[Abathar]

This is great news for Hoosiers, for those who home school they might be able to afford a good private school now instead of refusing to send them to public schools.

"The actual value of the vouchers is based on a sliding scale and is less than the amount of tax money a public school would have received for that student. In the case of students in grades 1 through 8, the maximum value would be $4,500.

But the bill includes a tax deduction of $1,000 for each child in a private school or home school. That will translate into a revenue loss of more than $3 million, according to the nonpartisan Legislative Services Agency."

[babble-on]

Great move. Can can Freepers forgive him for caring more about economic issues than “social” issues?

[MrB]

Homeschooling is superior (in results) to private schools anyway.

Now, would these vouchers be applicable to homeschooling expenses?

[US Navy Vet]

Vouchers from the Government(local, state or Feds) may come w/ Government Strings attached. BE CAREFUL HOMESCHOOLERS when you accept these vouchers.

[truthguy]

Exciting! Given time Indiana will soar over the other states in education. But Indiana must be given a few years for this to come to fruition. It can't be done overnight. If this program can be correlated with the improvement in education, then other states will simply have to follow their lead. That's the way federalism is supposed to function. That's the intent of the founders. Congratulations to Indiana.

I'm sure the teachers unions and the NEA will hate this- but that's a good thing.

[wintertime]

There is a way to immediately shrink the number of students in government schools and thereby immediately reduce state school budgets:

1) Turn all team sports ( cheer leading, etc.), music, art, and theater programs over to the county departments of recreation. Many children attend school because the government schools have a head lock monopoly on the farm team or minor league sports that lead to the big leagues. A better move would be to privatize all sports, music, art, and theater by giving the child a voucher for these activities and completely eliminate these activities from the school curriculum.

2) Allow any child of any age to take the GED or a similar private exam. If they pass they would be awarded an official state high school diploma from their local government high school. With the official high school diploma they would be eligible for post high school scholarships and loans. There would be no discrimination against them if they choose to join the military.

3) Allow qualifying exams starting in first grade. If a child passes a qualifying exam and proves mastery of the subject, he would be immediately promoted to the next level in that specific subject. Much of the material could be available on-line with the courses being taught by the world's best teachers. The material could even be free if the producer accepted advertising.

Therefore.....

The more quickly a child moves through the system the fewer school employees and buildings that would be needed. There would be a tremendous reduction in the cost of pensions. Qualifying exams encourage parents and children to take responsibility for their own educations and help them to develop self-sufficiency. Also, it would promote a cottage industry of tutoring.

If states really wanted to encourage children to finish their schooling, they could award a scholarship for each year that they finished early. The scholarship could be 1/4 of the cost of keeping them in the government school. The scholarship could be used at any time in their lives for post high school education or training in a trade.

[curiosity]

Yeah, but he signed the bill without insulting any public teachers' union officials or public school bureaucrats. That proves he's a no-good elitist RINO!!!