ISTA threatens state with more punches
By Ben Velderman
EAG Communications
INDIANAPOLIS - The nation's most comprehensive voucher program has survived its first legal test.
Last Friday, a Marion County judge ruled that Indiana's new voucher law, the Indiana Choice Scholarship program, is completely constitutional. The 2011 law gives low- and middle-income families a voucher to pay for tuition at the public or private school of their choice, including religious schools.
The Indiana State Teachers Association, the state's largest teachers union, and a collection of voucher opponents sued that state, arguing that the law violated the separation of church and state.
In his ruling, Marion Superior Court Judge Michael Keele wrote, "This Court therefore concludes that the degree of religiosity of the participating schools is immaterial to the case at hand," and noted that the scholarship program "bestows benefits onto scholarship recipients who may then choose to use the funding for education at a public, secular private, or religious school."
"(The program) is designed to benefit students, not schools, and the court recognized that very essential fact," Bert Gall, an attorney for the Institute for Justice, told IndyStar.com. "It's the most salient fact in determining that the program is constitutional."
"This is a huge victory," said Robert Enlow, president of the Friedman Foundation for Educational Choice. "It means that the nearly 4,000 low-and middle-income children in Indiana who are participating in the program can continue to attend a high quality, non-public school using public funds."
Voucher supporters believe the favorable ruling will encourage more Hoosier families to make use of the program, which is designed to level the education playing field between poor and affluent students.
The voucher program is available to families earning up to 150 percent of the federal free and reduced price lunch program with enrollment caps set at 7,500 students in the first year, 15,000 in the second, and no limits in year three and beyond.
That last detail explains why the president of the state's teachers union has promised to appeal the ruling.
"This is just round one," said ISTA President Teresa Meredith.
It's very revealing that the teachers union frames this issue in terms of a boxing match. While lawmakers are trying to free children from failing schools and give them a brighter future, the union sees this as just another political slug-fest over money. We're disappointed by their response, but not even a little bit surprised.
