Indianapolis Decides the Status Quo Isn’t Good Enough

Brandon Brown, CEO of The Mind Trust, has a bold claim to make about his city — and he makes it in the pages of the Indianapolis Business Journal.

The Mind Trust is an Indianapolis-based education nonprofit that works to attract, develop, and empower education entrepreneurs to transform public schools for students across the city. Brown has been at the center of Indianapolis' education story for years, and what he's writing about now is a genuine turning point: new state legislation that fundamentally restructures how public schools in Indianapolis are organized and governed — something no major American city has attempted in two decades.

It's a story about local leaders choosing to act before a crisis forced their hand. And Brown argues it could be a model for cities everywhere.

"The revolutionary component of HEA 1423 is simple but powerful: separating the education of children from the management of operations. This approach allows educators to focus more time on what's happening in the classroom."

What makes Indianapolis' approach distinctive is that it wasn't born from disaster. It was built deliberately — the product of years of reform and a diverse group of civic leaders willing to reimagine what a school system could be.

"Unlike New Orleans, where a hurricane forced leaders to quickly rebuild a school system, Indianapolis' approach is a product of years of methodical reforms and, more recently, a diverse group of local leaders coming together to boldly reimagine what's possible.

This is exactly the kind of locally-driven leadership City Fund believes in, community leaders with the vision and the will to build school systems that work for every student.