Op-Ed #5: Voucher Expansion in Indiana

• In Event: The School Voucher Illusion: Exposing the Pretense of Equity

Abstract

Cataloging a decade of policy changes from the original design of the Indiana Choice Scholarship Program provides an opportunity to reflect back on Governor Mitch Daniels’ 2011 address referring to families and students who “have waited long enough, for a better chance in life,” in which he asks, “Look at those faces. Will you be the one to tell the parents ‘tough luck’?” Indiana’s 2011 voucher program has expanded since that time, to become less targeted towards disadvantaged students and more accessible to White, middle class students (Herron, 2021; Lange et al., 2021). The 2021 policy changes make children in households up to the 85th income percentile in Indiana eligible for a voucher that covers 90 percent of the per-pupil cost to educate.

The authors of this op-ed present findings from their qualitative study about the experiences of educators and voucher-receiving families. On the one hand, they find that schools made strides in integrating new students socially, academically, and religiously. However, the interviews also revealed challenges associated with more diverse student bodies in terms of academic preparation, race/ethnicity, and economic disadvantage. In addition, parents of children long-enrolled in private schools expressed dissatisfaction with the changing school environments due to the increasing enrollment of voucher students. Also, voucher participation has plateaued over the past few years, suggesting that demand among low- and modest-income students who would not attend a private school without a voucher has largely been met.

This leaves us with a voucher problem. Can voucher programs be implemented in ways that robustly improve student learning and close opportunity gaps? Can students of color and those from low-income families be fully integrated into their new settings so that they—and the entire school and community—can flourish? Or is it the case that the diversity introduced into private schools by means-tested voucher programs will generate dissatisfaction and calls for more universal eligibility criteria that undermine some of these goals? The evidence from other studies from the authors of this op-ed suggests that significant hurdles remain for voucher program implementation and academic outcomes.

In addition, the movement of voucher programs away from targeting economically disadvantaged students and students of color, and toward middle-class students who are disproportionately White, poses a significant problem for those voucher advocates who are intent on improving learning opportunities for our nation’s most vulnerable students.

The ongoing appetite to broaden the income eligibility in voucher programs appears to be poorly targeted at best and actively harmful at worst, insofar as there are real reasons to expect further widening education and economic gaps between wealthy and low-income, white and non-white individuals under such an expansion. As the ICSP increasingly accommodates White, middle- and higher-income students already enrolled or planning to enroll in private schools, researchers, policymakers, and the general public need to be attuned to ways in which expansive private school choice may codify persistent inequalities.

Authors

• Mark Berends, University of Notre Dame
  Presenting Author

• Joseph Waddington, University of Notre Dame
  Presenting Author

• Megan Austin, American Institutes for Research
  Presenting Author