IPS plans to renegotiate charter agreements

The big picture: The relationship between IPS and its charter partners has been strained for the last several years, as state lawmakers have made changes that shift more money away from traditional districts to charter schools.

• Last year's property tax law, Senate Enrolled Act 1, cut how much money schools and other local units of government receive from property taxes and also phased in sharing of those funds with charter schools over four years.
• IPS says SEA 1 is a big reason it's asking voters for a property tax referendum.

Yes, but: Because it would have to share those proceeds with eligible charter schools, the district would still have an estimated $20 million budget hole to close — if the referendum succeeds.

• Without it, the district would be looking at a gap of more than $60 million, according to the IPS board.

What they're saying: In a statement, IPS tells Axios that it has not issued notices of termination to any Innovation Network school and it's not considering any changes for the current school year.

• Last week, the district says, it told partners that the board "will need to take the formal action to provide a notice of termination of the Innovation contract as a necessary legal step to explore more fiscally responsible arrangements."
• The district says that its goal is to preserve Innovation Network partnerships, but that it needs to charge more for the services it provides those schools, such as transportation.

"This is one part of an approach that also includes other very hard decisions," Superintendent Aleesia Johnson said in a video released last night, "like school mergers or reduction of other services we currently provide."

• IPS is not trying to turn a profit, Johnson said, but to cover its costs.

Between the lines: State law caps what the district can charge for those services.

• IPS says that, in some cases, the costs of providing services are higher than what it's able to charge and it's now having to share with charters the money that it used to fund those services.
• The district says that in the upcoming legislative session, it "will advocate for policy changes that allow service charges to reflect actual costs."

The other side: Charter advocates say those caps are designed to protect charter schools and prevent IPS from double-dipping — receiving property tax revenue for charter school students and then charging the schools they attend the full cost for the services.

• "Based on what school leaders have been told, IPS is not simply trying to renegotiate the current innovation agreements," The Mind Trust, an advocacy group that helped launch many local charter schools, tells Axios. "IPS plans to end most innovation charter agreements and then offer those schools separate service contracts to get around service fee caps in the innovation school law."
• The Mind Trust and the Indiana Charter Innovation Center say they're disappointed with IPS' recent actions — including the district's decision last month to withdraw from the unified enrollment system that it and many charter schools had shared for years.

Friction point: State Rep. Bob Behning (R-Indianapolis), chair of the House Education Committee, says he doesn't expect there to be much interest in allowing IPS to charge more until funding changes that establish parity between traditional districts and charter schools are fully phased in — another three to four years, he says.

• "I think canceling all these contracts is troubling," he tells Axios.

What's next: The IPS board has a work session on Oct. 20. An agenda has not been released.