Startling news from the school choice front:
A Department of Education report indicates the cost of Indiana's private school voucher program jumped from $16 million to $40 million during the past school year.
The Indianapolis Star reports about 29,100 students received vouchers during the recently completed academic year, up from about 19,800 the year before.
[. . .]
According to the report, released Tuesday, more than half of those receiving vouchers have never set foot in a public school.
No, not the increasing costs. The GOP is really hot for vouchers, so we always knew the program would expand rapidly once it was approved. It's that part about half the voucher kids never having gone to public schools. The vopucher program is supposed to be about choice, giving parents of students in sub-par public schools the kind of choice the well-off have always had. But if half the money is going to students who were never in the public school system, then the argument of those who say this is just about subsidizing private schools with public money is suddenly sounding a lot stronger. Our editorial page has several times called for slowing the choice programs down a little so the effects can be understood. That is needed more than ever now.
