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This story is a partnership between Chalkbeat Indiana and journalists at the Arnolt Center for Investigative Journalism at Indiana University.
Three times a week, Milan High School senior Katherine Prifogle drives across the Indiana-Ohio border to Whitewater Aviation, trading her high school classroom for a cockpit.
The Indiana Career Scholarship Account, known as CSA, funds her trips to Ohio for aviation lessons. Prifogle hopes to eventually earn her pilot’s license.
The state-funded program started in 2023 to supplement career and technical education for Indiana sophomores, juniors, and seniors in public or private schools. For small schools like Milan High School, where funding is limited and opportunities for early career experience are rare, the CSA program fills a gap and enables students like Prifogle to gain creditable work experience based on individual students’ desires and interests.
“Our school is in a low-income area, so it’s an opportunity that most of the students wouldn’t be able to get otherwise,” said Zarah Hileman, a counselor at Milan High School.
The scholarship program is growing in more ways than one. Participation soared from around 200 students in the 2023-24 school year to 1,900 students this year, and the program is at full capacity. The Indiana General Assembly is considering boosting its funding from $10 million to $15 million in the next state budget. And new state graduation requirements could soon lead more students to using the program, and lawmakers are also moving toward making private school vouchers like the CSAs available to all Indiana families regardless of income.
But at the same time, the Arnolt Center for Investigative Journalism in collaboration with Chalkbeat found a glaring lack of transparency regarding how the CSA money is allocated and which employers get it.
Three state agencies jointly administer the Career Scholarship Accounts: the Department of Education, the Commission for Higher Education, and the Indiana State Treasurer’s Office. All three denied records requests for invoices related to spending and total distribution to each company receiving the funds in 2023 and 2024.
A representative from the Treasurer’s Office said the office was “unable to publish information requested externally.” The office also said: “Under state law, information on student funding allocations and spending is provided to the Indiana Department of Education and the Commission for Higher Education.”
Qualified expenses for CSAs, which lawmakers established in 2023, include everything from clothing and gas to business materials and technology, according to the state. But the lack of public records means it’s difficult to track what’s paid for and the price tag for various items.
The state’s CSA website lists 54 companies, 10 public schools, four private schools, and two charter schools as program participants. The Arnolt Center and Chalkbeat contacted all the listed participants. Only 10 of them responded, and five of those said they did not know why they were listed on the CSA website as a participating school or employer.
One such participant is Gaylor Electric, whose CEO is GOP Rep. Chuck Goodrich, author of the CSA law. Gaylor is listed as a CSA partner. But Jeff Bryant, director of Gaylor University — Gaylor Electric’s training arm — said in an email that the company has not received or requested CSA funds, although it has hired students who have participated in the program.
Goodrich also did not respond to requests for comment about the program’s transparency and Gaylor’s role.
Students, businesses see benefits from Career Scholarship Accounts
Students can use the Career Scholarship Accounts to work on their broader business skills, not just to learn a particular trade or industry.
For example, some schools are using the CSA program to encourage students to join other programs like Startup Moxie, an entrepreneurship program located in Elkhart County that lets students use the CSA money on tools and materials.
Currently, 24 students are using Startup Moxie to tour local business facilities, get to know the owners, and develop their networking skills.
“I’ve seen students just year after year, student after student, that come into the program not extremely confident or not sure what they want to do after high school,” Startup Moxie Director Kris Weimer said. “It’s important for students to have this opportunity to help set them up for whatever’s next in their life.”
Concord High School has a list of career and technical education programs for their students to take on campus. However, Concord High School Principal Seth Mulnar said those courses cannot replicate networking opportunities with local business leaders or the diverse career-focused experiences that CSA programs like Startup Moxie can.
“I like the aspect of Startup Moxie that we are given an environment that fosters us to explore the entrepreneurship side of things and goes against the grain of traditional school,” said Max Malloy, a senior at Elkhart High School in the Startup Moxie entrepreneurship program. “It gives us a different path if we want to go out in our community and do something that is worthwhile.”
For companies, the CSA program is an opportunity to introduce a new generation of workers to the trades.
James Robertson, the owner of Armor Air, which offers HVAC, plumbing and air conditioning services, got set up with the Department of Education and partnered with Cardinal Ritter High School to teach students how to become HVAC technicians.
“We struggle to find people in the trades anymore,” he said.
While it’s the first year Armor Air has participated, Robertson said that some students are showing significant interest in the industry, enrolling in classes and asking for job interviews.
Cardinal Ritter High School Vice Principal Erik Longenecker said he had spent all of the 2022-2023 school year looking to fund career training programs for the juniors and seniors. When he found out about the CSA program, he encouraged students to apply for the 2024–2025 . Ultimately, the school received funding for 94 students.
In addition to the HVAC program, Cardinal Ritter offers CNA and cybersecurity training using CSA funding.
While there’s positive feedback about the scholarships, school administrators have acknowledged room for improvement.
The only criticism Longenecker has for the CSA program is their disbursement of funds throughout the year. While the program provides up to $5,000 annually, it is disbursed quarterly.
“It’s unique and makes it challenging when trying to pay for things upfront,” Longenecker said.
A student can roll over a maximum of $1,000 in funds into the next school year, and unused funds for an account are returned to the state once a student in the CSA program graduates high school.
Rather than paying students the full amount directly, scholarship funds are administered by the program directors to ensure that students’ needs are met. When students request funding to pay for specific needs, money can be taken from the account to cover the costs, according to Longenecker.
Concord High School Associate Principal Kendra Divine stressed that the program’s clear goal is to help students develop skills, and isn’t just a chance for teenagers to get “a wad of cash and then they go buy Skittles or something.”
“It’s more, this is the purpose of it, here’s what you’re going to use it for, and we are going to assist you while you use it. That’s how it works,” Divine said. “It’s not like you can do this and be $5,000 richer.”
But the limits on how the CSA money can be spent doesn’t necessarily mean it’s easy to learn notable details about how the program works.
Whitewater Aviation in Ohio, where Prifogle takes her flying lessons, sends a bill for them to Milan High School, which then works with the CSA program to pay the bill.
To facilitate this process, there is a third-party administrator of the program, ClassWallet. The State Treasurer’s Office sends the company quarterly payments to cover its expenses.
ClassWallet denied multiple requests for interviews about how the program functions. Several states have given ClassWallet contracts to help manage education choice programs, including Alabama, Arkansas, and North Carolina. The company has also expressed an interest in doing business with Tennessee to help oversee its recent school choice expansion.
New graduation requirements could boost prominence of CSAs
The Indiana Department of Education says the CSA program is designed to work in conjunction with — and not replace — the state’s dedicated career and technical education funding, which nearly 268,900 students used in the 2023-2024 school year.
The typical career and technical education approach backed by state funding “is providing that education in a school-like lab environment, where the CSA is allowing the education to take place at the place of business,” Jesse Webb, director of career and technical education for Fort Wayne Community Schools, said.
While CSA dollars can be used to attract students, schools cannot stack CSA dollars on top of the state’s grant funding for career and technical education, because schools can’t accept both.
Mike Schimpf, superintendent of North Central Parke Community School Corporation, applied for his district to use CSA funding for students to enroll in a commercial driver’s license program, which is currently being funded through state career and technical education dollars.
Students who rely on career and technical education funding often take several courses on their graduation track. That means the funding those students can use from CSA can ultimately be less than the career and technical education funding available to them, Schimpf said.
Nevertheless, the Indiana General Assembly’s draft two-year budget that would increase the CSA’s funding to $15 million isn’t the only state policy change that could increase the scholarships’ prominence.
In December, the State Board of Education approved new graduation rules that allow students to earn seals from one of three “pathways” to enrollment in college, careers, or enlistment in the military.
Students can earn an Honors Employment seal on their diploma through 150 hours of work, which can now include a work opportunity paid for through CSAs.
Schools must implement the changes for diploma requirements by the 2028-29 school year. However, schools can choose to adopt the new graduation rules as soon as next school year, which could accelerate student interest in the CSAs and lead to increased state funding for them.
During the debate about revising Indiana’s graduation requirements, officials initially floated a plan to require more students to gain work experience in order to graduate. They backed off that plan in the final rules approved by the state board. State policymakers see CSAs as a means to help high school students get financial support so they can get jobs after graduating, similar to how financial aid helps college students pay for higher education.
“There is not a mechanism for high school students to receive financial aid for college classes, so the CSAs have been a game-changer,” said state Rep. Wendy McNamara, a Republican and director of Early College High School in Muncie.
Jon Eckert, Charlie Herman, Char Jones, Mitchell Lierman, Mackenzie Lionberger, Eva Remijan-Toba, Maddie Slepski and Jasmine Wright are reporters from the Arnolt Center for Investigative Journalism at Indiana University.
Aleksandra Appleton covers Indiana education policy and writes about K-12 schools across the state. Contact her at aappleton@chalkbeat.org.
