School vouchers program indiana

DOE IN. Find an IN. Jenner's Weekly Update. Presidential Scholars Program. Evaluations Overview Locally Developed Plans. Fordham Institute, a think tank that supports vouchers. The potential upside of providing vouchers to middle-class families is that it could push suburban school districts to improve to compete for students, Petrilli said.

Critics of school choice, including many school districts and teachers unions from around Indiana, have raised a drumbeat of opposition to the voucher increase. In a year when Republican lawmakers largely ignored pleas to boost education funding in order to help districts increase chronically low teacher pay, it is especially frustrating to see a surge in spending on private education, said Keith Gambill, president of the Indiana State Teachers Association.

Research on the academic outcomes of vouchers is mixed. Recent studies, including one in Indiana , showed dips in some state test scores. Other research shows more positive results on long-term outcomes such as college enrollment. And voucher programs do seem to slightly improve test scores in competing public schools. When Indiana lawmakers created the voucher program in , it was one of the broadest in the nation. Instead of targeting a specific group, such as students in schools a state identifies as failing, or a single city, it was open to certain low-income families from around the state.

Over the years, the state has broadened access, raised the income cap for some families, and made more families eligible. In addition to meeting income limits, students must meet certain criteria to be eligible for vouchers. Lawmakers have made it easier by adding more ways for students to qualify. Now there are eight paths , including having a sibling who receives a voucher or previously attending a public school. Last school year, it grew by less than students.

This year, West Virginia approved an education savings account program that will eventually make all families eligible for state aid for private school. None of the Indiana proposals are that expansive. If a public school student applies for and receives a voucher to attend a private school, they take their state funding with them, so districts and schools where those students might otherwise have enrolled shoulder the cost.

Voucher advocates argue that schools can handle the loss because they have fewer students to educate. Funding issues have fueled criticism of the program. In , the Indiana State Teachers Association filed a lawsuit to stop it, arguing in part that the program caused public dollars to be spent improperly on religious institutions. The Indiana Supreme Court dismissed the suit, but the union has continued to make the argument.

And even Jennifer McCormick, the small-district superintendent who, with DeVos support , unseated Democratic State Superintendent Glenda Ritz, has expressed concerns about programs that divert money from public schools. Mike Pence, has supported vouchers for middle-income families, too. A growing portion of Indiana voucher users are from middle-class families, and growth has been greatest among suburban families. In , 22 percent of voucher students were from the suburbs, compared to 16 percent in The portion of voucher users living in rural areas also rose slightly during that time — even though vouchers are often impractical in areas where there are not enough students to sustain multiple schools.

As the proportion of urban families using vouchers fell, so did the proportion of students of color. That number is down to 13 percent now. Hispanic student enrollment is down as well, to 18 percent, even as Hispanic student enrollment has shot up across the state in the last five years. But over time, the proportion of Indiana voucher users moving from public schools has fallen sharply. In , just 9 percent of voucher users had never before gone to public school. That was true for more than half of students using vouchers in The evidence in Indiana is mixed: Since the program launched, private school enrollment has grown — but less rapidly than voucher use, suggesting that some new students attend private school because of vouchers, but other voucher recipients would attend private school regardless.

And as is often the case when vouchers are introduced, religious schools have benefitted heavily. Vouchers have allowed some Catholic schools to stave off closure, and parents who use vouchers say the opportunity for their children to get religious instruction at school was the most important reason they chose their schools.

Most of the non-religious schools that accept vouchers cost far more than the cost of the voucher, making them unaffordable for low-income families.