Legislators propose dissolving school district

Examining school funding priorities has been a recent focus in the state legislature, but if two Republican lawmakers get their way, a Randolph County school district will close altogether. 

State Rep. JD Prescott (R-Union City) and Sen. Scott Alexander (R-Muncie) have added a proposed amendment into the state’s budget bill that would dissolve the Union (Modoc) School Corporation, saying it’s needed to help students who are performing poorly on standardized tests.

School administrators say it’s a test run of forcing the consolidation of other districts across the state that would also increase property tax bills for the district’s residents.

In a statement, Superintendent Galen Mast said the proposed amendment “came out of nowhere and is a tricky way to force consolidation.”

The amendment didn’t go through a typical bill process with multiple readings.

If the amendment is approved as part of Senate Bill 1, Union would dissolve on July 1, 2027.

Mast said Union is the only school district named and singled out, even though Indiana has many other small districts.

The district’s legal team plans to fight the proposed amendment, Mast said.

“We find this legislation unconstitutional, a backhanded attempt to close down a school that is thriving and a method to begin forced consolidation of other smaller schools across the state,” he said.

In an April 11 video, Mast noted Prescott is offering a town hall meeting from 9-11 a.m. Saturday, April 19, at Randolph County Fairgrounds. 

Union school board member Christie Ogden shared similar thoughts in a social media post.

“If they are able to do this to Union, they will do it all over the state, one or two schools at a time,” Ogden wrote. “This is not just a Randolph County problem. This is a statewide problem. If you are an administrator, teacher, parent, [or] taxpayer in Indiana then you should be extremely concerned with this piece of legislation.”

WWN sought comments from Prescott and Alexander, and both emailed statements noting concerns about Union students’ scores on tests, such as Indiana’s Learning Evaluation and Assessment Readiness Network.

“The Union School Corporation has faced longstanding challenges, including some of the lowest reading proficiency scores in the state and declining enrollment,” Prescott said in a statement. “Only 42.6% of their third graders passed the Indiana Reading Evaluation and Determination compared to more than 90% in neighboring districts, and over 60% of students who live in the district boundaries have transferred out and attend school elsewhere. This amendment is about starting a conversation on how to better serve these students and ensure they have access to a quality education.”

Alexander offered a similar statement. 

“This amendment was proposed due to Union School Corporation’s continuously low reading proficiency and state assessment scores, which are some of the lowest in the state – 44.2% passed the IREAD in 2024, only 3.7% tested proficient in mathematics and English Language Arts in the ILEARN, and 29.62% tested proficient on English and math in the SAT exam,” he said. “These problems are not a new development, and this language was brought forward to help initiate the discussion on how to ensure these students are receiving the best education possible.”

Tax rates

Mast said Union supports a tax rate of 80 cents, and if Union is annexed into other districts, taxpayers would see their property taxes nearly double.

Ogden said the amendment shows Randolph County would be annexed to Monroe Central Schools and Henry County would be annexed to Blue River Valley.

She said Union’s tax rate is .8053 (.2869 debt, .5184 operations), while Blue River’s tax rate is 1.5953 (.8340 debt, .7613 operations) and Monroe Central’s rate is 1.3476 (.5029 debt, .8447 operations).

Many people don’t know that Union is a substantially wealthy school district, Mast said, and he believes other districts want its resources.

Ogden believes the lawmakers’ bill could lead to eliminating other small rural Indiana public schools in a model similar to Florida, which has one school per county. Others are charter or private.

Enrollment and scores

While fewer than 300 students attend Union schools in person, the district supports nearly 9,000 Indiana students online. More than 350 teachers are involved in Union’s partnership with Indiana Digital Learning School. The tuition-free program serves grades K-12.

“We are Indiana’s leading option for virtual education and on the cutting edge of what today’s education should and can be in-person and online, and that often brings about opposition,” Mast said. “Attacks like this are nothing new to Union. When you are doing great things, people notice and you often take center stage like we are now.”

According to Indiana Department of Education’s 2024 ILEARN results for grades 3-8, Union had 14.9% of its 3,321 students show proficiency in English/language arts and 5.4% were proficient in math.

For comparison, Wayne County’s public school districts ranged from 22.49% to 44.7% in language and 22.5% to 42.5% in math. Several Indianapolis districts with strong reputations were in the 50% to 70% range for language.

Ogden said the bill seems driven by money rather than test data. She said a few weeks ago, Prescott contacted her with three options: Union board votes to become a charter school, no longer receiving property taxes; Union adjusts its virtual school funding contract so it receives no funding from its virtual program; or he would hold a House vote to close Union.

Ogden said school officials had a meeting scheduled with Prescott and Alexander on Friday, April 4. Ogden said Alexander appeared not to know anything about the three options, and said they needed to show improvement in test scores, or they had language written to shut down Union. However, Ogden said the lawmakers didn’t give Union leaders an opportunity to show their data before they submitted the amendment, which came out over the weekend.

Raatz’s perspective

State Sen. Jeff Raatz (R-Richmond), who formerly represented Randolph County and is currently chair of the Senate’s Committee on Education and Career Development, has also led efforts to shift public funding of Indiana schools toward private and charter schools through vouchers. He told WWN after the April 11 legislative forum that he wouldn’t have gone about Union’s closure as his colleagues did, but he understands their concerns about student achievement, and thinks it’s probably the best way to improve kids’ outcomes.

Raatz noted that Wayne County has approximately 65,000 residents and five public school districts, while Randolph County has 24,000 people and five school districts.

Although he didn’t agree with it, Raatz referenced Indiana’s Chamber of Commerce study years ago that showed that 3,000 students are needed in grades K-12 for students to get a wide variety of academic and possibly career and technical opportunities.

“Efficacy there is in question,” Raatz said of Union.

Raatz previously wrote a bill that would have incentivized voluntary school consolidation through a one-time $500 payment per student for the sending and receiving school, but it didn’t get signed into law.