Indiana
New report highlights Indiana's Choice Scholarships as vouchers increase nationwide • Indiana Capital Chronicle
As Indiana’s private school voucher system continues to grow, a new report suggests other states are taking notice and boosting public dollars for private education, too.
FutureEd, an education research nonprofit at Georgetown University, studied eight states — Arizona, Arkansas, Florida, Iowa, Indiana, Ohio, Oklahoma and West Virginia — where 569,000 students are participating in “school choice” programs at a cost to taxpayers of $4 billion in 2023-24.
Researchers also looked at programs in North Carolina and Utah that started this school year, as well as programs in Alabama and Louisiana that are set to begin in 2025-26.
After widening Indiana’s Choice Scholarship Program in 2022, state lawmakers further expanded the voucher system in 2023 to be nearly universal and open to almost all Hoosier families.
Since the changes took effect, eligibility for the scholarships — which allows families to receive vouchers to attend private schools — have expanded to include households with incomes up to 400% of the amount required for a student to qualify for the federal free or reduced price lunch program, equal to about $220,000.
Never in the history of American public education has so much money been available to parents to pay for private school tuition or homeschool expenses
When state lawmakers crafted the current two-year state budget during the 2023 session, Republican budget writers additionally baked in more than $1 billion for a major private school voucher expansion, which grew Indiana’s Choice Scholarship funding by 69% the first year and 14% the second year.
The state’s latest voucher report showed private school voucher program enrollment jumped about 32% in the 2023-24 school year, marking a historic single-year jump.
“Never in the history of American public education has so much money been available to parents to pay for private school tuition or homeschool expenses,” FutureEd researchers said in the report, released earlier this month.
And there could be more to come in the Hoosier state.
During the most recent 2024 legislative session, budget leader Sen. Ryan Mishler, R-Mishawaka, previewed his own proposal to completely overhaul Indiana’s private school vouchers with a grant program that would allow all Hoosier families — regardless of income — to choose where their students get educated.
Although the bill did not advance, discussion at the Statehouse previewed likely legislative momentum in 2025. Several Republicans running for governor and the state legislature have promised to make vouchers universal.
How funding is allocated
Indiana’s state-funded program enrolled a record 70,095 students in 2023-2024, costing taxpayers $439 million — which is around 40% higher than the $311 million spent on vouchers in the year prior.
Had all Hoosier voucher users attended their traditional public schools, however, the state would have paid around $516 million in education expenses. That’s because vouchers are paid at a lower amount than public school funding.
Still, the ways private school choice programs are funded vary significantly from state to state.
Some states impose budget or enrollment caps, according to the FutureEd report. Some prioritize funding based on need, or provide more dollars to lower-income families.
That includes Utah’s new universal education scholarship (ESA) program, launching this school year, which gives preference to students from families with incomes at or below 200% of the poverty line ($62,400 for a family of four). Due to high demand and limited seats, all students awarded ESAs to date fall within that income group, according to FutureEd.
Indiana private school voucher participation sees historic boost, according to new report
Indiana does neither; household income must only stay below 400% ceiling tied to federal free or reduced price lunch program qualification.
Others, like Florida and Arizona, cover all applicants irrespective of family means, without caps on the number of students funded or the amount awarded.
In states where private school choice providers receive state education aid, they typically get the equivalent of about 90% of a state’s per-pupil funding of public schools and the funding that public schools receive from local property taxes does not follow students to private schools, FutureEd researchers continued.
Vouchers in Indiana provide 90% of the amount of state-funding a public school corporation receives for each student, or covers all tuition and fees, whichever is lesser. The average award amount during the 2023-24 academic year was $6,264 in Indiana, and the average tuition and fees at a private school was $7,749.
That’s on par with Arizona, where most vouchers are valued between $7,000 and $8,000, and Arkansas, where the average award is $6,672. Florida, Iowa and West Virginia, on the other hand, fund each pupil the same as their public school counterparts.
Oklahoma and Ohio’s programs tier amounts by a family’s income. Ohio additionally increases award amounts for high school students, up to $8,407.
The majority of funds were used for tuition. Indiana and Ohio pay tuition directly to schools. Iowa mandates that ESA dollars be spent on tuition before other approved educational expenses, such as tutoring or textbooks. Arkansas restricts funds to tuition, supplies, uniforms, or other school-required expenses, and most are spent on tuition. Though Arizona gives families the widest spending latitude, 85% of funds were spent on tuition, tutoring, curricular materials, or textbooks in 2023-24.
“This marks a major change in K12 education policy,” FutureEd Director Thomas Toch said in a statement. “It’s the first time this level of public funding has been available to parents in the U.S. to pay for private school tuition or homeschool expenses. And it looks likely to expand further. Enrollment continues to increase where programs are offered; several additional states have legislative proposals in the works; and advocacy organizations continue to push aggressively for expansion.”
Which students are using vouchers?
In Indiana — where 90% or more of students in 178 private schools are attending with public funding — the 357 schools accepting public dollars are mostly concentrated in metropolitan and suburban areas.
“Interestingly, in Indiana most students who attend private schools do so within the boundaries of their local public school system,” researchers noted. “This may be due to the state’s relatively large number of participating private schools or a preference for geographical convenience.”
The FutureEd report pointed to a 2024 survey published by EdChoice, an Indiana-based school choice advocacy group, which showed that 19% of parents ranked proximity to home as one of their top-three reasons for selecting their children’s private schools. A larger percentage of parents cited academic quality, safe environment, and morals/character instruction as their top reasons for selecting private schools.
While Ohio and Indiana currently make racial and ethnic data available on private school choice participation across years, “there has been an increase in the participation of white students in those states as eligibility has expanded,” researchers noted.
In Ohio, the share of white students receiving public funding for private schooling in the universal program increased from 66% to 82% after the program’s expansion, with almost 90% of new participants identifying as white, while the percentages of Black and Hispanic students decreased. Prior to Ohio’s expansion of the program, the racial makeup of students more closely mirrored the composition of public-school students, the FutureEd report highlighted.
In Indiana, the proportion of white students also increased but much less than in Ohio, growing from 62% to 64% after the Hoosier program expanded. There were slight declines in Hispanic and Black student participation. In 2023-24, Black students made up 9% of choice students and 13% of public-school students.
Grade-level data additionally reveals that kindergarten students have typically shown the highest rates of participation in the newly established universal programs. That could be because the availability of private school seats is also likely highest in kindergarten, researchers said.
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In Iowa and Arkansas, respectively, 21% and 31% of private school funding recipients were entering kindergarten. Indiana saw its kindergarten enrollment more than double after expansion, and Arizona experienced an eightfold increase in voucher participation among kindergartners immediately after expansion.
Private school choice programs predominantly serve lower- and middle-income households, per the FutureEd report. But researchers found that participation among higher-income families increased in 2023-24 in every state where eligibility expanded and income information was available.
In Florida, nearly half of the state’s new private school funding recipients came from families earning over 400% of the federal poverty level (about $125,000 for a family of four), while a third came from families eligible for free or reduced lunch, after the program expanded in 2023-24 to include all families in the state.
Indiana’s share of higher-income families also grew, with 6% of voucher recipients living in households earning more than $200,000, and 55% earning less than $100,000. Before the program’s expansion, those figures were 1% and 66%.
In Ohio, 67% of families in the state’s universal private school choice program were low-income before the program was expanded to include all families. After the expansion, the figure dropped to 17%, in 2023-24.
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Indiana
Massive fire destroys arcade game supplier warehouse in Peru
PERU, Ind. (WISH) — A massive fire has destroyed a warehouse belonging to an arcade game supplier just outside of Peru.
The fire broke out sometime Wednesday at the Don’s Amusements warehouse located at C.R. 4028 W. 200 N. outside Peru. That is right by the Peru Municipal Airport just east U.S. 31. in Miami County.
Peru Fire Department Chief Dane told News 8 that multiple departments were working to contain the fire at the 15,000 square foot building. Dane added that water had to be shuttled in due to there being no fire hydrants near the scene.
News 8 spoke with the owner of Don’s Amusements, who confirmed the building was a total loss.
Video shared with News 8 showed heavy fire and smoke pluming from the building. It was unclear what started the fire, but crews were still working to control the blaze at 11 p.m. Wednesday.
Miami County is one of 46 counties in Indiana under a burn ban.
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Don’s Amusements is an arcade equipment supplier that provides a variety of pinball machines, air hockey tables, skee ball alleys, dart boards, and more.
Indiana
Early voting numbers suggest strong turnout, but which candidate benefits?
Chris and Shelby Ashby waited about an hour and a half Tuesday morning to vote at St. Luke’s United Methodist Church in Indianapolis, where the line coiled around temporary fences before stretching into the parking lot.
The Indianapolis couple’s toddler was in preschool, and they were hoping to avoid the long lines on Election Day.
Chris Ashby said he was motivated to vote for Democrat Jennifer McCormick in the governor’s race and Vice President Kamala Harris in the presidential election.
“We rank too low in education,” Ashby said. “[McCormick] is an educator, and it was the most important issue for me.”
Shelby Ashby said it was “very important we have the right people in charge,” a reference toHarris.
At the same location, Claire Baker, also of Indianapolis, waited three hours to vote. This was her first time voting early.
“It’s always a privilege to exercise my right to vote,” Baker said. She was most excited to cast a ballot for former President Donald Trump in the presidential election.
The wait was at least an hour in neighboring Hamilton County, where Fishers resident Blake Broeker said as left the county fairgrounds that he was also motivated to vote for Trump.
Early voting is well underway in Indiana, where nearly 955,000 people had submitted ballots as of Tuesday. That number marks a strong turnout that trailed only the record-setting early turnout of 2020, when the COVID-19 pandemic pushed more Hoosiers to vote early — either in person or by mail.
Election experts were encouraged by the turnout thus far but stopped short of forecasting an advantage for either party or candidate based on the numbers.
“If you’d have told me that a quarter of the turnout in 2020 would have already voted in Indiana with a week to go, I would have been surprised,” said Michael Wolf, political science chair and professor at Purdue University Fort Wayne. “It is quite a surprise. If you want people to participate, then early voting is clearly working.”
What the early voting numbers show
So far, 2024’s turnout lags behind 2020 figures but is well ahead of 2016 numbers.
In 2020, more than 1,358,000 Hoosiers had voted by the week before Election Day. The total in 2016 was about 571,000.
According to Democratic data firm TargetSmart, about 54% of the ballots returned thus far belonged to women — a similar proportion to voter splits in 2020.
The split by age demographics is starker.
In 2020, about 31% of ballots returned at this point belonged to voters under 50 years old, while about 42% came from people over 65.
This year, about 25% of ballots collected thus far came from voters under 50. About 49% of votes belonged to Hoosiers over 65.
What the numbers don’t show
“We know how many people voted early, but we have no idea who they voted for,” Indiana University Professor Emeritus Marjorie Hershey said.
Trump vilified the early voting practice in 2020, Hershey said, and Democrats tended to take the pandemic more seriously. That meant early voting numbers skewed Democratic.
But more Republicans have embraced the practice in 2024, making it impossible to speculate about which candidates benefit from strong early turnout, according to Hershey.
It’s also too early to make such assumptions.
“Typically, what happens is a wave for one candidate or the other in the last few days,” Hershey said. “But it’s impossible to know who that will be.”
Competitive governor’s race could be driving turnout
Wolf, the Purdue professor, said the gubernatorial race between Republican U.S. Sen. Mike Braun and McCormick, the state’s former superintendent of public instruction, may be a factor in the high turnout.
“People are paying attention to the governor’s race,” he said. “It’s hard to punch through the national-level stuff, but the candidates have had good, crisp debates.”
McCormick is airing commercials paid for with out-of-state money, Wolf said, and Republican groups have moved to match — meaning they must see the race tightening.
“To have two candidates who have held statewide office matters,” Wolf said. “Both candidates have run solid campaigns, and McCormick has produced a narrative that will have some people more engaged.”
Voting lines outside of Indianapolis
One statewide advocacy group is noting long early voting lines in places where they have not been seen before.
“It’s not unusual to see long lines and waits in Marion County, but we’re hearing about lines in other parts of the state,” said Julia Vaughn, executive director of the voter rights advocacy group Common Cause Indiana. “Two hours in Carmel. An hour and a half in Allen County.”
Vaughn was cautiously optimistic about the turnout thus far.
“It would be great if, [with] this election, Indiana could get out of the cellar in terms of voter turnout,” she said.
Several key issues, such as health care and education, were motivating voters more than specific candidates in this cycle, Vaughn said.
She is rooting for the heavy turnout to continue through Tuesday.
“I hope vote centers aren’t ghost towns on Election Day,” she said.
Contact Rory Appleton on X at @roryehappleton or email him at [email protected].
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Indiana
Republican former congressional candidate charged with stealing ballots in Indiana
A Republican former congressional candidate was charged with stealing ballots during a test of a voting system in Madison county, Indiana, state police said on Tuesday.
During the test on 3 October, which involved four voting machines and 136 candidate ballots marked for testing, officials discovered that two ballots were missing, according to the Indiana state police.
Voter fraud is rare in the United States, and courts dismissed multiple lawsuits of alleged electoral fraud brought by former president Donald Trump and some of his Republican allies who accused Democrats of stealing the 2020 election. Trump faces the Democratic vice-president, Kamala Harris, in a 5 November presidential election.
For four years, Trump has maintained his false claim, supported by a majority of Republicans in Congress, that the 2020 election was stolen. As a result, some states and counties have stepped up precautions.
Surveillance video showed Larry Savage, 51, a precinct committee member, folding and placing both ballots in his pocket after receiving instructions about the validity of the test ballots, the police said.
A search warrant was issued and Savage’s residence was subsequently searched, police said, adding that officers found the missing ballots in his vehicle.
“We unequivocally condemn any form of criminal election interference. We appreciate law enforcement’s efforts in pursuing justice and we will continue to monitor this situation as the process unfolds,” Griffin Reid, the communications director for Indiana’s Republican party, said in a statement.
Savage faces charges of destroying or misplacing a ballot, and theft, according to online records. No defense lawyer is listed for him, and he was released on bond.
Before turning himself in on Tuesday morning, Savage said he was innocent and described the charges as “bumped up”.
Savage unsuccessfully ran to be the Republican candidate for Indiana’s fifth congressional district. He secured less than 2% of the vote in his party’s primary.
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