American Education Week

Dear Neighbor,

This week is American Education Week. I want to take a moment to thank every teacher, school nurse, principal, school social worker, administrator, member of support staff and any educator in our community. Education is the fundamental building block that we build our lives upon and sets our children up for success. Hoosier children deserve the best academic opportunities we can give them.

Indiana has a lot of room to improve when it comes to our schools. Despite the dire shortage of educators and struggling public schools, funding for traditional public schools only increased by 5.1% in the 2023 state budget while funding for private school vouchers increased by an outrageous 72.4%. While private school vouchers were intended to help low income families afford to send their children to the school that was the best fit for them, this expansion encompasses 97% of families in Indiana, making it nearly universal. This massive allocation of taxpayer dollars to private schools siphons away critical funding from the public schools that serve 92% of Hoosier students.

Additionally, funding for charter schools increased by 16% in the budget passed by the General Assembly this legislative session. Unlike traditional public schools, charter schools are not obligated to serve every student in a given community. Charter schools are also not subject to the same budgetary oversight as public schools, meaning that their finances are significantly less transparent. The boards of these schools are private, and therefore they are not accountable to voters despite sharing funding raised by tax levies and referendums with public schools which have elected boards.

While every parent has the right to choose what school is best for their child, the state has a constitutional duty to adequately fund public schools of which an overwhelming majority of our students attend. Indiana needs to prioritize traditional public schools when it comes to your hard earned tax dollars, not private schools with no accountability.