Stand against education agenda

To the editor:

The tone of the 2021 budget session of the Indiana General Assembly has been quite different from the 2019 budget session when K-12 public education leaders stood with legislative leaders to announce a state budget that devoted $763 million in new funding for K-12 public education.

This session has been one consumed with a contentious debate on the proposed expansion of school choice programs. Indiana already ranks fifth for spending of state tax dollars on private school programs, but now ranks just 39th in the nation for per-pupil expenditures for public schools and the more than 1 million students we serve — down from 22nd among states in 2004. Why this shift in legislative priority has occurred is befuddling, given that the facts neither support the need nor benefit of state funding for private schools.

Indiana School Boards Association urges legislators to build on the good budget passed in 2019 by providing adequate funding to address the teacher pay gap and a tuition support increase for public schools that keeps pace with, or exceeds, inflation. Choice Scholarship voucher expansion and the creation of education savings accounts (ESAs) will cost an estimated $144 million over the next two years, diminishing the monies available to traditional public schools.

Despite serving less than 5% of Indiana K-12 students, funding for the voucher program to pay for private education will increase by more than 20% per year. The ESA program will be established at a projected cost of $19 million during the 2022-23 school year and will operate much like a health savings account, where parents receive state tax dollars they can use to enroll their child in private education and pay for qualified educational expenses. The ESA concept treats education as a commodity purchased by parents with little accountability to the public for use of these funds.

The diversion of money away from the more than 90% of all students whose families have chosen public education as their schools of choice means less funds for raising teacher pay. After his teacher compensation commission noted that Indiana has ranked last in the U.S. since 2001 for average annual teacher pay increases, the governor in his State of the State speech advised legislators to avoid funding school choice expansion at the expense of the traditional public school system. The legislature is required by Article 8, Section 1, of the Indiana Constitution to provide, by law, for a general and uniform system of Common Schools, wherein tuition shall be without charge, and equally open to all. Open enrollment has led to more than 70,000 students this school year enrolling in another public school district outside of their district of residence. In comparison, the Choice Scholarship voucher program funds about 35,000 students, of which 61% have never attended a public school.

Legislative proposals will make even more families eligible for state-funded tuition to attend a private school. Eligibility to receive a voucher would expand from 150% to 300% of the amount to qualify for the federal free or reduced-price meals program. The annual income limit for a household of five would jump generously from approximately $85,000 to $170,000 — more than twice Indiana’s median family income of $73,876. These families already have the means to afford private education.

It is important for Indiana residents to know that a majority of the private schools benefitting from the Choice Scholarship voucher program are concentrated in just four counties — Marion, Allen, St. Joseph and Lake. Thirty-three counties have no private school voucher providers, and another 20 only have one. Why are hundreds of millions of dollars going to support a program that doesn’t benefit all areas of the state, when K-12 public education in every county could be better funded?

Public schools are a pillar of our democracy and are the engines of opportunity for our citizenry. Public education remains necessary to produce a competitive workforce and serves as a catalyst for economic development and job growth.

Please join the more than 170 school boards that have passed resolutions to express opposition to this agenda and ask your legislators to vote no to the expansion of private school choice.

Adam VanOsdol

Indiana School Boards Association