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Monday, November 14, 2011

Ind. Gov't. - "Voucher savings? Don't count on it"

In this story published Nov. 9th in the Fort Wayne Journal Gazette, Niki Kelly wrote that:

Hoosier students are playing a variation of musical chairs under Indiana’s new voucher program, but this version has financial implications for the state and Indiana schools.
Following up on the story yesterday, Karen Francisco of the FWJG posted this entry in the Learning Curve blog, it begins:
The Journal Gazette's Niki Kelly reported last week of another of those unintended legislative consequences. This time, it's the parents of a parochial school student transferring their child (or children) to a public school for a year to qualify for voucher support the next year.

The evidence is anecdotal, of course, but the fact that the principal of a Fort Wayne Catholic school shared the information suggests it's no secret. Of course, state education officials are no longer collecting information that shows where a particular school's students come from or where they go, so there will be no way to determine next fall how many private and parochial school students sat out a year in public school just to qualify.

For lawmakers who supported the new entitlement program as a cost-savings measure, the transfer news should be troubling. One argument for the voucher program was that it would actually save the state money because the voucher reimbursement to the parochial/private school is less than the per-pupil state tuition support at the public school.

What lawmakers overlooked, however, is the tremendous financial incentive they offered to parents willing to pull their kids out of private or parochial school for a year just to qualify for vouchers. Those are families who always intended to send their children to private or parochial school. The General Assembly just gave them a way to do it at taxpayer expense.

Posted by Marcia Oddi on November 14, 2011 07:18 PM
Posted to Indiana Government