Braun touts start of universal school choice in Indiana

“I’m an entrepreneur,” Braun told students. “I embrace competition. I love choice.”

Cardinal Ritter High School is one of 427 private and parochial schools accepting the choice scholarships, commonly known as vouchers.

Lawmakers started the voucher program in 2011 with the aim of helping low-income children in failing school districts afford to attend private school, but gradually phased out income limits.

The final transition came in April 2025 when Republican lawmakers pushed to remove the income cap of $220,000 for a family of four — the equivalent of 740% of federal poverty level — so a projected additional 3,000 students could participate.

The change took effect for the 2026-27 school year.

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Some 76,000 students used vouchers in the 2024-25 school year, the most recent data published by the Indiana Department of Education.

Scholarship amounts vary: The state either pays a student’s full tuition and fees or 90% of what it would have spent on tuition support if the student had remained in their local public school.

Preliminary estimates for the year show voucher amounts will range from $6,000 to $8,500, though final awards will be determined later.

Critics deride ‘handout’ to wealthy

Critics of universal vouchers say it diverts funding from public schools to wealthy families who already paid to send their children to private school.

“I spent 30 years in the classroom,” said state Rep. Tonya Pfaff, D-Terre Haute, a former Vigo County schools teacher. “I know what our public schools need to succeed, and it isn’t less money.”

“Universal vouchers take funding meant for the kids in our public schools and hand it to families who were already choosing private school, and already paying for it themselves,” she said in a statement Thursday. “That’s not choice. That’s a handout.”

Money for the classroom

The elimination of income limits for vouchers arrives as a record number of public schools are pursuing property tax referendums this fall, as districts contend with property tax cuts and new restrictions on when referendums can appear on the ballot.

Braun said state tuition support for public K-12 schools has kept pace with inflation, but said schools need to produce better results.

Lawmakers raised Indiana’s minimum teacher salary to $45,000 — a $5,000 raise — and required schools to spend at least 65% of state tuition support on teacher compensation.

“If you’re putting too much into administration, you’re not running (the district) well,” Braun said. “I’ll put more money into the classroom, but not into the buildings, and we’re already at a point where that takes a lot of resources.”

Still, Pfaff said in a statement the Vigo County School district has lost more than $36 million in taxpayer funding since lawmakers started removing the voucher program income limits, with little oversight.

“I know what $36 million buys in a school district: smaller class sizes, more counselors, updated resources and reading specialists for kids who are behind,” Pfaff said. “All public school boards should be sounding the alarm on this every chance they get.”

She added, “I’m not against helping a family that wants another option for their kid. But this program stopped being about that a long time ago. Right now, it’s a program that drains public schools to subsidize families who never needed the help.”

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