Should IPS share tax dollars with charter schools? Tensions arise at board meeting

Yahoo

28-02-2025

In a packed Indianapolis Public School board meeting Thursday night, for more than 90 minutes, public speakers made their case on why they think the district should or shouldn't share property tax dollars with charter schools.
The meeting reflected the heated debate seen for years in the IPS community — a debate that has recently been stoked even more since lawmakers began considering Senate Bill 518, which would force IPS to share more property tax dollars with charter schools.
Due to the high turnout Thursday evening, the board created a spill-over room and limited public comment to 90 seconds instead of the usual 3 minutes.
Most of the comments given were centered around either asking the IPS board to take an even stronger stance condemning SB 518 or urging the board to support sending more property tax dollars to charter schools.
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The IPS board had already come out strongly opposed to SB 518, along with two other bills that now appear to be dead, at the beginning of February.
The property tax sharing bill passed out of the Senate was amended last week on a narrow 28-21 vote, with 12 Republicans joining Democrats in voting against it over concerns that it would dilute funding for traditional public schools.
The latest version of that bill would also shift the start time of the property tax sharing to 2028 and phase in the funding sharing over five years.
After its passage in the Senate, the IPS board then released a statement stating five provisions they would like to see if SB 518 is to move forward. One of those is a moratorium on new schools opening for at least the next two years, and limits charter authorizing to the Indianapolis Mayor's Office of Education Innovation.
Some of the speakers Thursday night saw that statement as a backtracking of their previous and more stronger stance against the bill.
'Please be brave,' Jack Killen said to the school board members. 'You are not a charter school board. You are the IPS school board. We need you to return to your full opposition of SB 518.'
Multiple IPS teachers also asked for stronger action from the board and asked that they keep their word on not opening any new schools or risk having to close schools or cut back on jobs.
'We are looking for that moratorium that you put out there and said you are looking for to ensure that we have financial stability for our district,' said Monica Shellhamer, a third-grade teacher at Christian Park School 82.
'We are looking for resources for our students in the years to come. We are looking for that fiscal responsibility that we continuously talk about. Right now your words are just words, and they don't mean anything to us without an action behind them,' Shellhamer continued.
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Other parents who support SB 518 and are backed by charter-friendly groups like Stand for Children Indiana urged the board to push for more equitable funding.
Shawanda Tyson, who works with Stand for Children Indiana and has two children who attend an independent charter school in the district and an IPS innovation charter school, said she took offense to previous accusations that parents working with Stand are simply reading off a script.
'Stand may have helped me learn how to find my voice and use it, but they never told me what to say,' Tyson said. 'My goal was and is and will remain the same, equity for our kids, equity for kids in our boundary regardless of the type of school they attend.'
Other parents like Vilma Hernadez said that the lack of property tax funding at charter schools means that families like hers struggle to access the schools they want due to transportation issues.
'Transportation should never be a barrier to accessing a quality education,' Hernadez said through an interpreter. 'I'm here because I know that Senate Bill 518 could go a long way in making sure all our public schools are fairly funded and ensure public charter schools can also offer transportation.'
Transportation costs are usually funded through property tax revenues, although some charter schools that partner with IPS through its innovation network do use IPS's yellow buses depending on their innovation contracts.
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Board members Allissa Impink and Gayle Cosby also gave personal comments stating they were completely opposed to SB 518, saying that it is part of a larger movement to completely defund public education by making schools fight over the same pot of money.
'518 has all of us collectively sinking in the same leaky boat,' Cosby said.
Superintendent Aleesia Johnson also thanked everyone who came out Thursday night to speak in defense of IPS students and asked that they turn their attention to the state house and show lawmakers that all schools in IPS should not have to be fighting over scraps.
'In a time where the point seems to be division and disruption, we can choose to exemplify something different,' Johnsons said.
Contact IndyStar K-12 education reporter Caroline Beck at 317-618-5807 or [e-mail]. Follow her on Twitter (X): @CarolineB_Indy.
This article originally appeared on Indianapolis Star: IPS, charter school supporters debate funding at school board meeting