INDIANAPOLIS — More than a hundred people spoke at the podium at Thursday’s IPS school board meeting.
The majority focused their attention on Senate Bill 518.
Mother of three, Ashley Salazar, came to Thursday’s meeting because she’s concerned about Senate Bill 518.
“This bill proposes diverting IPS funds and sharing them with charter schools. They talked about how it will close 20 schools, displace thousands of students and communities, disrupt them," Salazar said.
Senate Bill 518 would require public schools to share property tax funds with charter schools.
Salazar’s son has special needs, and she’s concerned what this will mean for him.
“Funding for special education and programs will be reduced, directly impacting the students with disabilities, which my son has," she said.
Mom Kathy Souchet-Downey also came to voice her opposition.
“I’m strongly opposed to 518. This bill is creating a false scarcity in funding for our public schools. Instead of supporting public schools for our young people in our community, our legislators and representatives and senators are taking money away from public schools and creating voucher programs," Souchet-Downey said.
Her son is a first grader at Theodore Potter School 74, and she says specials teachers are at risk of being cut.
“It’s problematic because the specials teachers in our school are part of our community. They afford safety in terms of helping with pickup and drop off. They organize programming for our young people," she said.
The IPS Board of Commissioners released a statement on SB 518 last week.
"Members of our IPS Community,
Over the past few weeks, we’ve worked to keep our community updated on our position and intended next steps as we navigate this legislative session. Today’s update seeks to do the same.
It has been an incredibly busy time in the Indiana General Assembly. As the first half of the legislative process comes to an end today, we were pleased to see House Bills 1136 and 1501 fail to advance in the legislative process last week, but we will remain vigilant to ensure the language of those bills does not show up elsewhere.
Yesterday (Feb. 20), Senate Bill 518 passed with a vote of 28-21 on third reading. It includes an amendment that will shift the start of property tax sharing to 2028 and phases in the funding sharing over five years.
As we have continued to engage with lawmakers and stakeholders in our community, it is very important to us to be transparent regarding our critical considerations related to this bill if it moves forward in the legislative process. As such, the board has developed a set of clear essential provisions related to Senate Bill 518 as it is considered, beginning the first week of March, by the Indiana House of Representatives. They are:
- Local Decision-Making: Any ideas about or changes in how our schools operate should be generated from our community; therefore, we advocate for the creation of a local education alliance, composed of IPS residents, to serve in an advisory capacity to the IPS Board of School Commissioners, to help us imagine the future our community wants to create. This vision of the future should drive the policy decisions about any property tax sharing, not the other way around.
- Reimbursement of Provided Services: IPS should receive full reimbursement for services provided to charter schools by the district.
- Use of Funding: The allocation of property tax funding should be based on the actual services schools provide — transportation, facilities maintenance projects, and technology infrastructure — and there should be transparent processes in place that clearly demonstrate a need for those funds in the same manner as traditional public schools. Additionally, if the debt tax rate is to be shared, then those funds should be required to be spent on debt or rent. If a school is already operating in an IPS-owned building, meaning IPS is covering its facilities costs, that school should not receive additional funding from the debt tax rate, as they are already benefiting from IPS’s infrastructure.
- No New Schools: There is no way to create a sustainable system if the number of schools within the IPS boundary continues to grow. There are currently 105 traditional public and charter schools serving approximately 42,000 students. 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.
- Limit Charter Authorizing in the Future: Charter authorizing should occur only locally. The Indianapolis Mayor currently has the authority to authorize charter schools and is able to consider the local landscape when making decisions about opening a new school. We believe that any future charter school authorizing within the IPS boundary should be coordinated between Indianapolis Public Schools and the Indianapolis Mayor’s Office of Education Innovation only.
We believe that if these key considerations are put in place, then our community will be much better positioned to create a more sustainable future for all children within our boundary than the one we have today. It does not mean that there won’t be challenging conversations ahead — there will. But, it does mean that our students, staff, and families will get to be a part of and help shape a future that has been intentionally and thoughtfully planned for and implemented.
As we have stated before, we are aligned with our state and local leaders who are working to create the best circumstances for all of our young people in Indianapolis and across the state to thrive and be successful. We want that, too. But, we will not support legislation that promotes disruption, chaos, and competition. As this legislative session progresses, our anchoring belief is that our community can and should be the creators of the vision for our future. And we believe that it is possible to create a vision that unites, instead of divides.
Thank you to our community for your continued support of Indianapolis Public Schools."
Senate Bill 518 passed out of the Senate and will move onto the House.
