Ball State has sponsored two more charter schools and has once again established itself as the state leader in the initiative.
During the university's winter vacation, President Blaine Brownell approved the two new schools and increased Ball State's total to nine. Previously the university and the mayor of Indianapolis had each sponsored seven schools.
Ball State was the first institution in the state to sponsor the experimental schools, which are funded like public schools but operate off a contract, or charter.
Charter schools are designed to give parents a choice, and they are given greater latitude in curriculum.
The newest members of Ball State's charter family are the Thea Bowman Leadership Academy in Gary and the Urban Brightest Community Academy in Fort Wayne, which was rejected in the first round of applicants last year.
Details about each school can be found at www.bsu.edu/teachers under the "Charter Schools" link.
"They stood out among the others," said Ken Miller, the assistant to the dean in the Teachers College, who has headed up Ball State's charter school efforts.
Thea Bowman will house more than 300 students. One of its board members, Anne Thompson, said she hopes to give choices to the poorer students in urban areas of school.
"I feel very strongly that parents should have a choice," Thompson said. "Strong teachers in a nurturing environment can produce children who grow and learn."
The contact person for Urban Brightest, Sylvester Hunter, would not return phone calls. According to the proposal to charter, the academy will focus on math, science and technology for students in grades kindergarten through eighth.
Urban Brightest will open in the Fort Wayne Community School District. It will not only compete with the public schools, but one of Ball State's previously chartered schools -- the Timothy L. Johnson Academy in Fort Wayne.
The presence of a second school has once again raised the ire of Thomas Fowler-Finn, the superintendent of Fort Wayne Community Schools. Fowler-Finn has been one of the most vocal critics of the initiative. He even banned university faculty from evaluating student teachers in the district after Ball State chartered the Johnson academy.
Fowler-Finn said the academy has already cost his school about $500 million. Another school, he said, would cost him about a million more.
"We feel that Ball State has abandoned public education," said Fowler-Finn. "It's surprising to me that Ball State would want to sponsor another charter school when the first one was such a disaster."
The superintendent said about 25 percent of the staff at the Johnson Academy have already left, including the principal. Also, about 25 students have left the school.
Miller maintains that some of the faculty and students who left did so because they left the state. He also said the principal was replaced in only a matter of days.
"Everything seems to be going very well," Miller said. "It is not totally unusual for a school to have that happen to it."
A full review of the schools that have opened is scheduled at the end of the school year, and in early April, Miller plans on beginning the application process anew.
In the intervening months, Fowler-Finn said he will fight within the General Assembly to put a moratorium on chartering more schools.
Miller said he knows some legislators have considered such a tactic, but he has not heard of any specific bill that would do so.
A moratorium would not affect Ball State nor its students financially, Miller said. The bulk of the university's expenses are covered through several grants, he said.
Ball State has also received most of the 3 percent of the state funding allocated to its charter schools.
Earlier last year, Chairman of the House Education Committee Greg Porter, D-Indianapolis, said he was not sure how to fund both charter schools and public schools given the state deficit.
The deficit has dwindled somewhat over the past few months, but concerns still exist among legislators. Porter, however, was not available for comment.
According to an article in the Indianapolis Star, schools could end up with no increase in their funding for the first time in at least three decades.
The article further reported that the public schools need an extra $315 million over the next two years just to keep the lights on, the buildings insured and 60,000 teachers paid.
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