LOCAL

Under BSU's control, Muncie schools might be run like a lab/charter school

Seth Slabaugh
The Star Press

INDIANAPOLIS — Ball State University would be free to govern Muncie Community Schools like a laboratory school, charter school or Innovation Network School under legislation advancing in the Indiana General Assembly.

Senator Karen Tallian listens in the Senate chambers, Wednesday, January 27, 2016.  LGBT legislation in SB100 and SB344 was discussed in the Senate Rules Committee hearing with parties from both sides present.

During a hearing on Thursday, Sen. Karen Tallian, D-Portage, questioned the bill's author, Rep. Tim Brown, R-Crawfordsville, and the university president about a provision that would exclude a BSU-run MCS from having to follow numerous education laws.

The bill would allow BSU to govern financially distressed MCS effective July 1 by appointing a new seven-member school board to replace the current five-member elected school board.

►RELATED: Majority of Muncie school board backs BSU takeover

There is a list four pages long, Tallian said, of "a huge part" of the Title 20 education code that the school district would not be required to follow, such as collective bargaining rights for teachers, health insurance, "the entire body of the school transportation law," accreditation, equal education opportunity, teacher licensing, "the whole body of law about school curriculum" and data reporting.

The bill originated in Brown's House Ways and Means Committee and "never went through the education committee," Tallian noted, "and we haven't heard from the department of education," so she asked, "Who put this list together?"

" …We looked at some of the charter school language and the Innovation Network language and the laboratory school language to mirror what a laboratory school looked like," Brown said during the hearing before the Senate Appropriations Committee.

The only Innovation Network Schools in Indiana are operated by Indianapolis Public Schools. Their purpose is to give IPS greater flexibility to make decisions based on the needs of the student body.

"What we are going to require, we are going to require what kids are doing and not focus on what adults are doing," Brown said, adding the Muncie school district would still be graded by the state's accountability system based on student test scores and other metrics.

A laboratory school is a school run by a university, like Ball State's highly rated Burris Laboratory School, which has much less poverty among students and many fewer minority students than the city school district.

Unlike teachers in Indiana's traditional public schools, Burris teachers lack collective bargaining rights. Charter schools are not required to participate in collective bargaining with teachers, either.

A charter school is a public school operating under a contract, or charter, between the school's organizers and a charter school authorizer, such as BSU, which oversees but doesn't manage more than two dozen charter schools around the state, nearly half of which are rated D or F.

RELATED: BSU says its charter school track record is irrelevant to Muncie takeover plan

Charter schools are given freedom and flexibility in exchange for exceptional levels of accountability, according to the Indiana Charter School Board. They were enabled by the state to provide innovative and creative educational choices for students and their parents, so they are exempt from some state and school district regulations and have more autonomy than traditional public schools.

After Mearns testified, Tallian told him, "Basically, we would be giving you these (Muncie) schools and telling you all the laws that apply to all of the other public schools in the state of Indiana don't apply to you. I don't understand how this bill justifies all of those exceptions. If it's such a great idea, we could just get rid of Title 20 for all of the state of Indiana."

"Senator, is there a question?" Mearns asked.

"Yeah, there's a question: How do you justify this list?"

"What we asked Chairman Brown," Mearns answered, "is to give us the kind of regulatory flexibility that we believe is necessary to provide outstanding academic programs for the children of Muncie. We were not attempting, and I think the legislation is clear, this is not designed to be a model that could be replicated in other districts. It is to deal with the unique assets and resources and experience of Ball State University and our proximity to Muncie Community Schools."

Tallian, whose party is in the super-minority, said she was shocked when she first saw the bill, HB 1315, because the Legislature already created a process in prior sessions to head off school district insolvencies through the state's Distressed Unit Appeal Board.

►RELATED: Emergency manager of Muncie schools beefs up staff

"So we put the process together … and it's moving along, then last year we got Muncie declared fiscally, I don't know if it was declared distressed, but it was fiscally endangered, and we put this (emergency manager) process in place for them and the ink is still wet on the guy's contract (the emergency manager)."

Actually, the state still has not yet even signed a new contract with the emergency manager it placed in full control of Muncie schools effective Jan. 1.

Tallian went on, "Now we have a whole new plan. I find that plan to be like, kind of wild and out there. Ball State taking over. We've never done this before … How can we do this? It's like being on a merry-go-round, and every session we come up with a new plan. I am amazed."

►MCS FINANCES: The $10 million question: What happened to Muncie Schools' money?

Brown responded to Tallian and other critics by going over the Muncie school district's financial faults, such as using a $10 million bond that was "promised to the taxpayers for capital projects and putting it into operations." Some Muncie schools are only at 50-percent occupancy, he continued. Faced with declining enrollment, the Muncie school board "put off and delayed decisions," and "it's affecting the educational status of children."

The lawmaker also cited a year-end report a consultant submitted to Delaware County government recently. It found that the three biggest challenges facing Muncie/Delaware County's economic development efforts were government corruption; a workforce shortage a skills gaps, drug abuse and population loss; and Muncie Community Schools.

CONSULTANT: Muncie corruption, schools, workforce are 'challenges' for economic development

Brown concluded with the old saying that insanity is "doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results," except he substituted the word "irrational" for insane to describe the actions of Muncie school officials.

Seth Slabaugh can be reached at (765) 213-5834 or seths@muncie.gannett.com.