Community organizes against Indiana charter school bill INDIANAPOLIS (WISH) — Community leaders met in Indianapolis to discuss charter schools in reaction to Indiana House Bill 1136, which aims to dismantle schools where more than 50% of the students opt to enroll elsewhere. Advocates says the bill, if passed by the legislature and signed by Gov. Mike Braun, would likely affect the public school systems in Indianapolis and Gary. It would transition all of the schools in those corporations to charter schools with new governing boards and requirements. Jim Scheurich is an Indiana University Indianapolis professor. He’s against this proposed legislation. He spoke Thursday night on a panel called “Saving Public Education: Addressing the Charter School Myth” to educate the community about charter schools. The panel met at Olivet Baptist Church. “I’ve never seen people more upset,” Scheurich said. Scheurich says research varies, but some studies show traditional schools as better and some show charters on top. “Overall, (the research is) about even. So, we’ve gone through this enormous chaos of schooling for virtually nothing.” Parents were concerned about the lack of stability and oversight the charter school plan could bring to their child’s education. Kristin Berry, parent with students in the Indianapolis Public Schools system, said, “I have a lot of concerns about how that will affect my child personally (and) the funding for my child’s school.” Scheurich says charter schools can face issues and have previously shut down in the middle of the school year. “There’s just so much that it left out, the problem it left out. One of the ones is the chaos. Schools will just close in the middle of the semester, or you work hard to get your kids in one school and that will just close and you have to look for another school.” One person at the event spoke in favor of charter schools and told the panelists that attending a charter school changed the trajectory of his life. House Bill 1136 has been referred to the House Education Committee, but no hearing has been set, according to the legislative website.