Many parents still don't know about vouchers, other school choice options

Six years into the nation's largest private school voucher experiment, many parents still don't know the program exists. 

About one-third of parents who participated in a recent survey about school choice options in Indiana said they hadn't heard of the program that gives low- and middle-income families public money to put toward tuition at participating private schools. 

The survey was sponsored by EdChoice, a nonprofit advocate for greater school choice. It was the third time EdChoice has surveyed parents, but the first time their participant pool included non-private school parents. 

"In a choice-rich environment, we want to know how everyone feels," said Drew Catt, the report author. 

Indiana launched its voucher program, called the Indiana Choice Scholarship, in 2011 with awards available for just 7,500 students. By 2013, the participation cap was removed and the program was expanded to serve more than just the low- and middle-income families it initially targeted. 

Last year, more than 34,000 students attended a private school through the voucher program and the state spent more than $140 million on it. 

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Yet, EdChoice's survey of 3,500 Indiana parents found that many still had not heard of vouchers or the state's tax-credit scholarship program. More than one-third of the survey respondents who hadn't participated in the state's choice programs said it was because they didn't know about them. Another third of those parents said they hadn't participated because they were happy with their child's school.

John Elcesser, executive director of the Indiana Non-Public Education Association, said he's surprised that income-eligible parents still didn't know about the programs, but it can be hard for individual schools to reach them. 

"If somebody comes in the door, they're made aware," he said. "But if they're not coming in the door, they're relying on (parents) picking it up via the media or any other kind of general marketing."

It seems that many parents, though, are finding out about their school choice options through word-of-mouth. 

Arin Schellenberg, an Indianapolis parent, said she looked into all of her options when trying to find a school for her oldest daughter. She wanted a smaller environment than her public schools in Warren Township could offer, so she started looking at private and charter schools. 

In Indianapolis, she had a lot of options. 

"It was overwhelming," she said. "There are almost too many choices now."

In the end, she choose a charter school that had been recommended by people in her church and neighborhood. 

As it turns out, those are common sources on information on school choice options around the state. 

The EdChoice survey asked private school choice parents — those using vouchers or tax-credit scholarships — where they learned about their school. Nearly half said they were told by friends or relatives and another quarter of respondents learned about the program through their church. 

Many of Indiana's private schools participating in the voucher program are religious. 

Emily Thomas, who has graduated one of her children from Scecina Memorial, a Catholic high school, has four more children in private school. 

Thomas said she first started sending her kids to the private school affiliated with her church. A year or two later, Indiana rolled out the voucher program and Thomas was able to get vouchers to offset most of their tuition. 

Thomas said the voucher program changed the private school she'd originally sent her kids to, but they used the vouchers to move to another private school. Vouchers or not, though, Thomas said she'd send her kids to private school for the religious education and smaller school experience. 

"I'm grateful for it," she said.

The survey also found that voucher parents, like Thomas, were more likely to report satisfaction with their children's school than parents with kids attending private school with a tax-credit scholarship, attending a charter school or traditional public district school. Private school parents who were sending their kids without public assistance reported the highest levels of school satisfaction. 

"It's important to point out that every single school in the state has parents that are satisfied and every single school in the state has parents that are unsatisfied," Catt said.  "It's all about allowing parents to identify and access the best fit for each child in their family."

Call IndyStar reporter Arika Herron at (317) 444-6077. Follow her on Twitter: @ArikaHerron.