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Twenty years have passed since Hurricane Katrina devastated New Orleans and forced the city to rebuild its education system. As a result, New Orleans became the first major city in the country to completely restructure its school system, rebuilding it from the ground up by giving schools much more power over decision making and restructuring the role of the central office.
These changes led to exceptional improvements in academic outcomes. In the two decades since, no city has attempted such an ambitious structural reform.
Until now.
Last week, the Indiana General Assembly passed House Bill 1423, a dramatic restructuring of the public school system within the boundaries of Indianapolis Public Schools. The bill was a direct result of recommendations made by the Indianapolis Local Education Alliance, a nine-member panel of local education and civic leaders. Chaired by Mayor Joe Hogsett, the alliance voted 8-1 in December to support a series of recommendations that would, among other things, restructure the management of facilities and transportation for public schools within IPS.
The new law creates the Indianapolis Public Education Corp., which will have a nine-member board appointed by the mayor. Board members will include representatives from IPS and charter schools as well as facilities and transportation experts who will bring with them extensive knowledge of sound business practices. This new entity will be tasked with several key activities, among them:
• Creating a unified transportation plan to ensure that all public-school students have access to quality, efficient transportation.
• Developing a system-level facilities plan that would maintain and potentially own facilities for all schools that choose to opt in.
• Levying property taxes for both operating and capital costs so that all public schools within IPS boundaries will benefit equally.
• Establishing a unified performance framework, including the default closure of persistently low-performing schools, that charter authorizers and IPS would be tasked with implementing.
All of this comes at a critical time for IPS. Today, a clear majority of public-school students within IPS boundaries attend charter schools, not IPS-managed schools. IPS has struggled to adjust to this new reality and, as a result, is running a $44 million structural deficit this school year, which is projected to grow significantly in the coming years. Without major changes, IPS will exhaust its rainy-day fund next year, risking insolvency and state takeover.
Underused buildings and inefficient operations are key drivers of the district’s financial woes, and an independently governed authority has the potential to both significantly downsize the district’s facility footprint and ensure the efficient provision of transportation. This structure also benefits charter schools by ensuring universal access to transportation and fully eliminating the approximately $8,000 per-pupil charter funding disparity over time.
While hard decisions remain for IPS, HEA 1423 creates the opportunity for a restructured school system, acknowledging that the status quo was no longer acceptable. The revolutionary component of HEA 1423 is simple but powerful: separating the education of children from the management of operations. This approach allows educators to focus more time on what’s happening in the classroom.
Critically, HEA 1423 allows for greater efficiency and coordination at the system level while safeguarding school autonomy and the ability to innovate at the school level. The new corporation’s role is well-defined and limited to facilities, transportation and the creation of a new performance framework. Schools will be in charge of what happens inside classrooms and will even have the option to continue owning their buildings if they feel the facilities plan does not meet their unique needs. A collaborative, multiyear planning process will ensure thoughtful implementation and the ability to identify legislative tweaks as we go.
Unlike New Orleans, where a hurricane forced leaders to quickly rebuild a school system, Indianapolis’ approach is a product of years of methodical reforms and, more recently, a diverse group of local leaders coming together to boldly reimagine what’s possible. HEA 1423 puts local elected officials, such as the mayor, in charge of forging a path to a strong and sustainable school system that works for all students.
Indianapolis has been a national leader in education innovation since the 2001 passage of the state’s charter school law. Through three different mayors of both political parties, strong mayoral and civic leadership have been the cornerstone of that progress. A growing body of research shows that the growth of charter schools in Indianapolis has led students to significantly more academic progress, closed achievement gaps, and helped usher in key system-level reforms.
HEA 1423 is the culmination of 25 years of concerted work to create an education system that allows all students to unlock their full potential. Now the hardest work begins — implementing this system in a way that significantly improves student achievement and forever breaks the connection between a student’s socioeconomic background, student success and long-term life outcomes.
If we as adults do our jobs well in the coming years, it won’t take another two decades for a major American city to replicate our success. Now is the time to come together, roll up our sleeves and get to work.
Our children are depending on us.•
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Brown is CEO of The Mind Trust.
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