The Indiana Utility Regulatory Commission gets lined up recommended changes for one of Indiana's largest school districts and candidates begin to announce plans ahead of the 2026 elections.

From the television studios at WFYI Public Media, it's Indiana Week in Review for the week ending December 19th, 2025.

Indiana Week in Review is produced by WFYI in association with Indiana Public Broadcasting Stations.

Governor Mike Braun picked three new members of the Indiana Utility Regulatory Commission.

Indiana Public Broadcasting's Rebecca Thiele reports the agency decides whether utility can change charges customers for the cost of things like new power plants and lines.

Kerwin Olson is with the consumer and environmental advocacy group Citizen's Action Coalition.

He says it's fairly pleased with the appointments, particularly Commissioner Anthony Swinger, who once worked for the state agency that represents ratepayers.

Those state lawmakers have limited the agency's power in the.

Past decade or so.

Olson hopes the agency will do.

More to make energy affordable for Hoosiers.

Under this.

Umbrella, if you will, of the affordability crisis facing consumers today that will see these new commissioners recognize the authority and the powers that they do possess.

The commission's new chairman will be Republican Senator Andy Zay.

He served on the Senate.

Utilities Committee.

For years.

And Olson says, tends to favor energy sources like coal Is part of the solution to curb Indiana's energy concerns.

The first question for Indiana Week in Review panel Democrat Ann DeLaney.

Republican Mike O'Brien.

Jon Schwantes, host of Indiana Lawmakers and Ebony Chappel, director of brand and community strategy at Free Press Indiana.

I'm Jill Sheridan, managing editor at WFYI.

I so like, are these appointments good for the commission?

Are they going to be able to address some of the energy concerns that communities are having every day?

I think they certainly serve and fit to what the governor's campaigned on and what he's done while in office.

Even, you know, over the summer, not rejecting a proposed rate increase and then shrinking that.

so and they have this these three new members do have a history of, of being critical of rate increases and, and things like that.

And you're being on the look and kind of blend in the line between the policy and.

Okay, interesting.

the okay, of course, is like the supposed to be the counterbalance, but it's always, you know, the, the criticism from, from the governor and others was always that it was it wasn't quite equal.

Right between those two, those two agencies.

So I think this certainly serves what he's always said.

I think the, the trick is so for people grinding over their electricity bills and concerned about it, I get it.

It's also a major driver in inflation.

so but you, you wind up operating as like health care and it's like health insurance, right.

It's like you wind up operating in these like negative policy spaces where you go, oh, it didn't go up as much as it would have, because it still does have to go up, because this has to be balanced against the other priority of the governor in the legislature, which is to put it emphasis on the increasing capacity generation.

and that requires building out infrastructure and there's an expense to that now, or should it be the expense that it's been.

It's the rub.

It's the debate.

But it, it will be an increase if we're successful in the state creating policies that that increase generation for economic development and all the other things that we know that we're going to need in the future, which the governor's been very focused on.

So it's a balance between, you know, cutting rates or not allowing for energy companies to go build out, build out capacity and so recognizing the state needs those companies to go do that.

I mean, and this is it is a bit of a crisis.

I mean, Indiana needs more energy.

And, you know, lawmakers.

Which is why the governor should have spoken out when when the governor of when the senator from Missouri stopped the lines coming from Kansas with all the wind driven and solar driven power, we could have gotten more cheaply, you know, fine.

He's trying to deliver on some of his promises.

The the problem, from my perspective on this, is that this whole system of regulatory, regulation of utilities was set up when the utilities were Indiana utilities run by Indiana companies and, and, and basically, dependent on coal.

That's all changed.

All right.

Coal is not coming back despite the Republicans and for eight years is owned by some company from Brazil.

And we're getting our natural gas out of Texas.

And we're really not in a position like the same thing.

The analogy you drew with health care.

We're really not in a position to, affect that in a very substantial way because we're a small player in this whole thing.

I mean, maybe if we had regional, cooperation in the Midwest to try to negotiate more favorable terms at all, and maybe if we had cooperation on bringing in when we have cheap utility or cheap electricity available, we could make a real difference.

It is a problem.

It's a problem that's been festering since we've stopped being coal dependent, and we've stopped having Indiana companies regulate or actually provide, provide the electricity.

So we've got to do something different.

And that means a little bit more thinking outside the box, not just replacing some people on the existing commission.

So lawmakers are proposing, you know, solar and wind solutions, which Indiana has, you know, jumped on, somewhat.

But these sort of low hanging fruit solutions is not where we should be looking at in the interim, as we do try to close this gap.

I think that this is a step in the direction of closing that gap and having people on this commission that are speaking on behalf of Hoosiers.

I know one of those appointments is, Bob Deke out of southwest, southern Indiana.

Excuse me.

and that is a choice that was championed by Representative Alex Burton, again out of Evansville, because just like in Indianapolis, where I live, people down there are experiencing utility rate hikes.

The costs are just becoming exorbitant and difficult to keep up with.

So to answer point, there is a lot that could be done to help diversify our, sources of energy generation.

But in the meantime, I do think that this is a step in the right direction for Hoosiers.

Well, I mean, we've heard the governor as well, you know, encourage this new commission to, you know, look at look at all options and especially, you know, we've talked a lot about data centers, but, considering, you know, the types of energy usage that these larger projects we've heard, you know, from about supercomputers coming out of Lillian and heard that you we need, you know, these this is the future.

This is going to happen and we've got to have the energy to back it up.

you can't just ride out the storm and say, well, we're going to go back to our old energy usage at some point.

I mean, this is a global problem.

I was going to say national, but it really is a global problem, not a stating anything that people aren't painfully aware in terms of the increasing demand, in terms of the pressure on, on the grid, the existing grid, which in some ways maybe isn't capable in all parts of the country of, transmitting the kind of power that's necessary just to move from point A to point B, and then you look at the cost.

It doesn't help to tell Hoosiers that if you just look at the numbers, we're still paying less than some of the states around us.

But that's like it was that's like property.

I'm the rate if you just look at the straight rate.

But it's like property taxes.

We had low they went high.

Just we just had the lowest energy cost in the country.

So any increase is going to catch people's attention and be rather unpleasant when they open those, those bills.

This certainly helps I think.

but the regulatory change is just part, the line up, the membership roster, probably only part of the issue.

You talk about increasing new sources of energy and probably we'll see yet again revisited this notion of who has authority over where these facilities can be.

and not only the production, whether it's a solar array or a collection of turbines, but then the transmission lines, to your point earlier, right now, we're one of the states that doesn't have any state authority or state guidelines.

So a single municipality or county can hold up a project.

So we've seen action on that front in the legislature in the past.

I think we'll see it again.

Maybe it'll I think it maybe has even passed one chamber.

but not both houses.

That's part of it.

And we've saw we saw a white paper put forth by consumer groups and conservation groups saying, you know, we got to look at data centers.

We got to look at discounts in the short term for people who have limited incomes, lots of things that maybe are short term solutions or would be more readily addressed than something that goes before the Commission, which by definition unfolds slowly.

So stop giving such incentives to data centers to come to Indiana, which, again.

Is that.

We still have the highest, average residential electric bill in the Midwest.

Or getting it or if they come getting them to pay, more something you're.

Paying to bring them here, you know.

Well, Mike, the commission also is in charge of, figuring out how electric bills are calculated.

Like, is that is a sticker shock for Hoosiers.

Would that help to, you know, see something some different numbers?

I think that's the goal.

That's the goal.

I mean, that's what I think.

That's what the governor's governor's goal is.

It was a stop on this, on property tax reform, on on other things that are hitting, hitting pocketbooks.

So, you know.

Well, we hope this works better than his property tax reform, which is hurting everybody.

And part of it is acknowledging the problem.

I mean, the malpractice politically would be for a governor to say.

You know, affordability.

If you were to say, say that you're wrong, you don't need to believe your lying eyes or your, when you open that envelope.

trust me, the rates aren't.

He's acknowledging it, which is step one.

And that.

Never goes over too well, does.

It?

Well, it's better than ignoring the problem.

Also this week, earlier this year, state lawmakers mandated a task force led by Indianapolis Mayor Joe Hogsett to find ways for Indianapolis Public Schools and the city charter schools to collaborate.

Many have raised concerns the elected IPS school board will lose power.

Eric Weddle reports.

A final recommendation was made this week.

The vote to create a new Indianapolis Education Corporation passed 8 to 1.

It would oversee transportation enrollment and building use for Indianapolis Public Schools and all city charter schools.

IPS Superintendent Alycia Johnson voted for the plan.

She admits the proposal has flaws but says the status quo isn't working.

The proposal tonight is an imperfect solution for a challenging set of realities, but the reality is that we have.

Too many schools within our boundary, which drains resources and creates uneven.

Access to.

Opportunities.

State lawmakers will have the final say.

They are expected to take up the issue next month.

So again, all those stems from the charter school debate last year at the state House.

you know, is this possible that other, you know, districts might be able to benefit from this type of change?

It's possible.

My understanding is that this commission would have the responsibility over the transportation and the facilities, and that part is good.

And it also seems to me it gives them the opportunity to see how the charter schools are spending their money, which is something we haven't been privy to.

Even though it's tax money we don't know about.

And you've heard anecdotally of superintendents and school districts being paid a quarter of $1 million with charter school money.

So you know, if that's what it does, that's a good thing.

And if it doesn't take power from the elected school board to regulate what teachers are paid and what qualifications they have and and assess how the students are doing, that could take the curriculum to certainly that would take a lot off their plate because there's so much to do managing, just even moving those kids from one place to another.

So there are opportunities there for, it seems to me, not just savings, but accountability and letting the school, the elected school board, focus on the things that are most important in education in Indianapolis.

So that could be positive.

I mean, Mike, the lawmakers are going to have to bring this up, that we're going to try to bring this up during this extremely short session that we're going to be looking at, what type of, translation might you think would happen with, with, with legislation like this one?

I think it's I know, I know, this is controversial in some parts of the community.

first of all, we represent IPPs at our firm.

So I worked a lot on the legislation and the effort over the summer, along with a colleague of mine, Grant to, and so it's important to remember for the people that were that were so critical the other night where we started a year ago was the state legislature came in and said, we're taking over IP.

Yes.

Not only are we taking over IP, but you're sharing your referendum money with the tribes.

That's where we started.

And so to end at there is now a Democrat mayor who has who is in charge of this commission that is going to oversee the things that and just just describe and get that off the plate of the school board that there was another Delaney this week who said publicly that the reason you never ran for school board is because you didn't want to be in the bus business.

And it sounds like my I. Know I. Said that's and that's the school.

In order for IPS and the charters to coexist and for the church to get better by the, by the way, and make sure that the best actors are the ones that are, that are operating.

this was an important an important step.

it allows, I gives IPS control, I get some air in the city control over over these logistics and assets that, that, that are in the system already figure out a way to make them work more efficiently with, you know, with, with the dollars that they have and expand more for the things that the school boards and maybe save more for the things the school boards doing, which is, which is expanding programing and paying teachers into and doing all of those, those important things too.

Well, I mean, we did see such a passionate, meeting there.

this week at, at the city County building, you know, the people that are really upset that that the board will lose some control.

Did they have valid concern?

I think they do have valid concerns.

It's telling that the one no vote on this, from the Élysée side is a parent and, teacher as well.

so I think it is telling.

I think any time we're talking about what may possibly happen with the power that the school board has, it drives passion.

This has been a conversation has been going on for a really long time.

When you think about different groups who have had a vested interest in electing members of that school board and running those campaigns, and what parents and students and teachers, what they, interpret that to look like.

It creates a very passionate environment, but to the point that Mike made about making sure that there is some more accountability over charters.

I think this plan, although it is not perfect as one of the LGA members mentioned, this is not a perfect plan.

Yes, I voted for it.

but I know that it is imperfect.

being able to reduce the number of authorizers I think is really important, and putting IPPs in a position to be able to do that also to the building point, getting rid of that $1 rule where at one point IPPs would be mandated by the state to release buildings to charter schools for $1.

I don't think anybody ever thought that that made any sense.

Unless, of course, you're running a charter school and you just got this.

Fantastic.

Yeah, you got this fantastic deal.

So, you know, overall, I think that it has a lot of potential to do great things.

Having a unified and a collaborative effort across the board.

But it is something that without levels of accountability, checking, making sure that people are doing what it is that they said they were going to do, this could go a different way, especially when we think about who is appointed to that board of overseeing.

So being very careful about how that's handled.

Is also going to be interesting to see how this interacts with Partizan elected school boards.

But I mean, should this, sort of be a pilot program up for possible.

They've been talking about possible, you know, rural districts.

I might I don't know if should be.

Well, I think it probably will be a de facto pilot program if this does make some of the, advances that have been discussed here, and also maybe is a way to address, I think some public schools have felt maybe with legitimately in some cases, that there's been this sort of assumption that everything they're doing and have been doing is wrong.

You know, that somehow the public schools in our state have failed us.

and we're going to put up as many impediments to them, whether it's the $1 building transfer, whether it's sharing the revenue from levies, whether it's vouchers, etc., etc., etc.

it seemed like, okay, we we just assume you stink.

So we're going to do everything to, to prove our point.

If in fact, this does provide my English a level playing field.

So you can see the accountability of the charters and the public traditional public schools.

and maybe it raises some of those is a vent to some of that hostility.

all the better.

And he had his disclosure mind with it.

You represent them.

I was a product of kindergarten through eighth grade.

Don't hold that against ipso.

staff.

Please.

Certainly.

Well, it was a long time ago.

It was a long time ago.

But a. Few years.

It's now time for viewer feedback.

Each week we pose an unscientific online poll question.

And this week's question, should districts around the state be paying attention to this charter school debate that's happening in Indianapolis?

Answer yes or no.

Last week's question posed to viewers should Indiana schools ban cell phones?

69% saying yes and 31% saying no.

If you would like to take part in the poll.

Go to wfyi.org/iwir and look for the poll.

This week, Marion County Sheriff Kerry Forestall announced a run for state Senate next year as other candidates consider campaigns leading into the midterm elections next year.

Sarah Neal asked us reports for a stall will vie for the seat in district 31 that represents parts of central Indiana.

That district is the northeast corner of Indianapolis and the fishers area in Hamilton County, and it is a competitive district currently held by Republican Senator Kyle Walker.

Walker recently made news as one of the Republicans openly opposed to redistricting.

He announced he would not run again earlier this month.

For us, stall is a Democrat and in his second term as sheriff.

In that current role, he is term limited.

So as the 2026 campaign starts to heat up, will this be a race I should be watching?

Oh, I think so.

It has a lot of the elements.

It would suggest that should be front burner.

you have an open seat that always, you know, with no incumbent.

That tends to bring a lot of people, out who've maybe, you know, been there thinking.

If.

I ever had interest.

Well, now's the time.

you also have a district that.

And again, you can never say district because we've had we used to be we redraw the districts every ten years.

so it still is.

Still is.

but that's a district that's never, as far as I know, had Democratic, elected representation at that in that of, in that seat.

So here you have a very, legitimate candidate who has presumably high name ID and presumably will be well-funded, and could be a first for that district.

And again, it's not as if everything happens in a static situation or in a vacuum.

Districts themselves, even in the absence of of new district lines, change.

demographics change.

You look at, you know, I remember when, back when I was in kindergarten at IPS, you know, it was this was rock solid.

Marion County was Republican territory, like Orange County, California.

You just if you're a Republican, you got elected, the demographics change, the politics change.

And we're seeing that now in that part of the suburban area, up into fishers and east of Carmel.

Yeah, we're seeing a more purple areas or surrounding, you know, the the Indianapolis area, Kerry Fuller foreign style is a pretty well-known name here.

Andy.

Indianapolis and you think this is a good choice for him?

You know.

time will tell.

I do think to your point, about what the district has looked like when you look back at the election results, Republicans haven't won by a landslide in that district.

The margins have been pretty close.

So I think that creates an opportunity where a Democrat candidate with, you know, the right storytelling, that name recognition certainly hopes, for people that maybe are not the most politically savvy.

I do wonder, however, given, some of the controversy that came up with Ice enforcement and how the sheriff's office was being utilized in those efforts, how that might fare in a district, like this one where you have a very diverse population.

So I wonder what role that might play.

I also thought it was interesting.

I went back, the late Sheriff Frank Anderson also ran, in this district at one point in time.

So really, that is pretty interesting.

I did want to bring up another race.

There was some news surrounding, Jennifer Ruth Green this week, and she will be running for district one next year, which is, frank Mervyn's district in the district that's been under a lot of, attention.

And, with the redistricting.

That's a nice way to put it.

she'll be moving forward with her campaign in 2026, as well as as things start to really get underway.

is this a race that we should be pulling into?

I mean, especially in an off year election, it's always a race.

But I think Frank Miller Vann has represented that district extremely well for a substantial period of time and enjoys a tremendous amount of support.

So I'm pretty optimistic.

We'll have Frank, for in Congress.

Again, when you.

Talk about name I.D.

that that goes multi-generational in terms of his, his.

Whole family.

But, I mean, he is he is a down to earth.

He's approachable.

He represents his constituents.

He does what he's supposed to do.

His record is impeccable.

Hers maybe not so much.

Yeah, that name recognition has a little.

You can have it.

You can go.

Yeah, yeah.

But district one again, you know, this race next year, you know, a lot of, lawmakers at the state House saying that, you know, we should really focus on this race if this is if this is how we want to, you know, take control of these seats.

Will this be one to watch next year?

We'll we'll see.

They put a lot of money into it last year or last cycle.

it was a priority for the Nrcc, the National Republican Campaign Committee, or congressional.

It did move the needle, but not enough.

Not nearly enough.

And at a time when Trump came in and won by 20 again.

So it wasn't it wasn't for lack of a good environment, which we're not likely to have in November of, of, of next year.

So I think that's an uphill climb, maybe a little more so than it was before.

But but she was also the best candidate we had had there ever, or a generation.

as far as the, Kyle Walker seat, Kyle is a guy who could like, that's that's a 1 or 2 point district favor Republicans on a on your best day.

and Kyle was always able to outperform that.

I think Sheriff Forstall is is a the Democrats have a pickup opportunity at this one.

And so the Republicans have got to make sure we get the right person out of the out of the primary.

It can't be this cannot be a right wing fight or that or we'll lose that seat like.

Blake probably will be, though.

If there's a very interesting.

District in the state as Alan.

Well, I need it is the only predominantly black institution will pause operations by the end of the year.

Eric Weddle reports.

The school says it's facing financial challenges that it can no longer overcome.

Martin University was founded in 1977 on the east side of Indianapolis, but board chairman Joseph Perkins says declining enrollment and the lack of an endowment have made a pause in operations necessary.

The move comes just weeks after the university's president resigned.

Federal data highlights long term struggles at the school, showing a graduation rate of just 15%.

Officials say they are exploring options for the future, but they need donations to keep the school running through December.

You know, I do feel bad happening for the staff and the students, but is there any hope for Martin you?

I definitely think there's hope.

I definitely I appreciate you mentioning about the staff and the students, who are kind of without support in that way right now.

one thing that I want to point out is that when you are a black led and black serving institution, what may feel is just a simple rain shower to someone else is a hurricane to you?

especially when you think about, institution of higher learning.

Everybody deals with issues of retention, funding, how to make sure this thing is sustainable over time.

Governance.

but in this case, this is an institution that has just not had that long term support without that long term financial support, sustainable, a strong board.

I mean, I don't I don't think, I think the future is pretty grim without those things.

So I just want to be very deliberate about that.

Yeah, I broke actually, we're out of time.

That is Indiana Week in Review for this.

For this week.

Our panel has been Democrat Ann DeLaney.

Republican Mike O'Brien.

Jon Schwantes, host of Indiana Lawmakers.

And Ebony Chappel, director of brand and community strategy, at Free Press Indiana.

You can find Indiana Week in Review podcast and episode at wfyi.org/iwir or on the PBS app.

I'm Jill Sheridan, managing editor at WFYI.

Join us next time, because a lot can happen in an Indiana week.

The views expressed are solely those of the panelists.

Indiana Week in Review is produced by WFYI in association with Indiana Public Broadcasting Stations.