The Christian Academy of Indiana, which is located on the Kentucky border, serves students from 56 different southern Indiana ZIP codes. Some reside in counties without private schools and travel up to thirty kilometers.
According to Lorrie Baechtel, director of admissions for the school, which is a part of a three-school network in Indiana and Kentucky, families in those far-flung communities travel there daily, sometimes carpooling, because they are drawn to the school’s atmosphere, extracurricular activities, and particularly its Christian instruction.
In Indiana, there are several excellent public school options. According to Baechtel, families visit our school in Indiana more frequently because of that mission.
The expansion of Indiana’s trademark voucher program, the Choice Scholarship, has contributed to the school’s explosive growth in enrollment during the past four years. According to Baechtel, this has reduced the cost of tuition. In 2024–2025, around 1,200 students attended, compared to about 700 in 2021–2022.
This is in line with a statewide trend: as Indiana lawmakers relaxed eligibility standards in recent years, voucher utilization has increased. All families, regardless of income, will be eligible for the program in 2026.
However, the fact that the Christian Academy is able to draw pupils from a great distance also speaks volumes. Indiana’s rural students aren’t using vouchers as frequently as their urban and suburban counterparts, despite the fact that they are now more widely available. This is partly due to the fact that a third of counties lack a private school that takes vouchers, and parents consider distance when choosing a school.
As a result, kids who reside near an urban center—which usually has one or more private schools that accept vouchers—may use vouchers at rates up to 30 percentage points greater than children who reside in a nearby district.
This implies that when the state makes the Choice Scholarship available to everyone and when private school scholarships financed by newly created federal tax credits start to be offered in 2027, rural families would be severely disadvantaged.
It is unlikely to be of much service to you if there are no schools for you to attend, according to Jon Valant, director of the Brookings Institution’s Brown Center on Education Policy.
Furthermore, proponents of public education argue that vouchers and state school financing split less for the remote public schools these students do attend.
The executive director of the Indiana Small and Rural Schools Association, which advocates for public schools, Chris Lagoni, stated, “We’re making the policy choice to fund a lot more choices than we used to.” More and more people are being invited to Sunday supper. There are a lot more guests, but the dinner is rather larger.
Republican leaders in the state, however, have downplayed concerns that vouchers will negatively impact public rural schools, arguing that parents desire educational options, whether they are private, charter, or traditional public schools, and that rural voters favor choice.
The recent expansion of the Choice Scholarship, a growing preference for smaller learning environments, and the emergence of online schools that accept vouchers, according to proponents of school choice, may soon provide remote communities with greater access to private education.
According to Eric Oglesbee of the Drexel Fund, a nonprofit venture philanthropy organization that provides funding for new private schools in Indiana and across the United States, “I believe we’re best when we have a robust ecosystem of private and public options.”
Location matters in accessing a private school
Approximately 76,000 students in the state were given vouchers for the 2024–25 academic year, which is roughly 6,000 more than the previous year. Last year, the typical voucher recipient came from a home earning little more than $100,000, and the program cost the state $497 million.
However, according to a Chalkbeat review of state data, almost one-third of Indiana counties lack private schools that accept vouchers, and voucher use is lower in rural than in urban regions.
Even within close proximity, the utilization of vouchers can vary significantly. In the Madison school district in southern Indiana, for instance, about sixteen percent of children use vouchers; in more rural adjacent areas, that percentage can be as low as one percent. Other parts of the state, such as South Bend, Fort Wayne, Evansville, and Indianapolis, show similar patterns.
Driving distance has been found to play a role in parents’ school selection, hence location is important.
About half of parents stated they would travel no more than 15 minutes to get their kids to a better school, according to a 2024 study of parent preferences conducted by EdChoice, an Indianapolis-based organization that advocates vouchers. A little more than 25% stated they would drive for no more than 20 minutes, while the last quarter stated they would drive for no more than 30 minutes.
For years, the state has been plagued by worries about this problem. The advocacy group EdChoice’s Alli Aldis cited a 2018 analysis that identified certain rural Indiana communities as “schooling deserts.” An estimated 3% of Indiana students, many of whom were in rural counties, lived more than 30 minutes from a charter, magnet, or voucher-accepting private school during the 2017–18 academic year.
There are obstacles to starting a new school everywhere, but in rural areas in particular, such as locating a building, according to Oglesbee of the Drexel Fund.
According to a 2023 Drexel Fund analysis, the state’s facilities are insufficient to accommodate new competitors. Even though the research points out that real estate is both accessible and reasonably priced, private schools are not able to access surplus facilities, and there are no public financing sources for facilities.
However, new legislation in Indiana might make that different. In order to provide more flexibility and creativity in defining what constitutes a school facility, such as colocating with other educational institutions, governmental bodies, and community organizations, House Enrolled Act 1515 established voluntary school facility pilot programs that are available to both public and private schools.
Perhaps as a result of the 2023 extension of voucher eligibility, which made the program almost universal, Oglesbee said the group is receiving a flurry of interest from prospective new private schools in Indiana.
School succeeds if the community asks for it
Hiring employees and attracting pupils are other obstacles to starting a private school, which can be especially problematic in rural locations where there are fewer children and certified teachers, according to advocates.
According to Oglesbee, starting a school also calls for a group of individuals with backgrounds in both education and business. And if they have ties to the community they want to serve, they have a better chance of succeeding.
Oglesbee stated, “I see less of the if you build it, they will come idea.” If the community requests it, the school is successful.
Indiana House Speaker Todd Huston stated at a recent conservative policy conference that rural populations in Indiana were very enthusiastic about school choice and that no Republican politician had lost a primary because of their support for the concept.
According to Chris Lubienski of Indiana University’s Center for Evaluation and Education Policy, voters in Indiana have not cast ballots on school vouchers and do not have a legal option to change the law. Voters in Nebraska largely revoked a state-funded scholarship program last year, while voters in Colorado and Kentucky rejected ballot measures supporting school choice.
There is opposition: Why should my taxes pay for a program that I am unable to utilize? Lubienski uttered those words.
According to Lagoni, support for school choice in rural areas may actually equate to support for transfers between public school districts.
According to Lagoni, the Rural Schools Association ultimately feels that all schools that receive state funding ought to be held to the same standards of responsibility and transparency.
Regarding worries that rural students frequently struggle to use vouchers, Huston stated that he anticipates that once the program is made available to everybody in 2026–2027, voucher utilization will only increase.
According to Huston, we want to make sure that our rules reflect what is most effective for families.
Vouchers add to financial stress for rural schools
Rural public schools are under pressure to compete as a result of Indiana’s expanding school options, dwindling population, and downward pressure on local tax income. Sometimes that entails school closures and consolidations.
In an effort to upgrade facilities and expand programming, Vigo County schools recently announced that they will be closing two rural elementary schools. The school corporation s enrollment has declined slightly, due in part to an overall decline in the county s total population, said spokesperson Katie Shane.
Vouchers are being used by more district residents, although they are not the primary cause of the district’s declining enrollment. While 429 students used vouchers to attend private schools last school year, an increase from 252 the year before, around 870 Vigo students transferred to another public school district in the fall of the 2024-25 school year. That is indicative of a statewide pattern.
Without their nearest public elementary schools, students may have to travel by bus for half an hour or more to the nearest school, according to community members who have started a petition to save one of the two schools marked for closure, Hoosier Prairie Elementary School.
Hoosier Prairie isn t just about going to school, said Shyann Koziatek, an educational assistant at the school who also signed the petition to stop its closure. Kids love to learn and love the routine we have.
Rural schools also often function as large area employers and drivers of the economy.
Schools are often the center and identity of the community, how people view who they are, Lubienski said. You go and cheer on your football team, it s where you put on your school play.
But private schools can serve the same role, choice advocates say.
If people have stronger educational options, more choices, that only strengthens the community, said Aldis of EdChoice.
