TERRE HAUTE — A dozen plaintiffs have filed a lawsuit and are seeking a preliminary injunction to block Indiana’s new school voucher law.
The lawsuit was filed Friday, the same day the law took effect, in Marion County Superior Court.
The Indiana State Teachers Association supports the lawsuit, but is not a plaintiff in the case, said Mark Shoup, ISTA spokesman. The complaint lists 12 individual plaintiffs, including a public school teacher (also ISTA’s vice president) and public school superintendent. Others include taxpayers, clergy and people who serve on private school boards, Shoup said. Some are affiliated with teacher unions.
The lawsuit defendants are Gov. Mitch Daniels and Superintendent of Public Instruction Tony Bennett, strong supporters of the legislation.
According to an ISTA news release, the voucher law violates provisions of the Indiana Constitution that safeguard Indiana taxpayers by ensuring that they are not compelled, through the taxes they pay, to support religious institutions, ministries and places of worship.
“There is no question that this law violates the provisions of the Indiana constitution that protect taxpayer dollars from being funneled to private, religious and for-profit organizations,” said Teresa Meredith, a teacher in the Shelbyville Central Schools and one of the plaintiffs in the case. She also is ISTA vice president.
The Choice Scholarship Program also violates laws that seek to safeguard Hoosier students, Meredith said. “This voucher program will provide public funds to private schools that can give individual preference to students based on test scores, disabilities, wealth and personal faith. Such preferences should not be publicly funded,” she said.
If allowed to stand, the program will drain additional resources away from schools that are already suffering from deep budget cuts, ISTA says.
“This law is also bad educational policy. How can lawmakers justify draining additional millions in resources from local public schools — on top of the $300 million in cuts made last year?” Meredith said. “The implementation of this law will most certainly result in larger class sizes, more teacher layoffs and fewer instructional programs for Hoosier public school students.”
Bennett said the department expected litigation. “We are confident the courts will agree that this new law is both constitutional and in the best interests of Hoosier children,” he said in a prepared statement.
Gov. Mitch Daniels also issued a statement. “There the union goes again, putting their financial self-interest ahead of the interests of children and Indiana’s low-income families. The bill was drafted from its inception with the state and federal constitutional law in mind,” Daniels stated.
The new law, signed by Daniels on May 5, could cut funds to public schools by up to $65.8 million to finance voucher entitlements for private, religious and for-profit schools, a move that is an unconstitutional use of public, taxpayer funds, according to ISTA. The National Education Association is providing both legal and financial support for the lawsuit.
The Institute for Justice, a legal advocate for school choice, announced Friday that it will defend Indiana’s new Choice Scholarship Program from the lawsuit. The Institute will intervene on behalf of a group of Indiana families who wish to participate in the program.
For the past 20 years, the Institute has litigated in state and federal courts across the country — including the U.S. Supreme Court — to protect school choice programs.
An Institute news release said Indiana’s Choice Scholarship Program could grow into the nation’s largest school choice scholarship program. “An estimated 62 percent of Indiana families will eventually be eligible to participate in the program,” it stated.
Sandy McBroom, director/principal at John Paul II Catholic High School, said the lawsuit “is unfortunate. I’m hopeful the law will withstand it. For years, families who send kids to private schools have paid taxes, and they have a right to choose how to educate their children.”
She doesn’t believe the voucher program will lead to a big exodus of students from public to private schools.
But for those parents who would like to send their child to a private school because of the faith-based component, the vouchers will make it a little easier, McBroom said.
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