EVANSVILLE — Evansville Republican State Rep. Tim O’Brien has co-authored a bill that would shutter multiple Indiana public schools and turn their control over to charters — and he refuses to answer questions about it.
House Bill 1136 states if more than 50% of students who live in the district of a school corporation are enrolled in schools outside that area on the 2024 Fall student count date, the school corporation will be dissolved. At that point, all public schools of the corporation would be changed into charter schools.
According to the bill’s fiscal note, the following school systems would be impacted by the legislation: Gary Community School Corporation; Union School Corporation; Indianapolis Public Schools; Tri-Township Consolidated School Corporation and Cannelton City Schools.
None of those corporations are in areas O’Brien – Republican congressman for District 78 – represents. The closest is Cannelton in Perry County, about 50 miles east of Evansville.
The bill has been assigned to the education committee. If it makes it all the way to Gov. Mike Braun’s desk and gets signed into law, it would go into effect July 1, 2025. All 68 schools in the impacted corporations would have to become charter schools “no later than July 1, 2028.”
The Courier & Press reached out to O’Brien through his press secretary, Graham Loughead. He replied that O’Brien “is going to allow the bill’s author to answer any questions regarding HB 1136.”
Tim O’Brien
That would be South Bend Rep. Jake Teshka. But O’Brien himself is listed as a co-author alongside Rep. Jeff Thompson, a veteran legislator and former public high school teacher.
Teshka doesn’t have a background in education, but is a majority member of the Education Committee. O’Brien also has no background in education but was named chair of the K-12 subcommittee on the Ways and Means Committee this year.
The Courier & Press stressed to Loughead that O’Brien’s bill would have large ramifications if passed, and that his constituents in Evansville – home to the third-largest public school system in the state – would like to hear why he has an interest in disbanding certain public schools.
Loughead didn’t reply.
Bill would also disband locally elected school boards
The bill would also institute a new governing structure for the affected corporations, stripping elected school boards and costing more money, the bill’s fiscal report reads.
According to the report, current state law doesn’t allow school board member compensation to exceed $2,000 a year. Under the proposed law, the board would be replaced with a seven-member governing body.
This would include four members appointed by the governor; one member appointed by the city’s mayor or town executive; one by the county’s fiscal body and one appointed by the director of the Indiana charter school board.
The five school corporations previously mentioned all have five members on their school boards. According to the fiscal report, the additional board members would increase annual compensation by $20,000 in total across the corporations. The new board members are also eligible to receive a per-diem.
“The new school boards will also have additional responsibilities in addition to those normally held by aschool board,” the report states. “This includes a requirement to recruit high-performing charter school organizers to take over the operations of the 68 schools that must transition to a charter school.”
Evansville and Vanderburgh County officials won’t comment, either
The lack of comment extended from O’Brien to Evansville and Vanderburgh County officials.
If the bill ever affected Evansville, Mayor Stephanie Terry and the Vanderburgh County Council would both be tasked with appointing members to the board. But council president Jill Hahn didn’t respond to a Courier & Press request for comment and Terry didn’t weigh in, either. Her spokesman, Joe Atkinson, said “the mayor does not have a comment at this time.”
“As currently written, the bill would not affect Evansville or the EVSC,” he told the Courier & Press.
According to data provided by the Indiana Department of Education, there were 25,636 students living within EVSC’s boundaries. Of those, about 20,654 attend an EVSC school – or about 80%.
The Indiana State Teachers Association issued a statement in response to the filing of HB 1136 on Jan. 2. ISTA President Keith Gambill said the bill would erode “the foundation of democracy in public education.”
“Rather than supporting schools and addressing critical issues like poverty and underfunding, HB 1136 would unfairly target districts based on student transfers, an issue mostly rooted in broader socioeconomic challenges beyond the control of schools,” Gambill stated.
Gambill and ISTA want legislators to reject the bill.
“Indiana’s public schools are at the heart of our communities, and locally elected school boards play a vital role in ensuring accountability and responsiveness to the needs of students and families,” Gambill stated.”
Local Vanderburgh County Democrats are also focusing in on the bill, using it as a rallying point to recruit a candidate to run against O’Brien in 2026.
“The Republican Party in Indiana has been steadily advancing policies that are designed to dismantle and undermine public education in the state,” local Democrats shared via email. “Over the past several years, key legislation has been introduced that weakens public school funding, promotes the expansion of charter schools and school vouchers, and pushes for increased privatization of education.”
This article originally appeared on Evansville Courier & Press: State Rep. O’Brien co-authors bill to disband certain public schools