Some worry vouchers could cause reverse migration

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…

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Indiana voucher program leads to reverse transfers

Indiana’s new school voucher law has led some Hoosier parents to take their students out of private schools and place them in public schools for a year to earn eligibility for the publicly funded program, the Journal Gazette reports. Last week, the state announced that nearly 4,000 students have moved to private institutions under the program, totaling $16 million in state funds. When the school year started, the mass exodus of students from public schools who took with them public dollars was met with great controversy…

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