Remember the halcyon first months of 2023? Before that year became the hottest year on record and it turned into 2024, which brought a looming national election that fills most of America with nothing but dread? Yeah, me neither, but we should, because the chickens born in early 2023 may be looking for a roost come late 2024.

Where the Story Begins

In late 2022, Indianapolis Public Schools rolled out their Rebuilding Stronger initiative. With it, they noted an intention to go out for both a capital referendum and an operating referendum to implement this wide-reaching strategy.

By February of 2023, the operating referendum was dead, a major blow to IPS’ plans. They dropped it due to concerted pushback from charter school advocates (unhappy with the district’s unwillingness to share referendum funds with all charter schools alongside its refusal to consider wider partnership with high-performing charter schools) and the business community (namely, Indy Chamber, unhappy with the tax implications of the price tag).

The capital referendum moved forward as planned, passing in May 2023 by a considerable margin. But the lack of new operating funds meant the sweeping changes outlined by Rebuilding Stronger were in jeopardy.

Even without the operating referendum, the district announced they would move forward with Rebuilding Stronger as planned. Toward the end of said announcement, they snuck in the motion that they would need to renew the current operating referendum before it expires in 2026. That brings us to the Year of Our Lord 2024 and a new campaign called “Better Together.”

What is “Better Together”?

The “Better Together” campaign is a grassroots initiative of parents, community members, and charter school advocates. (It’s worth noting the campaign is in partnership with Stand for Children Indiana and EmpowerED Families, two groups that often support charter school expansion.) Toward the end of January, they delivered a petition to the IPS board (signed by over 1,000 Center Township residents). Their key request? For IPS to establish a plan by June 2024 that would forge new partnerships with schools that post strong academic results for Black and Latino students.

Partnership between the district and charter schools could come in many forms. One existing method is the Innovation School Network. Many schools in this network are charter schools. By being part of the Innovation School Network, they operate autonomously while being able to take advantage of certain district services. It’s essentially a hybrid between the classic charter school and the classic public school. The district’s application for schools to join the Innovation Network is yet to open this year. When it does, more schools may apply to join.

Another area of possible partnership has to do with the six buildings IPS closed as part of the reorganization being undertaken with Rebuilding Stronger. Multiple charter schools have already expressed interest in making use of those shuttered buildings. But IPS does not, at least so far, seem interested in sharing this real estate.

IPS could also dream up some new form of partnership not mentioned above. Or they could, in essence, tell this campaign to kick rocks.

The Basis for the Petition

Back to the petition. Its core ask stems from 2023 ILEARN data showing an opportunity gap between white students and students of color in IPS. (Not to mention low academic performance overall. This Chalkbeat article offers a really nice data comparison.) The IPS pass rate for white students is 36.3%, for Black students it is 5.4%, and for Latino students it is 8.3%. Performance is (I’m not going to hold punches here) woeful across the board.

Now, gaps exist for independent charter schools too. And while their raw proficiency also isn’t stellar, it’s better in most cases. And in some, like with Paramount Schools of Excellence, it is much better than that of IPS. The only IPS school in the top quartile of performance for Black and Latino students and low-income students is Sidener Academy for High Ability Students. That’s not an easily replicable school model, nor is it even accessible to the vast majority of students in the first place.

Meanwhile, Paramount’s network has successfully expanded multiple times in recent years without a drop in quality (three of their schools were in the top performance quartile with Sidener) and they enroll any student who wants to attend. You can see why the “Better Together” campaign might push for more partnership between IPS and high-quality operators like Paramount. Paramount’s model is getting results. IPS schools, in general, do not. It would seem to be a no-brainer if we care more about kids than school classification.

So Will There Be an Operating Referendum Request This Year?

Community members and charter advocacy groups engaged with the “Better Together” campaign have staked out their position. Shot their shot, if you will. Were IPS to propose a referendum this year, it’s not a stretch to assume it would need to be packaged alongside fundamentally different conditions to get these folks’ support.  

All is speculation at this point for whether or not IPS will even seek an operating referendum this year. I have no special inside information. No crystal ball. But IPS already indicated they need to renew their current operating referendum before it expires. That set the clock ticking. With Rebuilding Stronger in full swing, my money is on them trotting a new referendum request out sooner rather than later. Read: this year.

The capital referendum only goes so far. If the district wants to make good on the strategy behind Rebuilding Stronger, I don’t see a way forward without an operating referendum. The math doesn’t math otherwise. And if that’s their plan, they need a fundamentally different engagement strategy with groups like “Better Together” (and a more productive approach to partnering with local charter schools, ideally by June 2024) if they want to avoid a repeat of those halcyon early days of 2023.