Private schools that saw enrollment swell this year because of Indiana’s sweeping school voucher program fear they could see some of those gains erased next year as parents paying their own way instead enroll their children in public school so they can qualify for a voucher the following year, the Associated Press reports. The vouchers allow even middle-class families to use taxpayer money to send children to private schools and are worth on average more than $4,000 a year. The law was passed so late in the last legislative session that most parents didn’t know about the provision. Private school officials say parents are aware now.
“Principals are telling me that now that the parents know that others are coming in on these scholarships and that they might qualify as well, they are talking about leaving for the next school year,” said Babrara O’Block, superintendent of schools in the Catholic Diocese of Gary…