Lebanon superintendent defends public schools, warns state budget and vouchers will squeeze local funding

Superintendent Dr. Milliman told the Lebanon Community School Corp. school board that recent rhetoric and legislative action are mischaracterizing public schools and that changes in state funding will have serious financial consequences for districts across Indiana.

Milliman said the district’s mission — “we challenge everyone every day to reach a new best” — and its commitment that “all means all” underlie local practice, and he urged the community not to treat a single standardized test as the sole measure of school quality.

The superintendent said the Choice Scholarship program — commonly called vouchers — and the state budget passed at midnight produced several outcomes he described as harmful to public education. “If the Choice Scholarship Program was its own line item in the state budget, it would be the fifth highest line item in the entire state budget,” Milliman said. He said the…