14-03-2025
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.
