In Indiana, new legislation would offer vouchers to children who never attended a public school. This eliminates the fiction that vouchers are going to “save children from failing schools.”
This is a message from Julian Smith in Induana. He offers a sample letter. Or, write your own.
Subject: Fwd: Two Minute Task #8 HB 1003 Vouchers
As you are probably aware, HB1003 will be coming to the Senate floor for a vote next week.
This is a battle we can and must win. These guys may want a reason to vote no, and blitzing them with a compelling thought may make a difference if we do this together, share with others, and ask them to do the same. The contacts, meetings, and emails have already had positive effects. Let’s keep the pressure on right up to the vote.
Feel free to copy and paste if you’d like, but please make sure they hear from you and anyone you know that has an interest in saving our public schools. It may be more effective to copy/paste to each senator individually, so they don’t see a big group of senators in the address line and realize that they have been targeted.
Miller s24@in.gov
Bray s37@in.gov
Crider s28@in.gov
Steele s44@in.gov
Waltz s36@in.gov
Hershman s7@in.gov
Delph s29@in.gov
Leising s42@in.gov
Dear Senator ____________________,
I’m writing because I oppose HB1003 and the further expansion of the voucher program. If enacted it will have serious negative effects for public schools. I would remind you that the way this was originally packaged and promoted to the Senate was with the understanding that “public schools would have the first shot”, Gov. Daniel’s words, and as a savings to the state. Offering vouchers to children that have never been counted in public schools amounts to a new expense to the state and reduces dollars available to already struggling to catch up traditional public schools.
We have yet to establish whether or not the program is producing any benefit, as some students initially utilizing a voucher have returned to a traditional public school. Accelerating the program at this point does not make sense. Let’s slow down and first evaluate the program we now have in place.
Thank you,
(Sign your name)
Click send
Copy/ Paste/Repeat
Senator Grooms s46@in.gov has already gone on record as opposed. You might send him a quick thank you to help insure he doesn’t have a change of heart.
Diane Ravitch's blog 
Private schools, which are mostly Catholic, have been waiting a long time for this and now it is even more important as they are closing schools as a result of not enough revenue or so they say. This is all a part of the corporatist privatizers long term plan to as Grover Norquist once said “We will drown it in the bathtub.” Conservatives are regressive. Unfortunately, most so-called democrats are really right wing republicans when you look at what they do and support such as termination of public schools. Only watch what they do and see if it matches what they say or in other words “I hear real good, but I see a whole lot better.”
I bet if a referendum were put on the ballot that said no more than 5 percent of public funds spent on K-12 education could go to non-public schools, or something to that effect, it would pass overwhelmingly. I bet lots of people like the idea of charter schools as labs for experimentation but that most people are against the dismantling of the public school system. Has anything like that been tried?