INDIANAPOLIS — A Senate committee made several changes to a controversial charter school bill at the request of a Gary senator Wednesday.
Sen. Earline Rogers, a Democrat, suggested the bulk of revisions made to House Bill 1002 by the Senate’s education committee. Her new language protects public schools’ transportation dollars and gives them input on the creation of new charter schools. But she also offered alternative language for charter schools to buy or lease unused public school buildings for $1.
Rogers explained her amendments after pointing out to the committee 26 percent of Gary students go to charter schools, higher than any other location in the state.
“I guess I probably had more experience with charter schools than others,” Rogers said.
The bill by Republican House Speaker Brian Bosma of Indianapolis was designed to expand the availability of charter schools in Indiana. The education committee ultimately endorsed the bill in an 8-2 vote. It must be studied by the Senate’s appropriations committee before it is considered by the full chamber.
Under Rogers’ revisions, the bill no longer allows part of a school corporation’s transportation fund levy to be distributed to charter schools. She said some public schools have argued that would be an unnecessary strain on their budgets.
She deleted a provision that would let mayors of second-class cities sponsor a charter school, saying the process of creating a charter school is rigorous. She said she’s concerned some second-class cities don’t have the staff or revenue to fund that process properly.
“We ought not sacrifice quality for quantity,” Rogers said.
She changed a “trigger” for converting public schools into charter schools so 51 percent of the parents and 51 percent of the teachers would need to sign a petition. Local public school boards would also have an opportunity to testify at hearings when new charter schools are considered to explain possible negative effects to the public schools.
“It’s not mandatory on anybody’s part that the local school corporation’s position will prevail,” Rogers said.
Charter schools wouldn’t be allowed to “separate” a student from the school and send the student back to a public school. Rogers said that seemed to give charters the ability to “cherry pick” their students. Instead, students could be expelled, meaning public schools wouldn’t necessarily have to accept the student.
Finally, she inserted language from Senate Bill 446 that would allow charter schools to lease or buy a public school building for $1 after it was unused or unoccupied for two years. The charter school would be responsible for maintenance expenses at the building, including utility payments.
Senate Bill 446 cleared the Senate in February.