HB1515 Pop up charters and siphoning funding and students — without any say from local authorities about whether it is appropriate or safe to do so. 

HB 1515 started as a pretty innocent neutral bill in comparison to other bills this session. However, Amendment 6 made it a pro privatization bill—a gift for the charter lobby. 

Put simply, the amendment  “restricts a county, city, or town (unit) in using the unit’s planning and zoning authority to regulate a school corporation’s or charter school’s use of school property. Provides the following regarding a charter school: (1) A charter school is a permitted use in all zoning districts. (2) A charter school’s land use application must be processed by a unit on a first priority basis.”  The amendment was brought to the House Education Committee Chair by the Charter School Association. It was in response to one of the hurdles experienced by the Girl Scout STEM charter school in Indianapolis. The other hurdles were people who just didn’t want yet another charter school in a saturated market.  

This bill is assigned to the Senate Education and Career Development Committee and is up for Amend and Vote Only in the committee on Wednesday, March 12 at 1:30pm.

Please contact the committee members to let them know you oppose the egregious language in the bill. It gives charter schools carte blanche to get established with no local control over zoning and negates community voices. If charter schools are public schools, why do they get special treatment compared to traditional public schools?

Senate Education and Career Development Committee Members

Sen. Jeff Raatz, Chair (R) District 27 – Email: s27@iga.in.gov 
Sen. Greg Goode, Ranking Member (R) District 38 – Email: s38@iga.in.gov
Sen. Brian Buchanan (R) District 7 – Email: s7@iga.in.gov
Sen. Gary Byrne (R) District 47 – Email: s47@iga.in.gov
Sen. Spencer Deery (R ) District 23 – Email: s23@iga.in.gov
Sen. Stacey Donato (R ) District 18 – Email: s18@iga.in.gov
Sen. Tyler Johnson (R ) District 14 – Email: s14@iga.in.gov
Sen. Linda Rogers (R ) District 11 – Email: s11@iga.in.gov
Sen. Daryl Schmitt (R) District 48 – Email: s48@iga.in.gov
Sen. J.D. Ford, Ranking Minority Member (D) District 29 – Email: s29@iga.in.gov
Sen. Andrea Hunley (D) District 46 – Email: s46@iga.in.gov
Sen. Fady Qaddoura (D) District 30 – Email: s30@iga.in.gov
Sen. Shelli Yoder (D ) District 40 – Email: s40@iga.in.gov

To email all at once, copy and paste the addresses into the “To” field of your email.

s27@iga.in.gov
s38@iga.in.gov
s7@iga.in.gov
s47@iga.in.gov
s23@iga.in.gov
s18@iga.in.gov
s14@iga.in.gov
s11@iga.in.gov
s48@iga.in.gov
s29@iga.in.gov
s46@iga.in.gov
s30@iga.in.gov
s40@iga.in.gov