INDIANAPOLIS — Charter schools could lease or purchase unused public school buildings for $1 under a bill that cleared the Indiana Senate in a 43-7 vote Monday.
Senate Bill 446, by Republican Sen. Scott Schneider of Indianapolis, is on its way to the House of Representatives.
The House endorsed the concept last week when it passed a more comprehensive charter school bill amid raucous teacher protests.
Schneider’s bill would require school corporations to notify the Department of Education when a school building previously used for classroom instruction is closed, unused or unoccupied.
The building would be listed on a state website.
Under an amendment by Sen. Earline Rogers, D-Gary and co-author of the bill, the school building would be unavailable to charters until two years after the building appears on that list.
A school district would be allowed to reclaim the building, but it must begin instruction there within one year. Otherwise, it returns to the list.
A charter that wants to use a building on the list would send a letter of intent to the Department of Education. The school corporation would then have to lease or sell the building to the charter school for $1.
The charter school would need to begin instruction no more than two years after it acquires the building.
It would also be responsible for expenses including utilities, insurance, maintenance, repairs and remodeling.
Rogers asked her fellow senators to support the bill.
She said it’s important to balance the interests of traditional and charter schools as reforms move forward in the Statehouse.
“I think there is an absence of there being communication between those persons who have different views as it relates to charter schools,” Rogers said.
Sen. Lonnie Randolph, D-East Chicago, voted against the bill after asking Schneider about the lack of negotiations available between the school corporation and the charter school.