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Education
Education in Indiana is primarily funded by Hoosier taxpayers.
This funding is allocated by our lawmakers, and it is well below the national average.
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Federal funds pay for programs, like school lunch and special education. This makes up the smallest percentage of overall education funds.
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State taxes, like income tax and sales tax, make up the bulk of education funding. This revenue pays for teacher salaries and curriculum materials.
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Property taxes pay for buildings, transportation, and facilities. This revenue mostly stays local.
When funding in any of the above funding streams is cut, education is impacted. Schools depend on stable funding that is fair to all students, regardless of their zip code.
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EQUITABLE EDUCATION
Click the image to view MADVoters Education Advocacy Series, or download a PDF version here.
MADVoters advocates for public education that is fully-funded; safe and accessible to all students; and free from interference of outside agendas.
We advocate for policies that:
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Acknowledge the importance and value of education, consider schools a public good that are worthy of investment, and provide for locally elected school boards.
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Fully fund public education, without funneling resources to privatized interests, and seek to end the disinvestment from our schools to private school vouchers and charter school operators.
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Ensure all students, regardless of race, gender identity, religion, or immigration status, are welcome in schools, and that their education isn’t disrupted by outside agendas or prejudice.
TALKING POINTS
PRIVATE SCHOOL VOUCHERS
The voucher program was established by Governor Mitch Daniels in 2011. Vouchers are taxpayer-funded coupons that pay for private school tuition. Vouchers are funded by revenue from state taxes, like income and sales tax. This funding comes out of the same “bucket” as public school funding, meaning that vouchers directly drain funding away from public schools.
Indiana taxpayers have given nearly $4 billion dollars to private school vouchers since the program started. The voucher pays the private school 90% of the amount of state funding the public school corporation receives for each student in that district, approximately $7,000.
Nearly all voucher-receiving schools are religiously-affiliated. They are able to set admission standards, and may deny admittance to students based on their religious beliefs, special education needs, lack of English fluency, or sexuality. There is no fiduciary oversight by the state for the voucher money, despite private schools getting thousands - if not millions - in public dollars.
The voucher program was sold to Hoosiers as a way to help low-income students in struggling public schools, especially students of color. When the voucher program was first rolled out in 2011, only families making $40,000 could qualify, and there were additional eligibility requirements. Less than 4,000 students participated.
Over the years, Statehouse Republicans changed the rules, dissolving eligibility requirements without adding additional accountability measures. As of 2026, over 70,000 students receive private school vouchers, and there is NO income cap to qualify for vouchers. Any family, regardless of income, can receive a taxpayer-funded coupon for private school, at the expense of public schools.
Now, more students are using vouchers who come from families making over $100,000 than students whose families make less than $50,000. Black students now only make up 9% of voucher recipients.
Meanwhile, eligibility for social programs like SNAP and WIC remains low even as the wealthiest of Hoosiers can access private school vouchers.
CHARTER SCHOOLS
Charter schools are recognized as “public schools” by the state of Indiana, but they are governed by a private board and sponsored by an “authorizer” (often a university, mayor’s office, or nonprofit entity). Like traditional public schools, charter schools do not charge tuition, must be open to any student who resides in Indiana, may not establish admission policies, are funded by the state budget and property taxes, and must administer standardized tests for state accountability measures.
But unlike traditional public schools, charter schools have less budgetary oversight (which has resulted in multiple cases of fraud), are governed by an appointed, private board not accountable to taxpayers, and can employ teachers who are not licensed. Charter schools can close with little notice; in Indianapolis, home to half of the state’s charter schools, 1 in 3 charter schools have closed, and the average graduation rate for Indiana charter schools is less than 50%.
PROPERTY TAXES
In 2025, lawmakers narrowly passed SEA 1, which provides a maximum property tax credit of $300 and a levy growth cap. Homeowners report little substantial relief, as the plan was disproportionately written to benefit business, but the impact to local revenue is tremendous: a loss of $1.8 billion in just three years; schools account for $744 million of that loss.
In May 2026, school districts began issuing RIFs (reductions in force) that cut jobs. Other schools close or consolidate, and as many as 100 school districts across the state are anticipated to ask voters for additional funding via referendums in the 2026 elections.
CULTURE WARS
Partisan school board takeovers, book bans, censorship, attempts to insert religion into schools, and political intrusion into the educational process distract and deprive students of a quality education.
In the 2023 legislative session, language to impose felony charges on school librarians accused of providing “harmful material” to minors, and to allow anyone in the state to submit complaints against curriculum, was snuck into a bill in a closed-door session. This deliberately circumvented the public comment process and exploited a loophole in the legislative process.
That same year, lawmakers passed a “Don’t Say Gay” bill applying to kindergarten-third grade. The law also mandates that schools “out” students of any age to their parents, and requires parent notification and permission if students request a different name, nickname, or pronoun.
The office of the Indiana Attorney General launched the “Eyes on Education” portal in early 2024. It allows anyone to “report” on school curriculum, programs, and even classroom decor that they find “objectionable.” Complaints often include the name of the school and teacher. In September 2025, the board of the Garrett-Keyser-Butler Community School Corporation voted to ban 6 books from their schools, including The Handmaid’s Tale, Brave New World, and I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings, citing recent legislation as justification.
In 2026, lawmakers passed an immigration enforcement bill that mandates that schools cooperate with federal immigration enforcement, including ICE. Immigration officials would be permitted to enter schools and remove students.
BRAIN DRAIN
Indiana has one of the nation’s worst cases of Brain Drain: for every 100 Indiana seniors, only 21 will complete college and remain in Indiana after graduation. This puts Indiana’s college-going rate in the bottom 10 of the entire country, and that rate has dramatically dropped in the past decade by more than 20% - from 64% in 2015, to under 52% in 2023.
At the same time, the majority of employment, job growth, and income growth in Indiana goes toward college students. From January 2015 to March 2024, net jobs for high school graduates increased by just 4,652 positions, but by 74,421 for college graduates. In other words, from 2015 to 2024, Indiana created 16 new jobs for college graduates for every 1 new job for a high school graduate.
Sources: https://indianacapitalchronicle.com/2025/07/24/indianas-college-going-rate-drops-again-dipping-to-51-7/
https://dailyjournal.net/2024/12/18/michael-hicks-indianas-commission-on-higher-education-issues-an-eye-opening-report/