Gary Unites Against Bill That Could Erase Public Schools

Yahoo

31-01-2025

With a possible hearing in the Statehouse for House Bill 1136 looming, the fight over the future of public education in Gary has escalated into a battle for the district's survival. Seeing the bill as a direct threat to its schools and community, the Gary Common Council voted unanimously on Jan. 21 to approve a resolution condemning the bill.
The resolution is the latest sign of growing opposition in Gary to the bill, which was written by members of the Republican caucus of the state legislature and has sparked a citywide effort to rally against it. Just months after regaining local control following seven years of state-appointed management, city officials and community leaders argue that the bill threatens to erase the progress made in restoring the district before it has had time to stabilize.
'House Bill 1136 will cause impacted school districts to potentially lose oversight and open ownership of school assets, property and additional value of historic significance to the city of Gary, Indiana,' the resolution reads.
House Bill 1136 would dissolve Indiana school districts where less than 50% of resident students attend public schools within the district, converting those public schools into charter schools by July 2028. If passed, the bill would impact five Indiana school districts and 68 schools statewide, including the Gary Community School Corporation.
Gary's public school system has shrunk significantly in recent years, leaving families with more nonpublic school options than public ones. The Gary Community School Corporation currently operates 11 schools, including a virtual academy and a single public high school. By contrast, there are 12 nonpublic schools available to Gary students, including five alternative high school options.
With more charter and private institutions than traditional public schools, many families have opted for nonpublic education, whether due to school closures, academic offerings, or concerns about the state-managed district's past financial struggles. This imbalance in available options has contributed to the low in-district enrollment — one of the key metrics House Bill 1136 uses to determine whether a school system should be dissolved and its schools converted into charters.
At recent school board and council meetings, community leaders and residents have voiced concerns that House Bill 1136 could strip local control and erase key parts of Gary's history. The resolution passed this month by the Gary Common Council echoes those fears, warning of the bill's potential impact on the city's schools and assets.
Councilman Darren Washington, a former member of Gary's school board and author of the resolution, told Capital B Gary the bill would render the years of the state takeover pointless.
'Our take is, if you put us through a seven-year probationary period managing our funds with an emergency manager, how can you allow the Gary Community School Corporation to be a part of legislation that could potentially unearth all the hard work that was done by the school district, the teachers and the emergency manager?' Washington asked.
'It seems that this bill's goal is to turn those schools into charter schools.'
Gary resident Natalie Ammons spoke publicly at the council meeting shortly before the resolution's passage, encouraging neighbors to join the fight.
'House Bill 1136 is detrimental to our community,' she said. 'We need to all join together and fight this bill and make sure that it does not dismantle the education system here. Get in touch with someone. Make the phone calls. Make the meetings. Do whatever we can to save our schools.'
According to Gary Community School Corporation data, nearly 400 students have enrolled since local control was restored in October. However, the bill designates October 2024 as the enrollment count deadline, raising concerns about its impact on the district's recent progress.
The bill has not yet advanced out of the House Education Committee, leaving some legislators questioning its true purpose.
'One of the things that we're hearing is that it's being put out as a bargaining chip,' said Democratic state Sen. Andrea Hunley of Indianapolis, whose public school district would also be dissolved under the legislation. 'It's being put out as a threat of what could pass in order to negotiate on other issues. That's not how we do legislation here in Indiana.'
'We do not send entire communities into distress. We do not send teachers and our most vulnerable students into a panic because of the threat of disbanding school boards. This bill would completely eliminate those elected positions that are our closest elected positions to our communities, and we definitely do not want to see the further erosion of public education.'
Beyond the political implications, Michaela Spangenburg of the Gary Education Coalition said she is most troubled by the lack of community input in how charter schools are run. She also raised concerns about the quality of education they provide compared to traditional public schools.'All the mechanisms that we take for granted within a school do not necessarily exist within a charter school and can be very easily removed and changed within charter school systems compared to a public school system,' she said.
The school district has also called on the community for support, urging residents to speak out as it fights for its survival.
GCSC Superintendent Yvonne Stokes said the district is still in the early stages of rebuilding and needs time to continue its progress.
'It has only been six months since the Gary Community School Corporation was released from a seven-year state takeover. During this time, there was an exodus of thousands of students from the district. Since regaining local control, we have been laser-focused on increasing enrollment, maintaining financial solvency, and enhancing curriculum to improve the overall educational experience for children,' Stokes said.
Spangenburg encouraged residents to be proactive not just with reaching out to their representatives, but those in other areas of the state.
'Our legislators in our district agree with us,' she said. 'They are already fighting the fight. We have to make sure we're talking to people who may not be familiar with us. Or who may not have anybody that's talking to them.'
She added, 'I really hope that we can all come together as a community and actually start to fight hard. At the end of the day, the community has to set the agenda nine times out of 10 for anything to get done.'
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