SOUTH BEND, Ind. (AP) _ The number of students applying to receive vouchers to use state money to attend private schools has more than doubled for a second straight year.
 
The Indiana Department of Education says the nation's broadest private school voucher plan received more than 20,000 applications for 2013-14. Spokesman Daniel Altman says education officials won't know until late October how many of those who applied used the vouchers, where they are from, and what schools they chose. 
 
In the three years Indiana has had school vouchers, the program has grown from 3,900 when it first started in 2011-12 months after the General Assembly approved them to more than 9,300 last year.
 
School Choice Indiana President Betsy Wiley says the number of applications shows there is a strong desire for school choice.