Network of lawmakers and former state board members work to save troubled charter school
05/18/2016
A troubled Gary charter school is just weeks from being closed and is looking to a top education lawmaker to keep its doors open. Thea Bowman Leadership Academy is scheduled to close June 30 and its board member Tony Walker, a former State Board of Education member, is looking to a top lawmaker’s employer for help to keep it open.
The embattled charter school lost its authorizer, Ball State University, in January citing “numerous school board management issues and repeated failures to comply with various state and federal laws.” After being rejected as an authorizer by the Indiana Charter School Board last month, the charter school is now scrambling to find a new authorizing agent before the June 30 deadline.
Thea Bowman has received a grade of D for the last three years.
The efforts to save the charter school have developed into a web of charter school allies who have previous working relationships through the State Board of Education and the state legislature.
Thea Bowman board member Walker tells the Northwest Indiana Times that he is working with Rep. Bob Behning (R – Indianapolis), chair of the House Education Committee, to obtain a new charter authorizer.
Walker is working with Rep. Behning in his capacity as an employee with Marian University’s Academy for Teaching and Learning Leadership. Marian University’s president Daniel Elsener is also a former Gov. Daniels appointee to the State Board of Education that left the board last year. All three men have been outspoken champions of charter schools and growing more in Indiana.
Walker says if the charter “school survives, he’s (Behning) the savior of it.”
As the Times points out, the charter school must get State Board of Education approval to operate under a new charter. The state board’s only scheduled meeting prior to the June 30 deadline is June 1. Outside of an emergency state board meeting, this could be the only opportunity to get board approval.
ISTA will continue to follow this story and will be in attendance at the state board’s meeting June 1.