Chalkbeat reports that the Indiana voucher program includes religious schools that openly discriminate against students who are gay, lesbian, transsexual, or bisexual.
“Our investigation found that roughly one in 10 of Indiana’s voucher schools publicly shares a policy suggesting or declaring that LGBT students are not welcome. Together, the 27 schools received over $16 million in public funds for participating last year.
“Many private, religious schools are also accredited by a group that provides advice about how to turn away LGBT students. Given that nearly 20 percent of schools do not publicize their admissions policies, the true number of schools with anti-LGBT policies is unclear.
“These findings are likely an understatement,” said Steve Suitts, a professor who has researched discrimination against LGBT students in Georgia’s voucher program.
“However, Chalkbeat did not find public, discriminatory policies at the vast majority of schools. In fact, many had rules in place to protect students from discrimination based on sexual orientation.”
Of the schools that receive vouchers, 27 specifically prohibit gay students, while another 27 have protections for them. Most have no policy at all.
Is it against the law to discriminate against gay students? There is no law specifically protecting gay students?
What will DeVos do if the matter comes before her? Her family’s foundations funded the leading anti-gay organizations so don’t expect any federal guidance while she is there.
Indiana has the largest voucher program in the country. It enrolls almost 35,000 students. The public school enrollment is slightly more than one million. Thus, slightly more than 3% of students in the state have chosen to use a voucher. A recent study found that attendance at a voucher school lowered academic achievement. After three or four years, the students in voucher schools caught up with their public school peers, but the weakest students had returned to public schools within two or three years.
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