The nation’s most sweeping school voucher program — with tuition aid for low- and middle-income families — is now law in Indiana. Gov. Mitch Daniels signed the bill today, along with another bill expanding charter schools.
Parents can choose to use vouchers at private schools that accept state regulation, including religious schools. As family income rises to $60,000 for a family of four, the voucher’s value will go down.Other voucher systems across the country are limited to lower-income households, children with special needs or those in failing schools.Indiana’s program would be open to a much larger pool of students, including those already in excellent schools. Indiana’s program will be limited to just 7,500 students for the first year and 15,000 in the second, a fraction of the state’s about 1 million students. But within three years, there will be no limit on the number of children who could enroll.Indiana will save money on voucher students: Vouchers for elementary and middle school students are capped at $4,500 and no voucher will equal funding for public-school students.According to Rick Hess, 60 percent of Indiana schoolchildren will be eligible for a voucher worth up to 90 percent of public education costs. The student must attend a year of public school to qualify for a voucher.The bill also gives a $1,000 tax deduction for private-school tuition or the costs of homeschooling. That’s expected to cut revenues by $3 million.While most choice advocates are celebrating, Cato’s Adam Schaeffer argues the law is a “strategic defeat for educational freedom” because it greatly expands state regulation of participating private schools.
To qualify for vouchers, schools will have to administer state exams and submit data on students’ progress, admit students by lottery and “provide good citizenship instruction” that stresses respecting authority, the property of others, the student’s parents and home, the student’s self and “the rights of others to have their own views and religious beliefs.”
What does this mean for religious private schools teaching that one can only be saved by belief in Jesus Christ?
Private schools that refuse to be regulated will risk losing most of their students, Schaeffer writes.
-->Filed Under: Education Tagged With: choice, freedom, homeschooling, Indiana, Mitch Daniels, private schools, regulation, religious schools, tax credit, tuition, vouchers
About JoanneComments
Soapbox0916 says: May 5, 2011 at 2:07 pmI am guessing that most people here have not had to work with Governor Daniels. I have mixed feelings about Daniels. I have some very serious concerns about Daniels being able to put in the proper structure in place to actually implement school vouchers. I have some insight in to how Daniels actually manages or unfortunately doesn’t manage.
This is the personal perspective of someone who formerly worked for state government under the Daniels administration, I admit I was a peon way down, but I still worked with his staff in the Governor’s office quite a bit because of the type of job that I had, I worked with rules and legislation as a rulewriter.
Daniels is very good at big picture, extremely general stuff, but I am honestly concerned that Daniels does not understand details well enough for this to succeed. I don’t say that lightly. It is like Daniels can see the forest from the trees, but Daniels forgets that trees need leaves or doesn’t care enough that trees have leaves. It seems like most people struggle with the big picture, but Daniels is the opposite, he struggles with the details.
Most politicians leave the government workers alone just enough so that government workers can get some things done. I still hear the frustrations from those that work under Daniels administration. Daniels has a habit of getting in the way of the people that know what they are doing when it comes to the details, way worse than typical politicians. So I hope that Daniels leaves the people that can figure out how to implement this voucher program alone enough in order to get it done right.
I am a huge fan of vouchers and I live in Indiana so I am very excited. Don’t get me wrong, I very much want this voucher program to be a huge success, but my worries is that the implementation will get screwed up, or worse, problems with implementation of the vouchers will be used by critics of vouchers and therefore keep other states from implementing vouchers. This could be a model for other states to follow or an implementation fail.
Cardinal Fang says: May 5, 2011 at 2:23 pm“Indiana will save money on voucher students: Vouchers for elementary and middle school students are capped at $4,500 and no voucher will equal funding for public-school students.”
But is this actually true? I take it the *average* per pupil funding is greater than $4500. But will the average per voucher student be greater than $4500? An individual public school student doesn’t cost the average amount. She costs more, because she’s a special needs student, or less, because she isn’t. If only the students who cost less get vouchers– because the voucher-accepting schools don’t handle expensive special-needs students– then Indiana won’t in fact save money on voucher students. Especially since it is also offering a costly tax deduction for private school tuition.
How is this not just a $4500+ gift to parents who wanted to send their kids to expensive private schools anyway?
From reading this blog, I’ve come to support some voucher programs. But not this one.
Mark Roulo says: May 5, 2011 at 3:28 pmIndiana seems to spend ~6K per student at the district level (so, probably close to $8K once you consider state level spending … I’m going by how California does things … which may be a mistake).
Unless there are lots of special needs students or they cost multiples more than the average student, I don’t think Indiana will find that these vouchers cost money.
Unless these students weren’t going to go to the public schools in the first place. But this holds true for any voucher, no?
Darren says: May 5, 2011 at 4:24 pmI’m ok with state “control” over places where the taxpayers’ money is spent. The limits on that control–*that* is the thorny issue.
Laura says: May 5, 2011 at 6:19 pmI’m not sure how many private schools will be suddenly accessible with a $4500 voucher. I’m sure there are some that will be made affordable, but many have to cost more like $8-10k/student. I”m in the northeast, where prices are higher, but average private school costs run more like $20k. Many private schools do not want to accept state regulation–testing, providing services for special needs, etc. I don’t think there will be a huge loss of students for many of those schools.
Deirdre Mundy says: May 5, 2011 at 6:41 pmLaura— this will make most Catholic and Lutheran schools free for most families (and most of these schools already administer the state tests, etc. etc.)
Speak Your Mind Cancel replyName *Email *WebsitePlease leave these two fields as-is:Protected by Invisible Defender. Showed 403 to 56,524 bad guys.
The Book
Subscribe
(a) EdBlogsAnswer SheetBrainstormBridging DifferencesChange the EquationCharter InsightsCharterBlogClass StruggleCollege PuzzleCommon CoreCommunity College SpotlightConcord ReviewCore KnowledgeCritical MassCurriculum MattersDaily RiffDana GoldsteinDiscriminationsDropout NationEarly Ed WatchEarly StoriesEd BeatEd ReformerEdMoneyEdspressoEducated GuessEducation GadflyEducation InnovatingEducation NextEducation OptimistsEducation Policy BlogEduFlackEdutopia BlogEduwonkEdWizeEIA InterceptsFIRE’s TorchFlypaperFutures of School ReformGotham SchoolsGradebookHechingerEdHome EducationInside School ResearchJay P. GreeneKitchen Table MathLarry CubanMedia BullpenMinding the CampusNAS BlogNational JournalOut in Left FieldPolitics K-12Public School InsightsQuick and the EdredefinEdRick Hess Straight UpRock the SchoolhouseSchool Law and ReformShanker BlogSherman DornStuart BuckTeacher BeatThe Educated ReporterThis Week in EducationTurnaround ChallengeUniversity DiariesWhitney TilsonWhy Boys Fail(b) TeacherBlogsA Teacher’s EducationA Teacher’s ViewAssorted StuffBiology and BlueberriesCoach BrownCoach G's Teaching TipsCurmudgeonDaily GrindDeTocqueville's DaughterDy/DanExponential CurveGently Hew StoneHistory is ElementaryHuffEnglishLightly SeasonedMathNotationsMildly MelancholyMiss BraveNot All Flowers and SausagesNYC EducatorOrganized ChaosPractical TheoryRight on the Left CoastShrewdness of ApesSiobhan CuriousStories from SchoolTeach for America BlogsTeacher in a Strange LandTeacher VoicesTeacher, I Don't Get ItTeacherLingoTeaching NowThe LineWhat It's Like on the Inside(c) Blogroll11DAnn AlthouseBetsy’s PageBuzzMachineHit & RunI Speak of DreamsInkwellInstapunditIowahawkJames Lileks’ BleatJim MillerJust One MinuteKausfilesMegan McArdleRoger SimonThe CornerThe PlankTim BlairVirginia PostrelVolokh Conspiracy(d) News/InfoBest of the WebCalifornia WatchCity JournalCommentary MagazinePajamas MediaReasonSlateTCS DailyThe OnionWeekly Standard(e) CollegesCalifornia business schoolPennco TechLinksApidexinArtificial Christmas TreesAsbestos Lung CancerChicago CollegeChristmas DecorationsColleges in IllinoisColorado Nursing SchoolsEducatorFacebook EmoticonsMesotheliomaPhlebotomy TrainingScentOnline EducationAccredited Online CollegesBachelor Degrees OnlineBachelor of AccountingCNA Duties and ResponsibilitiesCollege OnlineDay TradingElementary & Secondary EducationEngineering Programs OntarioHealthcare Management DegreeIO PsychologyMassage Therapy ProgramsMedical Billing and CodingMedical Billing and Coding TrainingOnline College EducationOnline Courses AustraliaOnline Courses in AustraliaOnline Criminal Justice DegreesOnline MBAOnline Psychology DegreesOnline Trading EducationOnline UniversityPhlebotomy CertificationPhlebotomy TrainingReal Online Degrees BlogUMATX-Ray TechnicianSiteMeter
Return to top of page
Copyright © 2011 · Genesis Framework by StudioPress · WordPress · Log in
0 comments:
Post a Comment