It’s easy to feel like America’s public education system is defined by stagnation and decline.
A falling national birth rate is putting more pressure on public school enrollment, even as more families choose private schools or homeschooling. Meanwhile, according to the latest PISA results, American reading scores just hit a generational low. In too many cities and communities, it all adds up to a broken status quo with no solutions in sight.
Yet there are reasons to be hopeful. Indianapolis, long a leader in education reform, offers one of them. This year, statewide proficiency rates on ILEARN—Indiana’s state test—barely moved. Schools run directly by Indianapolis Public Schools, our city’s largest school district, posted stagnant or even declining proficiency levels. Indianapolis charter schools, however, achieved gains that far exceeded state and local averages. That includes both independent charters and innovation charters that partner with the district for services.
This isn’t a one-year blip. Since the pandemic, charter and innovation schools have achieved significant English Language Arts and math proficiency gains across nearly every student subgroup. For example, Black and Hispanic students at innovation charter schools achieved ELA gains at more than four times the rate of their peers at schools directly run by IPS. Additionally, Black, Hispanic and low-income students who attend independent charter schools are two to three times more likely to achieve academic proficiency than their peers in traditional IPS schools.
No doubt, overall proficiency remains too low for schools of all types. But Indianapolis charter schools are on an unmistakably positive trajectory. It bears out the theory of change that charter schools are built on: Give talented school leaders autonomy, hold them accountable for results, and significant learning gains usually follow.
Global Preparatory Academy is a prime example of this theory in action. The school launched on the campus of a shuttered, chronically low-performing district school in 2016. Over the past decade, Global Prep has made steady academic progress and tripled its enrollment. This trajectory led school leadership to add a second campus to house their middle school grades in order to meet the demand from families. Examples like this are found across Indianapolis.
Contrast the growth of schools like Global Prep with the reality that traditional IPS schools just saw their largest single-year enrollment drop since the pandemic. Over the past two years, enrollment in those IPS schools has declined by 9%. Nothing suggests this trend will reverse in the coming years. As a result, IPS faces a $44 million budget deficit this year that is forcing the district into multiple rounds of budget cuts. Financial pressures will only rise if enrollment keeps falling. Many major public school districts nationwide are in a similar boat.
Recognizing this reality and seeking to build on charter schools’ strong performance, Indiana legislative leaders took bold action earlier this year to establish the Indianapolis Public Education Corporation. This new body is designed to bring greater coherence to our city’s choice-filled education landscape and create operational efficiencies for the district. Its nine members are appointed by the mayor and represent IPS, local charter schools, and community leadership.
One of IPEC’s first moves was to advance a property tax referendum on behalf of IPS and charter schools. If the ballot question passes this November, it will mark the first time in IPS’ history that a referendum will be fully shared between traditional public schools and charters. While nearly double the amount of the previous operating referendum supporting IPS, it has received little organized opposition as leaders from different school types collectively advocate for its passage.
Another of IPEC’s key responsibilities is to create a unified accountability framework that applies to all public schools within IPS boundaries. During a July board meeting, IPEC unveiled a vision for a shared performance framework meant to replace the patchwork that exists across IPS and multiple charter school authorizers. IPEC’s framework will provide a mechanism to address schools that consistently struggle to improve student outcomes and inform difficult closure decisions with consistency across school types.
It will be the responsibility of IPS and charter authorizers to implement this framework. Most importantly, all schools will be held to the same standards, and the accountability framework will align with IPEC’s facilities plan to ensure that the best school operators gain access to more space and underutilized buildings are taken offline.
IPEC’s work has not been without controversy. Many traditional public school supporters worry that the school district is losing out in this new, more unified system. Recent actions by the district are stark reminders of why these governance changes were necessary.
While IPS announced plans to withdraw from Indianapolis’ family-friendly unified enrollment system, IPEC has the statutory authority to ensure all schools participate in a unified enrollment system, although it hasn’t yet invoked it. And as IPS threatens to terminate contracts with innovation charter schools, IPEC will soon take over management of district facilities and create a system-level transportation system, thereby allowing charter schools to operate without district interference.
IPS will soon become one of many operators, alongside charter schools, that will compete on a single playing field. Great schools will expand, and low-performing schools will close — regardless of type.
Here’s the lesson for other cities: Policymakers should pair school-level autonomy with system-level accountability and shared infrastructure. This enables the conditions that make charter schools successful to be replicated across more schools, while ensuring the system writ large becomes sustainable for generations to come.
As the country grapples with declining enrollment and increasing school options, will education decisions be driven by a desire to protect the status quo, or will leaders take bold action to create a sustainable system of high-quality public schools? That’s the question education leaders and policymakers in other geographies should be asking themselves.
Putting our collective head in the sand isn’t a solution. Leaders must act now to build the school systems of the future — before it’s too late.
Disclosure: The Mind Trust provides financial support to The 74.