FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
December 17, 2025
Advocates applaud ILEA for bold recommendations on transportation and accountability
INDIANAPOLIS – Advocates with Stand for Children Indiana tonight offered words of gratitude to members of the Indianapolis Local Education Alliance (ILEA) for their support of recommendations that could lead to expanded transportation and a single accountability system for all public schools in IPS.
The ILEA affirmed a series of recommendations in a majority vote tonight, including:
- The creation of building and transportation authority, which would oversee facilities and transportation across schools in IPS and independent charter schools;
- A requirement that all schools provide transportation through the new authority;
- A unified school accountability system for IPS and charter schools, likely leading to the growth of high-quality school programs and a greater focus on data-driven decisions to increase student achievement; and
- A more streamlined approach to charter school authorizing by limiting the number of authorizers to two within IPS (the mayor’s office and the state charter board).
Advocates with Stand Indiana created their own recommendations and delivered them to the ILEA in August. While the ILEA’s final plan differs somewhat from advocates’ ideas, parents celebrated the focus on stronger school accountability, a growing transportation system and a more unified and coherent approach to school facilities.
“I’ve had children in charter schools, IPS schools, and innovation schools. The school type never mattered. What mattered was whether the school helped them thrive,” said LaToya Tahirou, a mom and longtime education advocate. “I want to thank the ILEA for working through so many difficult challenges to find much-needed common ground when it comes to school accountability, facilities and transportation.
“We have to shape a system that puts children over politics – and pushes our leaders to use data to make decisions around what schools to grow and what programs to roll back because they’re failing our children,” Tahirou said. “The ILEA recommendations are a good starting point to creating a system like this.”
Bony Georges, an IPS teacher who was critical of an initial draft of the ILEA’s governance structures, said he appreciates the changes that were made to remove some bureaucratic layers and simplify the governance recommendation.
“It’s very important to have an independent structure that would improve transportation, facilities, and accountability in order to help IPS and charter schools perform better,” said Georges. “I am pleased the ILEA has recommended to cut down the number of [charter] authorizers, called for one clear performance standard for all schools, and supported a plan to expand transportation so every family can actually exercise school choice, no matter where they live.”
The ILEA recommendations will be sent to the state legislature, where lawmakers will ultimately decide what ideas to consider adding to legislation this session. While some ideas noted by the ILEA could be implemented locally, most will require a change to state law.
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