State Reports Enrollment Increase In School Voucher Program
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David Slone-dslone@timesuniononline.com
The Indiana Department of Education reported Tuesday that enrollment in Indiana’s Choice Scholarship Program more than doubled in its second year. For 2012-13, there were 9,324 families who signed up to participate. The voucher program started in the 2011-12 school year. Locally, the IDOE reported there were 19 students from Warsaw Community Schools participating in the program this year who were eligible from the previous year’s program or who had attended a public school. Wawasee and Wa-Nee Community Schools had seven each, Tippecanoe Valley had five and Triton had two. Indiana’s voucher program provides means-tested scholarships that families may use to send their children to participating non-public schools, according to an IDOE press release. Students qualify for one of two scholarship levels based on their total family income as well as federal free and reduced lunch participation requirements. Students who qualify for free or reduced lunch can receive up to 90 percent tuition support from the school corporation in which they live. This figure is capped at $4,500 at the elementary and middle school level. Families whose total income does not exceed 150 percent of the amount required to qualify for reduced lunch are also eligible for the scholarship. These students receive 50 percent of the tuition support from the school corporation in which they reside, according to the press release. Overall, 81 percent of participating students come from Indiana’s most impoverished households and qualify for the larger scholarship, the release states. In addition, 48 percent of participating students come from minority households and 66 percent from urban areas. In total, 34 percent of enrolled students come from suburban, rural and township communities. According to IDOE numbers, Indianapolis Public Schools had the most voucher students eligible this year with 947. Fort Wayne Community Schools had 921, and South Bend Community Schools 555. The release states the number of schools participating in the voucher program increased from 241 in 2011-2012 to 289 in 2012-2013. Participating schools must be accredited, administer state assessments and be graded on an A to F scale – like all traditional public and public charter schools. “Once again, thousands of Hoosier families made powerful choices for their children, choices made possible by Indiana’s commitment to educational options for all students – regardless of background, income or ZIP code,” State Superintendent of Public Instruction Dr. Tony Bennett said in a press release. “Simply put, we are providing our neediest families options they’ve never had before, and they’re taking advantage of the opportunity to select schools that work best for their children. “This socially just policy underscores my belief that all students can and will succeed if we remove senseless barriers that allow achievement gaps and cycles of poverty to persist, especially in our most challenged communities,” he said. Funds remaining after scholarships are distributed to participating families are spread among all school corporations using the school funding formula. Last year, nearly $4.2 million was redistributed to school corporations across the state.
