The Expansion of Eligibility in Indiana’s Voucher Program and Impacts on Student Participation and Sorting

• In Event: Sociology of Education Section Roundtables
  In Refereed Roundtable (60 minute): Table 19. Local, State, and Regional Landscapes and Educational Experiences

Abstract

This study documents how Indiana’s Choice Scholarship Program (ICSP) shifted from a means-tested voucher program to one with near-universal eligibility, and examines how this transition altered student participation and sorting within the private school sector. Using nineteen years of longitudinal, student-level data, we document substantial changes in the demographic profile of voucher users and in the composition of private schools compared to public schools over the same period. Initially, voucher participants attending private schools were mostly from lower-income families and included a sizable proportion of Black and Hispanic students. The most recent phase of expansion since 2021-22—which has now raised income eligibility to 400 percent of the reduced-price lunch threshold and removed all entry pathways—precipitated a sharp rise in participation among White and higher-income families, while the share of lower-income voucher users declined. Correspondingly, the share of lower-income students enrolled in private schools decreased. Assessing whether these long-term trends are consistent with opportunity hoarding, we find mixed evidence. Our results show more Hispanic and lower-income students represented across all private schools, regardless of school achievement profile. However, the magnitude of increase for these groups over time has been much greater in lower- to middle-achieving private schools than in the highest-achieving ones. Black student enrollment in private schools today appears to be effectively the same, on average, as before the voucher program began, with no differences of sorting into schools with different achievement profiles.

Author

• Mark A. Berends, University of Notre Dame