Indiana School Voucher Program Part Of State's Solution For High Dropout Rates (VIDEO)

In May, When Indiana Gov. Mitch Daniels signed into law the creation of a voucher program that would allow families to use taxpayer money to send their children to private schools, he -- and Indiana lawmakers -- created the nation's largest school voucher program.

Since the academic year started this fall, and with the inception of the voucher program, nearly 4,000 students have moved to private institutions. And in a reversal, many private students have left for the public system -- reportedly to wait out the year in public school to become eligible for the voucher program.

Still, the program has offered more parents a choice in schools that didn't exist before, when students were zoned to public schools by geographic location of residence. Now, Indiana parents can select from a slew of options in education using public funds, including private religious schools, online schools and charters.

In a piece for PBS Newshour, special correspondent John Tulenko reports that those charter schools must attract public students, and the public dollars that come with them, or face closure. At the same time, the advent of school choice offers renewed promise of boosting low graduation rates.

States have seen differing effectiveness and responses to school choice movements and voucher programs. States like Wisconsin report tremendous success -- driven by powerful financial contributors and successful lobbyers. But in Los Angeles, the school district's school choice program failed to yield academic gains.

Is the school voucher program a competitive method that will work for Indiana? Watch Tulenko's report:

Watch Indiana Crafts Dropout Remedy Through Choice of Schools on PBS. See more from PBS NEWSHOUR.

Comments

[loper58]

09:41 AM on 11/16/2011

I like the idea but I don't think it is right for some schools to cherry pick and only select the top academic students. While I support the option to deny enrollment of a student who has been expelled, schools should have to enroll students of all abilities.

[sidnee]

11:29 AM on 11/13/2011

Time will tell if this experiment works. Historically, on a large scale, it hasn't. There are always individuals where it does work. We will see if this does indeed help those students who are struggling--and raise the graduation rates. Interesting to see the rates of minorities--who generally are the ones with the biggest dropout rates.

[eceresa]

02:58 PM on 11/11/2011

Well, school choice has never really worked before.

So let's try it again.

Great idea.

[ikidunot]

02:22 PM on 11/12/2011

Well, you know that's not true. School choice is today's greatest civil rights movement. Forcing kids into poor performing public schools when there are better options is criminal. My son taught in both public high school and college. He found the teacher's union protects the worst teachers at the cost of students. Charter schools must be taken on a case by case basis. There are amazing ones, and bad ones (like anything else). The difference is that the bad ones will fail and be gone while bad public schools and teachers remain. Vouchers give parents the freedom to move their children to better schools to provide a better chance at a decent life.

[eceresa]

07:19 AM on 11/13/2011

Your son, if he found that, was either in the rare exception of a school or went into it blinded by your ideology and saw what you wanted him to see.

Bad charter schools are much more common than good ones, and while we're promised that they'll fail and be closed, that rarely happens. Vouchers have been tried; they don't work. The kids move schools, but because the problems are usually at home, not at the school, nothing changes. Neither of those options typically help the kids that move, and the kids that stay behind are in schools with less funding, for a net detriment to the educational system overall.

People who will benefit from school choice (investors, not students) try to frame it as the civil rights movement of the present. Some easily led people who don't look into the facts are fooled and parrot the rhetoric. I'm not sure which of those you are, but either way you're wrong.