INDIANAPOLIS —The Indianapolis Local Education Alliance recently voted 8-1 to recommend the creation of the Indianapolis Public Education Corporation that could set and enforce standards for both district and charter schools. The new agency would consist of nine members appointed by the mayor: three IPS board members, three charter leaders, and three at-large members, all of whom would have to live within IPS boundaries.
The new corporation would have the power to impose property taxes for both charter and IPS schools. It would also manage the district’s buildings and transportation services through its own staff, establish a framework for school accountability, and manage a unified enrollment system.
If state lawmakers agree to turn the ILEA’s recommendations into law, the vote would mark a significant shift in the city’s education system. IPS would lose power, and charter schools would gain greater influence after years of debate and tension.
The Indianapolis Local Education Alliance alsoo voted to restrict the number of charter school authorizers to the mayor’s Office of Education Innovation, the Indiana Charter School Board, and the IPS school board, which said it will seek to become a charter authorizer. The recommendations also require all schools to offer transportation to students living within the IPS boundary, and exempt IPS buildings from a state law that requires districts to make unused buildings available to charter schools for the sale or lease price of $1.