Dive Brief:
- Over 19,000 Indiana students attend a private school through the state's voucher program, and many of those schools are running out of space and considering expansion.
- Currently, the voucher program uses state funds to pay for salaries and operating costs at private schools that voucher recipients elect to attend.
- The program doesn't cover renovations at private schools; however, some lawmakers wonder if this would be a good idea given the popularity of voucher programs.
Dive Insight:
Using public funds to pay for the physical expansion of private schools is not going to sit well with many people — especially since Indiana's voucher program started in 2011 to fill empty spots in the state's private schools. There is a difference between filling empty spots and creating new spots, and it's easy to imagine critics arguing that instead of expanding private schools, the money should be used to improve public schools.