As a public program, the Lab School is unique among the dozens of loosely defined microschools around Indiana, which are usually very small private schools.

On the near east side of Indianapolis, Brookside School 54 students squared off in a competition against a chef on Thursday to see who could make the tastiest nutritious snack. It’s part of a partnership between the Indianapolis Public Schools district and insurance company Anthem Blue Cross and Blue Shield to provide cooking and nutrition education.

Indiana has been a national leader for more than a decade in sending taxpayer dollars to help fund private school education through its school choice voucher program.

Criticism of the Girl Scouts of Central Indiana came to a head because of the fight over the Girls IN STEM Academy, a proposed charter school in Washington Township.