Dive Brief:

• Indiana Senate Appropriations Chairman Luke Kenley has raised concerns about a line tucked within the state's recently passed budget, which gives charter schools access to $50 million in low-interest state loans.
• Kenley is concerned that this deal will hurt taxpayers, since charter schools are in significant debt. While traditional public schools often have larger debts, their loans are backed by property tax levies, which carry lower risks. 
• Charter schools, however, argue that they are in need of this extra funding since they are not currently given the same amount of funding as traditional public schools. 

Dive Insight:

Gov. Mike Pence seems to agree with the charter schools, saying that the funds will help these autonomous schools cover the costs of facilities. But the opposition wonders why the state, which paid off $90 million in debt for charter schools in 2013, should take on more risk. Some of those schools which had debt paid no longer operate. 

Some feel frustrated that the loan program was never really discussed in the open. "The question is, 'Have they shown the need and will there be a study of all these issues' This should have come after a study showing if there was a need," Dennis Costerison, executive director of the Indiana Association of School Business Official, told the Associated Press.