Public school officials oppose proposed legislation that could decrease funding

House Bill 1311 introduces an Indiana education savings account program that could ultimately decrease funding available for the three county school corporations. Funds could be funneled into private schools and charter schools in the form of tuition.

Education advocates argue the bill will cater to wealthier Hoosiers attending private and charter schools. School choice advocates have said all along that Indiana’s increased funding for the education voucher system is to allow more moderate- to low-income students the opportunity to attend private or charter schools. This is the first bill that is aimed at Hoosiers with enough discretionary income to place into an education savings account and also get an income tax decrease.

Ultimately, local educators are worried the increased drain on public funding due to Indiana’s voucher system takes money that could be used in county public schools.

Senate Bill 334, authored by State Sen. Carlin Yoder (R-Middlebury) and State Sen. Dennis Kruse (R-Auburn), provides that the department of education will accept applications for choice scholarship students from Sept. 2 through Jan. 15 for the spring semester of the current school year. Previously applications for choice scholarships were only accepted before the school year and not in the middle of the year.

Education advocate Vic Smith has addressed concerns with the two bills in a recent newsletter sent to educators state-wide.

“H.B. 1311 is another deliberate means by which to divert funding away from public schools,” Smith stated. “Also, SB 334 which would expand private school vouchers to allow spring semester voucher transfers, has passed the Senate Education Committee and is heading to the Senate Appropriations Committee early this week. This bill sponsored by Senator Yoder would be the biggest expansion of private school vouchers since Governor Pence’s 2013 expansion and is estimated to cost taxpayers $2.1 million dollars per year according to the non-partisan Legislative Services Agency.”

The bill was presented as a method of helping a private school get voucher money to support students during the spring semester who have been expelled during the first semester or who have otherwise dropped out.”

North Montgomery Superintendent Dr. Colleen Moran said Vick’s assessment seems to be true and wonders why local legislators support any bills that could potentially decrease local public school funding.

“There is no reference in the bill to providing help for drop outs or expelled students,” Moran said. “However, the language of the bill goes beyond funding for drop outs to attend a private school. In fact, there is no reference in the bill to provide help for drop outs or expelled students. Indiana should not expand private school vouchers in this way or any other way if public education is truly valued. In our community, where there are no private or charter schools, public schools are supported so why would our taxpayers want to help fund vouchers that provide access to these “choices?”

South Montgomery Community School’s Superintendent Dr. Shawn Greiner said legislators should be focusing on other education issues rather than obtaining more funds from state coffers for private and charter schools.

“Our legislators should be focusing on addressing the issues related to ISTEP and future changes needed in addressing Indiana’s assessment issues,” Greiner said. “This is not the time to focus on expanding vouchers using the taxpayer dollars and further reducing public school funding. We have yet to see the research supporting that school vouchers increase student achievement.”

Crawfordsville Superintendent Scott Bowling said the stance of many Indiana legislators in confusing and that there is no evidence there should be more funds directed to school choice with increased funding for vouchers.

“Some of our legislators seem to hold two views that are in serious conflict with each other concerning the structure of public schooling in Indiana,” Bowling said. “On the one hand, they advocate for the consolidation of smaller schools under the premise that this will provide a better education for students. Then, at the same time, they advocate for vouchers and charters that create smaller schools. The evidence is clear that charter schools and voucher schools do not provide students with a better education than they can get at schools in their own community. I hope our legislators look at the data, come to this same inevitable conclusion, and realize that we need to put the state’s resources behind our local, community schools instead of sending money away from Indiana to support for-profit charter companies and voucher schools.”