General Assembly's school voucher expansion disappoints local school superintendents

Dear Editor:

On March 10, 2016, the Indiana General Assembly once again voted to expand private school vouchers by approving HB 1005. Continuous voucher expansion has been the theme of the Indiana General Assembly since the 2011 session which established the current voucher program.

During the recent 2016 General Assembly, SB 334 (Choice Scholarships) did not have enough support to leave the Senate and move to the House of Representatives. So in an effort to have the contents of SB 334 passed, Republican senators stripped the bill and had it put into HB 1005 (Career Pathways).

Senators chose HB 1005 because it had already held its conference committee meetings, and all public testifying on the bill was complete.

It is important to note, that after the required legislative procedures are completed in conference committee, language from a failed bill, such as SB 334, can be inserted into the language of a favorable bill with no requirement for further testimony from the public.

In an interesting move, the Democrat conference committee members who opposed SB 334, Sen. Rogers and Rep. Smith, were removed from the committee and replaced by Republicans who would sign the conference committee report to ensure that all four committee members would sign the report before it came back to the Senate and House for a vote.

By implementing this new law, the Indiana General Assembly continues to increase the amount of revenue that they are removing from our local public school corporations and redistributing it to private schools. Private school administrators establish tuition fees that are needed to operate their institutions. Indiana parents have a choice as to whether or not they want to send their children to these institutions and pay the tuition fees.

It is difficult to understand why our local Republican legislators believe it is necessary to continue to support private schools with public tax dollars.

This type of funding strategy forces local public schools to reduce expenditures to compensate for the reduction in revenue. This process has had a very negative impact on every public school classroom across the state, while private schools have flourished.

If the opportunity to obtain a quality public education is important to the citizens of our state, then the current direction of our legislators must be considered. Since 2011, there has been a clear pattern of diverting public education funds from public schools to private schools by way of the voucher system.

This should be a concern to all Hoosiers who depend on the public school systems across the state to provide our children with a quality education.

Sincerely,

Bruce Bernhardt, South Putnam

Dan Noel, North Putnam

Greg Linton, Cloverdale

Dawn Puckett, Greencastle