Porter: Gee, what a “shock” to find out voucher system now costing state of Indiana
For immediate release:
June 18, 2014
INDIANAPOLIS – State Rep. Gregory W. Porter (D-Indianapolis), Ranking Democrat on the Indiana House Ways & Means Committee, today issued the following statement after the Indiana Department of Education reported that the state’s voucher program is no longer saving money:
“Many of us recall that one of the chief selling points behind the voucher program was that it would save state taxpayers money, since the amount provided for the voucher was less than what a school would receive in tuition support for a student.
“At the time, I was among many who raised a red flag about that claim. Now we are seeing those fears are valid.
“The Indiana Department of Education now tells us that the voucher program is costing the state around $15.8 million. There are no net savings to be distributed back to public schools…as limited as those savings were and how inadequate they were in helping public schools recoup the losses in funding.
“What we are seeing is the continued fallout of an unfettered expansion of a program without any measure of accountability to determine its ultimate effectiveness and no concern about the long-term impact upon a public school system that does not have the ability to pick and choose who it can educate.
“Within a very short time, the voucher program has become a zero sum game for our public schools. Every student they had that they lost to a voucher costs them. If there is a student living in their district that has gone into the voucher program, the school district loses funding as well, even though that student never went to the school.
“What is being lost by this devotion to vouchers? Let’s just take that $15 million as an example. We could have reinstituted our state’s professional development program for teachers. We could have fully funded our state’s program to assist non-English speaking students. We could have even doubled the funding for our state’s pre-K program, which was just delayed again.
“By providing vouchers without much planning, preparation or foresight, no matter what the cost, we are continuing to slice a smaller pie for funding education into even thinner pieces. And that hurts all of our children.”