Indiana bishops support parental choice in education

Staff report

The Indiana Catholic Conference (ICC) has identified a lack of parental choice in educating Hoosier children, and is urging parents, grandparents and interested citizens to contact lawmakers and ask them for a policy change which supports parental choice in education.

ICC, the Church’s public policy voice in Indiana for state and national matters, released a new statement in late October called “Educational Dilemma in Indiana: A Statement on Parental Choice in Education” to address the issue.

The statement, issued on behalf of Indiana’s five Catholic bishops, including Archbishop Daniel M. Buechlein, reads, in part, “Parents have the primary responsibility to care … for their children …” and “although the parents are the first teachers of their children, they cannot educate and socialize their offspring alone. The state shares this common burden. … The state also has the right and duty to insist on basic standards of education, whether private or public institutions, in order to promote the economic and social well-being of all.”

The statement continues, “The state recognizes the right of parents to choose the most appropriate educational opportunity best suited to the needs of their children and in keeping with parental values, whether in elementary and secondary schooling or in college or graduate level. The state should also protect that right.”

Education policy and practice in Indiana mandate parents to be responsible for their children’s education in elementary school and high school, and also mandates local civic entities to provide funding for public schools, noted Glenn Tebbe, ICC executive director. A public school’s funding is determined by the number of pupils attending a given school.

In essence, the state dollars follow the students. As the bishops’ statement points out, “Students, not institutions, are the primary element of state funding. Hoosier students attending Church-sponsored schools do not receive state assistance, but this need not be the case. In Zelman v. Harris, the U.S. Supreme Court upheld the constitutionality of an educational choice/ tuition assistance program in Ohio that included religious schools.”

The statement also addresses the issue that Indiana’s current public policy supports funding for programs serving individuals and communities which are administered by private, Church-sponsored entities including “health care programs, child care outside of a school setting and social services for the young, elderly and the impoverished.

“While Indiana legally upholds parents’ ‘right’ to choose elementary and secondary school settings, in practice, ordinary, hard-working parents in Indiana have great difficulty exercising their primary right to choose educational opportunities for their children … of school age.”

The statement adds, “only those parents who can afford to pay [both] taxes to support public schools and also to pay tuition for private schools are ‘in fact’ free to choose educational opportunities. … This means that, except for the wealthy, Indiana parents do not have a meaningful right to choose schools for their children.”

During the 2005 session of the Indiana General Assembly, an effort was waged by the ICC and the Indiana Non-Public Schools Association (INPEA) for the passage of legislation to provide nonpublic school scholarships and education tax credits for Hoosier families. The measure failed.

Senate Bill 281, authored by Sen. Teresa Lubbers (R-Indianapolis) and defeated by a narrow 45-54 margin in the House in April 2005, would have provided tax credits to low- and middle-income Hoosier families who wanted to send their children to a nonpublic school of their choice.

“With just a few more ‘yes’ votes, school choice in Indiana could have become a reality during the 2005 session,” Tebbe said. “We need the Catholic community to continue writing letters, making calls or even visiting their state elected representatives to let them know how important the nonpublic school choice issue is to families and children in Indiana.”

In 2006, the Indiana General Assembly considered a kindergarten tax credit, House Bill 1381, which passed the House education committee on a partisan 6-5 vote. The bill was defeated on the floor of the Indiana House of Representatives by a 46-52 vote.

If passed, the bill would have provided a refundable income tax credit for education expenditures for qualified dependents enrolled in kindergarten at a school of choice, including a nonpublic school that is voluntarily accredited or a public school where the child is required to pay transfer tuition. The tax credit would have been available to families who qualify for free and reduced price lunch programs.

Tebbe said that nonpublic school choice will be a priority issue for the ICC during the upcoming 2007 legislative session, and said that a grassroots effort is needed for a school choice measure to pass in the future.

Currently, 12 states offer educational programs for parental choice, including Illinois, Iowa, Minnesota, Ohio and Wisconsin.

As spokesman for Indiana’s five bishops, Tebbe said, “In most cases, Indiana’s policy and practice is to respond to individuals’ and families’ needs for fundamental services. The state of Indiana should do the same for Indiana students attending Church-sponsored schools.

“Nonpublic school choice is an issue about promoting the common good and giving parents, the first teachers of their children, a choice in where they send their children to school.”

The statement may be viewed on the ICC’s Web page at www.indianacc.org. †