Indiana cut taxes for big businesses and wealthy seniors in 2025. More property tax cuts are likely on the way. In this month’s primary, a handful of GOP incumbents lost to opponents promising to do exactly that.
That means less funding for local public schools, but the Indiana Coalition for Public Education expects as many as 100 districts will ask voters for more money this year to make up for it.
That will hit families already paying to homeschool or private school their children, forcing them to pay double their fair share to educate the next generation. If anyone needs a tax break this year, it’s them.
The dollar should follow the child
Indiana’s education leaders tout school choice as a way to ensure the “dollar follows the child.” One of their chief accomplishments will require some property tax revenue to follow students to charter schools, starting in 2028.
The Indiana Choice Scholarship has long allowed state tax revenue to follow students to private schools. The scholarship only pays up to 90% of what the state gives to public schools per student, though. Homeschoolers, on the other hand, get a meager $1,000 income tax deduction.
Neither private schoolers nor homeschoolers benefit at all from referendums. In a lot of cases, neither do public schoolers. One in five students go to school outside of the district they live in, mostly because they attend another public school.
While most funding comes from the state based on student enrollment, referendums are frequently earmarked for paying staff more, attracting teachers and updating facilities.
It’s unfair to make private school parents pay for that when their teachers are significantly underpaid in comparison. It isn’t fair to make homeschooling parents pay for that when they are doing the work of a teacher without any pay at all.
Public schools have their problems
The reason why many people choose private schools or homeschooling in the first place comes down to fundamental disagreements with how public schools operate and what they teach.
Many parents are frustrated with public schools’ dependence on educational technology. More than 85% of public schools give a personal laptop to kindergartners as human interaction is increasingly cut out of the learning process.
Others are frustrated with the public schools’ dependence on standardized testing and a one-size-fits-all approach to education. High-profile cases of bullying and sexual assault have also brought attention to the huge issue of how student discipline is handled.
Many schools have also done a poor job trying to earn the trust of Christian and conservative parents.
Brownsburg Community School Corporation and South Madison Community School Corporation have fired staff members for not using transgender-identifying students’ preferred pronouns or speaking out about a policy that required doing so. Lake Central School Corporation instructed students “not to engage in student-led prayer before, during, or after … track meets” in 2024.
Each case prompted a lawsuit, and years later, the schools agreed to settle. The chilling effect remained.
Noblesville Schools also banned a student from putting up a flyer for her pro-life club. It included a stock image of a Students for Life activist at the Supreme Court holding a sign that said “Defund Planned Parenthood.”
The school system then temporarily suspended the student’s club because the student’s mother attended a meeting with the student and the dean “without explaining the reason for her presence.” In one fell swoop the district violated the student’s moral beliefs, and her mother’s right as a parent to advocate for her child.
The student sued the school district for violating her First Amendment rights, and the case is currently on the Supreme Court’s docket.
But Carmel High School and Michigan City High School both permitted Satanic clubs whose primary purpose appeared to be political rather than to serve as a legitimate expression of religious practice. The clubs used imagery that Christian students and community members felt was offensive and intended to provoke outrage.
I had a good experience at my rural public school
I loved my rural public school growing up. My parents happily supported each school referendum because our local teachers and administrators were genuinely exceptional.
In spite of those excellent teachers and administrators all across the state, public schools still have plenty of institutional issues that can’t be fixed with more money.
That’s why families decide to homeschool their children or send them to private school in the first place. It’s time to stop making them pay more for a system they fundamentally disagree with.
Contact Jacob Stewart at 317-444-4683 or jacob.stewart@indystar.com. Follow him on X, Instagram, Facebook and TikTok.
This article originally appeared on Indianapolis Star: Indiana families who skip public schools shouldn’t fund them | Opinion
Reporting by Jacob Stewart, Indianapolis Star / Indianapolis Star
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