FORT WAYNE – Gov. Mitch Daniels met privately Thursday with three Concordia Lutheran High School students and their parents to ask their thoughts on the state’s new voucher program.

He liked what he heard.

“Here, as elsewhere, I got very, very positive reports,” Daniels said following the meeting.

State officials said in November almost 4,000 students were granted vouchers in the program’s first year, but some have since returned to public school.

This month, a Marion County Superior Court Judge upheld the law, rejecting an argument that it unconstitutionally supports religion using public money. The Indiana State Teachers Association has said it plans to appeal the decision.

Parents at the meeting said the governor was down-to-earth, asking each student about his or her own experience and sharing his own family’s experiences in public and private schools.

Krista Friend, Concordia Lutheran enrollment manager, said the students were selected for the meeting because they or their parents had approached school officials to express appreciation for the voucher program. They transferred from three different public school systems to Concordia, which accepted 20 voucher students this year.

Tammie Smith’s daughter, 15-year-old Allyson, is a sophomore who made the switch from Carroll High School. Her single mother said she would not have been able to afford Concordia without the help.

Smith, who works in customer service, said she isn’t a Republican but was looking forward to thanking Daniels for supporting the initiative.

“I want to make sure that keeps going,” she said. “When it cleared, I was obviously ecstatic.”

Her daughter said she appreciates the smaller classes at Concordia and more attention from teachers.

While Indiana’s voucher program already is reportedly the largest in the nation, Daniels said he doesn’t see it ever drawing more than a few thousand of the state’s million students. He added he hopes the program will prompt positive changes at public schools that will stem potential losses.

“I’ll be very surprised if this ever serves more than a few percent,” he said.

Daniels said he was pleased to see evidence the program was making private schools available to students who weren’t from wealthy families.

“As it grows next school year and in the years ahead, we just think Indiana will be a state of unique social justice,” he said. “That’ll be something to be proud of.”

aturner@jg.net