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HAMILTON â The Hamilton Community Schools board Monday approved a joint resolution with the Hamilton teachers association against proposed legislation expanding vouchers and creating Education Savings Accounts.
Superintendent Anthony Cassel said the proposed legislation allows parents to opt out of public schools by providing a taxpayer-funded debit card valued at $5,000 to $7,000 that can be spent on private schools, home schooling, tutoring or any number of private education products and services.
The proposed legislation also would expand the annual income limit for families eligible to use vouchers, Cassel noted.
âTheyâre expanding benefits for the upper class,â Cassel said.
âThe original intent of vouchers and school choice .. often had to do with the bigger cities, giving the students choices that were in failing schools a viable option. Theyâre now looking at expanding the annual income limit for a household of five from $85,000 to $170,000. �
Elijah Ekdahl/Unsplash
A seemingly uncontroversial bipartisan bill that would solicit ideas to make school transportation and facilities more efficient turned into a clash between the legislature and school districts at a hearing this week.
The idea is so nascent, the bill’s author said it is unclear what proposals it might elicit. The bill does not specify what efficiencies it is seeking. It calls for ideas for creating new structures for managing transportation or building operations, and one possibility mentioned in the House is that neighboring districts could share bus services.
But education lobbyists and district officials from across Indiana bristled, seeing the bill as a way to leave schools out of financial conversations or force them to consolidate or outsource services. The proposal also struck them as the state trying to stick schools with the bill for increasing teacher pay.
School boards push back against Indiana voucher expansions
CASEY SMITH, Associated Press/Report for America
March 10, 2021
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INDIANAPOLIS (AP) Local school leaders across Indiana are lining up against a Republican-backed school funding plan over concerns it wold give private schools a big financial boost at the detriment of traditional public schools.
Projected to cost $144 million, the voucher expansion and a new program allowing parents to directly spend state money on their child’s education expenses would siphon more than one-third of the proposed state funding hike for Indiana schools.
In response, at least 65 public school boards have passed formal resolutions against the proposed legislation through a campaign organized by the Indiana School Boards Association. Terry Spradlin, the association s executive director, said that more than a third of the state s 289 school districts are expected to adopt resolutions before legislators finalize the budge
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