The next education reform should be to limit the number of charter authorizers operating in Indianapolis

The next innovation in education should be limiting the number of charter school authorizers operating in Indianapolis. Currently, there are 11 different entities that can authorize charter schools in Indianapolis. Organizations like Trine University based in Angola, Indiana — over 100 miles away can significantly impact the educational landscape of inner-city Indianapolis through the authorization of charter schools. For example, Trine University has authorized seven schools with six in the IPS district and a seventh planned for Pike Township but has received significant community pushback. While there’s a lot that we still need to understand regarding the long-term efficacy and impacts of charters on a community — charter schools are not going away. While simply stating “charter schools” outperform IPS is too simplistic of an analysis given that each charter is an independent school system — there are certainly high-performing charter schools. Candidly, parents are also exercising their prerogative to send their children to charter schools. That is how school choice works. But it seems fiscally irresponsible to continue to take the limited financial resources within the Indianapolis Public School district and to smear them across separate charter school systems within one district — especially with virtually no constraints on...