Bill Taft: Building on Indy’s educational abundance

My wife and I moved to an old house near downtown in 1991 with our first baby. We formed friendships with a group of young families from the neighborhood who all loved urban parenting. As kids from this group started to reach school age, the families began to move to the suburbs, usually saying they were not comfortable with Indianapolis Public Schools for their children’s education. We shared those fears but decided to stay and build alternative school options, helping to launch the Oaks Academy and Herron High School.

The past 30 years have seen an explosion of K-12 educational options in urban Indy, with more than half of students living in IPS boundaries now attending approximately 60 charter schools or private schools (many using state tuition vouchers). IPS has responded to this competition by increasing the number of specialized magnet schools and transforming their high schools into prep schools for specific professions. State vouchers have made Indy’s wide range of private schools financially attainable for most families.

While school options can vary significantly, urban parents who are willing to be actively engaged in their child’s education can usually find a free and high-quality school that fits their needs in the city. We still need to dramatically improve educational outcomes for low-income students, but research has shown that their learning will accelerate when they share classrooms with middle-class kids.

Future economic prosperity will depend on growing and retaining talented people, and the best way to do that is to raise thriving kids who love their city.

Sadly, this abundance of educational options has not significantly shifted the residential patterns of families in urban neighborhoods. Indianapolis is primarily a city of single-family homes, but it struggles to outcompete surrounding counties to attract families. Some of this can be accomplished just by telling a better story about the rich array of educational options. Other amenities for families such as accessible parks and trails, high-quality child care, restaurants that cater to families, and public safety all take time to improve through a wide range of public and private entities.

Indy could rapidly increase its family appeal by opening wide its elite cultural and recreational assets for special access to city kids. Downtown Indy has amazing sports and cultural amenities, but they seldom tailor their offerings to serve urban families. Just think how the Pacers, Colts, Fever and Indians could host excellent urban sports leagues and camps. The state museum, Newfields and the Indiana Repertory Theatre could offer top-notch art and acting classes, internships and low-cost cultural experiences for families. Our zoo, 16 Tech and our urban universities could open their labs, exhibits and maker spaces to kids with a bent toward the sciences.

Urban park spaces that often sit unprogrammed due to limited public budgets could host off-site activities offered by these institutions. Our underused public amphitheaters, gyms and pools could become bustling homes for excellent programming.

This will not happen without a coordinated effort by civic leaders and implementation by a professional team. Perhaps one of our multiple education innovation organizations could coordinate with institutions to formulate these youth opportunities and promote them to families through targeted regional marketing.

An abundance of accessible educational and cultural opportunities means an abundance of families, and an abundance of families means an abundance of prosperity for all in Indy. The payoff from focusing on families will be young adults who have grown up in the city choosing to stay and start businesses, teach in schools, lead corporations, and raise their own families in the city that offered them such a rich childhood.•

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Bill Taft is director of Interurban at Indianapolis-based Sagamore Institute. Send comments to [email protected].

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