SB 320 Choice Scholarships

ICPE believes that if you take public funds you should have to play by the same rules as public schools.Voucher schools do not have to show us where the money goes, and they do not have to accept all kids. Last school year alone nearly $439 million public tax dollars were siphoned away into private, mostly religious, schools, with nearly no guardrails.

1. Requires the audits of private schools. Senate Bill 320 attempts to impose some accountability for those schools which accept vouchers– public tax money from the state in the form of “choice scholarships.” Currently, voucher schools are required by law to conduct an annual audit. However, that audit can be conducted by any entity that the private school chooses. So, if you hire the group that conducts your audit, it’s quite likely that your results will be favorable. To ensure more accountability, SB320 would require a State Board of Accounts audit. Public tax dollars that would otherwise go to local public schools should have this accountability attached– at a minimum.

2. Requires public meetings and public comment. In addition to the audit requirement, SB320 also requires that voucher schools hold at least one public meeting each semester concerning the receipt and expenditure of their choice scholarship funds. Why is this important? Public school corporations have annual budget meetings that have to be open to the public. Why should these voucher schools be any different? This bill would require voucher schools to allow public comment at those meetings.

Part of this is driven by what we perceive as being a misuse of funds, state funds that come through the voucher program to these schools. In one case, a church school was using State funds specifically for construction on their church’s steeple which had nothing to do with the education that they were supposed to be providing those students.

In addition to that concern, we hear that there are many private schools that participate in the Choice program which require their students to receive a choice scholarship in order to supplement their tuition. That is, they can raise tuition and make more money to support their church/school.

We are hopeful that this bill will get a hearing. We thank Senator Yoder for her passion in trying to hold these choice scholarship schools accountable, and hope that will come about during this legislative session.

TAKE ACTION
Please contact your own Senator and the Senate Education and Career Development Committee Chair, Sen. Raatz, Vice-Chair, Sen.Goode and your own senator and tell them you think this bill should get a hearing.

Senate Education and Career Development Committee Chair and Vice-Chair
Sen. Jeff Raatz, Chair (R) District 27 – Email: s27@iga.in.gov
Sen. Greg Goode, Ranking Member (R) District 38 – Email: s38@iga.in.gov

Find your legislators here.

To email all at once, copy and paste the addresses into the “To” field of your email.
s27@iga.in.gov
s38@iga.in.gov