Senate Votes To Let School Districts Share Referendum Dollars With Charter Schools

By Haley Carney
TheStatehouseFile.com

INDIANAPOLIS—School districts can opt to share tax dollars raised through a referendum with charter schools, under an amendment narrowly adopted Monday by the Indiana Senate after Lt. Gov. Suzanne Crouch cast the tie-breaking vote.

Sen. Linda Rogers, the Granger Republican who offered the amendment to House Bill 1065, said a majority of a school’s governing body would have to agree to share a portion of the tax levy from a referendum to charter schools in their attendance area. Virtual charters, which have come under increased scrutiny since a Daleville virtual school was found to have inflated enrollment in order to get more state dollars, are excluded.

And, she added, chances of a school referendum passing might be better if parents of charter school students saw that it might benefit their children.

“This amendment does nothing more than providing an opportunity for school corporations and non-virtual charters to work together if they choose. Again, it’s if the school corporation chooses,” she said.

Rogers cited a South Bend school corporation as an example as to why her amendment would be important, saying they are currently in the process of referendum.

“If they would like to include the charter school, it is up to them if they decide. It’s only to help a specific area and keep local control,” she said.

However, Sen. David Niezgodski, a Democrat who represents South Bend, said no one from there had sought this change. And Sen. J.D. Ford, D-Indianapolis, expressed concern that what is an option now, under the amendment, could be made mandatory in the future by the legislature.

Sen. Ron Alting, R-Lafayette, noted that while the amendment might sound like a small change, it’s actually a very big change that would apply to the nearly 300 school districts in the state. It was never discussed in the Senate Education Committee, Alting noted, and instead brought up only in the Senate, with school representatives and the public given no chance for input.

Others objected that this opens the door to shifting more tax dollars to charter schools after they were just given additional state dollars in the budget passed last year. Sen. Vaneta Becker, R-Evansville, said she could not support the bill, noting the state continues to move further away from the original purpose of charter schools as an alternative for public school students trapped in failing schools.

Rogers insisted that “my motive is to provide flexibility to schools and help school corporations. I support public schools, charter schools, everything. I appreciate people asking me questions but I do not have any ulterior motives.”

One Democrat, Sen. Karen Tallian, D-Ogden Dunes, joined 24 Republicans in supporting her bill, with her vote providing the tie that allowed Crouch to vote yes and pass the amendment. Afterward, Tallian told The Indianapolis Star she didn’t consider the proposal radical, and that districts that authorize their own charter schools might need the tool.

The bill is now eligible for a final vote in the Senate before it returns to the House to see if that chamber agrees with this and other changes to the bill.

FOOTNOTE: Haley Carney is a reporter with TheStatehouseFile.com, a news website powered by Franklin College journalists.