education savings accounts, inspired by a nationwide wave of parental resentment over school closures during the COVID-19 pandemic, along with the perception among conservatives that public schools were a hotbed of liberal indoctrination.

Abbott would make that a core part of his pitch for vouchers on the campaign trail. The following January, as the 2023 legislative session kicked off, the governor started traversing the state to hold “parent empowerment nights” where he would promote education savings accounts before sympathetic crowds at private schools — sometimes in the districts of lawmakers who were resistant or on the fence.

In April, when Herrero’s biennial test vote came, the measure passed 86-52. Just 24 Republicans joined Democrats in voting to ban vouchers, less than half the 49 GOP members who had voted for the Herrero amendment two years earlier. The converts included Rep. Brad Buckley, the Salado Republican and chair of the Public Education Committee who would be the House’s point person on vouchers for the next two years.

Abbott touted the vote as progress and said the fight was unfinished. But to Colyandro, it was already becoming clear that no amount of cajoling and arm-twisting could change things; the battle would need to be settled at the ballot box.

“I strongly believed in 2023, after the first three-ish, four months of the regular session, that no bill was going to pass until the makeup of the House of Representatives changed,” Colyandro said. “The lines were drawn.”

Voucher critics have argued that such programs would funnel money away from Texas public schools, further choking a system that in recent years has faced widespread budget shortfalls from inflation and five years without a boost in per-student state funding. That concern has been especially acute among Republicans representing sparsely populated districts, some of whom view vouchers as an existential threat to local school districts — which often double as the top employers in rural communities.

Critics have also raised concerns that Texas would follow the lead of other states where lawmakers promised to prioritize the neediest children, yet saw much of their voucher program dollars flow to wealthier families whose kids already attended private schools.

Josh Cowen, an education policy professor at Michigan State University and an outspoken critic of school voucher programs, said Texas’ proposals — including the bill on Abbott’s desk — have also failed to recognize the difference between eligibility and access by requiring or encouraging private schools to accept low-income applicants. Under Texas’ program, up to 20% of voucher recipients could be from wealthier families who earn 500% or more of the poverty rate — about $160,000 or more for a family of four.

“It pays a little bit of lip service to trying to spread out dollars more evenly,” Cowen said of Senate Bill 2. “But if you are not willing to go the distance and require the publicly subsidized private schools to at least take more children, or at least incentivize them to do it — there are ways you could try, and they’re not even trying.”

Abbott and other voucher supporters say such concerns are overblown, arguing that Texas can simultaneously implement a voucher program and fund its public schools. They contend that “school choice” — the umbrella term supporters use to describe programs that operate outside the traditional public school system — is needed to provide alternatives for low-income families who are dissatisfied with their local schools yet cannot afford to send their kids elsewhere, and they insist Texas’ eligibility criteria has always focused on sending dollars to lower-income students and those with disabilities.

In 2023, toward the end of the spring regular session, Buckley tried to placate opponents with a pared-down bill that would have offered education savings accounts only to students with disabilities or who attended low-performing schools. But Abbott threatened to veto it, insisting on a program with “universal” eligibility open to every Texas student.

The battle ultimately came to a head during the fourth special session of the year in November. Buckley introduced an all-in-one education package that included vouchers and $7.6 billion in public school funding, the latter of which Abbott said he would only consider after lawmakers approved vouchers.

The House responded by voting 84-63 to strip vouchers from the bill, with 21 Republicans — mostly from rural districts — joining with Democrats to deal the fatal blow. The battle lines were set for the primaries, where Abbott promised to take aim at fellow Republicans who had defied him on vouchers — “the hard way,” as the governor framed it.

It was partly Abbott’s insistence on a universal voucher program that spelled the demise of his effort in 2023. But Colyandro said it made sense to go big because “the political lift was just as heavy for a modest bill as it was for a universal bill.”

“It sounds a bit counterintuitive, but being in the middle of it, that was absolutely true,” Colyandro said. “The more modest bill had as much resistance as the big bill.”

Abbott, the most prolific political fundraiser in Texas history, reported a formidable $38 million war chest heading into the primaries, bolstered by a single $6 million contribution from Jeff Yass, the Pennsylvania-based GOP megadonor and TikTok investor whose priority issues include school vouchers.

The governor had plenty of allies as he plunged into more than a dozen GOP primaries. Among them were the AFC Victory Fund, the super PAC political arm of the American Federation for Children, and the federal Club for Growth political action committee — both of whom were also recipients of Yass’ largesse and spent millions going after anti-voucher GOP incumbents. Some Texas-based groups also joined the fray, such as the Family Empowerment Coalition PAC, a group formed by GOP donors Doug Deason and Leo Linbeck III, and Eddie Lucio Jr., a retired conservative Democratic senator, to specifically promote pro-voucher candidates.

Though voucher advocacy groups have always had a presence in Texas — most notably the high-powered Texas Public Policy Foundation — Colyandro argued they were “never quite galvanized” until now, to provide a formidable counter to the network of public education groups that worked to keep the House’s anti-voucher coalition in place.

“I think too many of the groups were relying on the merits of the policy and were missing the political component, which is what the governor’s actions brought a sharp focus to,” Colyandro said.

Though Abbott and his allies made clear in the primaries they were targeting members based on their voucher opposition, some of the targets grumbled that the attacks against them focused more on border security and other issues unrelated to vouchers.

Cowen said that’s because vouchers typically do not fare well among voters. Last November, he noted, private school choice ballot initiatives were rejected in Colorado, Nebraska and Kentucky. Nearly two-thirds voted against the measure in Kentucky, about the same percentage captured by President Donald Trump in the state.

Many voters in those states, Cowen said, felt little connection to private schools or the voucher movement — and the same can be said for rural Texas, he argued.

“What has Milton Friedman ever done for kids in West Texas?” Cowen said, referring to the free-market economist who was one of the first to champion vouchers and school choice. “I think that’s what a lot of this is really about. And it turns out that if you have enough dollars, you can spend your way out of that problem.”

Mandy Drogin, a voucher advocate with the Texas Public Policy Foundation, saw things differently as she traversed the state with Abbott on his “parent empowerment” tour. She said the power of the movement crystallized during her first stop with the governor at The King’s Academy, a private religious school in Dallas attended mostly by low-income families that covers much of its costs through donations.

“I remember just getting teary-eyed hearing the stories of mothers talking about what this school means to not only their child’s future, but their entire family, to have a hope that they can reach their full potential,” said Drogin, the director of Next Generation Texas, TPPF’s education reform campaign.

In any case, the primary scoreboard showed a resounding win for Abbott. Between the March primaries and the May runoffs, nine GOP voucher holdouts were ousted — eight of them by primary challengers endorsed by the governor. Additionally, four retiring anti-voucher Republicans were succeeded by pro-voucher freshmen. And in November, two Abbott-backed GOP candidates were elected to replace retiring Democrats.

Suddenly, Abbott was touting 79 “hardcore school choice proponents” in the Texas House heading into this year’s session — three more than he needed to usher legislation through the chamber.

Abbott’s success in the primaries was a “seminal moment,” said Frank, a 12-year veteran of the Legislature who said he had “never seen the governor all in on a policy” quite like Abbott on vouchers. The resounding outcome changed the dynamic heading into session, he said.

“While people would say there were other issues, that issue [vouchers] was on the table in all of those races,” Frank said. “So to me, Republican primary voters spoke pretty loud.”

The start of session in January came with a clear shift in tone around vouchers: Questions about whether supporters could muster enough votes became conversations about what would be in the bill. Even so, House Democratic leaders urged their members to stay defiant, arguing that “the devil is in the details” and Republicans would still need to craft a bill they could all agree on.

The Senate sprinted out of the gate, passing its voucher package in early February ahead of all other legislation. Prominent conservative voices soon after began heaping pressure on the House to follow suit, led by Trump, who warned the House he would “be watching them closely.” Trump’s billionaire adviser, Elon Musk, also publicly called on House Speaker Dustin Burrows to pass “school choice.”

Appearing with Abbott at a San Antonio rally, Burrows — who supported vouchers before he claimed the speaker’s gavel — assured the crowd that “the votes are there to do this in the Texas House.” Later the same week, in late February, Buckley filed the chamber’s voucher bill along with its education funding package, touted by Burrows as “the Texas two-step plan.”

“Families deserve options, schools deserve resources,” Burrows told reporters. “One without the other leaves Texas short.”

The House voucher bill got a warm reception from Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick, a longtime school choice supporter who has frequently criticized the House for not following the Senate’s lead in passing voucher programs.

The two chambers diverged on how much money students would receive, which applicants would take priority, and how the program would accommodate students with disabilities. But the differences were slim, especially compared to the gulf between the chambers in 2023.

Soon after the House’s voucher bill dropped, a narrow majority of the chamber signed on as coauthors. It was the clearest sign yet that Abbott’s top priority was on track to reach his desk. And when the House took up the state budget weeks later, Democrats, apparently reading the room, declined to file their usual litmus test amendment on vouchers.

Drogin said Burrows’ outspoken support for vouchers played a pivotal role in the smooth passage of SB 2. She contrasted the Lubbock Republican’s posture to that of his predecessor, Rep. Dade Phelan, R-Beaumont, who stayed neutral on the issue as speaker in 2023, insisting he would leave it to the will of the House.

“He seized the moment,” Drogin said of Burrows. “He stood firm and he helped deliver this historic victory. It is absolutely a completely different story than what we have witnessed in the past.”

With the voucher vote nearing, Democrats made a Hail Mary play to derail the bill: They would try to amend the legislation so that it would only take effect if voters gave it majority support on the statewide November ballot. Democrats hoped to find a Republican member to champion the idea, but when SB 2 hit the floor, it was Rep. James Talarico, an Austin Democrat, who introduced the amendment.

Talarico claimed that there was “growing bipartisan support” for the referendum idea — until Abbott “started calling members into his office, one by one, and threatening to veto all the bills of” anyone who supported the amendment, he alleged. A spokesperson for Abbott denied the charge, but in any case, the proposal attracted just one Republican vote: Phelan, the former speaker.

On the bill itself, Phelan and Rep. Gary VanDeaver, of New Boston, were the only Republican holdouts. The near-party line split on the vote — less than two years after 21 Republicans tanked Abbott’s prior voucher bill — reflected the governor’s focus on making it as unpalatable as possible for any GOP member to consider opposing the bill.

Meeting with House Republicans before Wednesday’s floor fight, Abbott patched in Trump to rally support for SB 2 and remind members of what awaited them next primary season if they fell out of line.

In an interview this week with conservative radio host Chris Salcedo, Abbott drove the point home, arguing that school choice “kind of has been a partisan issue in the United States.”

“If you look at presidents, you have Reagan and Trump who support school choice,” Abbott said. “You have Obama and Biden and Harris who are against school choice. Which team do you want to line up on?”

Rather than settle the differences between the House and Senate bills in a closed-door conference committee, Patrick and the Senate’s lead voucher author, Sen. Brandon Creighton, R-Conroe, agreed to accept the version that passed the House. In the final draft, Buckley agreed to several changes sought by anti-voucher Republicans, who agreed to support the bill in exchange.

Those tweaks included removing the expiration date on a provision that would cap how much of the voucher budget could be reserved for wealthy recipients and adding a requirement for private schools to have been accredited for at least two years before joining the program, aimed at deterring so-called pop-up private schools.

The final draft was drawn up with an eye toward getting the Senate to concur with the changes, said Frank, one of the House members who worked closely with Buckley on the bill. The idea was to limit opportunities for last-minute flare-ups or anything else that could derail the bill.

“The Senate sent over a good bill,” Frank said. “And I think the House truly did make it better.”

Jasper Scherer covers politics for the Texas Tribune. Reach Jasper at jasper.scherer@texastribune.org.

The Texas Tribune is a member-supported, nonpartisan newsroom informing and engaging Texans on state politics and policy. Learn more at texastribune.org.

Why national charter leaders are very worried about Oklahoma’s religious charter school

2025-04-28T19:39:43+00:00

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The case of St. Isidore of Seville Catholic Virtual School could represent a seismic shift in American education.

The Archdiocese of Oklahoma City and the Diocese of Tulsa are seeking to open the nation’s first religious charter school, challenging traditional understandings of church and state as well as state laws that require charter schools to be secular.

But the Oklahoma Supreme Court found that the school was unconstitutional and that state authorities should not have granted St. Isidore a charter. Now the U.S. Supreme Court will decide whether the school can open.

The case is not just about whether public funds can support religious schools. Legally, the question at the heart of the St. Isidore case is: Are charter schools really public schools?

A finding that charter schools are private entities would require revisiting decades-old legal assumptions while giving rhetorical ammunition to the sector’s strongest critics. Charter supporters fear that public funds, their treasured autonomy, and perhaps even their existence are at risk.

“We could see a situation where almost every charter law has to be opened up and reconsidered and relegislated,” said Eric Paisner, chief operating officer for the National Alliance for Public Charter Schools, which filed a friend-of-the-court brief in opposition to St. Isidore.

These publicly funded but independently run schools once enjoyed broad bipartisan support as an alternative to vouchers and other forms of private school choice. Charters have flourished in states whose constitutions clearly prohibit public funding for private schools. But while they remain popular with parents, the charter sector is increasingly embattled politically, especially in Democrat-led states.

That should not be a concern of the courts, said Nicole Stelle Garnett, a law professor at Notre Dame University who laid out the legal blueprint for religious charter schools in an influential paper for the Manhattan Institute, a conservative think tank.

That state laws refer to charter schools as public schools has little bearing on their legal status, she said, and there’s a strong case to be made that they are private entities that contract with the government to provide a public good. If that’s true, denying taxpayer dollars to religious charter schools is simply discrimination, she said. And discrimination is bad and illegal.

“They are worried about the political blowback,” she said of charter leaders who want the high court to rule against St. Isidore. “Those are not legal arguments.”

Charter schools have a hybrid legal status

Minnesota passed the nation’s first charter school in 1991, just a year after the nation’s first voucher program launched in Milwaukee. Today there are roughly 8,000 charter schools in 46 states and the District of Columbia serving some 3.7 million students. State laws typically describe charter schools as public schools and require that they be nonsectarian — secular rather than religious.

These schools are funded by the state, they can’t charge tuition, they’re accountable to the government for student performance, and they generally can’t choose their students. They might be authorized by school districts, universities, or the state itself. Charters have withstood legal challenges in states that prohibit taxpayer dollars from being used at private schools, with courts finding that charters are public schools.

“Charter schools are public schools” is the automatic response supporters give to both critics and the merely confused who see them as something else, something halfway to a private school.

But charter schools also are exempt from many laws and regulations that govern district-run schools. They’re run by independent, unelected boards and often organized as non-profit entities. In some states, such as Michigan, even for-profit companies can run charter schools.

Charter schools themselves have argued — often successfully — that they are non-state actors when they need to defend personnel decisions or student discipline policies in court.

Most recently, a North Carolina charter school argued that its dress code, which required girls to wear skirts, could not violate the civil rights of its female students because it was not a state actor. The 4th Circuit Court of Appeals disagreed. North Carolina had delegated its educational function to the charter school, and the dress code had to go.

That school and other classical academies, along with the North Carolina Coalition for Charter Schools, has filed its own friend-of-the-court brief arguing that if charter schools are found to be government entities, that would expose them to lawsuits and regulations, “sanding off the edges of cultural and pedagogical difference until the schools are virtually indistinguishable from their public-school counterparts.”

“Charter schools have wanted to have it both ways, where they were public for matters that they like, like funding, and private for things that they may not like, for instance, teacher rights,” said Preston Green, a professor of education at the University of Connecticut who has written extensively about charter schools.

Is public education dead or just redefined? Author Cara Fitzpatrick on the history of school choice.

Now the debate about whether charter schools should be viewed as state actors — entities that act with the same authority as the government and are bound by the same constitutional limitations — is on a collision course with the Supreme Court’s evolving view of religious freedom.

For many years, the First Amendment’s prohibition on government establishment of religion was interpreted to mean public money could not fund religious institutions. More recently, though, the Supreme Court’s conservative majority has found that denying public funding to religious organizations is a form of discrimination.

In 2022, the Supreme Court ruled in Carson v. Makin that states that have private school choice programs cannot exclude religious schools from participation.

Oklahoma officials leaned heavily on that decision when, in 2023, they gave approval to St. Isidore of Seville to start a virtual Catholic charter school. Now the state’s charter authorizing board wants the Supreme Court to decide that St. Isidore charter school should be viewed as a privately owned and run school.

Many charter leaders fear fallout of St. Isidore ruling

In its friend-of-the-court brief, the National Alliance for Public Charter Schools argues that the Supreme Court could turn down St. Isidore without even touching the question of whether charter schools are state actors. Directly authorizing and funding a religious school would represent a state establishment of religion, their attorneys write, and is not comparable to giving parents money that they can choose to spend at religious or secular schools of their choice.

But if the court does take up the state actor question, the justices should find that charter schools are state actors, at least in this circumstance, they argue. Charter schools only exist because the government creates them.

“No school existed on June 5, 2023, then the State Board issued the charter at its meeting, and now there is a school,” the charter alliance brief says. “The resulting school, St. Isidore, is neither all church nor all state, but a blend of church and state.”

Democratic attorneys general and politicians from both parties who wrote some of the nation’s first charter laws have filed their own briefs, arguing that charter schools were conceived to solve problems within public education using public tools. Even the fact that charters are exempt from some laws and regulations is evidence that they are a function of state government.

Robert Reed, vice president of legal affairs for the National Alliance for Public Charter Schools, fears that some Democrat-led states, if forced to approve religious charter schools, would simply end their charter programs.

“Those states probably couldn’t stomach those types of schools,” he said.

Students make their way down the hall following a Mass celebrating Pomona Catholic High School's 125th anniversary in 2023. Catholic schools have struggled with financial sustainability and cultural changes in recent decades.

Where state constitutions bar funding private schools, a finding that charter schools are fundamentally private in nature might reopen the question of whether they can receive taxpayer dollars, Reed said. It could also prevent charter schools from using bond funds for facilities and lock charter teachers out of state pension systems.

Green doubts that policymakers and politicians will abandon charter schools, even in blue states.

“In a lot of Black and Latino communities, charter schools are very popular, and the separation [of church and state] issues may not resonate as much in these communities,” he said. “In a lot of communities, there is still going to be support for charter schools because they see them meeting needs that traditional public schools do not.”

But states that don’t want to authorize religious charters may need to change their laws to make charter schools more definitively public. In a recent paper, Green and University of Wisconsin-Madison education professor Suzanne Eckes draw on case law from other heavily regulated sectors, such as railroads, to suggest that having government-controlled boards would make it much harder to argue charters are private entities.

“If they want to be public, they may need to take steps to have more government control,” Green said.

But charter sector leaders fear that outcome as well. More government control “would turn charter schools into district-run schools, which was never the point,” Reed said.

Demand for religious charters uncertain

Garnett believes concerns about widespread impacts are overstated. The Supreme Court decision will turn on the specifics of Oklahoma’s laws and may not apply to all states or all charters. She doubts there will be a flood of applications from other religious organizations, and local and state governments still will have a say in which schools open.

“States can continue to apply all their secular criteria,” she said. “You have to have your disability plan and your proof-that-you’re-needed plan and whatever else the authorizer requires.”

But religious groups are watching the case closely. Already a group in Minnesota is hoping to open Abraham Knowledge Academy as an Islamic charter school with a focus on civic participation.

Religious charter schools used to feel like a “pie in the sky” idea, said Michael Petrilli of the center-right Thomas B. Fordham Institute, a way to offer parents more choices in states hostile to vouchers. But charter schools were public schools, and the combination didn’t seem legally workable.

“What has made this more inevitable in recent years is the courts’ own jurisprudence,” he said.

Some Catholic educators have argued against seeking charter status that would inevitably involve the government in theological questions. On the other side of the equation is access to public dollars. Catholic schools are under financial pressure as enrollment declines, and per-pupil funding would bring in more money than tuition.

Petrilli believes Catholic schools would struggle to resist public dollars or to explain to families why they should keep paying tuition.

A recent analysis by Shaun Dougherty, who directs the Catholic Education Research Initiative at Boston College, found that the opening of charter schools in cities contributed to the closure of nearby Catholic schools as families sought out free options that provided similar rigor.

But that doesn’t mean families would rush back. “There is a question about who the audience is,” Dougherty said. “The Catholic population has not gotten larger because of this case. It’s not clear to me that the appetite for charter enrollment is limitless.”

Petrilli finds himself personally torn now that religious charters could become reality. More litigation and legislative fights could lie on the other side of the St. Isidore case.

“I hope they say, ‘These schools are public schools,’ and we go about our way,” he said.

Correction: This story has been updated to reflect the correct university affiliation of Suzanne Eckes. She is a professor at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

Erica Meltzer is Chalkbeat’s national editor based in Colorado. Contact Erica at emeltzer@chalkbeat.org.

Charter schools score big funding wins, including new property tax sharing law

2025-04-25T20:28:05+00:00

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Charter schools scored significant funding wins in the legislative session that wrapped up this week.

Indiana lawmakers passed legislation that grants property tax revenues to charter schools statewide starting in 2028, a change that expands on a 2023 law that required only certain districts to share a portion of property tax revenue increases with charters.

Charters will also continue to receive $1,400 per pupil through the state’s Charter and Innovation Network School Grant over the next two school years.

One setback for charter schools statewide is that lawmakers decided not to continue a $25 million grant they created for charters’ capital needs in 2023. However, at least in Indianapolis, that could be offset by the property tax revenue charters will receive for the first time this year under the 2023 law. And over the long term, a new group will study the possibility of sharing Indianapolis Public Schools buildings and buses with charter schools.

“I don’t think it’s hyperbole to say this was the most successful legislative session for charter schools since the law passed in 2001,” said Brandon Brown, CEO of the Mind Trust nonprofit that grows charters in Indianapolis, referring to the law that allowed charters to open in Indiana. ”It was just an extraordinary session, from my perspective, in terms of moving towards a system where all kids are funded fairly.”

Meanwhile, Indianapolis Public Schools and other districts in areas with several charters will face more financial pressure in the coming years as the state enacts property tax reform that will slash a key component of school district revenues.

In February, IPS told lawmakers that it would need to close multiple schools and lay off staff under the property tax sharing and tax reform bills legislators were considering at that time. Earlier this month, the district estimated it would lose $96.8 million from 2026 to 2032. But the exact impact the session’s activity will have on the district is unclear.

IPS did not immediately respond to a request for comment Friday.

Funding increases won’t occur until 2028

Most funding increases for charter schools won’t take place until 2028, when state law mandates that districts must begin sharing property taxes used for operating expenses.

The total amount for charters will be phased-in over a period of four years, so that charters receive 25% of the expected amount in 2028, 50% in 2029, 75% in 2030, and the full amount by 2031.

Charter schools could also see additional funding if districts approve and pass an operating referendum before 2028. The new law requires districts to share that referendum funding if more than 100 students and more than 2% of its overall student population attend charter schools.

The Mind Trust estimates that on average, charters enrolling students living within IPS borders would get roughly $2,050 per student in property taxes in 2028 — assuming the district asks voters to pass a new operating referendum to increase property taxes.

By 2031, the group estimates roughly an additional $3,750 per charter school student.

But for KIPP Indy, which runs three charters that are all a part of the IPS network of autonomous Innovation Network schools, the extra funding won’t be a financial boon in the near-term.

That’s because KIPP Indy is slated to send most of it back to IPS to pay the full cost of the transportation and facilities management services the charter network uses, said KIPP Indy Executive Director Andy Seibert.

But eventually, Seibert said, the network hopes to use the extra funds to sustain its transportation and facilities.

“Right now, we’re using general operating dollars to do some of that work,” he said. “Those will be more dollars that we’ll have freed up to continue to do things like invest in teacher compensation, and invest in high-quality, well rounded offerings for students.”

Charter schools lose capital grant

Lawmakers stripped funding for the state’s charter capital grant, a $25 million appropriation first allotted in fiscal 2023-24.

That funding, charter advocates say, amounted to roughly $600 per pupil over the two-year period.

While advocates said they would have appreciated the funding, they understood the financial constraints lawmakers faced as they sought to trim the state budget.

Charters in four counties already receive a portion of the increase in property taxes for the first time this year under a law passed in 2023.

That should soften the blow of losing that capital grant funding for most charter schools, said Scott Bess, president of the Indiana Charter Innovation Center. He estimated roughly 7,500 charter students outside of those counties would be fully affected by the loss in that capital grant statewide.

Charter schools secure zoning wins

Another provision added to House Bill 1515 allows charter schools to be a permitted use in all types of municipal zoning districts.

The change to state law comes after a contentious fight in Washington Township over the rezoning of a former church property for use by the charter school Girls IN Stem Academy.

Amelia Pak-Harvey covers Indianapolis and Lawrence Township schools for Chalkbeat Indiana. Contact Amelia at apak-harvey@chalkbeat.org.

Many students from closing Denver schools headed for higher-rated schools next year

2025-04-21T23:43:25+00:00

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Phil Chen spent weeks this winter touring Denver elementary schools. He knew what he was looking for: a school that most closely resembled his daughter’s current school, Palmer Elementary, which will close in June.

Chen’s daughter got into the family’s top choice for next year. But Chen isn’t necessarily happy.

“Yes, we were successful in getting into our first-choice school. And that’s great,” Chen said.

But, he added, “I’d rather we be at Palmer.”

Palmer is one of 10 Denver schools that will close or partially close at the end of the school year due to declining enrollment, mostly driven by lower birth rates and gentrification.

But Denver Public Schools took a different approach to finding new schools for displaced students in this latest round of closures. Instead of matching each closing school with a receiving school, the district gave students multiple options and top preference at the school of their choice, leapfrogging even siblings and the children of teachers.

Reuse, lease, or sell: Denver board considering policy on what to do with empty school buildings

“It felt like an important offering we could make to families because we were disrupting their experience,” said Andrew Huber, executive director of enrollment and campus planning for DPS.

Although many parents like Chen have mixed feelings, district officials are hailing it as a success. Nearly all students got into their first-choice schools. A Chalkbeat analysis found other notable trends: Half of the displaced students will go to higher-performing schools, and a significant number are moving from district-run schools to charter schools.

School closures are controversial for many reasons, including concerns that the affected students will suffer social and academic harm. Nearly all studies show that the quality of the school where displaced students end up matters.

Of the 1,106 Denver students whose schools are closing, 92% participated in the school choice process this winter, according to district data. An unprecedented 98% of those students got into their first-choice school. Typically, fewer than 85% of students get into their top choice.

A deeper look at the data shows:

20% of students from the closing schools will attend charter schools next year. All 10 of the closing schools are run by the district. Charter schools are authorized by the district and funded by public dollars but run by independent nonprofit organizations.
Rocky Mountain Prep, a homegrown charter network with 11 schools in Denver, will enroll the most students from the closing schools next year. Nearly 12% of students who participated in school choice chose a Rocky Mountain Prep school.
About 50% of students at the closing schools will attend a school next year with a higher state rating. In general, that means students will attend a school that performs better academically since state ratings are largely based on standardized test scores.
Only 4% of students at the closing schools will attend a school next year with a lower state rating. The rest will attend a school with the same rating.

New enrollment zones nudge students to higher-rated schools

That half of the students from the closing schools will attend better-rated schools next year wasn’t surprising to school board President Carrie Olson.

Low enrollment and low academic performance are often linked. Because Denver funds its schools per student, when a school’s enrollment dips, so does its funding. That makes it harder for the school to afford academic interventions, which can make it unpopular with both families and teachers.

“When a school is declining in enrollment, it loses resources and it loses teachers,” said Olson, who was a DPS teacher for 33 years before being elected to the board. In some cases, she said, high-performing teachers at schools with shrinking enrollment think, “Well, maybe I’ll apply somewhere else because this school is going to close anyway.”

But academic performance wasn’t the board’s main reason for closing schools this year. A decade ago, it was. Back then, the board had a policy that called for the district to close schools with a history of low test scores. The policy was highly controversial, and the board only used it to close one school before abandoning the strategy due to pushback.

That DPS has managed to shift students from lower-performing to higher-performing schools without explicitly setting out to do so is cause for celebration, said Van Schoales, who for years ran a now-defunct organization called A Plus Colorado that advocated for school reform and school improvement.

While past DPS superintendents and school boards supported school reform and the “portfolio model” — in which families are given the power to choose a school, and successful schools replicate while struggling schools close — this board and superintendent do not.

“The last I checked, the school board and the superintendent said this strategy was a total disaster,” Schoales said of the portfolio model. “And yet they’re doing it better than the last folks who were supposedly focused on doing this well.”

Huber said the district nudged families toward higher-rated schools by creating new “enrollment zones” around the closing schools. Enrollment zones are big boundaries that contain several schools. Families that live in a zone are guaranteed a seat at one of the schools and asked to choose between them. By drawing the new zones to include higher-performing schools, the district intentionally gave families at the closing schools several top-rated options, Huber said.

And the data shows families took advantage. The top choice among families at red-rated Columbian Elementary was green-rated Beach Court Elementary. The top choice at yellow-rated Schmitt Elementary was green-rated Asbury Elementary.

“The superintendent and his team were hoping it would help facilitate access to high-performing schools for families while understanding families’ choices are their own,” Huber said.

He emphasized that there are lots of reasons why families choose a particular school, and academic performance is just one factor. Huber said the choices of the 4% of students who will attend a lower-rated school next year are “just as valid” as the choices of the 50% of students who will attend a higher-rated school.

Palmer Elementary, where Chen's daughter is in kindergarten, will close at the end of this school year.

Some families made unexpected choices

In some cases, families made choices the district wasn’t expecting, Huber said.

Only one of the new or expanded enrollment zones — the zone around the closing International Academy of Denver at Harrington elementary school — included any charter schools. And only seven Harrington students chose the charter schools in that zone.

Meanwhile, more than 200 other students from the 10 closing schools chose charter schools on their own. At least one Denver school board member has blamed the closures of district-run schools on charter schools siphoning away students, which is a common criticism.

But Huber pointed out that the percentage of closing school students who chose charter schools — 20% — is actually lower than the overall percentage of Denver Public Schools students who attend charter schools, which is nearly 24% this year.

And Huber said the trend of students leaving district-run schools for charters “cuts both ways.” About 88% of students from Girls Athletic Leadership School, a charter that will close its high school at the end of this year due to low enrollment, chose district-run schools next year, he said.

Olson, the school board president, said the result caught her off guard. She said she hopes to talk to families to learn why they chose charter schools like Rocky Mountain Prep.

“Is it because the school is close?” Olson wondered. “Is it because you have a cousin or relative who went there? Did they reach out? What can we learn from that?”

Olson has already been meeting with some families from the closing schools to gather feedback and connect them with district officials who can troubleshoot individual problems. She said most parents feel the same way that Chen does: They’re happy that they got into their first-choice school, but sad that they had to make a choice at all.

Chen lives four blocks from Palmer Elementary, where his daughter is in kindergarten. The school’s 8 a.m. bell time works well for their busy family, Chen said, and his daughter has loved being part of the after-school chess club, Spanish club, and Feel Good Club, which takes the students on walks and teaches them yoga.

Next year, Chen’s daughter will be among the 40 Palmer students set to attend Carson Elementary, a little more than a mile away. Both schools are district-run and have green ratings. While Chen feels Carson will offer a similar enough experience for his daughter, and eventually her younger siblings, it’s still not the outcome he’d hoped for.

“I would rather have Palmer still open,” Chen said. “I feel like the only thing we’re gaining out of going to a new school is a longer commute.”

Melanie Asmar is the bureau chief for Chalkbeat Colorado. Contact Melanie at masmar@chalkbeat.org.

IPS and charter schools: What do prominent studies and test scores say about student achievement?

2025-04-18T15:07:29+00:00

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After listening to nearly two hours of public comment in a statehouse hearing room, GOP Sen. Chris Garten’s support for more funding for charter schools came down to one big thing: academic outcomes.

The Feb. 11 hearing was part of a debate over a controversial bill — now passed by lawmakers — that would require Indianapolis Public Schools to share property tax revenue with charters.

“In charter schools in Indianapolis, there’s 64 days [of] additional learning in reading,” Garten said, citing a 2022 Stanford University study that also found charter students gained over 100 additional days of learning in math. “These students are accelerating at a faster rate. That’s what we should care about.”

The Stanford study is one of several that Republican lawmakers and pro-charter groups have used in recent years to argue that charters have an academic edge over traditional public schools. They’ve come up not only in public hearings, but in blog posts, media coverage, and elsewhere.

To some politicians and charter advocates, the studies clearly answer the one question underpinning the funding debate: Which system performs better, charter schools or IPS?

But the answer may not be so simple.

Some academics have voiced concern with the methodology of some of these studies, and that they should not be used to make broad conclusions about different types of schools.

Meanwhile, results from state standardized tests and national exams do favor charter students in certain instances, although not necessarily overall.

Disputes about the relative merits of charters and traditional public schools have become common in urban school districts. Still, pitting one school type against another is ultimately not the right approach, said Jon Valant, director of the Brown Center on Education Policy at the Brookings Institution. When charter schools open in a community, he said, it’s more important to measure how and whether students across all sectors improve.

“I think we sometimes miss the big picture,” Valant said. “And we really should be focused on: How is the presence of charter schools affecting students overall?”

Here’s a breakdown of studies and test scores often cited in the ongoing conversation about charter schools and IPS — and what to keep in mind about the data.

Do charter students get more ‘days of learning’?

The study cited by Garten is the Center for Research on Education Outcomes at Stanford University’s 2022 Indianapolis study, which examined state standardized test results from 2017-18 and 2018-19. The study looked at students in independent charters, schools in the district’s autonomous Innovation Network (many of which are charters), and IPS.

The study from the center, also known as CREDO, then compared those students to statewide average learning gains, and converted the difference into a nominally straightforward metric: days of learning.

CREDO’s study found that charter students on average acquired more days of learning in reading and math than those in district schools.

Among the significant differences between the school sectors measured in 2018-19 are:

Students in charter schools demonstrated greater growth in math than those in district schools.
Black students in charter schools demonstrated greater growth in reading and math than Black students in district schools.
Hispanic students in charter schools demonstrated greater growth in reading and math than Hispanic students in district schools.
Charter school students in poverty demonstrated greater growth in reading and math than district students in poverty.
Special education students in charter schools demonstrated greater growth in reading than special education students in district schools.

CREDO has published high-profile studies of charters for over 15 years. A 2023 study it produced of charter schools nationwide determined that charters outperform district schools in both reading and math.

But some of CREDO’s methodologies have drawn criticism from other researchers.

One of their concerns: Translating data into 97 extra days of learning for charter school students, as one metric in the study concludes, may overplay the actual difference in results.

“You’re having to make these assumptions about the number of days of learning happening throughout the year,” said Joseph Ferrare, an associate professor at the University of Washington Bothell who has studied charter school authorizing in Indianapolis. “That’s why I think for the most part the research community hasn’t reached any consensus on using that as a method.”

A number of the report’s findings about charter schools and district schools — such as the gap of 64 days of learning Garten referenced at the hearing — are tied to numerical differences that are not statistically significant, Ferrare said. In other words, there is not enough evidence to rule out the possibility that the performance of the two types of schools is actually the same, according to Ferrare.

Some findings are not statistically significant because charter schools have a lot of variation in their performance, said CREDO director Margaret Raymond.

She also noted the 2022 Indianapolis study’s data is becoming outdated.

But Raymond advised against drawing conclusions from the study about whether district schools or charters perform better. Instead, she noted that the study found growth at charter and Innovation schools equivalent to the state average. District schools, meanwhile, showed growth below the state average.

“The point is that somehow, the rules of the game for charter schools and innovation schools allow them to actually be better,” she said. “And what are the conditions of those? What is it about those rules of the game that give them that kind of capacity to perform at higher levels?”

Indianapolis charter schools more cost effective, study finds

Another 2023 analysis from the University of Arkansas’ Department of Education Reform concluded that Indianapolis charter schools produce better academic outcomes on fewer dollars.

Using data from CREDO’s Indianapolis study, the analysis converted differences in test scores into scores on the nationwide National Assessment of Educational Progress. It then analyzes those scores using per-pupil revenue data for the 2019-20 school year.

The report concludes that Indianapolis charter schools are more cost-effective and earned an additional 11 NAEP points per every $1,000 in funding, compared with traditional public schools.

But Ferrare cautioned that the report makes too many assumptions and does not control for factors that would drive differences in spending between schools, such as students with a particular set of needs, Ferrare said.

While charters have a higher percentage of Black students and those eligible for free or reduced-price meals, IPS has a higher percentage of students with disabilities and a slightly higher proportion of English language learner students, according to a Chalkbeat analysis of 2024-25 enrollment data.

But differences in student population do not track closely with differences in spending across the school types, with the exception of funding for students with disabilities, said Patrick Wolf, distinguished professor of education policy in the Department of Education Reform and one of the study’s co-authors.

Even then, the “yawning funding gap” between IPS and charters can’t ultimately be justified by student demographics, Wolf noted.

What ILEARN results show

As prominent as those two studies have been in the debate over Indianapolis schools, the data they use is several years old. So what do more recent student achievement results tell us?

The latest 2024 ILEARN results for students in grades 3-8 show that there is little overall difference between charter schools and IPS schools in English language arts and math.

That’s according to a Chalkbeat test score analysis, which includes all charters within IPS borders, as well as those outside of IPS borders where a majority of their students live in IPS borders.

When it comes to several student subgroups, charters have the edge.

Black charter school students achieved higher average proficiency rates than their peers in IPS-run schools in both reading and math. Charters also had higher average proficiency rates for English language learners and those qualifying for free or reduced-price meals in both subjects.

What IREAD, SAT results, and graduation rates show

On last year’s IREAD test for literacy given to third graders, charter schools had a weighted average passing rate of roughly 64%, compared with the district’s overall average of 60%.

On the SAT, Indianapolis-area charters show a higher average percentage of students scoring at least a 480 in reading and writing and a 530 in math on the SAT — scores that the College Board says demonstrate college readiness.

But experts still caution against using these stats to reach sweeping conclusions about entire school systems or sectors.

The test results alone don’t show whether the schools alone are causing them, Ferrare said, and there may be other characteristics of the student population accounting for the differences.

Meanwhile, graduation rates for non-waiver students — those who don’t receive an exemption from state graduation requirements — are slightly higher in IPS than in charters.

Is pitting charters against traditional public schools unhelpful?

One thing the Indianapolis education community doesn’t lack is a steady stream of research about its public schools.

A 2019 study from Indiana University researchers, for example, found that elementary students who were continuously enrolled in a mayor-sponsored Indianapolis charter school performed better on the state standardized test than students in traditional public schools.

And a 2023 study from Ferrare and others also found positive results for students who switched from a traditional public school to a charter school authorized by the mayor’s office.

At the same time, a 2025 paper examining the IPS “portfolio” model of different school types — which includes charters — found that the autonomy provided to portfolio schools did not significantly affect student achievement.

At the end of the day, Valant said, measuring which school type is better academically is complicated.

“I wish we could talk more about how these policies affect overall student outcomes and family outcomes,” he said, “because I think sometimes the horse race comparison can be distracting, and also can create some bad incentives and can kind of keep schools from wanting to collaborate.”

Amelia Pak-Harvey covers Indianapolis and Lawrence Township schools for Chalkbeat Indiana. Contact Amelia at apak-harvey@chalkbeat.org.

New Indiana House tax reform plan adds in districts sharing some property tax revenue with charters

2025-04-04T23:04:37+00:00

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The newest Indiana House Republicans plan for property tax reform promises to save homeowners $1.1 billion in property taxes — but it’s not yet clear who will benefit or how this iteration will affect schools.

Additionally, lawmakers said Friday that a plan to require Indiana school districts to share some property tax funding with charter schools in Senate Bill 518 would be added to the larger property tax bill, Senate Bill 1.

Republican House Speaker Todd Huston and Republican Ways and Means Chair Jeff Thompson unveiled Friday their version of SB 1, which will be heard and voted on Monday morning in the ways and means committee. It includes changes to property tax deductions and credits, as well as other changes aimed at reform, they said.

Under their plan, Huston and Thompson said, more than half of all Hoosiers would pay less property tax in 2026 than 2025. But they did not provide details of which homeowners would benefit or how homeowners could determine if they would pay less.

It’s also not immediately clear what effect this version of SB 1 would have on Indiana school districts, which rely on property taxes to supplement state funding. The first version of property tax reform from Gov. Mike Braun would have cost schools and other local government entities around $1.2 billion in 2026 and up to $1.6 billion in 2028. The plan passed by Senate lawmakers in February — and panned by Braun — would have reduced this hit to around $300 million in 2026 and $800 million in 2028.

This effect would likely be multiplied if districts were required to share the tax revenue they receive for operations, debt service, and capital projects with charter schools, as well as referendums, as outlined by SB 518. Huston said Friday that the House version of SB 518 would remove the sharing of debt and capital fund levies, but that otherwise the idea fit well with House Republicans’ priorities.

Lawmakers said more information would be available after the House Ways and Means Committee Monday.

As in previous versions, the House amendment to SB 1 would require that property tax referendums be held only during general elections. It would also create a Property Tax Transparency Portal to allow taxpayers to compare their bill to proposed rate changes.

Huston placed the onus of ballooning property tax bills on local governments raising revenue to cover debt. Reforms will allow homeowners to understand their bill, rather than solve an “algebraic equation,” he said.

“I think it’ll be more transparent to the residents and their communities about what their taxes are, and if they’re going to raise them, what the cost will be,” Huston said.

In a statement, Rep. Greg Porter, the ranking Democrat on the ways and means committee, said the newest draft of the plan was “far from a solution.”

“Our schools will lose money, especially with Senate Bill 518 rolled into the plan diverting property tax dollars to charter schools so the state can pay even less,” the statement said. “This plan encourages local governments to raise their local income tax rate, so you’ll get more money in your right pocket but have to pay more out of your left.”

Bills must pass out of committee by April 10. The legislative session must conclude by April 29.

Aleksandra Appleton covers Indiana education policy and writes about K-12 schools across the state. Contact her at aappleton@chalkbeat.org.

As Colorado’s district-run schools shrink and charters grow, their demographics are converging

2025-04-01T19:57:06+00:00

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The number of students in Colorado public schools is declining. But enrollment in Colorado’s publicly funded, privately run charter schools is heading in the opposite direction.

Charter schools enroll approximately 136,220 students this year, up nearly 13% from 120,740 students in 2017, according to numbers from the Colorado Department of Education. In that same period, district-run schools had a 5.6% decline in enrollment. And altogether, the state’s total public school enrollment shrank 3%. The number of charter schools is up too, from 250 schools in 2017 to 262 this year.

The vast majority of Colorado’s approximately 880,000 public school students — 85% — still attend public schools run by school districts. But the trend of rising charter school enrollment, even as total enrollment drops, shows that more families are interested in and ultimately choosing charter schools, which sometimes have unique models or programming.

As charter school enrollment increases nationwide, tensions can rise between district-run schools and their teachers unions on one side, and charter schools and their parents on the other over student enrollment and the funding that comes with it. Critics have wondered if allowing new charter schools, especially in communities with declining overall enrollment, could lead more district-run schools to shrink dramatically or close.

In some cases, school districts are feeling the pressure to diversify their own options, reimagining schools, or creating new magnet schools, or themed programming, though often with fewer resources to do so.

Colorado was one of the first states to pass a law allowing charter schools. School choice, or the ability for students to apply to attend any public school in the state, has also been protected by state law for decades. And while a ballot measure that would have enshrined a child’s right to school choice in the state constitution failed in November, its supporters may bring it back.

Charter school fans say families are looking for more choices and different models of learning that can keep children engaged. In some cases, families are following programming that has been cut from district-run schools.

As Latin fades in Colorado’s big public high schools, educators want to disrupt the status quo

People want “more options out of public education. It’s a fact that was exacerbated by the pandemic,” said Dan Schaller, president of the Colorado League of Charter Schools. “That is ultimately what charter schools represent.”

But to critics, charter school growth represents a threat to district-run schools. That threat is especially big because charter schools can raise money from wealthy donors to help market their schools and recruit students, opponents say.

“I just think there’s a false narrative that our public schools are failing,” said Judy Solano, chair of Advocates for Public Education Policy, a Colorado advocacy group. “But it’s a matter of unequal resources and marketing. Many of our larger chain charters are funded by very large wealthy families.”

State lawmakers are considering a bill that would add new financial reporting requirements about district-run and charter schools’ private funding, money they spend on marketing, and their teacher salaries.

Some have also criticized charter schools for not always serving populations of higher needs students such as students with disabilities like district-run public schools do. A state rule change in 2022 makes it more clear that charter schools can’t ask about disabilities in enrollment applications.

But as more students enroll in Colorado charter schools, their student demographics are moving closer to matching those of district-run schools, data shows.

Charter schools now serve the same percentage of English learners as district-run schools. In addition, more than 50% of students in both types of schools identify as students of color. Charter schools reached that percentage last year, while district-run schools reached it this year.

But district-operated schools are still more likely to enroll students with disabilities than charters. And charters remain less likely to enroll children from low-income families, although that gap is closing.

Some charter schools cater to unique interests

There are many reasons why a new charter school might open and why students might choose it. Sometimes, as in Park County, it’s a matter of variety and geography.

The South Park County Re-2 school district only has one elementary school and one that combines middle and high school grades. There are also two charter schools. But for people in some parts of the district, such as Fairplay, those choices are about an hour’s drive away.

It was top of mind when Laurel Dumas left her job as principal of a district-run school and decided to create a new micro charter school focused on outdoor learning. High Rockies Community School will open next fall.

“A lot of people live here to be outdoors and enjoy skiing and doing outdoor activities, and people wanted the same for their kids,” Dumas said.

The High Rockies program calls for multi-age classrooms, students collaborating on projects, and learning from the community. Each day will start with outdoor activities.

“It looks like recess at first, but then you see the kids are playing whatever they’re learning,” Dumas said. “If they’re learning about the beaver ecosystem, suddenly there’s 15 beavers running around.”

The school is currently testing out some of its programming through a homeschool enrichment program. High Rockies already has 31 students enrolled for next year and has started a waitlist.

Dumas said that the school’s unique model is attracting teachers to the area. Schaller, in turn, also pointed to other charter school models in Colorado that focus on topics like aerospace and agriculture.

Colorado foundation bets on new charter and private schools seats

“In my experience being a principal in a rural area, we were lucky if we got enough applicants for the positions we had,” Dumas said. But now, she said, “we’re able to find people who fit the model” because “we’re working on something we really believe in.”

High Rockies Community School was not authorized by the South Park County school district like the other two existing charters in the area, but by a state agency called the Charter School Institute, or CSI. While most charter schools are authorized by the school district in which they’re located, CSI can authorize charters when districts are unsure how to support a charter, or uninterested in doing so.

Dumas said she wanted the support of CSI, which has more experience to support her small school.

CSI has also expanded and now authorizes more schools. Its 46 charter schools enrolled more than 21,000 students this year, an increase of over 20% from 2017.

Some worry charters can lead to school closures

As charter enrollment rises and total student population falls, school districts that authorize charter schools can face especially tough decisions.

Of Colorado districts that authorized charter schools in both 2017 and 2024, 76% saw enrollment decrease in their district-run schools in that time period. Only 63% of districts that don’t authorize charters saw enrollment decrease.

Some parents and district officials have questioned whether it’s wise to authorize new charter schools when enrollment is declining.

School board members in Jeffco Public Schools lamented in 2016 that they were not able to reject the application for a new charter school, Great Work Montessori, due to concerns that the school would not enroll enough students to be financially viable.

Great Work Montessori opened in 2017. But it closed in 2023 due to low enrollment and the district’s concerns about its performance.

Months earlier, the board had voted to close 16 district-run schools for low enrollment, including a couple just miles from the charter school.

Charter school enrollment in Jeffco has declined since 2017, but not as much as enrollment in district-run schools. In the 2017-18 school year, Jeffco charter schools enrolled 9,763 students. That enrollment is down to 9,236 in the current school year.

In the same period, enrollment in district-run schools has declined more than 13%, down to 66,259. Last year, the district closed another school but worked with a charter school to have it take over serving the community.

Denver Public Schools is also closing district-run schools for low enrollment. Charter schools in Denver have been affected by declining student counts, too.

Earlier this year, Denver’s GALS all-girls charter school — which focuses on physical education — announced it would close its high school grades, after enrollment in them fell to just 58 students.

At least 14 other Denver charter schools have closed in the past seven years, most because of declining enrollment. Without “sufficient demand,” said Schaller of the Colorado League of Charter Schools, “the finances are not going to be there either.”

In Douglas County, enrollment is growing in some parts of the district but falling in others. That has sparked debate about how to serve students in the parts of the district that are growing.

As in other districts, the number of Douglas County families choosing charters is rising. Enrollment in Douglas County charter schools is 16,445 students, about 1,200 students more than in 2017. Over the same period, overall enrollment in district-run schools has fallen by about 6,900 students to 45,406.

Now, there’s concern that the growing Sterling Ranch neighborhood won’t be able to support both a charter and a district-run school. A new district-run school is expected to open in that area in the fall of 2027. But some residents are concerned that the John Adams Academy charter school may open there first.

Douglas County parent Suzanne Collins said she’s not against charter schools. Her daughter actually attends one, because it was where Collins could find full day preschool in 2019. But she worries that the projections for the number of students in Sterling Ranch, where she lives, won’t be enough to allow the two schools to be sustainable.

“I believe charter schools and neighborhood schools can both thrive when they’re part of a thoughtful, coordinated district plan that ensures high-quality education for all students,” Collins said. “In this case, I’m concerned that the JAA proposal could undermine our long-awaited neighborhood school before it even opens.”

Sixth graders listen to a math lesson at Vega Collegiate Academy in Aurora during a September 2018 class.

Charters, district schools can coexist well, some say

Not all parents or school districts see charter schools as adversaries.

Aurora Public Schools Superintendent Michael Giles said that charter schools are part of the district’s “portfolio of learning opportunities.”

Total enrollment in Aurora Public Schools has been going up since the 2021-22 school year and the number of students is close to what it was pre-pandemic. But even before that, when the district was losing students, charter schools were expanding in the area.

While charter school growth wasn’t enough to offset overall district enrollment declines, Giles said that from his district’s standpoint, “it’s always great when we can keep our kids in our community.”

In the fall of 2017, Aurora charter schools served 5,073 students. That figure rose to 6,530 students in the fall of 2023, before declining for the first time in eight years because a charter school closed.

As charter schools grew in Aurora, the district decided to diversify its own options.

The strategic facilities plan the district voted on in 2019 called for expanding thematic magnet programs to provide in-house school choices. That part of the plan came in response to communities asking for more choice.

One of the envisioned schools is opening next fall, a health and sciences high school near the Anschutz medical campus. It will be the district’s sixth magnet school. The district is working on a new facilities plan, but it’s unclear how it will handle magnets.

Vega Collegiate Academy is one of the Aurora charter schools that has grown rapidly. The school this year serves 583 students, up from 310 in the fall of 2020 and 96 in 2017, its first year.

Executive Director Kate Mullins said that growth stems from her staff’s work during the COVID shutdowns, when they made weekly deliveries to families and were able to retain most students.

Then two years ago, when there was concern that enrollment was going to decline, she spent $50,000 paying staff to go out canvassing. Staff, along with some volunteers, ended up recruiting 140 students from the neighborhood that summer.

Many of the families they encountered were new immigrants who responded to Vega’s free busing to the school, free school supplies, before- and after-school care, a four-day school week with optional Saturday school, and shorter summer breaks.

“For our families, that provides a lot of consistency,” Mullins said.

The school didn’t have to spend much of its $50,000 marketing budget last year, because many of those migrant families spread the word to other newly arriving families, she said.

“The kids are there,” Mullins said. “They just have to believe you’re the right place for them.”

Yesenia Robles is a reporter for Chalkbeat Colorado covering K-12 school districts and multilingual education. Contact Yesenia at yrobles@chalkbeat.org.

Kae Petrin is a data & graphics reporter who covers data related to K-12 education, voting rights, and public health for Civic News Company. Contact them at kpetrin@chalkbeat.org.

Judge sides with NYC in dispute with state over ‘inflated’ charter school rent reimbursement

2025-03-24T22:00:24+00:00

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In a legal dispute between the New York City and state education departments over a charter school rent reimbursement, an Albany Supreme Court judge sided with the city last week.

The fight centered on a state law requiring the city to provide charter schools space or reimburse them for the cost of rent. The city Education Department sued the state over its interpretation of the law after it approved a reimbursement request from Hellenic Classical Charter Schools.

The school rented property on Staten Island then turned over the lease to a group affiliated with the school. That affiliated group then sub-leased the property back to the school at three times its original price, allowing the school to seek more reimbursement from the city. The extra costs were meant to subsidize the construction of a new building for the charter school on the same plot of land, according to court documents.

The city refused to pay the higher rate, which it later called “artificially inflated.” Hellenic appealed to state Education Commissioner Betty Rosa, who ruled in favor of the charter network. Rosa argued that while Hellenic’s arrangement was “concerning,” asking the city to subsidize new construction was “merely an exaggerated example of the goal of the rental assistance program: the public financing of New York City charter schools.”

But in a decision issued last week in a city lawsuit over Rosa’s order, Judge Julian Schreibman disagreed with Rosa’s reading of the law, annulling her decision and directing her to reconsider the case. The law specifies that the city only has to reimburse charters for “the actual rental cost,” which means it can reject requests that don’t go toward that purpose, Schreibman said.

“The reading reached by this Court permits [the New York City Education Department] to be vigilant not merely for expenditures that might benefit the School but are not rent, but for expenditures characterized as ‘rent’ that do not benefit the School at all — something the Commissioner’s decision would not allow,” Schreibman wrote.

A spokesperson for the state Education Department said Rosa would explore options to appeal Schreibman’s ruling. If she is required to reconsider her initial decision, Rosa will “review the entire record before deciding which party is entitled to relief.”

City officials didn’t respond to a request for comment. A lawyer representing Hellenic didn’t respond to questions about the ruling, but previously told Chalkbeat that sub-leasing space from affiliated groups was a common practice for charter schools and the city had no right to second guess charters’ rental costs.

It’s still unclear how Rosa will ultimately rule, or whether the judicial decision will have implications beyond this case, but the ruling could bolster the city’s ability to scrutinize charter reimbursement requests. A Law Department spokesperson previously told Chalkbeat this is the first time the city has sued the state over a charter rental reimbursement dispute.

In an Aug. 2024 document outlining its policy for reviewing rent reimbursement requests, the city Education Department says it won’t reimburse for costs “for buildings not occupied by…students, or other costs that are not directly and necessarily resulting from the rental of space.”

Concerns over rent reimbursement costs

The 2014 rental reimbursement law, which is the only legislation of its kind in the state, was backed by then Gov. Andrew Cuomo to shore up protections for charter schools against former Mayor Bill de Blasio, who was viewed as more hostile to the publicly funded but privately run institutions.

The law caps rental reimbursement at 30% of the base tuition the city pays charters for basic operating expenses. The city paid about $75 million for charter rental reimbursements in fiscal year 2023, after factoring in the state’s portion of the payments, according to the city’s Independent Budget Office.

Some lawmakers have pushed for the law to go even further by extending rental reimbursement to more charters. But advocates and lawmakers critical of charter schools have raised concerns about the costs for the city Education Department.

A 2021 report from the advocacy group Class Size Matters spotlighted several instances of schools renting space in buildings owned by related groups where rent jumped substantially, “raising questions about whether the rents were fairly assessed and whether there may be evidence of self dealing by the charter schools.”

In Hellenic’s case, the school signed a lease to rent a building and adjacent land from a Greek Orthodox Church that would have cost about $660,000 for the 2021-2022 school year. But the school turned over its lease to an entity called “Friends of Hellenic Classical Charter Schools, Inc,” which shares a chairperson with the school, and sub-leased the property back to the school for more than $2 million for the year, according to court records.

The rent increase was meant to account for the added costs of constructing a new building on the same plot of land, according to legal documents.

The New York City Charter School Center, an umbrella organization that lobbies on behalf of charters and filed a legal brief in support of Hellenic, argues that’s an entirely appropriate use of the city funding.

“Just as the public provides funding for constructing public schools, we believe that charter schools should be allowed to use rental assistance for the same purpose,” said Charter Center CEO James Merriman.

But legally, the most important question is whether Hellenic’s expenditures count as “actual rental cost” under state law. Schreibman didn’t explicitly weigh in on that question, but noted there were “multiple red flags” in Hellenic’s request, including “the fact that the ‘rent’ had suddenly increased exponentially following a related party transaction,” and the revelation that “the related-party landlord would be using most of the ‘rent’ to fund other projects on behalf of the School.”

Michael Elsen-Rooney is a reporter for Chalkbeat New York, covering NYC public schools. Contact Michael at melsen-rooney@chalkbeat.org.

Future of property tax revenue for IPS and charter schools fuels intense debate

2025-02-28T04:09:13+00:00

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Discussion of legislation that would require Indianapolis Public Schools to share property tax revenue with charter schools dominated the roughly two hours of public comment at the Indianapolis Public Schools board meeting on Thursday.

The debate over Senate Bill 518, which the state Senate has passed, underscores the tensions between IPS and the charter school community. House lawmakers have also adopted a budget proposal to cut property taxes, which would also affect district revenue.

Nearly 100 people signed up to speak. Speakers advocated for and against the bill, as well as for and against charter schools. However, the loudest applause came for those speaking against the bill and urging the board to take a stronger stance against it.

Ahead of public comment, board members Allissa Impink and Gayle Cosby, said they oppose Senate Bill 518 and that it is part of a larger effort to defund public schools by making traditional public schools and charter schools compete for the same funding.

Impink said the statehouse can fully fund schools and that the community must call on lawmakers to do so.

Cosby said the bill “has all of us collectively sinking in the same leaky boat.”

Public speakers discuss funding levels, school resources

It’s unclear how much revenue IPS would lose under the proposed Senate bill. The district would need to share certain revenue streams, such as any future voter-approved referendums, as early as 2026. But perhaps the largest chunk of funding would come from the district’s operating revenues, which the district would have to share beginning in 2028.

Several speakers made comments similar to those from Cosby and Impink.

Parent Simona Santabarbara said she was against the bill, but not against charter school families. She said that the children are watching how this moment is handled.

“The stakes are too high for us to not fight together,” Santabarbara said.

However, the majority of speakers either spoke for or against the bill or charter schools in general.

Speakers opposed to the bill said they worried it would lead to program cuts and school closures.

Monica Shellhamer, a teacher at Christian Park School 82, asked the board to take action against the bill, not just talk.

“We need action to make sure all our students have the resources we need,” she said.

But speakers backing the bill said it would allow schools to be funded equally, and said additional funding would allow charter schools to offer transportation, making them more accessible to more families.

Those who advocated for charters also stressed they felt ignored by the board.

LaToya Tahirou, a parent associated with Stand for Children, said she’s about promoting schools that close the opportunity gaps and allowing for families to choose. She added that she sees “more division being created when we need to come together and let everyone be heard.”

Some also raised the issue of advocacy groups. Those against charter schools urged the board not to negotiate with groups that support charter schools. Some called out the Mind Trust, Stand for Children, and RISE Indy — groups that run their own programs and also support charter schools — for the division.

Stand for Children and RISE Indy have political action committees that have also donated tens of thousands to IPS school board races.

In a statement after the meeting, the Mind Trust said it supports calls “from parents, students, and community members for IPS leadership and board members to collaborate with charter schools to strengthen our city’s public school system so that all students have the resources they need.”

RISE Indy also stressed the importance of providing resources for all kids, and said they will continue to fight for those “who have been deprioritized.”

In addition to the bill requiring IPS to share property tax revenue, lawmakers introduced a bill that would dissolve IPS and its elected school board and replace it with charter schools overseen by an appointed board. They also floated a bill to remove the district’s power over transportation and facilities.

Those bills hadn’t advanced by the midpoint of this year’s legislative session, although lawmakers could incorporate the same bill language into other legislation later in the session.

Some say IPS should reconsider charter collaboration

Some asked the board to rescind a resolution that reaffirmed its commitment to collaboration with charters, which the school board approved in May.

That resolution came after significant pressure from pro-charter parents, who last year demanded that IPS partner with more charter schools where students of color are successful.

Several speakers also called for a moratorium on new schools. Last week, the school board called for a moratorium on new schools in the area for the next two years. IPS officials have stressed that splitting revenue among over 100 schools within district boundaries will result in no school truly receiving enough.

Charter school authorizers are ultimately responsible for approving new charters in Indianapolis. Authorizers that have approved schools within IPS borders in recent years include Mayor Joe Hogsett’s Office of Education Innovation, the Indiana Charter School Board, Ball State University, and Education One at Trine University.

But charter leaders have argued that additional funds to charter schools will help pay for higher teacher salaries and better transportation. Groups advocating for charters opposed a moratorium, arguing that charters have delivered better results for families while also having to operate with significantly less public revenue than IPS.

Charter supporters have also pointed out that IPS recently launched new schools.

Amelia Pak-Harvey covers Indianapolis and Lawrence Township schools for Chalkbeat Indiana. Contact Amelia at apak-harvey@chalkbeat.org.

MJ Slaby oversees Chalkbeat Indiana’s coverage as bureau chief. Contact MJ at mslaby@chalkbeat.org.

Former CEO of Tindley charter schools admits to defrauding network of nearly $1 million

2025-02-26T22:06:52+00:00

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The former CEO of the Tindley charter school network has pleaded guilty to defrauding the network by helping to submit nearly $1 million worth of fake invoices.

In a plea agreement filed last week regarding the federal case against him, Brian Metcalf, who led the charter network from July 2019 through December 2022, pleaded guilty to two of the nine counts of wire fraud outlined in an indictment filed in 2023.

The network runs three Indianapolis charter schools serving roughly 1,000 K-12 students. Metcalf has agreed to pay restitution — but it’s unclear how much the Tindley network will receive.

The indictment alleges that Metcalf worked with two other defendants — Kimberly Maddox and James Darnell Campbell — to submit invoices to the school and another unnamed nonprofit corporation for services that were never delivered. In turn, Metcalf received a portion of the funds, according to the indictment.

In the plea agreement filed last Thursday, Metcalf admitted to working with Maddox and Campbell to defraud the school of a total of $939,800 — and admitted that some of that money went to pay his credit card bills, a casino that hosted his family reunion, and a company that fixed his roof. He also admitted to defrauding the nonprofit corporation of $70,900.

Tindley school officials did not respond to a request for comment about Metcalf’s plea deal. Maddox and Campbell have pleaded not guilty to the ongoing federal case against them. Their attorneys did not respond to a request for comment.

The plea agreement follows the third renewal of the Tindley network’s oldest existing school by its authorizer, Mayor Joe Hogsett’s Office of Education. At a renewal hearing in December, school officials said the network had adopted new safeguards to prevent such fraud in the future, including changes to procurement procedures.

“This was a crime of opportunity at the time of a global pandemic that resulted in an unusual amount of emergency funds being dispersed to the school in a very short period of time,” then-Tindley board chair Hilary Buttrick said at the December hearing (Buttrick is no longer chair but remains on the board). “However, Tindley has worked extensively with a team of outside professionals to implement and update controls to make every effort to avoid similar incidents in the future.”

Metcalf admits to copying legitimate invoice, using fake address

Metcalf admitted to working with Maddox and another unnamed individual, known as “Individual A” in the plea agreement, to submit invoices to the Tindley network for services that were never provided from around the time he started at Tindley until August 2022, according to the agreement.

He also told the school system that at least one of the services Maddox would provide “was necessary to assist him in his job,” according to the agreement.

In trying to conceal their actions, Metcalf advised that Maddox use the name of another company that Tindley received an invoice from but decided not to employ, according to the agreement.

Metcalf then copied the legitimate company’s invoice template and used similar language from the legitimate invoice to make Maddox’s invoice “look legitimate,” Metcalf admitted in the agreement.

Metcalf also admitted to using a fake address for two invoices for the unnamed Individual A, because he did not want the Tindley network “to become suspicious that Maddox and Individual A were submitting invoices from the same residence.”

These actions ultimately defrauded the school of $539,800, roughly half of which Metcalf received, according to the agreement.

At Metcalf’s direction, Maddox and Individual A also made payments on behalf of Metcalf to his credit card providers, personal loan providers, a mortgage provider, a construction company that fixed his roof, and a casino that hosted his family reunion, the agreement states.

Invoice related to student instruction was fraudulent, Metcalf admits

Metcalf also admitted to working with James Darnell Campbell to submit $400,000 in fraudulent invoices for small-group instruction and a tool that would monitor the attendance, behavior, and academic performance of students.

Metcalf received roughly half of that money through direct payments and through payments Campbell made toward Metcalf’s auto loan and for his mortgage servicer, according to the agreement.

Prior to leading Tindley schools, Metcalf also admitted to defrauding an unnamed school district — known as “School System 2” — of $88,500 through fraudulent invoices to Maddox while he was a principal and a “Network Office” executive there.

Metcalf served as an interim principal in Chicago Public Schools from October 2014 to July 2017, when he was promoted to chief of schools for a subgroup of the district’s schools known as Network 6, according to Chicago Public Schools.

In a statement to Chalkbeat, a district spokesperson did not confirm that CPS is “School System 2.”

Unclear how much restitution Tindley charters will receive

Metcalf acknowledges in his plea agreement that the unnamed nonprofit and Tindley schools are owed a total of $1,010,700 in restitution.

But it’s unclear how much of that money the school will receive — or when. The agreement acknowledges that both Metcalf and any jointly liable co-defendants must make full restitution. The jury trial for Maddox and Campbell is set for Oct. 14.

The prosecution initially sought the forfeiture of a Chicago home listed under Metcalf’s name, but property records indicate that Metcalf sold the home for $285,000 days after the indictment was filed in federal court.

The two counts also carry a maximum of 40 years in prison. Prosecutors have suggested 51 to 63 months of imprisonment, but Metcalf instead is arguing for 33 to 41 months, according to the agreement.

In the network’s December renewal hearing, Tindley Chief Financial Officer Sandra Tresselt said Tindley has adopted new vendor policies and procedures, as well as a new approval process for new vendors and contracts.

Additionally, the chief financial officer now reports to the board’s finance committee instead of the network president and CEO, Tresselt said.

The school has also provided anti-fraud training for the school leadership team and other staff, and established an independent, anonymous whistleblower hotline for employees, she said.

This article has been updated to clarify Hilary Buttrick’s current position on the Tindley schools board and changes to the reporting procedure for the CFO.

Amelia Pak-Harvey covers Indianapolis and Lawrence Township schools for Chalkbeat Indiana. Contact Amelia at apak-harvey@chalkbeat.org.

Here are the charter operators applying to open or run schools in Tennessee in 2026-27

2025-02-25T23:05:58+00:00

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Charter school operators have applied to open or run 13 schools in five Tennessee school systems beginning in the fall of 2026 amid the state’s rapidly changing school-choice landscape.

Memphis-Shelby County Schools received five applications by this month’s deadline — the most by any school system statewide, according to the state education department.

They include two from IOTA Community Schools asking for new 10-year charters to continue operating schools in its network that are set to exit the state-run Achievement School District next year.

And two aspiring charter operators are interested in opening Tennessee’s first-ever “opportunity” charter schools in Memphis and Nashville under a 2024 state law aimed at creating learning options for youth considered at risk of becoming disconnected from traditional public schools.

School choice options are expanding rapidly under policies pushed by Gov. Bill Lee and panned by critics who say they are destabilizing traditional public schools. Traditional public schools serve most of the state’s nearly 1 million students, including historically underserved groups.

The state is preparing to launch a universal school voucher program this fall to give up to 20,000 students taxpayer funds to pay toward private school tuition.

And a new charter school proposal from Lee would create ways for operators to bypass their local elected school boards and apply directly to the Tennessee Public Charter School Commission for authorization to open more of the independently governed but publicly funded schools.

If that bill becomes law, some of its provisions could kick in with this year’s cohort of charter applicants.

The filings kick off application reviews by staff for each receiving school system, which will recommend to their school boards whether to approve or deny them this spring.

Based on that local feedback, rejected applicants can submit revised applications for another school board vote this summer. Applicants that are denied again can appeal that decision to the state commission to vote on this fall.

Last year, nine applicants met the state’s Feb. 1 deadline to submit proposals to open a charter school for 2025-26. Six were ultimately approved, including four on appeal.

In 2023, 14 operators applied, and six were ultimately approved, including four on appeal.

New legislation, new law could impact Tennessee’s charter sector

Under the governor’s new legislative proposal to revise charter school law, beginning this July 1, any school board whose decision to deny a charter application is overturned by the state three times within three years could be bypassed, allowing a charter operator to apply directly to the state charter commission for authorization during the next five years.

Also at play this year is the 2024 opportunity charter school law, pushed by House Speaker Cameron Sexton, to open new charter school campuses for middle or high school students who are considered at risk.

At least 75% of each school’s students would have to be documented as dealing with any of a range of challenges such as juvenile crime, substance abuse, chronic absenteeism, teen pregnancy, getting held back in several grades, dropping out of school, or experiencing abuse or neglect.

Opportunity charter schools would operate under different standards than traditional public schools or other public charter schools.

If their opportunity charter applications are approved, the Still I Rise Academy in Memphis and The Rock Academy in Nashville schools would not receive A-F letter grades in their first year of operation, based on rules approved in December by the state Board of Education.

After that, the state’s calculation to grade opportunity charter middle schools would place slightly more importance on academic growth than on student proficiency. And the state’s grades for opportunity charter high schools would emphasize college and career readiness.

Hillsdale-linked charter group didn’t apply again

Missing for a second straight year from the state’s list of charter applicants is American Classical Education, the group associated with Michigan’s Hillsdale College. Hillsdale made headlines in 2022 with Lee’s endorsement and invitation to its leaders to apply to open at least 50 charter schools across Tennessee that align with the governor’s conservative beliefs regarding civics and history.

American Classical withdrew its first three applications later that year amid public outrage over Hillsdale President Larry Arnn’s comment that teachers are “trained in the dumbest parts of the dumbest colleges in the country.”

In 2023, American Classical was approved to open two charter schools in Tennessee, one authorized locally in Rutherford County and the other approved by the state commission on appeal for Madison County.

Asked why the network didn’t seek new charters in 2025, board member Tricia Stickel told Chalkbeat that American Classical is focused on supporting its new Rutherford County school, which opened in La Vergne last August.

The Madison County charter, which in January received its second one-year delay to launch, is now scheduled to open for 2026-27 as American Classical seeks to hire a leader and secure a campus location.

Marta Aldrich is a senior correspondent and covers the statehouse for Chalkbeat Tennessee. Contact her at maldrich@chalkbeat.org.

IPS calls for moratorium on new schools as lawmakers advance bill on sharing tax revenue

2025-02-25T16:59:57+00:00

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Indianapolis Public Schools is calling for a moratorium on new schools as state lawmakers advance legislation that would force the district to share property tax revenues with dozens of charter schools.

The statement from the school board last week also calls for a limit on the ability of authorizers to allow new charter schools to open — by only allowing the Indianapolis mayor’s office to give new charters the green light. Right now, seven authorizers have the power to let new charters open in Indianapolis.

“There is no way to create a sustainable system if the number of schools within the IPS boundary continues to grow,” the school board said in its Friday statement. “For at least the next two years, as we work toward a collective community vision, no new schools should open. We do not need more schools.”

The demand came shortly after the Indiana Senate passed Senate Bill 518, which would require the district to share revenues from property taxes and referendums as early as 2026. The bill compounds the long-term pressure on IPS — where enrollment declined by over 3% this year — and has led IPS officials to publicly lament the new charters officials have allowed to open within IPS borders. Combined with proposed property tax caps, IPS has said the legislation would force it to close schools.

Charter advocates, however, oppose such a moratorium on new schools and object to changes to restricting authorizing power for now.

Roughly 40 brick-and-mortar or blended-learning model charters have opened or been approved to open within IPS borders over the past decade — an average of about four new schools per year. About 30 of these charters have partnered with IPS as autonomous schools within the district’s Innovation Network. IPS also runs about 50 traditional public schools.

The fractured educational landscape will splinter resources to the point where every school will get some funding, but no school will get enough, Superintendent Aleesia Johnson told lawmakers earlier this month.

The Mind Trust, a nonprofit that helps establish charter schools in Indianapolis, said in a statement that a moratorium would be inconsistent with the district’s own efforts to launch new schools this school year, including reopening two large high school buildings.

“IPS and charter schools have an opportunity to work collaboratively to reshape our city’s public school system so that all children thrive,” the nonprofit said in a statement. “The Mind Trust is open to supporting sensible, locally-driven changes to school transportation, facilities management, and other systemic issues that can ensure all public school students are served well.”

Some district leaders say the infighting the Senate bill has generated among public school supporters misses a different issue: the state’s push to bolster state funding for private school choice.

IPS board member Allissa Impink said in a video posted Monday that disagreements between IPS and charters ultimately represent a distraction.

“For me this isn’t a fight between public charter schools and traditional district schools,” Impink said. “It’s about a broader effort to drain resources from public education.”

Tax-revenue bill’s impact on IPS remains unclear

It’s unclear, however, what the Senate bill’s total financial impact would be.

The bill requires IPS to share several types of property tax revenues: those collected for operating and debt costs, and any additional property taxes that voters approve through a referendum. The district has a $456 million operating budget.

Property taxes collected for debt or approved through a referendum could be shared as early as next year. But perhaps the biggest financial hit — sharing property taxes earmarked for operating expenses — would not come until 2028, when the bill mandates the start of a five-year phase-in period of sharing the revenue.

Scott Bess, head of the Indiana Charter Innovation Center that is pushing for more property tax revenue for charters, said the bill’s phase-in period for revenue sharing gives the district time to figure out parts of the charter model that it would like to recreate.

“There’s nothing in this that would force them to make those cuts now,” Bess said. “Again, they could choose to operate differently.”

“There is a model in the city that works,” Bess added, referring to the charter school model. “And they can do that even at full sharing [of property taxes], and have higher-performing schools through local control.”

Meanwhile, the IPS school board has met in closed-door sessions every week since the start of 2025 to discuss school consolidation.

In its Friday statement, the school board also called for a “local education alliance” of IPS residents to advise the board on how schools should change.

“This vision of the future should drive the policy decisions about any property tax sharing, not the other way around,” the board said.

Amelia Pak-Harvey covers Indianapolis and Lawrence Township schools for Chalkbeat Indiana. Contact Amelia at apak-harvey@chalkbeat.org.

Last schools in Tennessee’s shrinking Achievement School District seek to make their move

2025-02-21T00:33:23+00:00

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The operator of the last charter schools in Tennessee’s waning Achievement School District is seeking to continue managing them as part of their original school system in Memphis.

A decade ago, the State of Tennessee took over Kirby Middle and Hillcrest High schools due to low academic performance and assigned them to a charter management group called Green Dot Public Schools, now known as IOTA Community Schools.

The schools didn’t improve enough to exit the ASD on their own under a turnaround plan that was never meant to last more than a decade.

But now, with its 10-year contracts with the ASD soon to expire, IOTA has applied with Memphis-Shelby County Schools for new charter agreements to manage the two campuses in southeast Memphis beginning with the 2026-27 school year.

IOTA already is transitioning Wooddale Middle, the third and final Memphis school leaving the ASD, to reopen this fall under a new contract between IOTA and the Tennessee Public Charter School Commission.

Last fall, the commission authorized IOTA’s new charter after overturning the Memphis school board’s decision to deny its application to continue operating Wooddale.

Planning for the future of the Achievement School District’s last three schools — and its 1,352 students — foreshadows changes ahead for the state’s most ambitious and aggressive school turnaround model, which had 33 schools in its portfolio at its peak in 2016.

The initiative, created under a 2010 state law as part of Tennessee’s federal Race to the Top initiative, has been marred by painful takeovers of neighborhood schools, contentious handoffs to charter networks, and mostly abysmal student performance on state tests.

Last year, a proposal to eliminate the ASD passed the Tennessee Senate but a different version to revamp the program stalled in the House, even as several of the GOP-controlled legislature’s top Republican leaders acknowledged that the model has failed and should be replaced.

Gov. Bill Lee’s administration is expected to propose changes this year, but neither his office nor the state education department has said what that might look like.

Elizabeth Lane Johnson, the governor’s press secretary, confirmed Thursday that Lee’s administration was “working with stakeholders to consider legislation around the Achievement School District.”

A potential successor could be the likely expansion of a small pilot turnaround initiative that began in 2022 with five low-performing schools. It has received generally positive reviews.

The antithesis of the Achievement School District, the pilot model emphasizes collaboration over takeover and does not use charter management organizations to lead its turnaround work. Instead, low-performing schools partner with an independent turnaround expert and a locally appointed committee to create and implement an improvement plan emphasizing data, coaching, and making adjustments in real time.

In Memphis, Trezevant High School and Hawkins Mill Elementary have shown marked improvement under the pilot program with the aid of turnaround consultant Cognia.

Other schools still in the pilot are Jere Baxter Middle School in Nashville and Lincoln Elementary in Jackson-Madison County, both using Ed Direction as their turnaround consultant, with mixed results. Orchard Knob Middle, in Chattanooga, dropped out of the program before it started after Hamilton County school board members said an existing improvement plan was already working.

Fate of the last two ASD schools is uncertain

The future of the last two schools exiting the ASD will be decided this year after staff with Memphis-Shelby County Schools reviews IOTA’s applications and recommends whether to approve them.

Both campuses serve mostly students of color, more than half of whom are considered economically disadvantaged. According to the state’s most recent school report card, Kirby Middle made average progress for its students in 2023-24 and was graded an F by the state. Hillcrest High made below-average progress for its students and was graded a D.

If the Memphis school board denies IOTA’s applications, the network could appeal those decisions to the state commission, which has the power to transition more ASD schools from one state-run district to another state-run district — just as it’s in the process of doing with IOTA’s Wooddale Middle.

Adding to that discussion could be a new charter-friendly proposal from the governor to create ways for charter operators to bypass their local elected school boards and apply directly to the state commission for authorization.

If the legislature passes the governor’s bill, beginning July 1, any school board whose decision to deny a charter application is overturned by the state three times within three years could be bypassed, allowing a charter operator to apply directly to the state commission for authorization during the next five years.

Appealing to the commission isn’t a slam dunk, however. Since it began hearing appeals in 2021, the panel has sided with local school boards on half of their application denials.

State commission is familiar with ASD’s last charter operator

The commission already has one IOTA school in its portfolio.

Bluff City High School opened in Memphis in 2017 when IOTA was part of the Green Dot Public Schools network based in California. Last summer, the network’s charter schools in Memphis transitioned to IOTA, a new Tennessee-based network, after Green Dot ended its expansion efforts in Tennessee and Texas.

Asked Thursday whether she’d prefer to operate under the oversight of Memphis-Shelby County Schools or the state commission, IOTA Executive Director Jocquell Rodgers said she can’t compare them because the local district has never authorized one of the network’s schools.

Under Executive Director Tess Stovall, the Tennessee Public Charter School Commission has expanded its footprint and impact on Tennessee education.

“My goal has always been to forge a relationship with the local district because I believe we serve the same children,” Rodgers said. “But I will say that I’ve enjoyed working with the state charter commission. Their expectations are very clear, and our relationship has helped us build stronger processes as an organization and stronger academic outcomes for our students.”

For instance, when the commission put Bluff City High School on academic probation in 2022, the state was clear about necessary improvement steps, Rodgers said. Last month, in recognition of the school’s progress, the commission moved Bluff City off academic probation to a lesser intervention level.

The state Board of Education rated both the commission and Memphis-Shelby County Schools as “exemplary” in its most recent evaluations of charter authorizers in Tennessee.

The commission currently has six former ASD charter schools in its portfolio, most of which left the turnaround program under a 2021 state law letting higher-achieving ASD schools bypass their home districts to transition to the commission’s control:

Cornerstone Prep Denver
Cornerstone Prep Lester
Lester Prep
LEAD Neely’s Bend
Libertas School of Memphis
Promise Academy Spring Hill

All of those former ASD schools are in Memphis except LEAD Neely’s Bend, which is in Nashville.

Marta Aldrich is a senior correspondent and covers the statehouse for Chalkbeat Tennessee. Contact her at maldrich@chalkbeat.org.

Some Tennessee charter school applicants could bypass local districts under governor’s proposal

2025-02-13T23:52:04+00:00

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Gov. Bill Lee is pushing for a major revision to Tennessee charter school law to create ways for operators to bypass their local elected school boards and apply directly to a state commission for authorization.

The legislature’s Republican majority leaders have filed a bill on behalf of Lee’s administration to create three new pathways for charter school operators to seek approval from the state:

Beginning July 1, any school board whose decision to deny a charter application is overturned by the state three times within three years could be bypassed, allowing a charter operator to apply directly to the Tennessee Public Charter School Commission for authorization during the next five years.
Public colleges and universities could apply to the state commission to open a charter school for K-12 students.
An operator with at least one charter school that is authorized by a local school board or the state commission and that has been operational for at least one year could apply either to the local district or state commission to replicate its model to create one or more charter schools.

If the Republican governor’s bill passes the GOP-controlled legislature, the measure could further dilute local control over Tennessee’s charter sector, while giving the powerful 4-year-old commission even more authority to open and close publicly funded but independently controlled charter schools.

The commission, whose nine members are appointed by the governor, already has significantly expanded its footprint through an appellate process that allows the state to authorize and open charter schools when overturning a local board’s application denial. Another law allows better-performing charter schools in the state’s Achievement School District turnaround program to transfer to the state commission’s oversight, rather than returning to their home district.

The charter commission now oversees 25 charters, including seven that are scheduled to open in the next two years and one transferring from the ASD. Most are in urban Davidson and Shelby counties, but a few operate in suburban Madison and Rutherford counties.

Three of the schools were previously overseen by the state Board of Education before the state commission took over its charter responsibilities in 2021 under a 2019 law initiated by Lee.

The governor, who is one of the nation’s biggest charter advocates, pushed to create the Tennessee Public Charter School Commission to ensure that high-quality charter schools can open and ineffective ones are closed.

He initially wanted to give the new body the power to bypass local school boards altogether and open new charter schools directly. But he agreed to limit the commission’s authority after district leaders expressed outrage to their legislators about any measure that would circumvent local education control.

The commission has not been a rubber stamp for opening charter schools. Since it began hearing appeals in 2021, the panel has sided with local school boards on half of their application denials.

Gov. Bill Lee (center) poses in 2021 with original members whom he appointed to the Tennessee Public Charter School Commission. Commissioners represent all three of the state's grand divisions.

However, the latest legislative proposal, if approved, would move the state closer to Lee’s original vision for the commission.

The first proposed pathway — allowing operators to bypass local boards if their denials have been repeatedly overturned — is viewed by charter advocates as an incentive for school boards to take their charter authorization process seriously.

“This bill supports fairness, transparency, and high standards for Tennessee’s successful public charter school community, upholding local input while ensuring districts fulfill their responsibilities,” said Elizabeth Lane Johnson, the governor’s press secretary.

Charter critics, meanwhile, characterize it as a way to pressure school boards into approving charter applications.

While districts would begin with a clean slate on July 1, a review of the last three years of the commission’s appellate decisions shows that Metropolitan Nashville Public Schools, in Davidson County, has had the most denials overturned by the state, followed by Memphis-Shelby County Schools.

Asked about the proposed changes to the state’s charter school law, a spokesman for Nashville’s school system said district officials do not typically comment publicly on pending legislation.

In Memphis, school board Chair Joyce Dorse Coleman told Chalkbeat that leaders of Memphis-Shelby County Schools are “carefully monitoring” the bill.

The Tennessee School Boards Association did not respond to Chalkbeat’s request for comment.

Tennessee charter growth has been nurtured by out-of-state groups

In all, Tennessee has about 115 charter schools, most authorized locally by the board for Memphis-Shelby County Schools, with a total statewide enrollment of about 44,000 students, according to the Tennessee Charter School Center. Under a 2002 state law, Tennessee’s first three charter schools opened in Chattanooga, Memphis, and Nashville in 2003.

Along with funding from several Tennessee-based foundations, the state has seen an influx of money from out-of-state philanthropic groups to promote and support the sector’s growth in Tennessee. They include Bloomberg Philanthropies, the Charter School Growth Fund, and the City Fund. (The City Fund’s partners include two prominent figures in Tennessee education: Chris Barbic, founding superintendent of the charter-centric Achievement School District, and Dorsey Hopson, founding superintendent of the merged Memphis-Shelby County Schools district.)

Much of the money is distributed through the State Collaborative on Reforming Education, or SCORE, a nonpartisan education advocacy and research organization founded by former U.S. Sen. Bill Frist in 2009. (Among SCORE’s grant recipients is the Memphis Education Fund, whose president and CEO, Terence Patterson, is a member of the state charter school commission.)

In its most recent report outlining SCORE’s goals for 2030, the organization listed three recommendations to bolster the state’s charter sector, including one to expand pathways for authorization to open new schools.

“The General Assembly should update state law to allow charter school operators to consolidate under a single authorizer when seeking renewal with schools under multiple authorizers,” the report said. “Further, the state should allow existing high-performing charter schools seeking to replicate and new charter schools seeking to meet a critical workforce need to choose their authorizer.”

The Tennessee Charter School Center also supports the governor’s legislative proposal, said CEO Elizabeth Fiveash.

“We appreciate the fact that the legislation continues to provide districts the first opportunity to review charter school applications,” Fiveash said, “but also provides increased accountability for districts that don’t meet their authorizing obligations.”

You can read the bill here and track its movement on the General Assembly’s website.

Marta Aldrich is a senior correspondent and covers the statehouse for Chalkbeat Tennessee. Contact her at maldrich@chalkbeat.org.

What would Trump’s education shakeup mean for a charter school started by a GOP senator’s wife?

2025-02-10T14:27:00+00:00

This story about Louisiana Key Academy was produced by The Hechinger Report, a nonprofit, independent news organization focused on inequality and innovation in education. Sign up for the Hechinger newsletter.

BATON ROUGE, La. — Alcide Simmons said he has only one word to describe what it was like for his daughter, Brooke, as she struggled to spell and read: “torture.”

“Spell ‘duck,’ Brooke,” Simmons recalled. “And it would be, ‘P, C, K, something,’ no matter how many times.”

His wife, Leslie Johnson-Simmons, said she saw her creative, smart, and chatty daughter retreat into herself as she tried to learn to spell like other first graders in her class at a private school in Louisiana. “She began to clam up, and that wasn’t my child,” Johnson-Simmons said.

Screening revealed that Brooke had dyslexia — a common learning disability stemming from neurological differences that make it difficult to identify sounds and associate them with letters and words. When her private school told the Simmons family they would have to shell out up to $10,000 a year for once-a-week personalized reading instruction and other services, they decided to transfer their daughter to Louisiana Key Academy.

Now, Brooke, a fifth grader, is thriving at the charter school, her parents say, and each day receives 90 minutes of specialized reading instruction alongside a small group of other students.

Brooke Simmons (center) is a fifth grader at Louisiana Key Academy. Her parents say she has thrived at the school.

The school, which serves more than 700 students on three campuses in the state, was co-founded in 2013 by Laura Cassidy, a retired breast cancer surgeon whose husband is Republican U.S. Sen. Bill Cassidy — the new chair of the Senate committee whose role includes overseeing education. The Cassidys have a daughter with dyslexia and have long advocated for similar students and their families.

Nationwide, about 15% of students, or 7.5 million children, receive special education services. Most attend traditional public schools, but a growing number are enrolling at specialized charter schools like Louisiana Key Academy. The federal government plays a role in serving those students by issuing guidance, defending their right to a “free appropriate public education” and providing money. Louisiana Key Academy, for example, received $165,000 in special education funds in 2023, the most recent year for which data was available; including pandemic relief and school lunch money, federal funds made up 18% of the $11.6 million in revenue it reported that year.

President Donald Trump has vowed to shrink the federal government’s role in education. Already in his first weeks in office, he’s sent the education world into a tailspin by trying to impose a temporary freeze on federal grants and loans and signing an order to expand school choice, among other actions. He is also reportedly preparing an executive order to dismantle the U.S. Department of Education, with the ultimate goal of eliminating it altogether. Families and advocates are watching to see how the new administration’s approach will alter the day-to-day reality for students who rely on special education services.

Laura Cassidy said in a December phone interview that she doesn’t believe Congress will make sweeping cuts to federal special education funding. “I don’t think that’s going to go away,” said Cassidy, but if it does, she hopes the state will make up the difference. Of the funding freeze, she wrote in an email, “Any disruption in funding would be a problem. But our state superintendent assures us all is OK.”

Laura Cassidy is the wife of Sen. Bill Cassidy of Louisiana and a co-founder of Louisiana Key Academy.

Cassidy said federal funds provide critical support to the school. But she added that she prefers state oversight over education and allowing parents to exercise school choice. “I think it’s easier if most of the control is in the state,” Cassidy said.

Sen. Bill Cassidy, in an interview with The Hechinger Report, said he was hopeful about Trump’s approach to education, given the nation’s dismal reading scores. “One of President Trump’s great gifts is that that guy will break an egg and he will look at things differently,” Cassidy said. “And so I think we need to kind of bring new, fresh eyes to this problem, and to say, ‘Sure, it’s status quo, but is status quo always the way to be if status quo is giving you failure, failure, failure?’”

Many students with dyslexia don’t get diagnosed early enough

Laura Cassidy said she and her husband’s experience advocating for their daughter fueled her passion for ensuring that students with a learning disability can access the instruction and support they need — no matter their family’s income.

“It can be very devastating for a family and a student to not be identified and get the education that they need, and it really impacts their whole life,” she said.

Cassidy said she and other parents who launched the school decided a public charter school would give them the flexibility and funding to provide that access. Unlike private schools, charter schools don’t charge tuition, but like private schools, they are exempt from some local and state laws — including rules concerning union contracts and teacher certification — that traditional public schools must abide by.

Lisa Card, lower school principal of Key Academy’s Baton Rouge campus, said parents come to the school exasperated, feeling like they’ve fought for years to help their children learn a fundamental skill. “They’re in tears,” she said. “They’re angry.”

Student artwork and phonics tips adorn the walls of Louisiana Key Academy’s Baton Rouge campus.

Most states, including Louisiana, now provide universal screening in early grades for dyslexia, but older students don’t typically qualify, according to Harvard Graduate School of Education professor Nadine Gaab. Parents and special education advocates say it remains complicated and costly to obtain a diagnosis and get needed support for children of any age. Louisiana Key Academy provides screenings and evaluations for free, through the Baton Rouge-based Dyslexia Resource Center.

Related: Almost all students with disabilities are capable of graduating on time. Here’s why they’re not.

On a typically balmy December afternoon, a dozen students in teacher Olivia LeDuff’s fourth grade structured language arts class at Louisiana Key Academy discussed the book “Hatchet,” which tells the story of a young boy surviving in the wilderness after a plane accident leaves him stranded.

LeDuff said “Hatchet” is above the students’ reading level — but that she played them an audio recording of the book to help work on their vocabulary. She said the bulk of the class is spent on what’s called phonological awareness: working with and manipulating words and sounds.

“We play lots of word games,” she said. “We do rhyming. We do adding and deleting phonemes. We teach them that a phoneme is a single speech sound so they know how to break it up.” For example, the word “cat” is broken down as “cuh-at.”

A large body of research, known as the science of reading, stresses that all students need instruction in phonics and other reading skills. A 2022 series by APM Reports found that for decades, schools have relied instead on curricula urging students to learn to read by relying on clues like context.

At Louisiana Key Academy, teachers approach nearly every subject with the needs of students with dyslexia in mind. That could mean, for example, a science instructor providing additional help with scientific vocabulary or a math teacher breaking down word problems. Nationwide, researchers are calling for teachers to embed reading instruction into content classes.

Students at Louisiana Key Academy receive daily small-group help with reading skills. Kathleen Flynn for The Hechinger Report

Of 80 teachers at Key Academy campuses, Laura Cassidy said 14 have undergone two-year intensive training to become certificated academic language therapists and two have completed one year of training. Another 28 are in training or waiting to take the exam. Three dozen other teachers have taken an online course on dyslexia and are receiving other professional development, according to Cassidy.

Related: Students with disabilities often left out of popular ‘dual-language’ programs

Cassidy says small class sizes, of roughly a dozen students per teacher at the Baton Rouge campus, allow teachers to provide more one-on-one help. The school spends $18,476 per student per year, according to the state’s report card, compared to a state average of $15,393.

“It’s an expensive model,” Cassidy said. “So obviously any funding we get, including that from special ed, is very important.”

Critics of school choice have long argued that charter schools divert public money from local school districts while spending more taxpayer dollars per student .

Cassidy praised Louisiana’s pro-school choice policies and embrace of specialized schools: “I’m hoping that’s where education goes, where it’s really tailored specifically to the needs” of students. In a Jan. 30 email, she wrote that she was not yet familiar with the details of Trump’s executive order expanding school choice released the previous day.

More students with disabilities attending specialized charter schools

Louisiana Key Academy is one of 176 specialized charter schools in 23 states that focus on students with disabilities, according to an October report by the Center for Learner Equity that relied on 2020-21 data, and the number of students with disabilities served by these schools has more than doubled since 2012.

With specialized charter schools on the rise, some researchers and groups, including the National Council on Disability and the Center for Learner Equity, have questioned whether they conflict with decades of law and precedent upholding the right of children with disabilities to learn in a general classroom alongside peers without disabilities when possible.

Under the 50-year-old law now known as the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act, or IDEA, students with disabilities should be educated in a general classroom “to the maximum extent appropriate.”

There is an exception under the law, for “when the nature or severity of the disability of a child is such that education in regular classes with the use of supplementary aids and services cannot be achieved satisfactorily.”

Related: A researcher said the research on special education was flawed. Readers weighed in

Research has found that inclusion in the classroom benefits students’ personal and social development.

“Inclusion matters, full stop,” said Jennifer Coco, senior director of strategy and impact at the Center for Learner Equity. “On a human level, we prioritize learning environments that include all types of kids, because it doesn’t feel good to be excluded.”

Some special education advocates also point out that a student’s needs can change over time and that segregating them in a specialized charter devoted to their disability might keep them from progressing or learning alongside their peers when they are ready.

Under federal law, there are no hard and fast rules around how long a student can stay in a separate setting.

In a 2018 report to the White House, the National Council on Disability said that specialized charter schools are not “automatically appropriate for all students with the same disability.” The report stressed: “While charter schools focusing specifically on students with disabilities offer a valuable opportunity for some students, these schools run counter to the legal presumption in favor of education in the general education classroom.”

The council urged parents and school personnel to regularly assess whether students at specialized charter schools still need to attend such a school.

Cassidy said she’s aware of such concerns — and that the school is focused on evaluating students to see whether their reading skills have improved enough to return to a general classroom.

She said that returning to a general education classroom is easier for students who enroll and get help earlier. A student in first grade, for example, may be ready to leave the school by fourth grade if they show progress in reading fluency. But “very few” students at Louisiana Key Academy enter in first grade, she said, with the majority arriving when they’re older and thus needing more prolonged help.

Louisiana Key Academy’s Baton Rouge campus serves students from kindergarten through 10th grade.

By some conventional measures, Louisiana Key Academy is not performing well: Its Baton Rouge campus scored an F for student performance on the Louisiana Department of Education’s report card system in the 2022-23 school year. Its 43.4 performance score was a slight improvement over the year prior, when it received a 39.8. The score looks at how students are mastering content for their grade level.

The report card says “urgent intervention is required” for students of color and economically disadvantaged students, who performed far worse than students at the vast majority of schools in Louisiana. Overall, about 70% of students at the campus are identified as Black, and nearly three-quarters as economically disadvantaged.

Still, the school has a B rating for student progress.

Cassidy said the student progress rating shows the school is making a difference. She said the low scores on student performance reflect how behind students are when they arrive at the school.

“We’re getting kids in the third and fourth grade when we would like them in the first grade,” Cassidy said. She added that schools like Louisiana Key Academy serve a crucial role in a system that’s failing some children right now. “We’re truly changing lives,” she said. “It’s just slower than I would like.”

Conservative proposals could change special education funding

Trump appears determined to shake up the education system. Like other Republicans before him, including former President Ronald Reagan and former Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich, he has called for the closure of the Department of Education, whose agencies include the Office of Special Education and Rehabilitative Services. The department also funds more than 50 technical assistance centers that help states and districts serve students with disabilities and provides grants to state education departments, universities, and nonprofits for topics ranging from parent training to teacher professional development.

The conservative policy blueprint Project 2025, some of whose architects have joined the Trump administration, urges lawmakers to send federal special education funding directly to school districts in the form of “no-strings attached” block grants, instead of to states first. Project 2025’s authors also want lawmakers to move oversight over whether states are complying with special education law, including ensuring schools follow a child’s individualized education program, to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.

Trump’s January announcement freezing federal grants and loans (an order rescinded the next day after an outcry) was also outlined in Project 2025, as was his call to cut the Department of Education.

Sen. Cassidy, who took over the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee this year, told The Hechinger Report that he doesn’t believe Congress has enough votes to abolish the Department of Education. “I don’t think a single Democrat would vote for it,” he said.

Still, Cassidy said he wants to look at other potential reforms.

Project 2025 proposes folding the Department of Education’s Office of Civil Rights into the Department of Justice — a move that critics say would jeopardize federal oversight over discrimination.

Cassidy noted that the DOJ prosecutes Medicaid and Medicare fraud with the cooperation of the Department of Health and Human Services. “We have to look at it,” he said of the Project 2025 proposal. But he added, “there’s a lot of precedent for this in other agencies.”

He has also spoken in support of Project 2025’s push to reform how schools like Louisiana Key Academy get their special education funding by providing them direct, no-strings attached block grants.

“My gosh, if you could block grant those dollars to the state for the primary and secondary education and give them more freedom to do what they’re supposed to do, that would be a good thing,” Cassidy told the television station KSLA.

Related: Parents of premature babies struggle to get help their children are entitled to

The federal government already doles out money in block grants for other spending categories, but critics have long noted that previous block grants have resulted in less funding for affected programs. For example, a sweeping 1981 bill consolidating 75 programs into nine new block grants ended up reducing overall funding by 12%, or $1 billion, according to a 2022 report by the Congressional Research Service.

It’s unclear what exactly a no-strings block grant would mean for schools, according to Tammy Kolbe, principal researcher of education systems and policy at the nonprofit American Institutes for Research. Kolbe has researched how the existing formula already doles out fewer special education dollars per child to states with the largest populations of children ages 3-21.

And advocates for special education, including Katy Neas, CEO of advocacy group The Arc of the United States, say they’re concerned that a no-strings attached block grant would weaken protections for students with disabilities.

“That’s a concern because we know that states and districts in too many places are struggling right now to meet their obligations to these students,” said Neas, whose nonprofit serves people with intellectual and developmental disabilities. “And what we need is more intense focus on helping schools do the job that they want and need to do. And I don’t see how taking away the specific sort of guardrails of the federal law will help them do that.”

A class at Louisiana Key Academy’s Baton Rouge campus in December.

Students find new confidence at specialized school

Back at Louisiana Key Academy on an afternoon before Christmas break, Brooke Simmons grinned as she talked about an upcoming field trip to a science museum and Secret Santa with her classmates. “I have a lot of friends, and I like talking to them a lot,” she said.

Dressed in a uniform paired with a pink bow and glimmering necklace, Brooke said she appreciates the small breaks and lighthearted approach the school provides for quizzes, tests, and exams.

“At this school, they give us motivation,” Brooke said. “They’ll probably, like, throw in a little joke in the middle of it.”

Her parents say they’re overjoyed by her renewed confidence and proud of her love of reading and art.

Alcide Simmons said he doesn’t understand calls to shutter the Department of Education.

“We need that oversight,” he said. “Absolutely.”

Contact reporter Marina Villeneuve at 212-678-3430 or villeneuve@hechingerreport.org.

This story about Louisiana Key Academy was produced by The Hechinger Report, a nonprofit, independent news organization focused on inequality and innovation in education. Sign up for the Hechinger newsletter.

Could religious charter schools upend American education? A Chalkbeat explainer.

2025-01-25T00:05:52+00:00

Editor’s Note: This story first published in 2023. Since then, the Oklahoma State Supreme Court rescinded the charter of the St. Isidore of Seville Catholic Virtual School, and the school appealed to the U.S. Supreme Court. The Supreme Court agreed to hear this case in spring 2025.

For decades the phrase “private religious charter school” seemed like an oxymoron. Charter schools are deemed public by state law, and must be secular just like any other public school.

Now, there’s a burgeoning effort to change that. An Oklahoma state board just approved an application by the Archdiocese of Oklahoma City to run what would be the country’s first religious charter school. The move is a direct challenge to existing charter laws, which critics say discriminate against churches and other religious entities.

The prospect of religious charter schools threatens to upend American education, far beyond Oklahoma. If religious charter schools become a reality, they could rejuvenate religious education, particularly Catholic schools, which have been losing students for many decades. Such schools could continue the successful conservative campaign to allow more public funding to go to religious education. They could lead to fewer students, and thus less funding, for public schools. Charters of all types could be deemed private schools for legal purposes, reducing anti-discrimination protections for students and teachers.

This is a startling possibility. Charter schools have long enjoyed bipartisan support because they were seen as a compromise to private school vouchers. Advocates promoted charters as innovative options within the public sector. Leading national charter organizations maintain this view and oppose religious charter schools. But it’s not clear they will be able to keep a hold on their own movement.

The recent push for private religious charter schools is a sign of the shifting times. The U.S. Supreme Court’s conservative majority has knocked down legal barriers to public money going to religious education. The bipartisan consensus around charter schools has weakened. Conservative education advocates are trying to limit certain instruction on race and gender, including by funding alternatives to public schools.

As yet, it’s unclear if a religious charter school will ever open — they still have to clear a dense thicket of legal issues. In Oklahoma, a coalition of groups has already filed suit to block the approved religious charter school. The broader issue could well reach the Supreme Court at some point.

Here’s what to expect and how we got to this point:

A string of recent Supreme Court decisions opened up new discussions of religious charter schools.

Charter schools were first created in Minnesota in 1991, and charter laws now exist in 45 states plus the District of Columbia. All of the laws, including Oklahoma’s, prohibit charter schools from offering religious instruction. (Some states allow religious organizations to run schools — but they have to remain secular in their operation.) So at present openly religious charter schools do not exist.

But for many years, legal scholars have raised the possibility of such schools, including a 2001 law review article titled: “Charter schools and religious institutions: A match made in heaven?” At first, this was just an academic discussion. Litigation focused on private schools.

In 2002, a divided Supreme Court ruled that public money may go to private religious schools through voucher programs. The majority emphasized that such funding was directed by parents, not by the government. More recently the court has gone further. Not only may religious schools get money, they must receive funding if other secular private schools are eligible, the court concluded in a string of cases culminating in a 2022 ruling. “The State pays tuition for certain students at private schools — so long as the schools are not religious,” wrote Chief Justice John Roberts in the latest decision, Carson v. Makin. “That is discrimination against religion.”

These cases have not had far-reaching consequences because most states with voucher programs already allowed religious schools to participate. The rulings also did not speak to charter schools directly. But in one case Justice Stephen Breyer raised the issue in dissent. “What about charter schools?” he wrote, before pointing out that the court had no clear answer. Indeed some experts told Chalkbeat in 2022 that this would be the coming legal dispute. “Charter schools are the next frontier,” said Preston Green, a University of Connecticut professor.

That’s exactly what has happened. Some choice school advocates pointed out that the logic of these rulings might apply to charters. If a state cannot bar religious private schools from public support, why can it bar religious charter schools, they asked.

That was the case made by Nicole Stelle Garnett, a Notre Dame law professor, in an influential 2020 report for the Manhattan Institute, a conservative think tank. Charter schools, she argued, “are effectively private schools and can be religious without running afoul” of the Constitution. In fact, the logic of the court’s decision suggested that “current laws prohibiting religious charter schools likely violate” the First Amendment’s guarantee of free religious exercise, Garnett concluded.

A Catholic charter school in Oklahoma won approval to open. A lawsuit has quickly followed.

Earlier this year, the Archdiocese of Oklahoma proposed a virtual charter school that would teach religious doctrine, just like a private Catholic school would. To craft the application, the church worked with Notre Dame law school’s Religious Liberty Initiative, including Garnett herself. “What state has the most ripe opportunity for religious charter schools? The answer for Notre Dame is Oklahoma,” Brett Farley, executive director of the Catholic Conference of Oklahoma, told the Tulsa World in February.

The idea was bolstered after the state’s former attorney general issued an opinion that Oklahoma’s ban on religious charters was likely unconstitutional. Highlighting the legal ambiguity, though, a new attorney general promptly withdrew that opinion.

In April, the proposed school was unanimously rejected by Oklahoma’s charter board, which cited legal uncertainty and a variety of other issues in the application. But the board narrowly approved it in June after the school submitted a revised application. Board members who supported the school said they believed that Oklahoma’s bar on religious charter schools is unconstitutional.

This sets up an inevitable legal fight since the decision clashes with state law. In July, groups that support strict separation of church and state filed a lawsuit seeking to block the opening of the proposed Oklahoma school.

“A school that claims to be simultaneously public and religious would be a sea change for American democracy,” said Rachel Laser, president and CEO of Americans United for Separation of Church and State. “It’s hard to think of a clearer violation of the religious freedom of Oklahoma taxpayers and public-school families than the state establishing a public school that is run as a religious school.”

The question of religious charter schools may turn on whether charters are deemed public or private actors.

Since charter schools were formed, advocates have also insisted that they are public. Some groups, like the National Alliance for Public Charter Schools, emphasize this in their names. State and federal law describes charter schools as public. Charter schools also operate in many ways like other public schools — they are funded by public dollars, they must be open to all students, they administer state exams, and they’re often required to comply with public records law. “There’s 101 reasons why they are state actors and none why they are not,” Derek Black, a law professor at the University of South Carolina, previously told Chalkbeat.

But charter schools have always been a sort of public–private hybrid. After all, they are typically governed by private, nonprofit boards, which are not elected. (To form a school, these boards are awarded a performance contract or “charter” by an authorizer, which itself is usually a public body.) This ambiguity has put charter schools in a legal gray area. Are they public — “state actors,” in legal jargon — or private entities? Different courts have reached different conclusions, based on a complex legal doctrine.

If charter schools are public actors, then there is little question that they may not be religious. The First Amendment bars governmental establishment of religion, and the Supreme Court has said that public schools cannot conduct sponsored prayers.

But if charter schools are private, as advocates like Garnett argue, then there is a stronger case that they can be religious. Private schools are not limited by the First Amendment, which only applies to the government. Moreover the legal precedent in Carson v. Makin — which says that private choice programs must be open to religious and secular schools alike — would seem to apply to charters.

The public–private question is the “heart of the matter” in the religious charter debate, as the Oklahoma board’s legal counsel put it.

The Supreme Court recently declined to hear a case on whether charter schools are public or private actors.

The case turned on whether a North Carolina charter school could impose a dress code — banning pants for girls — that some parents believed to be sexist. A federal circuit court ruled for the parents, concluding that the school is a public state actor. The school, with the support of a number of conservatives, appealed to the U.S. Supreme Court. The Biden administration said that the circuit ruling should be allowed to stand.

In June, the Supreme Court agreed with the Biden administration and decided not to take the case. But this just adds more uncertainty since the court has still not weighed in on the legal status of charter schools. This question has divided lower courts. A similar case could emerge later.

“The issue will percolate and the Supreme Court will eventually hear a case,” predicted Green, the education law professor.

Leading charter school organizations oppose religious charter schools. Conservative groups are taking the other side.

Two major charter school associations oppose the possibility of religious charter schools and say charters should be considered public for legal purposes. They say that religious instruction is not consistent with the charter model. They also likely fear a political backlash if charters are considered private — a charge often leveled by critics.

The National Alliance for Public Charter Schools condemned Oklahoma’s approval of a religious charter school. “The Archdiocese of Oklahoma City is trying to make charter schools into something they are not,” Nina Rees, president and CEO of the National Alliance for Public Charter Schools, said in a statement.

Similarly, the National Association of Charter School Authorizers, which represents entities that approve charter schools, says that charter schools are public and criticized Oklahoma’s decision. “Charter school students deserve and enjoy the same civil and constitutional rights protections as any peer attending a traditional district school,” the group said in a statement about the North Carolina case.

Even some leaders of religious schools are wary of the concept of religious charter schools. Kathleen Porter-Magee, who runs a network of private Catholic schools, says that moving to the charter model could divide the school choice coalition and entangle religious schools with excessive bureaucracy. “In order for religious schools to access government funding, we would be knowingly giving up autonomy in exchange for what would likely be excessive government bureaucracy and regulation,” she wrote.

However, school choice advocates at the Manhattan Institute have been advancing the case for religious charter schools. There was also a string of opinion pieces by conservative writers urging the Supreme Court to use the North Carolina dress code case to rule that charter schools are private and therefore not bound by the U.S. Constitution. For instance, columnist George Will suggested that such a ruling would protect charters to make “pedagogical and cultural choices without being vulnerable to suffocating litigation” Ten Republican attorneys general weighed in for the North Carolina school in a brief to the Supreme Court.

Ultimately, as mentioned, the court declined to hear this case, though this did not settle the issue.

Private religious charters would raise big questions about discrimination and access.

The possibility of religious charter schools raises myriad questions. For instance, how would such schools deal with charter schools’ open access requirements? Would they have to admit students who are gay if that clashes with the school’s religious doctrine? What about students from other religions?

The Oklahoma archdiocese that applied for a charter would not say whether the school would admit gay or transgender students. In its charter application, church officials indicated that they would seek “religious exemptions” from state and federal law “with priority given to the Catholic Church’s understanding of itself and its rights and obligations pursuant to the Code of Canon Law and the Catechism of the Catholic Church.”

The school’s proposed employee handbook notes: “All employees are expected to adhere to and support the positions and beliefs of the Roman Catholic Church in the performance of their duties.” There have been a number of reported instances of private Catholic schools firing staff members for marrying a same-sex partner.

If religious charter schools become a reality, courts would likely have to determine how existing charter school statutes apply to religious schools, which typically operate with far less regulation than charters.

Religious charter schools could spread to blue states too.

Oklahoma’s approved religious charter school had the support of many state officials, including the governor, state schools superintendent, and members of the charter board. But religious charters would likely not get such a welcome reception in more liberal states with large charter sectors, like New York or California.

That may not matter. Advocates for the concept say state officials should not be allowed to deny charter schools just because they are religious. “If they can be religious, states with charter schools must permit religious charter schools,” argues Garnett, the Notre Dame law professor. If a religious entity applies for a school in such a state and is denied, the organization could bring a lawsuit making that argument.

If that argument carries the day in court, that would mean that every state with charter schools would have to consider religious charter schools on an even playing field as all other applicants.

What happens next? We’ll see you in court.

If they are to exist, religious charter schools will almost certainly have to go through the courts, as the case in Oklahoma shows. More cases could follow if religious entities elsewhere apply for a charter or if state lawmakers lift bans on religious charter schools. The question of whether charter schools are legally public or private will continue to percolate.

This could take years to play out, particularly since there are many different legal questions in play. Ultimately, the Supreme Court itself may have to tackle the question of religious charter schools.

Matt Barnum is a national reporter covering education policy, politics, and research. Contact him at mbarnum@chalkbeat.org.

U.S. Supreme Court to hear Oklahoma Catholic charter school case

2025-01-24T23:59:37+00:00

This story originally appeared in the Oklahoma Voice and is republished with permission.

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OKLAHOMA CITY — The U.S. Supreme Court announced Friday it will hear oral arguments over a Catholic charter school seeking to open and receive taxpayer funding in Oklahoma.

St. Isidore of Seville Catholic Virtual School would be the first publicly funded religious school in the nation. The Archdiocese of Oklahoma City and the Diocese of Tulsa have sought to found the school to provide a free, online Catholic education to students in all parts of the state.

The Oklahoma Supreme Court struck down the school in a June ruling. A majority of the state’s highest court found the concept of a Catholic charter school to be a violation of both the Oklahoma and U.S. Constitution’s ban on government-established religion.

Catholic leaders and the school are grateful the U.S. Supreme Court has taken on their case, said Brett Farley, a member of St. Isidore’s Board of Directors and a lobbyist for the Catholic Conference of Oklahoma.

“We look forward to the opportunity to present the case to the highest court in the land, with hope we can soon provide a premium, virtual education to Oklahoma families,” Farley said.

Attorney General Gentner Drummond brought a legal challenge against the school to the state Supreme Court, contending it “eviscerates the separation of church and state.”

The Attorney General’s Office looks forward to presenting its arguments before the U.S. Supreme Court, agency spokesperson Phil Bacharach said Friday.

All parties in the case must have their briefs filed with the U.S. Supreme Court by April 21 before oral arguments can take place, according to the Court’s announcement. The Court noted without explanation that Justice Amy Coney Barrett took no part in the decision to hear the case.

Could religious charter schools upend American education? A Chalkbeat explainer.

The Oklahoma Statewide Virtual Charter School Board voted 3-2 in 2023 to approve the archdiocese’s application to open St. Isidore. Catholic leaders and their attorneys contend charter schools are not true public schools, though they rely on public funding, and therefore should be able to adopt a religion.

The state Supreme Court disagreed and instead upheld the longstanding interpretation that charter schools are government-established public schools, despite the fact that they are operated by private entities and nonprofits.

The court ordered the state to void its contract with St. Isidore and forbade it from opening or accepting taxpayer funds.

Gov. Kevin Stitt and Oklahoma’s top education official, state Superintendent Ryan Walters, have both advocated for the school.

“I’m glad the U.S. Supreme Court is hearing the St. Isidore case,” Stitt said. “This stands to be one of the most significant religious and education freedom decisions in our lifetime. I believe our nation’s highest court will agree that denying St. Isidore’s charter based solely on its religious affiliation is flat-out unconstitutional. We’ve seen ugly religious intolerance from opponents of the education freedom movement, but I look forward to seeing our religious liberties protected both in Oklahoma and across the country.”

Walters said “the entire country has eyes on Oklahoma to support St. Isidore and end state-sponsored atheism.”

A separate lawsuit against the school has been on hold in Oklahoma County District Court since the state Supreme Court ruling. A coalition of Oklahoma parents, faith leaders and education advocates were the first to sue to block the school.

The group of plaintiffs are represented by multiple national legal organizations, including the American Civil Liberties Union, Americans United for Separation of Church and State, and the Freedom From Religion Foundation.

“The law is clear: Charter schools are public schools and must be secular and open to all students,” the legal organizations said in a joint statement Friday. “The Oklahoma Supreme Court correctly found that the state’s approval of a religious public charter school was unlawful and unconstitutional. We urge the U.S. Supreme Court to affirm that ruling and safeguard public education, church-state separation, and religious freedom for all.”

Nuria Martinez-Keel covers education for Oklahoma Voice.

Oklahoma Voice is part of States Newsroom, the nation’s largest state-focused nonprofit news organization.

Indianapolis school’s future in doubt after mayor’s office decides to revoke its charter

2025-01-24T15:08:30+00:00

Sign up for Chalkbeat Indiana’s free daily newsletter to keep up with Indianapolis Public Schools, Marion County’s township districts, and statewide education news.

This article was originally published by Mirror Indy.

Bethel Park Elementary could close next year. Or, it could be merged with another nearby charter school. Or, its current leadership could continue running the Indianapolis school under the oversight of a new charter operator.

It’s unclear exactly what the school’s operation will look like next year. What is certain is that the southeast side school will no longer operate under the oversight of the city’s Office of Education Innovation (OEI) after June 30.

School leaders received a letter from the city office last week that it is revoking the school’s charter. The city office cited longstanding concerns over the school’s finances.

Bethel Park leadership discussed their charter’s revocation in a public school board meeting Jan. 22, but declined to answer questions about what comes next. They said they still needed time to process the news.

“This is all fresh right now,” Principal Jade Welch told Mirror Indy after the meeting. “I want to help you as much as possible, but right now is not the best time.”

The revocation letter was issued a day after Chalkbeat Indiana reported on the school’s uncertain future as its authorizer contemplated pulling its support.

Meanwhile, another southeast side school, Victory College Prep, says it’s weeks away from closing on an offer to purchase the building Bethel Park uses in hopes of turning it into a high school.

Bethel Park’s charter revoked

Bethel Park leadership discussed their charter’s revocation letter for the first time publicly in a board meeting Jan. 22. Bethel Park Board President Lakisha Crawford said she was delivered a letter on Jan. 17 informing Bethel Park leadership that the city office planned to pull its support for the school.

The revocation letter comes after Bethel Park had been put on notice in late November over concerns of the school’s financial stability. It also aligns with the June 30 date Bethel Park’s current charter was due to end.

The school was going through a charter renewal process that would have included a public hearing and a chance for Bethel Park to defend its case for a continued relationship with the city office — until the November revocation notice put a pause in that.

Bethel Park leaders expressed other frustrations during their Jan. 22 meeting, saying they’d been contacted by the city office with concerns in the past and had attempted to address them through its plans to hire an outside financial consultant. They also said other concerns raised in the revocation letter, such as a midyear change in the school’s principal, had been communicated to the city office months ago.

“The timelines were lined up to make it not possible for us to respond appropriately and the benchmarks for what we needed to give them kept changing,” board member Samantha Bruton said during the meeting. “I don’t think the process was handled in a way that gave us a chance.”

Former Bethel Park Principal Jennica Adkins told Chalkbeat in a story published last week that she felt decisions had already been made for the school, including pressure to merge with Victory College Prep.

The city office also authorizes Victory College Prep and acknowledged in the Chalkbeat story that the office previously approached Victory College Prep to ask about its capacity to support another school.

OEI Director Shaina Cavazos told Mirror Indy this week that her concerns for Bethel Park’s finances go back years and any question about the revocation letter’s timing was purely incidental.

She said she explained in writing that Bethel Park leadership could request a public revocation meeting but that no one did.

“Our intention is that this decision does not disrupt learning,” Cavazos said. “As long as the school is able to operate, we want to ensure that they can finish out the year in as stable a way as possible for students and families.”

Victory College Prep could step in

State law allows schools to seek other authorizers after a charter has been revoked. Chalkbeat reported in its Jan. 16 story that Bethel Park was pursuing other authorizers.

When asked after the Jan. 22 board meeting if Bethel Park would consider that option, Crawford said the school had not yet put plans in place for next steps.

Welch declined a follow-up request the next day to discuss the matter further.

Any attempt Bethel Park takes to maintain leadership of its school could be complicated by building ownership.

Bethel Park leaders lease their building from the Charter Schools Development Corporation, an organization that finances property purchases for charter schools.

However, Victory College Prep made the organization an offer in late October to buy the building. A Victory College Prep spokesperson said the owner alerted them on Jan. 17 of the revocation letter and that they now appear poised to close on the building by Feb. 1.

Victory College Prep said it will act as a supportive landlord should Bethel Park secure another authorizer. Bethel Park would also need approvals from the Indiana State Board of Education to continue operating with a new authorizer.

Meanwhile, Victory College Prep is refining plans of its own for the building should Bethel Park choose to close the school.

High schoolers could take Bethel Park students’ place

Victory College Prep’s leadership envisions offering seats to Bethel Park’s K-5 students on the Sloan Avenue campus and moving high schoolers into the current Bethel Park site.

Bethel Park enrolls about 225 students compared to Victory College Prep’s more than 1,000 students in grades K-12.

The plans were detailed in a PowerPoint sent to Bethel Park leadership on Jan. 22 — the day of its board meeting.

A Victory College Prep spokesperson said its school prepared the presentation following a meeting between both schools that was called at Bethel Park Elementary’s request. Bethel Park leadership did not discuss the slides during their board meeting this week.

The Victory College Prep plans indicate the school would like to make a decision on its future use of the school building — should its sale close — by mid-February.

“Time is of the essence to make a determination on a potential partnership so we can best serve families and students in southeast Indianapolis,” Victory College Prep Chief Development Officer Andrew Hayenga said. “We need to give families and students as much time as possible to make their enrollment decisions.”

What the change means for students and families

Welch said during the school board meeting that she’s working on a plan to inform families of next steps. She said she plans to meet with staff Monday and to communicate with families by the end of next week.

News of the revocation letter is coming at a bad time for any parents who want to choose another school.

Enroll Indy, which manages the OneMatch enrollment lottery system for public schools across the city, allows parents to submit their interest in school seats during two enrollment windows.

The first of those windows closes Jan. 24.

The second enrollment window opens Jan. 25, and extends through April 18.

It is unclear what will happen for families who have already selected Bethel Park as their preferred enrollment option.

For more information on school enrollment, see Mirror Indy’s guide to the Indianapolis lottery here.

Mirror Indy reporter Carley Lanich covers early childhood and K-12 education. Contact her at carley.lanich@mirrorindy.org or follow her on X @carleylanich.

Indianapolis Public Schools would lose power over buildings, transportation in new bill

2025-01-16T23:39:46+00:00

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New legislation would require Indianapolis Public Schools to relinquish control over its facilities and transportation to appointed boards that would eventually gain the power to impose property taxes.

House Bill 1501 would create two boards to manage transportation and facilities for Indianapolis Public Schools starting in 2026, making these assets available for sharing with charter schools. The transportation board would also allow private schools to access transportation, although it’s unclear if the same applies to the facilities board.

The bill would also create two such boards for four other Indiana school districts: Gary Community School Corporation, Union School Corporation, Tri-Township Consolidated School Corporation, and Cannelton City Schools, according to the bill’s fiscal impact statement. These districts would have no direct control over who serves on the boards.

These boards would operate under a three-year “pilot program” from 2026 to 2029, after which the boards would take over the facility and transportation assets permanently. By the 2029-30 school year those boards would also have the power to levy property taxes for transportation and facility needs.

The legislation was authored by Rep. Bob Behning, the Republican chair of the Indiana House Education Committee. It’s the latest proposal to target those districts, which would be required to participate in the pilot because less than 50% of students within the districts’ boundaries attend schools operated by the district. A separate bill would require the same five districts to dissolve and be replaced with charter schools — a proposal that IPS leaders have fiercely criticized.

The bill also adds to longstanding pressure on IPS with respect to property taxes. Charter school advocates have pushed for the district to share property tax revenues and school buildings with charters as district enrollment declines in its traditional schools.

EmpowerED Families, a pro-charter group, has also pushed for the legislature to launch a school transportation pilot program in Indianapolis. Charter supporters have said their schools don’t get adequate support for transportation from state funding and local property taxes.

Both boards would be responsible for managing facilities and transportation-related debt during the three pilot program years. Both boards would also have the power to approve or deny any property taxes that the school districts levy during the pilot years.

Behning said the intent is to save money and expand services to more students. He compared it to the Capital Improvement Board in Indianapolis, which manages the city’s facilities.

“You could do something similar and have experts managing facilities rather than have school officials who are really experts at teaching and not experts, necessarily, at property management,” he said.

Behning said the idea for a facilities board came from constant battles over ownership of school facilities. He also wants to boost access to transportation for charter school students.

“Choice is not really a choice if you can’t figure out how to get there,” said Behning, who noted that he’s open to discussions about the bill. “This opens the door a little bit more to giving parents more options.”

IPS would still be responsible for running other operations, Behning said, like crafting a budget that excludes those expenses and hiring staff.

IPS did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

The district, which most recently closed six schools in 2023, has fought to exclude those buildings from a state law requiring school districts to sell or lease closed school buildings to interested charters for $1. A lawsuit the district filed that year seeking relief from the law is ongoing in a state Court of Appeals.

The transportation and facilities boards for IPS would consist of five members each. The mayor would appoint two, and the City-County Council, the speaker of the state House of Representatives, and the president pro tempore of the state Senate would each appoint one. District employees and school board members would be prohibited from serving on the boards.

The local facilities board would create a plan to assess school buildings, implement best practices for building management, conduct maintenance, and review other school building needs. The transportation board would create a plan focused on increasing transportation collaboration between schools, sharing assets, and planning vendor contracts.

The bill awaits a hearing in the House education committee.

Amelia Pak-Harvey covers Indianapolis and Lawrence Township schools for Chalkbeat Indiana. Contact Amelia at apak-harvey@chalkbeat.org.

As Bethel Park Elementary fights to stay open, another charter seeks to buy its building

2025-01-16T12:00:00+00:00

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In the spring of 2024, financial challenges at Bethel Park Elementary prompted the mayor’s office to outline options for its future — including a partnership with neighboring charter school Victory College Prep.

The school’s board didn’t want to do that at the time, according to the school’s former principal. Instead, the school worked to respond to concerns from Mayor Joe Hogsett’s Office of Education Innovation, Bethel Park’s authorizer.

Now matters are coming to a head. OEI still has concerns about Bethel Park’s financial standing and could revoke the school’s charter next month, a move that could lead the school to close. But the school says it’s shown OEI that its fiscal health is on the mend. And it turns out that there’s another big change in the works: Victory College Prep is in the process of buying Bethel Park’s building.

All that has thrown the fate of Bethel Park — which enrolls about 225 students whose futures hang on OEI’s mid-February decision — into doubt. And some believe the chain of events represents an unwelcome attempt to force the school to merge with a nearby competitor.

“It does sort of feel like a conclusion has already been made,” said former Bethel Park principal Jennica Adkins, who said there was pressure from OEI on Bethel Park to merge with Victory College Prep this school year. “And there’s not a ton that we can do about that.”

OEI acknowledged approaching Victory College Prep to “gauge their interest and ability to provide support” to Bethel Park Elementary.

“Charter school authorizers have a responsibility to work with schools to anticipate issues before they intensify to ensure stability for students and responsible stewardship of public dollars,” the office said in a statement last month in response to questions from Chalkbeat.

OEI also said Bethel Park has applied for charter renewal after “years of declining financial health and amid months of intensifying cash flow concerns.”

As an authorizer of both Bethel Park and Victory College Prep, OEI oversees schools that have been granted permission to open by the Indianapolis Charter School Board. It also has the power to shutter schools for failing to meet certain standards.

“Quality authorizing practices encourage authorizers to exercise professional judgment and engage in efforts to problem solve when needed to ensure good outcomes for students,” OEI said in its statement.

In response, Bethel Park’s board is looking at options to purchase the building instead, using an option in its current lease with a branch of the Charter Schools Development Corporation that finances facilities for charter schools. Bethel Park’s current charter expires at the end of this school year, but the school is seeking approval from a different authorizer than OEI to keep its doors open. However, if their charter is revoked next month, state law would require a new authorizer to seek approval from the State Board of Education to allow the school to continue operating.

Jade Welch, Bethel Park’s current principal, said she is working hard to address the concerns from the mayor’s office while maintaining the school’s vision and community.

“I just want to maintain my school and do what I need to do,” Welch said.

Victory College Prep’s board of directors did not indicate whether it intends to take over Bethel Park, although it stressed that Bethel Park’s fate is up to the school and OEI to decide. The board said it wants students in the area to have access to high-quality education, and that it was “open” to the idea of providing “partnership support” to Bethel Park.

“If our current resources and capacity can ease financial pressures that could threaten such access for students and families in our region, we are compelled to take action,” Victory College Prep’s board said in a statement.

School protests potential loss of charter, citing improvements

In May 2023, the mayor’s office gave Bethel Park a notice of noncompliance — the least urgent level in the authorizer’s performance improvement framework — over its 2021-22 ILEARN and IREAD scores and its attendance rate. The school’s ILEARN scores were below those of students in nearby assigned schools or comparable schools, the office said. The school’s IREAD pass rate of 62% and its attendance rate of 87.6% also did not meet the office’s performance standard.

One year later, the school received a notice of deficiency over its cash reserves and year-end deficits that the office escalated from “moderate” to “high” concern.

The school has ended in an operating deficit every year since fiscal 2022, according to audit reports the school submitted to the state. The latest audit from last year expresses “substantial doubt” about the school’s ability to stay open. And since the 2020-21 school year, the school had not met OEI’s requirements for keeping at least 45 days of cash reserve in order to meet financial obligations in the case of an emergency, according to OEI.

But school leaders say they’ve tried to address the authorizer’s concerns. And in an email to OEI last July, Bethel Park’s board called the authorizer’s’s escalating concerns “unwarranted” due to the school’s positive cash balance, and said that “the school’s financial position is no longer at high risk.”

Its first notice of deficiency from OEI was largely due to bookkeeping errors that have been addressed, the school said in a Dec. 19 response to the authorizer. In the first few months of this school year, the school spent less money and brought in more revenue than anticipated, Bethel Park noted. It believes it will build up 40 to 45 days of cash reserves by the end of the fiscal year.

And its enrollment of 225 this year was above initial projections.

“We have learned from and responded to past financial mistakes and oversight and feel confident not only in our ability to finish out this school year, but also to establish an ongoing financial position which should inspire confidence in renewal of our charter,” the school wrote.

Bethel Park has also cut costs to shore up its finances, including ending a $150,000 annual coaching and consulting services agreement with the PilotED Foundation, which was led by the school’s founder, Jacob Allen.

The foundation, which ended operations in December, provided help with grant writing, legal assistance, board recruiting, and coaching, said Adkins, the school’s former principal. The foundation still provided six months of work pro bono after the expiration of its contract last June, she said.

The school’s third grade IREAD results have also jumped to a 72% pass rate in 2024. Its attendance rate, however, remains just below the 90% that OEI requested it reach by summer 2024, and its ILEARN results have been stagnant.

OEI said in its statement that even with the correction of the bookkeeping error, the school still had posted years of declining cash reserves, relatively slow enrollment growth, and high monthly expenses.

“Throughout the spring, summer, and fall, Bethel Park had to correct several errors in submitted financial documents and failed to meet multiple financial reporting deadlines,” OEI said. “In year six of a school’s charter, a strong authorizer should expect competent financial reporting and management.

Victory College Prep, which the mayor’s office described as a school in “strong financial standing,” did not disclose how much it is paying for the building. The school had higher rates of proficiency on the 2024 ILEARN exam than Bethel Park, and a slightly higher passing rate on the IREAD exam.

Amelia Pak-Harvey covers Indianapolis and Lawrence Township schools for Chalkbeat Indiana. Contact Amelia at apak-harvey@chalkbeat.org.

Denver school choice waitlists: Look up 2024 data here

2024-12-18T21:23:57+00:00

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The number of students waitlisted each spring at Denver public schools continues to decline.

Data shows about 2,900 students were on waitlists after Round 1 of Denver Public Schools’ school choice process this past spring, though it’s important to note that a single student can be on multiple waitlists. That number is down from about 5,000 students in 2019, a 41% decrease.

Overall enrollment in Denver Public Schools shrank from about 92,200 students in kindergarten through 12th grade in 2019 to about 88,200 students in 2024, a 4% decrease.

Denver Public Schools officials said they don’t have an explanation for the shrinking waitlists. When the same trend showed up last year, officials said it could be a symptom of declining enrollment or a sign that more families are happy at their assigned neighborhood schools.

School choice is enshrined in Colorado law. It means any student can apply to attend any public school. Denver Public Schools makes it easy — and sometimes all but mandatory — for families to participate by having a single online application on which they can list up to 12 school choices. The application window, commonly known as Round 1, will open on Jan. 15.

Whether students get accepted to a particular school depends on whether the school has open seats and how it prioritizes its admissions. Almost all schools use a lottery, but they can give preference to siblings of already enrolled students or the children of teachers, for example.

For the 2024-25 school year, students at 10 Denver schools that will close or partially close at the end of this school year will get priority to enroll at any school they choose.

Students who don’t get accepted to a particular school are put on a waitlist. If a student is accepted to the third school on their list, they will be waitlisted at their first and second choices.

Many school waitlists are shrinking. Notable trends include:

Northfield High School had the longest waitlist after Round 1 in 2024 with 254 incoming ninth graders waiting for a seat. Northfield’s waitlist grew 15% from 2019 to 2024.
No incoming ninth graders were waitlisted in 2024 at East High, the district’s largest school. In 2019, there were 112 incoming freshmen on East’s waitlist.
Six of the 10 schools with the longest waitlists in 2024 were district-run schools. The other four were charter schools, which are publicly funded but independently run.
By Chalkbeat’s count, the waitlists at 73 Denver schools were shorter in 2024 than they were in 2019. The schools where waitlists shrank included McAuliffe International School, Slavens K-8 School, and Steele Elementary School.
By our count, the waitlists at 38 Denver schools were longer in 2024 than they were in 2019. The schools where waitlists grew included Merrill Middle School, Morey Middle School, and South High School.
The waitlists at all other schools either stayed the same — nearly all of them at zero students in both 2024 and 2019 — or there wasn’t comparable data over time.

The searchable database below shows how many students in kindergarten, sixth, and ninth grades were on each school’s waitlist after Round 1 of school choice in 2024. The waitlists change over the spring and summer as families move or change their minds.

A note about Denver School of the Arts: It’s the only school in Denver that requires an audition to get in. It runs its own waitlist separate from the district process. Although its waitlist shows up as zero in the searchable table, district officials have said the school rejects hundreds of applicants each year.

Melanie Asmar is the bureau chief for Chalkbeat Colorado. Contact Melanie at masmar@chalkbeat.org.

New Tennessee charter school law for at-risk students draws interest in Memphis and Nashville

2024-12-12T22:28:52+00:00

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Three aspiring charter operators are interested in opening schools in Memphis and Nashville under a new state law aimed at creating options for youth considered at risk of becoming disconnected from traditional public schools.

Labeled “opportunity” charter schools, the campuses would serve middle or high school students. At least 75% of each school’s students would have to be documented as dealing with any of a range of challenges such as juvenile crime, substance abuse, chronic absenteeism, teen pregnancy, getting held back in several grades, dropping out of school, or experiencing abuse or neglect.

The schools likely would put a greater emphasis on career and technical education and be built around trauma-informed and restorative practices and social and emotional learning.

They also would be held to different standards than other public charter schools in Tennessee that must show a certain level of achievement in order to remain open, as well as for traditional public schools that are evaluated under the state’s A-F grading system.

Next week, the state Board of Education is expected to decide exactly what those expectations will be. Tennessee’s education department has proposed exempting opportunity charter schools from receiving a letter grade during their first year of operation. In subsequent years, measurements of success would emphasize continuous enrollment and college and career readiness.

The aspiring operators — two in Memphis and one in Nashville — are among 17 groups that recently submitted letters to state and local education officials indicating their interest in applying by next Feb. 1 to open a charter school for the 2026-27 school year.

But it’s the opportunity charter school category that is new to the mix under the 2024 law sponsored by House Speaker Cameron Sexton of Crossville, a longtime charter advocate, and Sen. Ferrell Haile of Gallatin, both Republicans.

Interested operators for opportunity charter schools are:

An organization known as Memphis Mentors and led by teacher Carlos Shaw, which is exploring opening Memphis at Work Charter School to emphasize work-based learning in partnership with Memphis-Shelby County Schools;
A group led by businessman and attorney Anthony Canada that is interested in opening Legacy Day Academy in Memphis’ Frayser neighborhood, starting with grades 6-10, in partnership with Memphis-Shelby County Schools;
An organization formed by Middle Tennessee charter leader and school administrator Ahmed White that is interested in opening The Rock Academy of Nashville, starting with a ninth grade class and eventually serving as a full high school, in partnership with Metropolitan Nashville Public Schools

None of the three groups expressed interest in opening a residential school, which is allowable under the new law but would be costly to operate. During legislative debates this spring, some critics questioned the wisdom of putting a large number of at-risk students together in a residential setting.

In addition, the state received no interest this year in the possibility of converting an existing charter or traditional public school into an opportunity charter school.

Many of Tennessee’s at-risk youth who have been suspended or expelled from schools for disciplinary problems currently attend alternative education programs run by their local school systems. Those are short-term placements until the students can move back to their traditional public schools.

Opportunity charter schools would provide a long-term option that is designed specifically around the needs of at-risk students.

“The intent of the legislation was to open the door for expert educators and community leaders to find better solutions for kids who are struggling in traditional school models, and that’s what’s happening in both Memphis and Nashville,” said Greg Lippman, CEO of New York-based Groundswell Network, a nonprofit group supporting local work on alternative education models across the nation.

Educators and community leaders attend a meeting in Nashville on May 8, 2024, to learn about alternative education options under Tennessee's new opportunity charter school law. (Photo by Marta W. Aldrich / Chalkbeat)

Bobby White, the founder and CEO of Frayser Community Schools charter network and president of Leadership Memphis, expects wider interest in applying in 2026 to open opportunity charter schools in Memphis beginning with the 2027-28 school year. Educators and community leaders need more time, he said, to study the law and the state’s expectations, and to develop their plans.

Last month, White hosted a meeting at a church in the Raleigh-Frayser community as part of his work with Groundswell to identify potential charter leaders and neighborhoods in need in the Memphis area.

“I want people to dream it, vision it, then build it,” White told Chalkbeat on Thursday. “When our first opportunity charter schools open, they should be exemplars in our city. People should be wowed.”

He added: “There absolutely needs to be one school like this in every community that has high crime and high poverty.”

In all, Memphis-Shelby County Schools received the most letters of intent to open charter schools in the 2026-27 school year, followed by districts in Nashville, Hamilton County, Rutherford County, and Jackson.

Typically, about half of groups that submit letters of intent follow through and apply during the same charter cycle.

Marta Aldrich is a senior correspondent and covers the statehouse for Chalkbeat Tennessee. Contact her at maldrich@chalkbeat.org.

Special education staffing shortages put students’ futures at risk. How to solve that is tricky.

2024-11-20T00:31:39+00:00

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Every year, more special education teachers quit than graduate from the nation’s teacher preparation programs, even as the number of students diagnosed with disabilities keeps rising.

Without enough qualified teachers and therapists, students don’t always get the help they need to be successful in school. Shortages also contribute to serious situations where kids are locked in small rooms, teachers physically hold down students, or children disrupt their classmates’ learning because they haven’t learned how to regulate their own behavior.

There was broad agreement that special education staffing shortages are a dire problem at a public briefing held by the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights on Friday. But there were widely divergent ideas about how to solve the issue and what role the federal government should play.

Some educators and experts said the solution is for the federal government to fulfill its decades-old pledge to cover more of the costs of special education. In their eyes, the Education Department should be flooding the special educator pipeline and offering training to all teachers to better support students with disabilities.

Others said it’s about incentivizing the job, and that special education teachers should be paid more than their colleagues and offered retention bonuses. Still others said that states should ease licensing rules and expand private school voucher programs to give desperate families more options.

The briefing, meant to inform the president and Congress, was held as President-elect Trump prepares to start his second term in office. Trump has vowed to expand school choice and dramatically scale back the federal role in education — a move panelists said could affect students with disabilities a lot or a little, depending on how the plan is executed.

The briefing did not include testimony from the U.S. Department of Education, which Trump has said he would abolish. Stephen Gilchrist, the Republican Trump-appointed commissioner who called for the briefing, said the department’s absence was “unconscionable.” An Education Department spokesperson said scheduling conflicts prevented the agency from being there in person, but it would send written responses.

The debate comes as the number of students with disabilities is growing. Some 7.5 million students required special education services as of the 2022-23 school year, the latest federal data shows, or around 15% of students. That was up from 7.1 million or 14% of students in the 2018-19 school year, just before the pandemic hit.

It’s unclear if the rise is due to schools getting better at identifying students with disabilities or if more children have needs now. Many young children missed early intervention and early special education services during the pandemic, and many educators say they are seeing higher behavioral needs and wider academic gaps in their classrooms.

“Students are arriving in our classrooms with a high level of dysregulation, which is displayed through their fight, flight, or freeze responses,” Tiffany Anderson, the superintendent of Topeka, Kansas’ public schools, wrote in her statement. “Students are also displaying more physically aggressive behavior.”

All of that has trickle-down effects. When kids disengage or act out, schools often remove them from class, said Dan Stewart, the managing attorney for education and employment at the National Disability Rights Network. That could be a suspension or something more informal, like cutting a child’s day short. Then the burden of providing educational support falls on families, said Ariel Simms, the president of Disability Belongs, a nonprofit that advocates on behalf of people with disabilities.

“Parents and caregivers have had to step in to fill gaps in areas like tutoring, therapy, and learning accommodations, resulting in heightened stress and financial strain,” Simms told the commission in her statement.

Why special education teachers are in short supply

There are many reasons for the shortages. While the number of special education teachers has risen over the past two decades, the demand still outpaces the supply, writes Chad Aldeman, who researches teacher labor markets. Around 16,000 more special education teachers leave public schools each year than teacher prep programs train to replace them.

Special education teachers are more likely to change jobs or quit teaching than their general education colleagues. On top of that, many districts struggle to hire and keep paraprofessionals, whose crucial but low-paid work helps teachers meet the needs of students with disabilities. All of that increases workloads and contributes to burnout.

To get by, many schools increase class sizes or rely on substitutes and emergency credentialed teachers who often lack the proper training to work with students with disabilities.

“We had to hire virtual teachers and those on special visas, which complicated matters for our special needs students who were already facing academic and social challenges,” Karen Lockerman, a special education teacher in rural South Carolina, told the commission of how her district handled pandemic staffing shortages. “Language barriers and virtual instruction added further difficulties to their learning.”

Some say more funding; others want voucher expansion

To some advocates, the solution is obvious: The federal government needs to pay a bigger share of schools’ special education costs. Back in 1975, when federal lawmakers passed what would become the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act, they said the government would cover 40%.

But “actual federal funding for IDEA has never come close to that and is usually well below half of this ‘full funding’ amount,” Jessica Levin, the litigation director at the nonprofit Education Law Center, told the commission. Without adequate funding, Levin said, “it is impossible to meet the educational needs and legal rights of students with disabilities, including ensuring there are sufficient numbers of qualified teachers.”

Anderson said that underfunding means her district has to pull money from the general education budget to cover the costs of educating kids with disabilities. Kansas gave schools an extra $75 million to pay for special education this year, but there aren’t any plans to keep that up as of now. Federal pandemic aid that helped is about to expire.

The federal government and states also could do more to knock down financial barriers to becoming a special education teacher, said Julian Vasquez Heilig, the director of the Network for Public Education, an advocacy group, by offering more scholarships, stipends, and loan forgiveness. Investing in the expansion of “grow your own” initiatives, which often produce too few teachers to change overall staffing levels, could also help.

Jonathan Butcher, a senior research fellow at the Heritage Foundation, a conservative think tank, said the federal government could elevate examples of states like Indiana, which created a program that pays for licensed teachers to go back to school to get their special education license and condenses their coursework. The pandemic aid-backed program has produced over 600 licensed special education teachers since 2021 and has become a go-to strategy for some districts to fill vacancies.

In Topeka, Anderson has tried recruiting paraprofessionals, career changers, and international teachers. Through a state program, parents who hadn’t gone to college or worked in a classroom before got on-the-job training from experienced teachers. Still, all of that effort hasn’t really made a dent.

“These programs have given us additional alternative pathways; however, the shortage is so significant, it has not eliminated the need and the crisis school districts like Topeka Public Schools continue to face,” Anderson told the commission.

Butcher, of the Heritage Foundation, also floated another idea: changing federal law so that families can take the portion of IDEA funding that would normally go to their child at a public school and use it however they see fit — an idea that’s similar to creating a national voucher program for students with disabilities.

“By making IDEA ‘portable,’ families could purchase services from education therapists, private school tuition, or other education products that fit their child’s needs,” Butcher told the commission in his statement. “This policy would help alleviate the pressure on public school officials to find special education personnel while also giving families private education choices when frustrating legal battles with school districts prevent students from receiving the services they require.”

Many advocates for students with disabilities worry such an idea would strip kids of their right to a free and appropriate education, as families typically have to waive that right to participate in a private school voucher program at the state level.

The idea would require action by Congress and buy-in from Trump. Still, some are taking Butcher’s proposal seriously, as the Heritage Foundation published Project 2025, a policy playbook written by several former Trump White House officials. That plan calls for turning most funding for special education into block grants that states would control.

Kalyn Belsha is a senior national education reporter based in Chicago. Contact her at kbelsha@chalkbeat.org.

Amendment 80 election results: School choice ballot measure fails

2024-11-07T17:26:15+00:00

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A ballot measure that would enshrine school choice in Colorado’s constitution has been defeated, according to unofficial election returns.

Amendment 80 remained at about 7 percentage points below the 55% approval rate needed for passage when the Associated Press officially called the race Thursday morning.

Kevin Vick, president of the Colorado Education Association, which opposed the amendment, said Tuesday when initial results were reported that he was encouraged the measure appeared headed for defeat.

“I think the voters of Colorado saw this for what it really was, which is … a backdoor way of bringing private school vouchers into Colorado,” he said. “I just think this is a reaffirmation that the people of Colorado really appreciate their public schools.”

Voters in Kentucky and Nebraska also defeated school choice measures Tuesday.

Some experts predicted that passing Amendment 80 would most likely lead to a court dispute and a judge deciding how it would be interpreted.

Amendment 80 would have established “the right to school choice” for K-12 students. It defined school choice to include neighborhood schools, charter schools, private schools, home schools, open enrollment options, and “future innovations in education.”

The language said that “parents have the right to direct the education of their children” and that “all children have the right to equal opportunity to access a quality education.”

School choice is already guaranteed under Colorado law, but supporters have said passing Amendment 80 would protect that right from future attacks by state lawmakers.

Advance Colorado, the conservative group that proposed Amendment 80, suggested as the measure appeared headed to defeat that it may make another attempt.

“‘It is a certainty that we will see the same groups that spent millions against Amendment 80 back at the Capitol in a few weeks to renew their legislative assaults on charter schools and other forms of school choice,” Michael Fields, the group’s president, said in a statement Tuesday.

“When those rights are attacked, we will be prepared to bring Amendment 80 back before voters in the future,” he said. “Tonight marks just another round in the fight to protect school choice in Colorado.”

Besides Advance Colorado, Amendment 80 was supported by the Colorado Association of Private Schools, the Colorado Catholic Conference, the Independence Institute, Ready Colorado, and the Centennial Institute at Colorado Christian University.

Opponents included the ACLU of Colorado, the Colorado Democratic Party, the Colorado PTA, the Colorado Association of School Executives, a slew of individual school districts, including Denver Public Schools, the Christian Home Educators of Colorado, and several other organizations.

Voucher programs in other states, such as Arizona, have proven to be expensive.

Officials from Advance Colorado denied that Amendment 80 was about private school vouchers. The group initially proposed another amendment that was about vouchers but decided not to pursue collecting signatures to get it on the ballot.

Melanie Asmar is the bureau chief for Chalkbeat Colorado. Contact Melanie at masmar@chalkbeat.org.

Ann Schimke is a senior reporter at Chalkbeat, covering early childhood issues and early literacy. Contact Ann at aschimke@chalkbeat.org.