The choice program started in 2011, when Mitch Daniels was governor, and continued under Pence, who drove an effort to expand charter schools and loosen eligibility requirements to expand the voucher program’s reach.
A Washington Post story on Indiana’s voucher program, published in December 2016, said in part:
Indiana lawmakers originally promoted the state’s school voucher program as a way to make good on America’s promise of equal opportunity, offering children from poor and lower-middle-class families an escape from public schools that failed to meet their needs.
But five years after the program was established, more than half of the state’s voucher recipients have never attended Indiana public schools, meaning that taxpayers are now covering private and religious school tuition for children whose parents had previously footed that bill. Many vouchers also are going to wealthier families, those earning up to $90,000 for a household of four.
Read the full story at The Washington Post
