DeLaney comments on lawsuit challenging $1 charter law

INDIANAPOLIS – State Rep. Ed DeLaney (D-Indianapolis) today issued the following statement on the lawsuit West Lafayette Community Schools has filed that says an Indiana law that allows charter schools to buy unused school buildings for $1 is unconstitutional:

“I read with interest of the new lawsuit attacking Indiana’s Dollar Law under which charter schools can acquire a vacant public school building for the grand total of $1.  

“It is understandable why school districts that have paid large amounts of taxpayer dollars for a school building do not agree with selling it to a competitor for this price. The school corporation could keep the facility available for future use or to sell for a profit and pay down their debt. Instead, the new charter school gets the deal of a lifetime and then gets straight to work on recruiting away students who are funded by state dollars. Meanwhile, the local school district’s efforts to manage its properties and to serve its students are completely undercut. And the public is left with a school it does not control and a building it no longer owns.

“The root cause of this whole problem is that the supermajority has set traditional public schools up to appear to fail in an effort to privatize our education system and they are succeeding. The charter backers are now moving beyond our larger cities to expand statewide. Under Republican leadership, our traditional public schools are running on razor thin budgets.  And when our school corporations' backs are really up against the wall, their only way out is to fuel their competitor! The only winners under the Dollar Law are the entities running charter schools in our state. This is another textbook example of Indiana Republicans rigging our education system to benefit the ‘choice’ movement rather than our traditional public schools, teachers and students.”