STATEWIDE (NETWORK INDIANA) — School choice, meaning a parent’s ability to choose which school they send their children to, is something that is “wildly popular” among Hoosiers.
During the previous legislative session state lawmakers passed new rules that expanded who could apply for school voucher assistance from the state in order to help families pay to send their child to a different school, whether it be public, charter, or private.
Since then, Betsy Wiley with the Institute for Quality Education says the number of Hoosier families engaging in the ability to choose which school they send their child to has increased significantly.
“School choice has never been more popular in Indiana than it is today,” Wiley told Indy Politics. “We have record-breaking voucher applications with over 75,000 students participating in that program this year.”
Wiley said her organization commissioned a survey to be done to crunch the numbers of how receptive Hoosiers have been to the expanded accessibility to school choice. For starters, she said the survey show that among the populous, school choice is an incredibly non-partisan issue.
“We have all income levels, all political parties, all religious affiliations, all ethnicities supporting school choice now,” she said.
Some opponents to the expansion of school vouchers fear that this will take more money out of public schools with more parents choosing a parochial school or independent private school.
Though the data does show an increase in vouchers being used for non-public schools, she said the overwhelming majority of Hoosiers using vouchers are choosing a different public school district than the one they geographically live in.
“That’s the largest type of school choice in Indiana with people choosing a different public school district than the one they live in,” Wiley said. ‘Those who sent their child to a school of choice, be it a public, charter school, home school, parochial school, they had a much higher satisfaction with their school of choice.”
Furthermore, Wiley said the data shows that student populations at parochial and independent private schools have become more diverse.
Wiley and the Institute for Quality Education are pushing for another expansion of school choice laws in Indiana for the upcoming legislative session. She said Indiana should have “universal school choice”, meaning Hoosiers should have unfettered access to choose where their children attend school.
