Letters: Scrutiny welcome as school funds depleted

NEIFPE member Kathy Candioto sent this letter to the editor. In it she discusses the cost of Indiana's voucher program.

Scrutiny welcome as school funds depleted

Published: July 22, 2017

I am writing to comment on the July 10 letter “JG's anti-voucher bias is getting tiresome” from Bill Dotterweich.

Dotterweich makes this comment at the end of his letter: “... the JG is just a mouthpiece of the teachers' union.”

Rather than a mouthpiece for any union, the JG is a strong supporter of Indiana's public schools. For this support, I am very grateful. While private schools are welcome and needed in our state, public schools, open to all, are the very cornerstone of our democracy. But public schools are being harmed by the school choice program, and the JG is making readers aware of this damage.

Between 2013 and 2016, Indiana's Education Fund has awarded $330,548,811 to private schools across the state through the school choice program or vouchers. In Allen County, during the same time period, $55,787,467 was given to 36 private (all parochial) schools.

This school choice money was diverted from the state's education pot. This is funding that should have gone to public schools if not for vouchers or school choice.

Indiana has the largest voucher expansion program in the country. While the program continues to grow, many of us, including editors at The Journal Gazette, want the public to understand the loss of funds to public schools. Perhaps we should step back and assess the school choice program. Do we want to continue on this path without careful analysis of what the program is doing to public education in Indiana?

Kathy Candioto

Fort Wayne

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