By Steve Hinnefeld
The Indiana Citizen
September 17, 2026
Spending on Indiana’s private school voucher program topped a half billion dollars in 2025-26, according to a report released this week by the Indiana Department of Education.
A record 80,548 students participated in the program, in which the state helps pay tuition for students who attend private schools. Some 385 schools accepted vouchers, also a record. Most voucher schools in Indiana are religious schools.
The 143-page Choice Scholarship Annual Report provides detailed information about students and schools who participate in the program, including how much money private schools receive. Private school tuition vouchers are referred to as “choice scholarships” in state law.
The cost of vouchers awarded in 2025-26 totaled $548 million, the report says. In 2024-25, spending on vouchers was $497 million.
Indiana created the voucher program in 2011, initially providing strict limits on participation and promoting it as a way for students from low-income families to escape “failing” urban schools. It expanded over time as Republican legislators adopted a philosophy that state education dollars should “follow the child” to the schools that parents choose.
In 2025-26, students qualified for vouchers if their families made less than 400% of the cutoff to receive reduced-price school meals. For a four-person household, that was $237,910. According to the report, more than half the families in the program made over $100,000 a year, which is well above Indiana’s median household income of about $72,000.
Starting with the current school year, all restrictions, including those on income, have been removed from the program. All students who attend private schools qualify for the “universal” voucher program.
Vouchers pay up to 90% of what Indiana would pay, per pupil, to the local public school district where the student lives. On average, that’s about $6,800 annually for each student. If the voucher doesn’t cover the full cost of tuition and fees at the private school, families are responsible for the difference.
Other details:
Among Indiana school districts, the largest amount of voucher funding, $46.2 million, went to students who lived in the Fort Wayne Community School Corp. That money would have gone to local public schools if voucher students had attended them. Students living in other large urban districts also accounted for large shares of voucher funding: $37.8 million for Indianapolis Public Schools, $37.4 million for South Bend Community Schools and $27 million for Evansville-Vanderburgh School Corp.
Six private schools received more than $5 million in voucher funding: Bishop Dwenger High School and St. Charles Borromeo School in Allen County; Roncalli High School, Heritage Christian Academy and the American Academy (an online school) in Marion County; and Christian Academy of Indiana in Floyd County.
Steve Hinnefeld is a freelance writer based in Bloomington. He formerly was an adjunct instructor at the Media School at Indiana University, a media specialist at Indiana University and reporter for the Bloomington Herald-Times. He has had no affiliation with the Media School since spring 2022.
The Indiana Citizen is a nonpartisan, nonprofit platform dedicated to increasing the number of informed and engaged Hoosier citizens. We are operated by the Indiana Citizen Education Foundation, Inc., a 501(c)(3) public charity. For questions about the story, contact Marilyn Odendahl at marilyn.odendahl@indianacitizen.org.
