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The Indiana Choice Scholarship Program (ICSP), which began in fall 2011, is a state taxpayer-funded financial aid program that helps low and lower-middle income Hoosiers to send their children to the private K-12 school of their choice. This voucher program has been extremely popular among families, as the number of students receiving scholarships has increased from 3,911 students in academic year (AY) 2012 to 36,707 by 2020. This report addresses two questions regarding the fiscal effects of the ICSP up through and including academic year (AY) 2020: (1) The fiscal effects of the ICSP on the state of Indiana budget; and (2) The fiscal effects of the ICSP on local school corporation budgets (in Indiana public school districts are termed "school corporations"). The estimates in this report suggest that the ICSP has provided modest fiscal benefits to taxpayers to date--however, the fiscal savings per scholarship recipient are quite large. Therefore, as more students access the ISCP the savings to Indiana taxpayers will increase significantly. The major findings include: (1) The ICSP saved state taxpayers a total of $42.5 million in 2019-20. These savings translate to savings of $1,158 per scholarship student--a significant sum on a per student basis; and (2) The ICSP yielded a total of $60.6 million in savings to local public school corporations in 2017-18, which was the most recent year with complete data available. These savings to local school corporations were $1,709 per student. These findings are not surprising given that the average scholarship awards are below both total expenditures per student and state per pupil funding as well.

For more than two decades, tax-credit scholarship (TCS) policies have helped American families provide their children with the learning environment that meets their individual needs. Now available in 19 states, nearly 300,000 students nationwide use tax-credit scholarships to attend the school of their family's choice. TCS policies create an incentive for taxpayers to contribute to nonprofit scholarship organizations that aid families with tuition and, in some states, other K-12 educational expenses. As with other policies, their ultimate success or failure depends greatly on how they are designed. This paper explores the central design features of TCS policies--such as eligibility, the tax credit value, credit caps, and academic accountability provisions--and outlines the different approaches taken by the TCS policies in each state. The paper also offers suggestions regarding each feature for policymakers who want to design a TCS policy that most likely to succeed at its central purpose: empowering families to provide their children with the education that works best for them. To that end, the paper recommends designing each policy element in such a way that they maximize the incentive that taxpayers have to contribute to scholarship organizations, maximize the number of families that can benefit from the scholarships, and maximize the freedom and flexibility that scholarship organizations have to serve those families. A summary of these suggestions can be found in the conclusion. Finally, the appendix offers policymakers a wide variety of additional resources, including model legislation, parent satisfaction and public opinion surveys, research of fiscal effects, various policy briefs on tax-credit scholarships, information about the constitutional landscape, and public relations resources. [Introduction by Theodor Rebarber. Foreword by Kendra Espinoza.]

The purpose of the "Indiana K-12 & School Choice Survey" is to measure public opinion on, and in some cases awareness or knowledge of, a range of K-12 education topics and school choice reforms. The Friedman Foundation for Educational Choice developed this project in partnership with Braun Research, Inc., who conducted the live phone call interviews, collected the survey data, and provided data quality control. This report describes and compares response levels, margins, and intensities for the statewide sample and observed demographic groups. A total of 1,845 telephone interviews were completed from November 11 to December 1, 2015, by means of both landline and cell phone. A randomly selected and statistically representative statewide sample of registered voters in Indiana responded to more than 30 substantive items in live phone interviews. Statistical results have been weighted to correct for known demographic discrepancies. The margin of sampling error for the statewide sample is ± 3.1 percentage points. During field work, an initial statewide sample that included 1,002 interviews with registered voters was established. Researchers then continued phone interviews by oversampling five regions to achieve at least 300 completed interviews for regional subgroups: (1) Indianapolis Metro (n = 400); (2) Northeast (n = 403); (3) Northwest (n = 301); (4) Southeast (n = 300); and (5) Southwest (n = 300). The Friedman Foundation conducted a shorter survey in Indiana five years ago. Comparing results between 2010 and 2015, and saw remarkably similar findings on five common questions. Average voter mood about K-12 education remains negative. Researchers detect some decreased support for general definitions of public charter schools and school vouchers. However, the fundamental message remains the same: Hoosiers in late 2015 were still roughly "twice as likely to be favorable toward these reform concepts rather than opposed". The organization of this paper has two sections. The first section describes key findings and presents charts for additional context. The second section details the survey's methodology, summarizes response statistics, and provides additional technical information on call dispositions for landline and cell phone interviews and weighting.

Of the nearly 100 different types of high school diplomas that are awarded across all fifty states and the District of Columbia, less than half prepare students for success in college and career. And while the national high school graduation rate is at an all-time high, the rate at which students earn these college- and career-ready (CCR) diplomas is substantially lower, especially among students from low-income families, students of color, and other traditionally underserved students. "Paper Thin? Why All High School Diplomas Are Not Created Equal" provides a state-by-state analysis of the different types of diplomas that states awarded to the Class of 2014 and the impact on traditionally underserved students. [Robyn Harper, Francisco Jaimes, Liz Spurgeon, and Sean Bradley contributed to this report.]

Since 2016, the State Higher Education Executive Officers Association (SHEEO), with generous support from Lumina Foundation, has been working with states to explore establishing "promise-type" aid programs for adult students (adult promise programs). SHEEO is currently working with 15 states to implement adult promise programs through 2020: Arizona, California, Hawaii, Idaho, Indiana, Kentucky, Maine, Minnesota, North Carolina, Ohio, Oklahoma, Oregon, Rhode Island, Texas, and Washington. Adult promise programs are programs that: (1) Promote a simple, transparent message that postsecondary education is affordable for adult learners; (2) Make a financial commitment to adult students through leveraging aid from all available sources; and (3) Establish and support programs and services that are tailored to the unique needs of adult students and will help them succeed in postsecondary education. This design template is intended for states, regions, localities, and institutions that are interested in developing promise programs for adult learners. It provides a checklist for those designing adult promise programs and includes examples and specific items to consider as those programs are being designed. The information and concepts presented here should also be useful for those looking to improve adult learner success in postsecondary education outside of the promise program framework. This design template is intended to be used alongside the resources available on SHEEO's Adult Promise website. [For "Adult Promise Program: A Pilot Design Template for States," see ED603885. For the full white paper, "The Power of a Promise: Implications and Importance of Adult Promise Programs. SHEEO Adult Promise Project," see ED603919.]