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Senate committee removes voucher expansion in pre-K bill
03/15/2017

A House pre-K bill that included a controversial expansion of Indiana’s private school voucher program has changed dramatically.

HB 1004 would have moderately expanded access to pre-K education. It would have also unnecessarily created a pipeline of new students into the state's already costly private school voucher program by allowing students in the state’s pre-K program to automatically become eligible for a voucher.

SB 276 is the Senate's effort to expand pre-K, which does not include voucher expansion.

During its meeting Wednesday, the Senate Education Committee amended HB 1004 to remove the bill’s language and insert the Senate’s pre-K bill language. The amended bill passed the committee 8-1.

ISTA had encouraged members and advocates to urge members of the Senate Education Committee to remove the voucher language in HB 1004. ISTA thanks everyone that took part in communicating this important message with committee members. ISTA also thanks Senate Education Committee Chair Sen. Dennis Kruse and members of the committee for listening to constituents’ concerns with this bill.