Indiana Takes Over Schools

Changes could be coming to the law allowing Indiana to take over consistently failing schools to resolve confusion over who has authority over the facilities and students. The state took over five chronically failing schools in 2012 and turned them over to private operators. The move was hailed as an aggressive effort by former schools Superintendent Tony Bennett to hold schools accountable and improve performance. But, all five schools are still failing. A drop in enrollment has led to funding issues that have prompted at least one operator to threaten to pull out. Some lawmakers want to revise the law to address the issues as four more schools could soon face takeovers.