'Fix it.' With Hogsett in charge, IPS-charter school alliance moves forward in legislature

A new legislative proposal would bring together Indianapolis Public Schools and the city’s mayor in an alliance that could shape how school buildings and transportation services are managed for both district and public charter school students.

Indianapolis Mayor Joe Hogsett, who will serve as chairman of the alliance, would oversee a plan to review how the district manages these resources.

The move, if passed, gives the Mayor’s Office a crucial role in the future of the state’s largest school district. District officials have been under pressure from former mayors to change how they operate. 

While IPS total enrollment is around 31,000 students, similar to 10 years ago, there have been shifts in where students are enrolled. Fewer students than ever are now attending schools directly operated by district leadership, and instead choosing charter schools that partner with IPS.

Nearly 40% of students who live in IPS boundaries attend charter schools.

The legislation would also enforce a temporary pause on the creation of new charter schools in the district from July to December, except for the mayor's authorizing board. Hogsett requested the pause.

“We would love for them to figure out how to make this work internally, without the legislature having to come in and fix it,” said Rep. Bob Behning (R-Indianapolis) who drafted the original alliance and updated it through an amendment Wednesday. 

Senate Bill 373, which holds the alliance and an optional, statewide pilot program for facilities and transportation consolidation between districts, passed out of the House Education committee with some bipartisan support.  

The Indianapolis Local Education Alliance would exist for about a year and be required to: Conduct facilities assessments of all school buildings, including charter schools and develop a facilities and transportation plan that looks at long-term asset management and sustainability, includes recommendation for structural changes, and manages transportation-related debt, among many other measures.

The proposed nine-member alliance would include IPS Superintendent Aleesia Johnson, Hogsett, and parent representatives from both traditional and charter schools within district boundaries. 

Hogsett, who would serve as chair, appoints four members, including one representing the business community. Johnson appoints two parents—one with a child in an IPS-operated school and one with a child in an innovation network charter school. The IPS Board president appoints one additional member who is not a board member.

Last week, IPS district officials pushed back on different version of the proposal, one that gave appointment power to Gov. Mike Braun, now replaced by Hogsett. 

In a statement released Wednesday, IPS spokesman Marc Ransford wrote that district officials are encouraged by revisions to the alliance. 

“These revisions reflect important progress toward a more collaborative, community-responsive model for public education governance in Indianapolis,” Ransford wrote. “We look forward to working in collaboration with the Mayor of Indianapolis.”

Dan Parker, chief deputy mayor of Indianapolis, told lawmakers Wednesday how the city’s role as a charter authorizer and serving IPS schools led to their involvement in the group.

“Our city has long worked in partnership with our schools,” Parker said. “None more closely, perhaps, than those serving the more than 40,000 students attending traditional public and public Mayor-sponsored charter schools within the Indianapolis Public School boundary. It's because of this decades-long partnership that I'm here today to express the city's support.”

The alliance also seeks to start conversations about charter schools in the city. The mayor’s office asked to halt outside authorizers from granting new charter schools within IPS boundaries, Behning said.

“The mayor had asked – with him taking the leadership on – he asked that just so we're not throwing a lot of changes into the complexity of having charters and Innovation Network Charters, if we could have a pause,” Behning said. 

The Indianapolis Charter School Board, run through the mayor’s office, authorizes the majority of charter schools in IPS boundaries. They have more than 40 charter schools that they sponsor. 

Brandon Brown, CEO of The Mind Trust, said the locally-driven planning process won’t impede new charter schools from opening. The Indianapolis-based nonprofit advocates for and financially supports charter school expansion in the city.

“The mayor's office will continue to have the ability to authorize in that very short window,” Brown said. “It's something that we're comfortable with in the short term, and as always, we would not support any long term restriction on authorizing.”

Brown said he’s excited to see Hogsett take on the leading role to “help to think about where the system will move in the future.”

Following concerns with its first iteration, some House Democrats voiced support of the amended alliance. 

Rep. Ed DeLaney (D-Indianapolis), who voted for the bill’s amendment, said there’s now a “real role” for IPS superintendent, the Mayor’s Office and charter schools in the alliance. 

“We've got a chance to sort of take out a clean sheet of paper and reconfigure it,” DeLaney said. “Instead of having all the fights that have been going on here.”

The alliance would be required to meet by July 1 and submit the school facilities and transportation implementation plan by Dec. 31 to the Secretary of Education, IPS board and Hogsett’s office. 

This alliance expires by March 2026, more “clear deadlines” IPS said.  

“These guardrails ensure focused planning and accountability without creating permanent changes to governance,” Ransford wrote. “We look forward to working in collaboration with the Mayor of Indianapolis.”

Rachel Fradette is the WFYI Statehouse education reporter. Contact Rachel at rfradette@wfyi.org.