Three empty seats—this is what Melanie Wright, a sixth-grade music teacher in the Anderson Community School Corporation, noticed in her classroom earlier this semester.
Those three seats weren’t empty because her students were sick, had a dentist appointment or simply missed the bus.
The students were gone because they heard Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) was in town. They were afraid of being removed from school and deported.
“I had to get myself together after I took attendance,” she told TheStatehouseFile.com Monday at the Indiana Coalition for Public Education’s Day of Action.
Wright and many other educators, parents and school employees were at the Statehouse advocating to keep education public in Indiana.
Wright’s fellow Anderson teacher, Randy Harrison, noted a concern among students in general.
“Our brown populations are even fearful to come to the school that gives them the best shot of being a productive citizen in our society,” he said.
Harrison speculated that most teachers would not let their students go even if ICE tried to take them.
“I would guarantee over 95% of all educators, if not more, are going to wrap their arms around all those kids,” he said.
Immigration authorities aren’t the only thing Harrison is worried about. He said diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) and civics education bills also concern him. He said outlawing DEI resources in school would be harmful to Hispanic, English learner populations (ELL) and other minorities.
“When you teach in a school district like Anderson, it’s very diverse,” Harrison said. “They (students) know their ethnic heritage, their race, where they come from, and they see it as a tax, as demoralizing to them.”
When it comes to civics, Harrison, who teaches government and history, was referring to Senate Bill 257, which would increase regulation on how teachers like him educate students on the Founding Fathers’ shortcomings.
“If we don’t teach the truth about uneasy topics, those tough decisions or discussions about things that truly happened, then our students get caught in this curriculum that’s not factual,” he said. “And we forget the tragic errors that we made as a country, and we go backward instead of forward.”
From left to right, Maton Kaufman, Dale Porter and Joseph Salinas pose for a picture after sharing their concerns about education legislation at the Indiana Coalition for Public Education’s Day of Action.
Photo by Anna Cecil, TheStatehouseFile.com.
Indianapolis Public Schools (IPS)
Chelsea English is a social worker at Shortridge, an IPS high school. She said her students are afraid they may lose funding for transportation to and from school and for programs like the international baccalaureate program.
“They don’t want to see any of this go away,” English said.
One of English’s students, Dale Potter, said he is worried about how the legislation will impact young kids like his brother, who will attend IPS schools for much longer than he will.
“They’re trying to tear apart this IPS district just so other schools can have more money,” Potter said. “IPS is truly the district that needs money.”
Student Maton Kaufman added that he has grown up in the IPS system but always noticed his teachers seem to lack supplies due to less funding. He also worries that charter and private schools, which inherently have more funding, might turn down students who have disabilities.
“IPS, public schools are really important for those types of students,” Kaufman said. “I think taking away funding from them, especially when you don’t let them into your own school, that’s a big issue.”
Fellow student Joseph Salinas said he also picked up on a lack of funding at IPS, especially in the arts department.
“I’ve always been a part of the theatre program, the art program,” he said. “Even though we are an art school, our arts have always been just historically underfunded.”
Despite the underfunding for arts programs, Salinas said IPS plays a crucial role in easing food scarcity for students. He said schools often stay open on snow days to provide students breakfast, lunch and an after-school snack just like they do during every school day.
Without public schools, Salinas fears students will not receive the services they need.
“We need to have the schools open,” Salinas said. “It’s just a lot of these things, like social things that students benefit from. They aren’t required by charter schools.”
Salinas mentioned that Senate Bill 518 would cut funding from IPS schools by forcing them to share property tax revenue with charter schools within their attendance margins.
“You can’t say you’re for school choice while also closing down schools and giving money to schools that are already better funded,” Salinas said.
Britt Booram (left) and Megan Hise hold up a sign made by their kids who were advocating for public school funding at the Indiana Statehouse on Monday.
By Anna Cecil, TheStatehouseFile.com.
The parent perspective
Megan Hise is an IPS mom. Her kids attend Butler Laboratory School.
Like many others, Hise worries her kids’ school will lose funding.
Hise shared that last year, voters passed a referendum that allowed the school her kids attend to receive some cosmetic work. She is afraid that if the proposed legislation passes, it will disrupt the work of the referendum.
“Our kids’ school is not a failing school; it’s a thriving school,” Hise said.
She added that she chose to live in Washington Township so her children could attend their school. Hise worries that with less funding, people will stop choosing to put their kids in schools like Butler Laboratory.
Hise’s friend Britt Booram, whose children attend the same school, is a local real-estate agent whose job is recruiting people to live in Indianapolis. She said many people don’t want to move to Indiana because of divisive policies in education, LGBTQ+ and other areas.
For people who do choose to live in Indiana, specifically Marion County, Booram said if the public schools close to become charter schools, that will be damaging to the county’s property values.
She added that she primarily sells homes to high-income, highly educated individuals like doctors, who may choose not to live in Indy if the schools are underfunded and have low school scores.
“All of the different things that you would want in the complexion of a community matter to them,” Booram said. “If we can’t get good talent in health care and good families in our communities, it hurts everyone.”
Anna Cecil is a reporter for TheStatehouseFile.com, a news website powered by Franklin College journalism students.
