Bill eases school voucher rules

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Updated: February 26, 2012 8:16AM

INDIANAPOLIS — Thousands of students could pour into the country’s broadest private school voucher program if Indiana legislators drop a requirement that children spend at least one year in public schools before becoming eligible.

The move would immediately open the voucher program to current private school students, with questions about whether the state could afford potentially millions of dollars in additional costs less than a year after it was approved.

Supporters say the one-year requirement is a burden that can disrupt a child’s education and limits the school choice that the voucher program was meant to provide. But public schools contend eliminating the requirement would take away their chance to compete for students.

The state this year is spending about $16 million to pay for about 3,900 students to attend private schools, and the voucher law allows up to 15,000 children this coming school year. In future years there would be no cap, though voucher supporters have no estimates about what additional costs might be involved.

Senate Education Committee Chairman Dennis Kruse said last year’s decision to require a year in public schools was a compromise he reluctantly accepted.

“I think parents can make the choice on knowing what they want for their child and their family,” said Kruse, R-Auburn.

The education committee is scheduled to hold a public hearing Wednesday on whether to eliminate the one-year requirement for any student in grades 1-12 whose families meet income limits. A family of four, for instance, can earn up to $62,000 and still qualify for partial tuition assistance.

The voucher program helps pay for about 20 children to attend St. Bernard Catholic School in the Ohio River town of Rockport, boosting this year’s enrollment to 113 students, Principal Sara Guth said. She believes some parents have moved their children from St. Bernard to public schools this year in order to become eligible for the vouchers. Guth said she took a call Tuesday morning from parents who were disappointed to find out they couldn’t seek a voucher for their child to attend kindergarten next fall.

“They didn’t quite understand why that was in place and why they couldn’t use it right away,” Guth said.

She estimated that about half of her school’s current students might be eligible for a voucher if the one-year rule was waived. And even though that large percentage may not carry over statewide, the potential cost still causes worry among legislators.

Senate Appropriations Committee Chairman Luke Kenley, R-Noblesville, said he thought it was too soon to make substantial changes to the voucher rules. He said requiring time in a public school was a key to avoiding at least tens of millions of dollars in additional state spending for students already attending private schools.

“That would have made the whole exercise of the voucher program probably not doable,” Kenley said.

Fort Wayne Community Schools lost 392 students this school year to the voucher program, the most of any Indiana school district. Changes made last year to the state’s school funding system also meant the enrollment loss immediately cost the district money rather than being spread over several years.

Making additional changes to the voucher rules worries the district, spokeswoman Krista Stockman said.

“We bear the brunt of this legislation and yet we’re doing everything that the state asks us to do and we got an A from them,” she said. “If they take away that one year, what that’s going to do is siphon off even more money, which just makes it harder and harder to meet the standards that the state wants us to meet.”

State figures show that nearly 27,000 private school students participate in federal lunch programs, which have family income levels that are lower than those set for voucher eligibility.

Republican Sen. Doug Eckerty of Yorktown, who is sponsoring the bill that would remove the one-year requirement, said with more than 11,000 voucher spots open for next school year he believed the greater flexibility would help children remain in their current schools.

“We’ve got room to grow into that,” he said. “We can certainly take those kids instead of flipping them back and forth, just go ahead and allow them to stay.”