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Do you ever wonder how legislators can brag about “historic” increases in the education budget, yet public school funding increases barely keep up with inflation? It is because so much is diverted out of the K-12 Tuition Support Fund before public schools get what is left.

School funding is complicated. Every state has a different approach. In Indiana there are three main sources of school funding:

• local funding (property tax)
• state (state income, sales and use tax)
• federal (federal income tax)

The graphic above follows the largest bucket of school funding, state tuition support. The size of this bucket is determined by state legislators every other year.

ICPE advocates for separate line items for different forms of schools in the state budget so we can see where the money is spent. Currently, those don’t exist.

Sources:

Indiana Scholarship Granting Organization Program –  https://www.in.gov/doe/students/indiana-choice-scholarship-program/school-scholarships  

State Tuition Support Reports – https://www.in.gov/doe/school-operations/finance 

Indiana Education Scholarship Accounts – https://www.in.gov/doe/students/indiana-education-scholarship-account-program  

Indiana Career Scholarship Accounts – https://www.in.gov/tos/csa 

Indiana Choice Scholarship – https://www.in.gov/doe/students/indiana-choice-scholarship-program  

Indiana Virtual School lawsuit – https://indianacitizen.org/virtual-charter-lawsuit and https://www.chalkbeat.org/indiana/2025/06/05/virtual-charter-school-leader-pleads-guilty