Charter group to push for property tax revenue sharing

INDIANAPOLIS (INDIANA CAPITAL CHRONICLE) — A recently formed group representing Indiana’s growing public charter school sector says it’ll push lawmakers to make traditional public schools share local property tax revenue.

Indiana Charter Innovation Center President and CEO Scott Bess said his group’s ask starts with the core principle underlying Indiana’s approach to funding education: money follows the student.

All school types get the same share of money from the state. Charters also get federal dollars.

But charters don’t receive local property tax revenue, so they run on about two-thirds of the funding obtained by traditional public schools, according to a news release Tuesday.

Bess wants to put a dent in that gap.

“We may not close the gap entirely, and that may be impossible to do, but we have to at least close it some. And the state isn’t going to make up all that difference,” said Bess, who founded Purdue University’s Polytechnic High School and led it until this summer.

Charters organize

Charters are public schools, but they’re not run by school districts. Instead, they’re headed by nonprofit boards and are overseen by their independent authorizers.

They can control their own curriculum, staffing, organization, and budget but have to meet academic, financial and other standards. They’re still required to give students yearly state exams and they receive state ratings. They’re subject to state public records and open door laws.

There are more than 120 charter schools in Indiana, making up about 5% of the state’s total K-12 schools, according to the Indiana Charter Innovation Center.

The center soft-launched in August, per Bess.

Already, about 60 schools — some part of the same charter networks — are members of the 501(c)(3) nonprofit. They can access services like webinars on the state insurance plan or common school loan fund, courtesy of Vice President of Strategy Kimberly Reier.

But the center is gearing up for advocacy work, centered on property tax revenue-sharing. It has a 501(c)(4) nonprofit arm — the Indiana Charter Alliance — for lobbying; Reier is its registered lobbyist.

Bess said many charters struggle to add buildings, cover pricier maintenance, or take on other big projects because of funding limitations. His group wants traditional public school districts to share property tax proportionally, according to the number of students who’ve chosen to attend the charter.

But charter advocates, including Bess’ group, have touted charters as more efficient than traditional public schools — a model that does more with less.

The center’s news release cited a 2023 study by the University of Arkansas showing that, for every $1,000 spent, charter students achieved 4.4 to 4.7 points higher on national assessments compared with peers at traditional public schools. But that’s not the end of it, for Bess.

“You could say, based on whatever study you would look, at that charter schools are doing more academically with less money. Our position is that may be true, but if you want to have more good schools (and) if you want the good schools to expand … you have to solve this funding equity issue,” he said.

Group’s plan

It’s set to be a tough legislative session for funding requests. Lawmakers will attempt to balance increasing expenses with lower-than-expected revenues and a full plate of expensive priorities.

Bess said his group’s message aligns with legislative leadership’s signals because charters aren’t pushing for significant new state funding — they seek a share of existing local funding. That change, though, would mean less money for traditional public schools.

The center expects to request modest state funding increases, like in the complexity formula that gives extra aid to schools educating children who are impoverished or who have special needs. The group would also support broad moves for deregulation, per Bess.

As for the center’s focus? Bess said any property tax revenue-sharing would need to be phased in.

“You can’t just cut it all out immediately and say, ‘Hey, sorry. You lost $10 million.’ You’ve got to have some kind of a two- or three-year phase-in,” he said. “You’ve got to think about how might you mitigate some of the negative impact.”

“You want to make sure you don’t fundamentally harm students, but at the same time, you have to be realistic with some districts and say, ‘Look, you can continue to bring in increasing amounts of property tax dollars, and you’re educating fewer students,’” he added. “… There has to be an end to that.”

This story was originally published by Indiana Capital Chronicle Dec. 3, 2024.