Vouchers examined in IU report

It has been called the most comprehensive and aggressive approach to education reform today.

In April the state of Indiana passed three bills to reform public education for grades K-12, and in July those policies became law.

HEA 1001, HEA 1003 and HEA 1004 have been contested by politicians, educators and tax payers since their inception, and the controversy surrounding their legality is still prevalent.

But the Center for Evaluation and Education Policy (CEEP) at IU has published a report to calm the controversy and neutralize the discussion.

“School Choice Issues in Indiana: Sifting through the Rhetoric” is the 20-page report that addresses each of the bills, weighs the pros and cons of their implementation and provides suggestions for the consideration of Indiana policy makers.

Report authors are Rebecca Billick, a licensed school counselor, local attorney and former CEEP graduate research assistant; Stephen Hiller, current CEEP graduate research assistant; and Terry Spradlin, CEEP’s director for education policy.

The authors presented their findings and recommendations Sept. 1 during a meeting of the Indiana Public School/University Partnership, also called Partnershare.

Partnershare was formed to create an alliance between researchers from IU and educators around the state to share information and ideas about the advancement of education in Indiana.

“There’s a lot of bad information out there, and my goal is just to clear things up,” Billick said. “I want people to be real honest about what they are upset about and look at it from an unbiased perspective.”

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HEA 1004 allows a select group of Indiana parents to receive a tax deduction based on income to home school their children or cover the expenses of sending them to a private institution.

HEA 1001 permits students to acquire scholarships funded by Scholarship Granting Organizations, which are subsidized by private donations of individuals or corporations who receive tax credits for their contributions.

HEA 1003 allows students to be granted a Choice Scholarship, commonly referred to as a voucher. The Indiana Department of Education can award 7,500 vouchers this school year and 15,000 next school year, with no cap thereafter.

The state has already awarded approximately 3,700 vouchers this year, and 200 private schools are expected to accept students who have benefited from the new laws, Spradlin said.

The reform plan is expected to save the state money, the report concluded, because the scholarship only awards a percentage of funding that would otherwise go to the student’s former public school. Billick also said the amount of money given through tax credits is far from appropriated at this point.

“The annual limit on the amount of tax credits allowed each year to individuals donating to Scholarship Granting Organizations was increased from $2.5 million to $5 million during the 2011 legislative session,” Billick said in a press release. “But what’s important to keep in mind is that the Department of Revenue only granted about $340,000 in tax credits during the 2011 fiscal year for this program.”

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The Indiana State Teacher’s Association has filed a lawsuit on the grounds that the new laws violate the Establishment Clause and the Indiana Constitution, but the CEEP report concludes it is unlikely they will win.

Controversy surrounding the Establishment Clause, which prohibits the state from promoting a particular religion, is unlikely to help the teacher’s association, because the three Indiana laws were written in ways to avoid the legal pitfalls of similar programs in other states.

“The research raises questions whether these policies will impact public education as a whole, but we just focused on how the policies will affect Indiana,” Spradlin said.
“If these programs or options give students a greater opportunity to succeed, then we will see. If we are going to have vouchers, we need to give them time to see their impact,” she said. “And after several years, we need to be able to look at the program and evaluate their significance in advancing education.”