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Indiana spent roughly $439 million on its voucher program for the 2023-24 school year as enrollment in private schools hit a record high, a surge driven in large part by students from wealthy families.
The figure represents a $127 million increase from the $311 million the state spent on its voucher program last year, according to the Choice Scholarship Program annual report released Friday. The number of participating students in 2023-24 increased by approximately 32% from 2022-23.
Additionally, the number of voucher students from households making more than $150,000 soared after lawmakers last year abolished most requirements for participation and raised income eligibility to 400% of the threshold to qualify for the federal free and reduced-price lunch program.
Nearly 8,000 students in 2023-24 came from households making between $150,000 to $200,000 annually, up from around 2,800 in 2022-23—an increase of 183%.
And the number of voucher students from households making more than $200,000 increased roughly tenfold, from 354 students in 2022-23 to about 3,700 in 2023-24.
The number of students from those two income brackets combined who used vouchers in 2023-24 increased by 8,495, representing just over half the total growth of about 16,720 students.
Among the other income brackets, around 2,000 more students came from families making up to $50,000; an additional 2,000 came from families making between $50,000-$100,000; and the number of students from families making between $100,000 to $150,000 grew by a little more than 4,000.
Critics of the voucher program warned last year that relaxing the income eligibility requirement would effectively subsidize students from wealthier families to attend private schools. Supporters, meanwhile, said relaxing eligibility would give parents more choices in their students’ education.
Previous data showed that private school enrollment in Indiana was increasing, but not as quickly as the rate of voucher use, indicating that many students using vouchers this year had already been enrolled in private schools.
In a statement Friday on the voucher report, the Indiana State Teachers Association said the expansion funnels public funds “to those who can already afford private schools.”
“Public schools, which serve 90% of Hoosiers’ children, are open and nondiscriminatory, providing essential services and a common foundation for our diverse communities,” the ISTA said. “Vouchers undermine this public good by siphoning limited funds to private schools that lack accountability and do not serve all students equitably.”
The report notes that had all 70,000 voucher students attended their public schools, the state would have paid around $516 million in public school funding. However, the majority of Choice Scholarship students have never attended a public school.
Voucher students made up around 6.1% of enrollment statewide in 2023-24, according to the report, up from around 4.7% the year before.
The average voucher student in Indiana is a white, elementary-aged girl who lives in a metropolitan area and comes from a household of around 4.7 people making around $100,000, according to the report.
An additional 14 schools participated in the program in 2023-24, the most of any year of the program.
Chalkbeat Indiana is a not-for-profit news site covering educational change in public schools.
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It is not “conservative” at all to destroy Indiana’s constitutionally mandated system of traditional public schools. These numbers lay bare the Indiana legislature’s radical agenda, funded by Bill Gates and other Mind Trust super-wealthy donors. Shocking.
You are mistaken, the voucher program is funded by me and you, and all Indiana tax payers.
No Dan–you are mistaken. Grossly.
IF Indiana wants to hand out money to everyone for vouchers, and IF they can do that without draining the Public Ed Fund, so be it. But that’s not what’s happening.
Private schools are not mandated by law. Public Ed is.
What Indiana is doing is shameful.
The headline should read “As expected, voucher program is just a tax break for the rich”.
This is exactly what has happened in ALL of the states that have expanded their school voucher programs.
Dan,
+1
I want ALL parents to be able to send their children to the school of THEIR choice!! By the way, a family of four with gross income of $200,000 is not ‘WEALTHY”! This article neglects what these families are paying in property taxes to prop up the woke, ineffective, “hate-America” agenda of so many school systems!
The public school system is terrible and needs to be torn down.
Give each parent a $7,000 voucher for each child to help pay for the education they want for their child be it from a “public school” or a faith-based private school!
Put kids and parents first and screw you public school system!!!!
The voucher program has also greatly benefited poor and middle class
families. Families that should not be trapped in bad schools because
of their zip codes.
Second, why should wealthy families be exempt when they paythe bulk of the
taxes already in the local school districts. Shouldn’t they benefit also??
I know many upper class families that pay through through the nose to
send their children to private schools. Usually religious affiliated schools.
The point is, working hard and playing by the rules should not be a negative.
John
+ 1
You are absolutely correct.
John: I am unhappy with the allocation of public road money, and demand that the street in front of your house be defunded proportionately. Give that money to me. I can better decide what’s good for me.
In terms of public funds allocation and the law–that’s the exact same (unreasonable) argument you just made regarding public ed funds.
IF your child’s legitimate needs aren’t being met by your public school, you have long had the right to seek another public school for those needs. And since 1977, if those needs are in the Special Ed arena, you’ve had portable federal funds and rights. But please consider this:
If you ever want to sell your home, the buyers might want the local public schools assigned to your property. How do you think the school physical plant and staffing needs of your future homeowners will be met? Do you think that building(s) and staff magically fell out of the sky, only to be used by folks who approve of the current public school budget?
We’ve allowed the legislative supermajority to redefine the public’s expectations and demands of public schools. We will pay for that…for decades.
The sobering fact is that public education is a colossal failure in the three basic, reading, writing and arithmetic!
Vouchers (tax payers money) should be utilized where students can learn to count change and tell time (non digital) by the time they are in high school!
If that is private schools so be it, parents who can should home school if you want a world class education you children deserve to succeed!