Illustrated by Kimberly Morris
ESTABLISHED IN 2011, the Choice Scholarship Program allows parents to use state funds to opt out of the public school system and send their kids to a participating parochial or nonreligious private school. As another academic year dawns, here’s a quick review.
INDIANA’S VOUCHER PLAN IS GROWING BRISKLY. Enrollment in the Choice Scholarship Program ballooned in 2023–24 to 70,095 students, a 31-percent increase over the previous school year and the largest year-over-year jump ever. The money the state handed out for vouchers also increased massively, reaching $439 million in tuition grants to parochial or other private schools. That’s a 40-percent increase over the previous year.
VOUCHERS AREN’T THE ONLY FINANCIAL AID ON OFFER. Parents can also avail themselves of education savings accounts and tax-credit scholarships. The Indiana Education Scholarship Account Program, which went into effect in July 2024, allows students with disabilities (and their siblings) to use dedicated scholarship money for approved educational programs, therapies, and other education-related expenses. Also, a School Scholarship Tax Credit is available to those donating to scholarshipgranting organizations.
SIMILAR PROGRAMS HAVE TAKEN HOLD IN OTHER STATES TOO. According to EducationWeek, as of June 2024, 29 states plus the District of Columbia offer some form of financial assistance to parents to facilitate school choice. The first was established in Milwaukee in 1990.
THE GROUP OF HOOSIER STUDENTS WHO QUALIFY NOW INCLUDES … PRETTY MUCH ALL OF THEM. When voucher programs initially gained traction around the country, they were often presented as a way to create more educational options for low-income families stuck with whatever public school their kids were assigned to. This was also the argument originally presented in Indiana. But in 2023, the Indiana General Assembly repealed most student qualification requirements (including previous enrollment in a public school) and allowed even higher-income families to get vouchers. For the 2024–25 school year, the salary cap for a family of four rose to $230,880. In other words, it’s now possible to have private school tuition underwritten with public funds, even for children who already attend a private school and whose family’s income is well above Indiana’s household median of $66,800.
THE “GIVING DISADVANTAGED FAMILIES CHOICES” MOTIVE FOR VOUCHERS HAS BECOME HARDER TO DEFEND. The Indiana Department of Education describes the typical Hoosier voucher student as a white, elementary school–age girl from a four- or five-person household with an income of almost $100,000. White students make up 64 percent of voucher users, up about 2.5 percent from the 2022–23 school year. The number of Black students with vouchers dropped half a percent over the same time span to 8.9 percent, while the number of Hispanic voucher-using students declined from 19 percent to 17.3 percent.
THE NUMBER OF PRIVATE SCHOOLS THAT ACCEPT VOUCHERS IS ALSO INCREASING. The Indianapolis-based pro-voucher group EdChoice reports that during the 2023–24 school year, 357 private schools participated in the program statewide. That’s a near-doubling of available learning facilities since the program was instituted in 2011. The two private schools receiving the most students and funds from the voucher program, both of which happen to be in Indianapolis, are Heritage Christian School (883 students and $5,697,076) and Roncalli High School (854 students and $5,651,614). Fourteen schools joined the program in 2023–24, the biggest expansion of any year since the program’s inception. Critics worry because private schools don’t have to meet the same reporting or transparency standards as public schools. Democratic state lawmakers tried to prevent voucher funds from going to private schools that discriminate against the LGBTQ+ community on religious grounds but were unable to overcome the state’s Republican supermajority.
VOUCHERS TYPICALLY DON’T COVER PRIVATE SCHOOL EXPENSES IN THEIR ENTIRETY. The calculation of a particular student’s voucher is based on family income. During the 2023–24 school year, the average award amount was $6,264, while the average price of private school tuition and fees was $7,749.
THE NUMBER OF STUDENTS USING VOUCHERS IS STILL FAIRLY LOW, BUT THEIR RANKS ARE SLOWLY GROWING. According to the Indiana Department of Education, only about 6 percent of all Indiana students use vouchers. Almost 87 percent of Indiana’s K-12 population attended public schools in the 2023–24 academic year, roughly half a percentage point less than the 2022–23 year. That percentage is expected to shrink again when 2024–25 numbers are in.
CONTROVERSY SWIRLS AROUND THE PROGRAM. The state still maintains that as many Indiana families as possible should be able to avail themselves of choices in education. Opponents point out that every voucher handed to a parent is essentially money out of the pocket of the public school system they rejected. Also, the latest state numbers indicate that use of the program is growing most rapidly in segments of Hoosier society that arguably need it the least. During the 2023–24 school year, almost 8,000 voucher students hailed from households earning between $150,000 to $200,000 annually. The number of students from households taking in more than $200,000 rose almost tenfold, from 354 in 2022–23 to 3,700 in 2023–24. The number of children from those two brackets accounted for more than half of the program’s total growth of 16,720 students in 2023–24. During that same timeframe, the number of voucher families making less than $100,000 grew by only 14 percent.
