Latest news with #AndersonCommunitySchools
Yahoo
25-03-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Local educators see benefits in livestreaming law
Local education administrators are welcoming a new state law that sets forth a mandate for school boards and other agencies to livestream their meetings. The law, set to take effect in July, is aimed at fostering openness in the processes such bodies follow in setting policies and making other decisions. South Madison Community Schools started livestreaming its board meetings on the district's YouTube channel more than a year ago. Board President John Lord said he and his colleagues felt it was important to start livestreaming the meetings. 'We knew there was talk about possibly making a law and we felt like we needed to be more transparent,' Lord said. 'We wanted to give people an opportunity, who could not come to the board meetings, to see what was happening – the discussions, the decisions that have been made.' Lord mentioned he watches other districts' board meetings to see what is going on. He believes the livestreams are 'a positive thing for schools to do.' Lord said he likes that people can go back and review previous livestreams to remain engaged and informed. Brad Meadows, the director of communications and public relations at Anderson Community Schools, runs the livestreams during his district's board meetings. He said ACS began livestreaming its meetings in May 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic. 'With the pandemic, we were not able to have people attend those meetings in person,' Meadows said. 'All of our board members and our superintendent were doing a Zoom meeting that was broadcast live.' Meadows said ACS administrators see many benefits to livestreaming the meetings. 'It is something we kept doing,' he said. 'We have the technology…it helps with transparency, it helps people to stay up to date with what is happening with Anderson Community Schools. If people are not located in Anderson but still want to keep up, they can still watch the meetings. Since it is on Facebook, they can go back and watch it any time they want to.'
Yahoo
14-03-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Editorial: Bill would siphon money from public schools
While Indiana Senate Bill 1, which would reduce property taxes, has gotten the lion's share of attention, other pieces of legislation would also have a profound effect on the state's public schools. Senate Bill 518 is one of the most concerning. Essentially, it would take a portion of funding away from public schools and reallocate it to charter schools. Specifically, the legislation would redirect some local property tax dollars in any public school district where at least 100 children living in the district instead attend a local brick-and-mortar charter school. Currently, charter schools are supported by state funding and do not receive any property tax distributions. This bill represents the statewide expansion of a 2023 law requiring school districts in Marion, Lake, St. Joseph and Vanderburgh counties — all of which have relatively high percentages of students attending charter schools — to share a portion of property taxes used for operations with local charters. Currently in Indiana's 88 other counties, the state sends an extra $1,400 per student to charter schools to make up for the absence of a property tax revenue stream. Under Bill 518, state grant amounts to a charter school would decrease toward zero as the property tax draw of the charter increases toward $1,400 per student. By shifting the funding burden to local property taxpayers, the state would save roughly $19 million across three years. Thirty-six public school districts, including Anderson Community Schools, across the state would be impacted. Initially, the bill would have shifted more than $150 million from public to charter schools over three years. After it ran into opposition in the state Senate from Democrats and some in the Republican majority, the proposal was revised to whittle that figure all the way down to $18.6 million, and it passed the chamber by a narrow 28-21 vote. 'The clear losers here are the students and the parents who have chosen to send their students to traditional public schools,' Senate Minority Leader Shelli Yoder, D-Bloomington, said in an Indiana Capital Chronicle article. 'We hear people talk about school choice, but it robs tax dollars from the parents of 90% of our future students who choose public schools. Where is the respect for their choice? This bill takes away that local choice. It overrides the rule of voters, the will of voters.' Senate Bill 518 now rests with the House Committee on Ways and Means. It should never reach the House floor. While charter schools offer attractive education alternatives to some families, more Hoosier school children would be harmed by this bill. Consider this overwhelming statistic: About 1 million attend the state's public K-12 schools; about 50,000 attend charter schools. The Legislature, in a rush to save money and promote school choice, is jeopardizing the fiscal health of traditional public schools.
