Some worry vouchers could cause reverse migration

Private schools that saw enrollment swell this year because of Indiana's sweeping school voucher program fear they could see some of those gains erased next year as parents paying their own way instead enroll their children in public school so they can qualify for a voucher the following year.

The vouchers allow even middle-class families to use taxpayer money to send children to private schools and are worth on average more than $4,000 a year. The law was passed so late in the last legislative session that most parents didn't know about the provision. Private school officials say parents are aware now.

"Principals are telling me that now that the parents know that others are coming in on these scholarships and that they might qualify as well, they are talking about leaving for the next school year," said Babrara O'Block, superintendent of schools in the Catholic Diocese of Gary.

Dawn Wojkovich, admissions director at Andrean High School in Merrillville, believes parents with children in elementary school are most likely to consider the switch.

"It's a much bigger decision to make when your child is in high school and established on a track trying to get everything they can ready for college," she said.

Vouchers can cover up to 90 percent of tuition, depending on a family's income. The vouchers caused a spike in enrollment at some Catholic schools that recently had been on the brink of closing because of a dwindling numbers. The program also upset public schools, which saw a drop in state funding.

The program can be expanded to 15,000 students next year, with no limits the following year. Officials from public and private schools say the uncertainty makes it difficult to plan.

O'Block said principals in northwest Indiana are telling parents who may be considering leaving Catholic schools for a year there is no guarantee there will be space when they try to return.

"We're telling them that if we have to have a lottery, you're going to have to be in the lottery like every other family coming in with a voucher," she said.

The Journal Gazette reported last month that St. Charles Borromeo Catholic School Principal Rob Sordelet said 15 students had withdrawn from the Fort Wayne school and plan to re-enroll next year with vouchers. Sordelet declined an interview request from the AP, saying that Diocese of Fort Wayne-South Bend school Superintendent Mark Myers told principals after the article appeared that all questions from the media about vouchers should be referred to him.

Myers said he doesn't believe those numbers are accurate, saying schools don't ask students why they are leaving and that students have been leaving Catholic schools steadily for the past decade. Myers also doesn't believe many parents would pull students from school they are happy with to save money.

"It would be bad for children," he said. "The books would be different. The teachers' strategies would be different. The assessments would be different. So that would greatly interrupt a student's normal education."

Others, though, say they believe parents must at least consider it. The state this year is spending about $16 million to pay for 3,919 students to attend private schools. A Marion Superior Court judge is considering whether the voucher law violates church-state separation clauses in the Indiana Constitution. If the voucher program stays in place, some parents could save more than $40,000 per child over a decade or more.

State Sen. Dennis Kruse, R-Auburn, would prefer private school students be allowed to immediately receive vouchers without going to public school. He said the provision was a compromise needed to pass the law. The reasoning behind it was that parents of private school students would have to at least give public schools a chance, he said.

"It gives parents a comparison to make a decision," he said.

Rep. Kreg Battles, a Democrat from Vincennes and a public high school chemistry teacher, opposes the voucher law and said the provision requiring private school students to attend public school for a year is short-sighted.

"You have kids in upheaval because they are not moving once, but twice within a two-year period, which can't be healthy for their education," he said.

Although he opposes the voucher program, Battles said he hopes the General Assembly doesn't try to make any changes this year.

"If you're for it, against it or anywhere in between, I think we have to let it sift out and see where it's at, see what's working, see what's not working and then make the adjustments that need to be made. But let's make them on some data on some experience, and frankly we don't have enough data or experience to make any changes," he said.