Students at the Invent Learning Hub charter school in Indianapolis board buses the school pays for at the end of the school day. (Patrick O’Donnell/The 74)
Shawanda Tyson loves the Paramount charter schools in Indianapolis where she sends her young son.
There’s just one big drawback for Tyson in this city where more than half of students attend charters — transportation.
Like most other states, Indiana doesn’t require or pay for buses to bring charter students to classes, which advocates are pushing for as Indiana continues its aggressive support of charter and private schools.
The lack of busing is such a hot button issue that one Indiana charter network advertises on billboards that they offer student transportation. And one Indianapolis charter school director called the lack of busing “an equity issue.”
Though some Indianapolis charter schools dig into their budgets to pay as much as $1 million a year for buses, most, like Paramount, don’t want to sacrifice academics for transportation. That leaves parents like Tyson to fend for themselves, often making logistically complicated arrangements such as carpooling with other families or relatives.
Tyson usually drops her son, 9, off with an aunt early each morning who then brings him and other kids to Paramount. “It’s a major issue,” said Tyson. “Parents like me have to reach out to other parents to get help.”
Tyson and her aunt have developed “a system” to get their kids to school. “Some days I’m off work and I do the pick-up,” she said, “ but it gets hard.”
Transportation has long been a pressure point in Indiana and nationally for charter and voucher schools, with backers arguing students have to be able to get to a school for it to be a real choice.
School districts often balk at paying to take students to schools they view as competition. Practically, district and charter school schedules don’t always align, creating conflicts around drop off and pickup times.
In Indiana, some Republican state legislators want an overhaul of school transportation and have proposed combining busing for district, charter and private school students into a single system in Indianapolis and four other cities.
The education pro-charter advocacy group ExcelInEd rates Indiana as one of 20 states with “limited” transportation for charter and private school students. Neighboring states such as Illinois and Ohio, are rated as “fair” to charter students by offering similar busing as district students.
A busing bill has been on hold, however, while the state is embroiled in a battle over the broader issue of how it pays for charter schools.
The Indianapolis Public Schools board has pushed back, calling for a moratorium on adding new charter schools and maintaining local control. Board members and residents object to state plans to take money from the district and give it to charters, saying it would force them to close 20 schools.
The bill drawing district complaints, Senate Bill 518, would shift some local property taxes from school districts to charters. It passed the Senate last month after heated debate.
Backers say sharing taxes is needed to close a funding gap between districts and charter schools — a gap of $8,000 in Indianapolis with the district spending $18,500 and charters $10,600. Critics say districts will have to close schools and cut programs if they lose money.
If passed, the tax-sharing bill could give charters enough money to afford buses for students. That’s one reason parents like Ada Remus, whose son attends Edison School of the Arts, an unusual independent school in Indianapolis, supports the tax-sharing, even as the Indianapolis Public Schools district opposes it.
“Even when great schools exist, they often lack transportation, leaving families like mine on the far east side without access,” Remus told the Indianapolis Public Schools board last week. “If funding were more equitable, more families, including mine, would have access to better schools without worrying about how to get there.”
Other Indianapolis parents and teachers blasted state officials for threatening to take money away from the district and raised concerns over what might be cut.
“Everyone in this room, commissioners or not, must realize that for the foreseeable future, the state will be run by rural and suburban Republicans with neither interest in nor affection for the city of Indianapolis,” city resident Guthrie Beyer told the board.
Indiana bill to shift more dollars from traditional publics to charter schools earns Senate approval
Alecia Ostler, executive director of the Invent Learning Hub charter school, said she decided to pay for buses when the school launched six years ago to make sure transportation didn’t prevent families from enrolling. She now pays nearly $200,000 a year for three buses that transport 60 percent of her students.
“This is inner-city, so quite honestly, there are just some situations where families are like,’ I don’t feel comfortable with my child having to walk there’,” Ostler said. “But then we have some families that don’t have transportation, so they really lean on that bus. They’re not going to be able to get them here without that.”
“Transportation is an equity issue,” she added. “There needs to be consideration given to the needs of families.”
A small group of charter or independent schools avoid those expenses by partnering with the Indianapolis Public Schools as part of its unique Innovation Schools network — in which the district shares a mix of busing, school buildings and technology support with 30 schools that would typically be shunned as competitors.
District officials estimate they spend about $12 million a year to provide transportation for 17 of the 30 Innovation Schools. Those include KIPP Indy charter schools that boast of having “Transportation Available” on billboards promoting them.
“It’s core and essential to our model,” said Andy Seibert, KIPP Indy’s executive director.
Advocates are still holding out hope for a common transportation system that would drastically change school busing in the city. State Rep. Bob Behning, chairman of the House education committee, has proposed creating a central authority to oversee transportation for students of district, charter and private schools.
Indianapolis Public Schools officials object to how Behning’s proposal would put busing under a new panel mostly appointed by state officials. District officials oppose the state’s Republican supermajority picking a panel overseeing the city’s largely minority and Democratic residents.
“The question really needs to be debated by the community instead of as a piece of legislation that comes down the pipeline,” said IPS Deputy Superintendent Andrew Strope. “It kind of takes away the power of the people through an elected board.”
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