INDIANAPOLIS – A recently formed group representing Indiana’s growing public charter school sector says it’ll push lawmakers to make traditional public schools share local property tax revenue.
Indiana Charter Innovation Center President and CEO Scott Bess said his group’s ask starts with the core principle underlying Indiana’s approach to funding education: money follows the student.
All school types get the same share of money from the state. Charters also get federal dollars.
But charters don’t receive local property tax revenue, so they run on about two-thirds of the funding obtained by traditional public schools, according to a news release Tuesday.
Bess wants to put a dent in that gap. “We may not close the gap entirely, but we have to close it some. And the state isn’t going to make up all that difference,” said Bess, who founded Purdue University’s Polytechnic High School and led it until this summer.
Charters are public schools but are not run by school districts. Instead, they’re headed by nonprofit boards and are overseen by their independent authorizers.
They can control their curriculum, staffing, organization, and budget but must meet academic, financial, and other standards. They’re still required to give students yearly state exams and they receive state ratings. They’re subject to state public records and open-door laws.
According to the Indiana Chater Innovation Center, there are more than 120 charter schools in Indiana, making up about 5% of the state’s total K-12 schools.
Read more of the Leslie Bonilla Muñiz story for the Indiana Capital Chronicle, here.
