The fate of a proposal to expand Indiana's private school voucher program by making kindergartners and some other students immediately eligible could come down to something that no one seems to know — how much it will cost.
Supporters of Indiana's charter schools and private school vouchers packed a Statehouse corridor with hundreds of children from those schools for a rally Monday as they backed expansion of those programs.
Kindergartners and some other students in Indiana would be immediately eligible for the state's private school voucher program under an expansion plan the House approved Thursday.
The House Ways and Means Committee removed a provision that would have opened the voucher program to current private school students by not requiring them to first spend at least one year in public schools.
Gov. Mike Pence and top Republican legislators plan to barrel ahead this year with the "freight train" of education changes sought by Indiana's former governor, including proposals to expand school vouchers and use private money to send children to preschool.
Indiana lawmakers will look at expanding what is already the nation's largest school voucher program when the General Assembly gets to work Monday despite concerns that the program is hurting public schools in big cities.
The Indiana Supreme Court will decide whether the nation's largest school voucher program violates the state constitution.
School voucher advocates are pushing to get as many Indiana children as possible into the state's burgeoning program that helps pay private school tuition. The application deadline is Friday.
Struggling Indiana public school districts are buying billboard space, airing radio ads and even sending principals door-to-door in an unusual marketing campaign aimed at persuading parents not to move their children to private schools as the nation's largest voucher program doubles in size.
Private Indiana schools that accepted students from low- to middle-income families using state-funded vouchers last year experienced a small drop in their passing rates on the state's ISTEP test this year, a newspaper's analysis of test scores shows.
Buyers have quickly snapped up two home sites and the city might sell seven more on a stretch of Broadway Street where The Oaks Academy had hoped to build a soccer field.
For all the arguments in favor of school vouchers, there are opponents who say vouchers erode public schools by taking away money, violate the separation of church and state by giving public dollars to religious-based private schools, and aren't a proven way to improve test scores.
A generally overlooked part of the 2011 education reform package makes it clear donors to private schools can target their gifts to specific schools, a move that seems to have unleashed the tax credit’s full potential by helping private schools line up more donations.
A proposal that would make thousands of current private school students eligible for Indiana's school voucher program has been endorsed by a state legislative committee, although cost concerns might block its chances of advancing this year.
Dayana Vazquez-Buquer is among 3,919 students from low- to moderate-income Indiana families who qualified for an Indiana Choice Scholarship this year. She praises the General Assembly for creating the voucher program.
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 private school recently bought the 5.7 acres north of its campus that Dr. Bill Nunery, a local ophthalmologist, had planned to develop into an upscale residential enclave known as Grace Hill.
An Indianapolis judge says he'll decide within 30 days whether Indiana's sweeping new school voucher law violates the state's constitution.
Nearly 4,000 students who formerly attended public schools are receiving tax money to help pay the cost of private school under Indiana's school voucher program, which is believed to be the nation's largest, officials say.
Indiana's new school voucher law has prompted some parents to pull their children out of private schools and put them in public schools for a year so that they can become eligible for the state-funded program.
