Public Schools Bring Hoosiers Together
08/14/2026

A recent IndyStar column argued that public education has abandoned shared values and suggested conservatives should build separate institutions rooted in their own beliefs. The headline went even further, declaring that public education is being “torched” and deserves it.

Public schools are not conservative schools or progressive schools. They are not built around a particular religion or political ideology. They are public schools, and they belong to all of us. That is one of their greatest strengths.

Indiana’s public schools are fundamentally local institutions, governed by locally elected school boards and shaped by parents, educators and the communities they serve. What families in one Indiana town value or prioritize for their children may look different from what families want somewhere else. That is the beauty of local control and something worth protecting.

Across our state, Hoosiers of every political persuasion take pride in their local public schools. Mayors and business leaders see strong schools as essential to attracting families and employers. Communities come together around graduations, sporting events, concerts and school traditions that stretch across generations.

For many Hoosier communities, the public school is not some distant government institution. It helps define the community itself.

Indiana already gives families broad access to private education through its universal voucher program, which directs public dollars to private schools, most of them religiously affiliated. Families who want an education grounded in a particular faith or belief system already have that option.

The question is whether we should weaken the one system designed to serve every child and every community in order to expand institutions organized around particular beliefs.

One of the most important things public schools do is bring together young people whose families may see the world very differently.

Students learn alongside classmates of different races, religions, incomes, backgrounds and beliefs. They learn to work with people who may not look like them, worship like them or agree with them.

At a time when Americans increasingly sort themselves into political and cultural bubbles, separating our children into institutions organized around particular ideologies is a strange answer to the problem of division. If we want the next generation of Hoosiers to live and work together, they need opportunities to know and understand people who are different from them.

Public schools do not need a political or religious creed to teach shared values. They demonstrate those values every day: every child matters, every child deserves opportunity, communities share responsibility for educating the next generation, and we are stronger when we learn to live and work alongside one another.

Our public schools are not perfect. They should be challenged to improve and held accountable to the communities they serve.

But they do not deserve to be torched.

At a time when our country needs more places that bring people together, Indiana’s public schools are worth strengthening and defending.