Dear Friends, 

Even a deep budget crisis could not stop the Supermajority from giving a new benefit to all wealthy families: private school vouchers paid for by taxpayers.  

On April 16th, a new revenue forecast changed everything in the budget debate.  The drop from the previous forecast in December 2024 to April 2025 was stunning: $400 million less revenue expected in the rest of 2025; $1 billion less in 2026; $1 billion less in 2027.  Senator Mishler said the stress in this “calls to mind for him the Great Recession.” At the heart of this budget crisis is a pessimistic forecast for the national economy.

The crisis required the General Assembly to quickly slash over $2 billion from the budget bill:

• Local public health was cut from $100 M down to $40 M each year
• A cigarette tax was added to generate $800 M.
• The public media line item of $3.6M each year was deleted entirely.
• Higher education was cut 5%.
• Childcare support was cut by 20,000 slots from the current 72,000.

Given these dire budget cuts, I figured along with many others that helping wealthy parents with voucher money would wait until the next budget.

The current law gives private school vouchers to families of four earning up to $230,000.  That seemed generous enough for now given the budget crisis.

I figured wrong.

Instead of putting private schools vouchers for the wealthy on hold, the final budget added $90 million to K-12 Tuition Support in the second year of the budget to accommodate universal vouchers.  As the final chart below shows, this is more money for K-12 Tuition Support than had been allocated earlier in either the House or Senate version of the budget.

Background

Senator Mishler, Appropriations Committee chair, speaking on April 10th after the Senate version of the budget deleted the plan to give vouchers to everyone regardless of family income, said the proposed expansion of vouchers would cost $170 million.  He said: “It’s (millions) that we’d have to add in to cover those students, and we just didn’t have that” (IndyStar, 4-12-25, p. 10A). 

Actually, Senator Mishler underestimated the cost when compared to the non-partisan Legislative Services Agency who projected the cost of universal vouchers to be $191 million, not $170 million.

Apparently the conferees on the budget found millions the Senator said “we just didn’t have”.  The conference committee quickly added $90 million to K-12 tuition support in the second year of the biennium. 

So, starting in the second year of the biennial budget in 2026-2027, all income limits will removed and vouchers will flow to Indiana’s highest income families.

Amidst the carnage of budget cuts to public health, child care, public media and higher education, the private school voucher lobby was given priority.

This makes it one more step in the 14-years since private school vouchers were created in 2011, that the Indiana General Assembly has favored private school interests over the interests of public school students.   

COMPARE THE SENATE BUDGET PROPOSAL TO THE PREVIOUS NINE BUDGETS

The chart below compares the final budget with the House proposal, the Senate proposal and the Governor’s proposal offered earlier in the session, as well as comparing historically with the previous nine budgets.

Note that while the House and Senate proposals for K-12 tuition support looked identical, the Senate did not remove the income limits on vouchers.  

The final budget treated the $160 million for curriculum materials (textbooks) in the same manner as the House and Senate proposals, folding it into the Tuition Support budget but not counting it as part of the new money.  

Because of the curriculum materials line item described above, these new proposals can’t be directly compared historically until the $160 million for curriculum materials (textbooks) is subtracted from the total.  

Keep this confusing factor in mind when comparing the budget proposals:

INDIANA SCHOOL FUNDING INCREASES FOR THE PAST NINE BUDGETS FOR COMPARISON WITH GOV. BRAUN’S BUDGET (JANUARY) AND THE HOUSE BUDGET (FEBRUARY) AND THE SENATE BUDGET (APRIL 10) AND THE FINAL BUDGET (APRIL 25)

Source:  The summary cover page from the General Assembly’s School Formulas for each budget and House Bill 1001 (the budget bill) in each year.

Prepared by Dr. Vic Smith, 4-24-25

When the school funding formulas are passed every two years by the General Assembly, legislators see the bottom line percentage increases on a summary page.  Figures that have appeared on this summary are listed below for the last nine budgets that I have personally observed as they were approved by the legislature.

Tuition support and dollar increases have been rounded to the nearest 10 million dollars. (click image for web link)

Total funding and percentage increases were taken directly from HB 1001 (the budget) and the School Funding Formula summary page, as well as from the House Republican Power Point presentation that explained that the tuition support line item included $160 million for curriculum materials/textbooks that were listed on a separate line item in the previous budget (2023). 

Let legislators know your thoughts about giving the highest priority to private schools vouchers in Indiana’s budget crisis.  Grassroots support of public education is vital for its survival.  Thank you for your active support of public schools in Indiana!

Best wishes,

Vic Smith      vic790@aol.com 

 “Vic’s Statehouse Notes” and ICPE received one of three Excellence in Media Awards presented by Delta Kappa Gamma Society International, an organization of over 85,000 women educators in seventeen countries.  The award was presented on July 30, 2014 during the Delta Kappa Gamma International Convention held in Indianapolis.  Thank you Delta Kappa Gamma!

ICPE has worked since 2011 to promote public education in the Statehouse and oppose the privatization of schools.  We need your membership to help support ICPE lobbying efforts.  We need all ICPE members to renew their membership.  

Our lobbyist Joel Hand is representing ICPE extremely well in the 2025 session.  We need your memberships and your support to continue his work. We welcome additional members and additional donations.  We need your help and the help of your colleagues who support public education!  Please pass the word!  

 Go to www.indianacoalitionforpubliced.org for membership and renewal information and for full information on ICPE efforts on behalf of public education.  Thanks! 

Some readers have asked about my background in Indiana public schools.  Thanks for asking!  Here is a brief bio:

I am a lifelong Hoosier and began teaching in 1969.  I served as a social studies teacher, curriculum developer, state research and evaluation consultant, state social studies consultant, district social studies supervisor, assistant principal, principal, educational association staff member, and adjunct university professor.   I worked for Garrett-Keyser-Butler Schools, the Indiana University Social Studies Development Center, the Indiana Department of Education, the Indianapolis Public Schools, IUPUI, and the Indiana Urban Schools Association, from which I retired as Associate Director in 2009.  I hold three degrees: B.A. in Ed., Ball State University, 1969; M.S. in Ed., Indiana University, 1972; and Ed.D., Indiana University, 1977, along with a Teacher’s Life License and a Superintendent’s License, 1998.  In 2013 I was honored to receive a Distinguished Alumni Award from the IU School of Education, and in 2014 I was honored to be named to the Teacher Education Hall of Fame by the Association for Teacher Education – Indiana.  In April of 2018, I was honored to receive the 2018 Friend of Education Award from the Indiana State Teachers Association.