INDIANA UNIVERSITY PURDUE UNIVERSITY INDIANAPOLIS

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Education Professor Elected to Mayor's Board

Indianapolis Mayor Bart Peterson recently named School of Education Professor José Rosario to a new board that will advise Peterson on applications for charter schools and help him develop ways to hold those schools accountable.

In May, a new state law gave the mayor the authority to approve charter schools. Charter schools are public schools that are freed from most of the regulations governing traditional schools. They control their own curriculum, staffing, organization and budget and in exchange, must meet the highest academic standards.

"There are many who see charter schools as a bad option for public education, that they siphon valuable resources from public schools and that, by doing so, will undoubtedly serve to break up communities rather than build them," said Rosario, who is also the director of the Center for Urban and Multicultural Education at the School of Education. "But charter schools need not be seen that way. Charter schools also have the potential of building and strengthening communities. As in the case of other school reform efforts, much depends on how they are approached and how they will function in the communities that desire to have them."

The board will meet this month to begin creating the application process and the mayor hopes that the first charter schools will open in fall 2002.

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