Backers See Help For Poor Kids; Critics Say Not So Fast

By Niki Kelly

FORT WAYNE, Ind. Reyna Rodriguez is a poster child for school choice.

From a family of six children and two hard-working parents a nurse and a firefighter she used a tax-paid voucher to graduate from Bishop Luers High School last year in Fort Wayne, Indiana. She is now a freshman at Indiana University.

Without the continued support from all those in favor of the school choice program, I would not be where I am today academically and spiritually, Rodriguez wrote in a speech she gave at a school choice rally in January. I firmly believe that the school choice program and Bishop Luers forever changed my life and will continue to help my family and many other families that are financially burdened.

That speech garnered attention nationally and Rodriguez was soon standing beside U.S. Education Secretary Betsy DeVos as a special guest at an Indianapolis conference in May.

Thats because Indianas voucher program , the largest in the nation after just six years, could be a guide for a national initiative.

But not everyone is on board with using tax dollars to pay for religious education at a private school. Republican state lawmakers implemented the program and have tweaked it little by little to expand its reach and possibly its entire premise.

The way it was rolled out was perceived to be more of a focus on our most at-risk students to get them out of situations where public schools werent performing, said Indiana Superintendent of Public Instruction Jennifer McCormick. She is a Republican, but this is one area in which she disagrees with her political colleagues.