Overview
- At a packed listening session Wednesday, parents, students and educators criticized both proposed governance models as adding bureaucracy without improving classrooms.
- Options under review include a collaborative advisory board spanning IPS and charters or an Indianapolis Education Authority housed in the mayor’s office.
- Key mechanics remain unresolved, including who would appoint authority members and what powers it would hold, after a recent draft removed guaranteed IPS board seats.
- Transportation policy is contested, with IPS Superintendent Aleesia Johnson and several ILEA members favoring a requirement that schools provide busing, while others warn universal service would be too costly.
- Questions about allowing new schools to open and how to handle charter-owned facilities persist, with some members floating a pause on openings and reports noting more than 20 charters own their buildings.