School Choice | MacIver Institute

School Choice Wisconsin: No Child Left Behind Waiver Puts Voucher, Charter Schools at Risk

MacIver News Service | Februrary 7, 2012

[Madison, Wisc...] Many educational leaders and legislators alike lauded Wisconsin’s waiver application for release from the federal No Child Left Behind program as a positive step forward for the state’s schools. However, not everyone is pleased with the opening stages of this new system of school accountability.

School Choice Wisconsin President Jim Bender was the most vocal critic of the waiver during last week’s public hearing. The waiver, he says, would allow the state to remove voucher schools from choice programs and seize power from charter school authorizers without giving them any chance for improvement.

“Unfortunately, the waiver released by DPI does not hold all schools accountable equally across all sectors, and details by which schools will be measured and held accountable are yet to be determined,” Bender testified Thursday. “If approved as written, the waiver would allow DPI to remove MPCP and PPSCP schools from the school choice programs and to supersede charter school authorizers that fell into the lowest five percent of persistently low performing schools that fail to improve and meet certain yet to be determined benchmarks within three years. On the other hand, public schools would be given a series of three-year time periods with several options to choose from to work toward improvement.”

Bender

The lack of specific language for both voucher and charter schools – the majority of which operate under very different guidelines from traditional public schools – is a concern for School Choice Wisconsin. It suggests that the waiver will increase the power that the state holds over choice schools. According to their research, this is something that has not been a piece of other states’ applications in areas where vouchers and tax-credit scholarships assist students.

The biggest issue for these schools, according to Bender, is a limited window for improvement. Regular public schools that are deemed lowest performing would be put on a rolling three-year intervention period in hopes of improvement. They would have no strict timeline for closure if changes cannot be made. Choice and charter schools would have only a three-year window before closure, and only one shot at improvement. The disparity between the two groups, testified Bender, is inherently unfair.

Whether or not these concerns will persist will depend on how the continuing development of DPI’s waiver shapes state mandates. The document presented on Thursday was a complex but ultimately preliminary approach to wean the state from federal oversight. While DPI’s tireless work on the effort created a strong base for reform, there’s still much work to be done. Input from legislators and other sources will continue to shape the waiver.

This legislation will be written over the next several weeks that addresses the concerns raised in Thursday’s hearing. It should reflect the universal theme of that hearing; that the waiver was a solid start but in need of improvement and greater specificity in its policies and terms. For Bender and School Choice Wisconsin, this will ideally include a level playing field for choice and charter schools.

Tags: Educatioin, No Child Left Behind, School Choice
Posted in News | February 7, 2012 | | No Comments

Bill Limiting School Choice Eschews Major Opportunities for Improvement and More Options for Parents, Families

By Christian D’Andrea
MacIver Institute Education Policy Analyst

On November 16, the Assembly Education Committee approved AB 314 on a 6-3 vote, a proposal that will derail school choice expansion for the foreseeable future. This comes less than a year after plans for expansion led to the creation of a Racine voucher program and a potential move out to Green Bay.

So what spurred the sudden change of heart?

Politics. Republican lawmakers – a group that have been responsible for the support and growth of school vouchers in Milwaukee for more than two decades now – are the ones bringing this legislation to freeze school choice to the table. Senate President Mike Ellis has been the vocal leader of a coalition of politicians from both sides of the aisle. In the Assembly Education Committee, only Representatives Jeremy Theisfeldt (R-Fond du Lac), Stephen Nass (R-Whitewater), and Don Pridemore (R-Hartford) voted against the measure. Republicans make up seven members of the 11 person committee.

The two parties have met in the middle to limit school choice and take educational freedom out of the hands of parents across Wisconsin. The freeze was a concession made back in the spring to help bring the two sides closer during the frenzied budget debate. In exchange for less resistance towards the 2011-2013 planned slate of reforms, the battle to expand the country’s first modern school choice program – and potentially the addition of special needs scholarship programs – would be stalled indefinitely.

This may develop into an even bigger problem thanks to the cautious atmosphere that is primed to grip the Capitol in the midst of recall elections. Pundits in Madison are skeptical that any significant work will take place in the statehouse thanks to Wisconsin’s brewing political turmoil. If so, this will make the trade-off of educational options for a sliver of diplomacy even more lopsided in the wake of inaction.

This means that a parent triggered choice program in Green Bay – where families would decide whether or not they wanted vouchers in their city – has gone from being steps away from a political reality to a legislative burial ground. It means that potential programs in places like Kenosha and Appleton have been squashed before families got a chance to voice their opinion on them. Most importantly, it means that students who can’t afford options other than their local public schools can end up stuck in a failing institution that can’t properly serve them.

Striking down the expansion of school choice may have been a necessary concession to grease the wheels of progress when it came to last spring’s budget. However, it did so by swallowing up the voices of families across Wisconsin. It put a vise around the options that children will have throughout the state. It limited the chances that Wisconsin’s students have to thrive in the classroom.

This moratorium on school choice may have solved an immediate problem, but it will help to perpetuate a growing one. The next few years represented an excellent opportunity to reform and strengthen school choice in Wisconsin by building off of the experiences and correcting the mistakes of Milwaukee. Instead, students in the Badger State will be stuck thanks to political rhetoric.

Tags: Education, Government Reform, MacIver Institute, MPS, School Choice
Posted in News, mi reports | November 30, 2011 | | 1 Comment

Will Legislature Cave to Education Bureaucrats on Open Enrollment?

By James Wigderson
Special Guest Perspective for the MacIver Institute

Like many parents, my wife and I meet with our children’s teachers at the beginning of each school year. We have learned the hard way you can’t wait until the first report cards and the first parent-teacher conference to really get a grip on how our children our doing in school. The one thing we stress to the teachers is don’t wait to tell us there is a problem. Let us know immediately so we can address it.

For some parents and some school children, sometimes the problems are really too difficult to solve for the school where the child is enrolled. Sometimes a change needs to be made, preferably right away. And sometimes the answers to a child’s educational needs are found in the next school district. The current limits on open enrollment make that change in schools difficult.

Unfortunately, the law does not allow for the parent to make the open enrollment choice year round. This is important because if a parent gets into the school year and discovers a problem with the child’s school and the school district is no position to fix things, then the parent and the child are stuck in that terrible situation. The only alternatives are home schooling and enrolling in a private school.

The Assembly version of SB2 would require parents, for nine months a year, to beg for permission to enroll / transfer their child in another public school.

When my son was in first grade in the Waukesha School District, some of the teachers and aides at his school did not have a professional reaction to my columns for the Waukesha Freeman. They made comments to my wife when she volunteered at the school. She kept them from me at first because what could we do? It’s not like we could just switch schools and escape the problem, even if the district allowed it.

However, if open enrollment had been allowed all year, my son might not have wasted a year in a classroom where we weren’t welcome. We could have sent our child to a school in a different district where the unprofessional animosity would have been less.

Allowing open enrollment all year would mean that parents would be empowered consumers of education rather than prisoners of geography. They would be allowed to have only the interests of their children when making their educational choices, and adapt when circumstances change.

It’s a common sense change in the law, but as we have seen common sense is in short supply in Madison. Republicans in the State Senate passed a bill that would have basically allowed the expansion of open enrollment to all year if the receiving district had room to accept new students. However, when the bill was considered by the Assembly, they amended it only allow open enrollment if the school district where the child is currently enrolled agrees, except under very exceptional circumstances (custody issues, bullying, crime, threats of violence).

Otherwise the open enrollment window closes after three months. A marginal improvement over the current three-week enrollment period, but the Assembly version of the bill does nothing to help the parent who discovers after the school year started that their child’s education is in need of a change of school districts.

So the bill, SB2, has now passed each house in different forms. The Senate’s version empowers parents; the Assembly’s version keeps the bulk of the power in the hands of school administrators. Why is that?

In an interview with WTAQ’s Jerry Bader last May, current Assembly Education Committee Chairman State Representative Steve Kestell justified the limits on open enrollment by complaining about the marketing efforts of online public charter schools. He actually said he was afraid they would run television commercials all year to recruit students. Heavens, no!

I must have missed their commercials in between WEAC’s television ads promoting traditional public schools—that is when WEAC was not running ads to support the recall of some of Kestell’s Republican colleagues in the Senate.

Yes, online public charter schools (with union teachers) may benefit from a few more enrollees during the school year if parents choose that route. However, the bill is not just about those schools. It’s about expanding educational opportunity for all public school students in Wisconsin by empowering parents to make the decisions as circumstances dictate. That means all public schools can accept students from outside provided they have the space available, not just the ones that happen to have internet-based classrooms.

Leaving school districts with a de-facto veto over any student leaving their district is to cave to the status quo and a recognition that the convenience of the bureaucrats running the schools is deemed more important than the children who attend them.

We thought this legislature and governor had different priorities. As the saga of SB2 continues, we’ll see how true that is.

Tags: Education, Free Market, Governor Walker, School Choice
Posted in mi perspectives | October 10, 2011 | | 4 Comments

Wisconsin Parents Exercising Educational Choice

1 in 4 Statewide and nearly 4 in 5 in Milwaukee, According to MacIver Study

[Madison, Wisc…] More than 260,000 Wisconsin K-12 students exercise some form of educational choice, according to a new study by the John K. MacIver Institute for Public Policy.

“Choice in education is not the exception, it is the norm in Wisconsin,” said MacIver Institute President Brett Healy. “Our MacIver Educational Choice Census shows that parents across Wisconsin embrace alternatives to the public school that bureaucrats dictate upon them based solely on where they live.”

The MacIver Educational Choice Census reveals that 261,301 Wisconsin school children are educated in a place other than their traditional, geographically-assigned public school. That’s up 17.7 percent from the 222,086 children from the last MacIver census.

Statewide, more than 25 percent of students exercised choice, and in Milwaukee, almost four out of every five students exercised some form of choice over where they’ll attend school.

The John K. MacIver Institute for Public Policy’s second annual edition of their Wisconsin Educational Choice Census documents student populations between traditional and emerging forms of school choice such as private schools, homeschooling, charter schools, and virtual schools. Student counts across these categories were compared against regular public school enrollment as well as prevalent forms of choice within the public school system, including Chapter 220 student transfers, state and city run charter schools, and the public school open enrollment program. The result was an account of more than one million K-12 students, which provides a testament to Wisconsinites’ ongoing commitment to finding the right schools for their children.

“Once again, the MacIver Educational Choice Census demonstrates that Wisconsin families across the state demand high-quality options be they public, private, virtual or brick and mortar charter schools.” said Healy. “Wisconsin policy makers should understand that the parents of Wisconsin demand access to educational innovation.”

The MacIver Educational Choice Census was compiled by Education Policy Analyst Christian D’Andrea using figures provided by the State Department of Public Instruction and Milwaukee Public Schools. It is the second year the Maciver Institute has published the Educational Choice Census.

Tags: Education, MacIver Institute, School Choice
Posted in News | August 21, 2011 | | Comments Off

MacIver Institute Educational Choice Census

2011

Even before the Milwaukee Parental Choice Program was keyed in for expansion, Wisconsinites were turning to school choice at a growing rate.

The population of students exercising school choice in Wisconsin grew by nearly 1,000 between 2009 and 2010, constituting over 25 percent of the Badger State’s K-12 population. More than 261,000 students chose schools other than their neighborhood public school this past school year.

In Milwaukee, almost four out of every five students exercised some form of choice over where they’ll attend school. All this – and more – can be found in the MacIver Institute’s 2011 Wisconsin Student Census.

In all, 25.46% of Wisconsin’s students chose schools other than their traditional neighborhood public institutions. In Milwaukee, the birthplace of modern school choice, nearly 80 percent of students had a say in what school they attended for the 2010-2011 school year.

This was an important figure as the state drives forward towards greater options for children in two of its largest cities. The Milwaukee Parental Choice Program (MPCP) will see its largest expansion since 1996, allowing more families to choose from a wider variety of schools than ever before. Racine will follow in Brew City’s footsteps in the pilot year of a similar voucher program. These changes suggest that the state’s participation numbers will continue to grow in the coming years.

Milwaukee saw a significant rise in students exercising choice thanks to a slowly declining pupil count and an increase in families selecting private schools and Three-Choice Enrollment for their children. While the city’s overall enrollment dropped by nearly 5,000 students, the number of pupils exercising choice options actually rose by over 500 kids.

The 947 new choice students represented a slight statewide increase, which was bolstered by improving choice numbers in Wisconsin’s largest city. Though enrollment in options such as homeschooling, private schools, and charter schools dipped slightly, increases in public school choice options like open and Three-Choice enrollment (in Milwaukee) bolstered the state’s profile. This suggests that more parents are turning to public school choice rather than more expensive options like private enrollment.

This overall trend should continue with the recent expansion of the MPCP. By raising the family income ceiling, eliminating the enrollment cap, and removing geographic restrictions for participating schools, more students than ever will be able to use vouchers to attend the private schools of their choice. Next year’s inclusion of Racine should also boost statewide numbers, though the enrollment there is limited to just 250 kids in the first year.

These 2010-2011 results further the narrative that school choice is a growing force in Wisconsin. Though the past year has brought limited growth, it’s still an impressive jump from where the state stood in 2001. In nine years, over seven percent more students have been able to explore an array of options when it comes to their education – an increase of nearly 70,000 pupils. When whittled down to just Milwaukee, this jump is more dramatic; from 27 percent to 79 percent.

The data shows that school choice programs like the one in Milwaukee aren’t just offering options for the students that participate, but pressuring public schools to create more options like Three-Choice or Open Enrollment. This has created a bevy of opportunities for the state’s children, and many are taking advantage of the choices presented to them.

Full data–> MacIver 2011 Educational Choice Census

Tags: Education, MacIver Institute, School Choice
Posted in News, mi reports | August 21, 2011 | | Comments Off

Eight Racine Schools Set to Participate in First Year of Voucher Program

On the precipice of Wisconsin’s largest school choice expansion since 1996, eight Racine schools have been approved by the state Department of Public Instruction to accept students through voucher payments for 2011-2012. These institutions are set to educate 250 low-income pupils in the first year of choice in the state’s fifth-largest city.

The eight schools that have earned DPI’s approval to accept vouchers as tuition range from secular to parochial schools and serve all grades from pre-kindergarten through high school. Seven of the eight fall within city limits, while Shoreland Lutheran High School in Somers is the only outlier.

Racine Schools Participating in the Parental Private School Choice Program
School	Grades
John Paul II Academy	K-8
Mount Pleasant Renaissance School	Pre-K-3
Our Lady of Grace Academy	K-8
Saint John Fisher Academy	*9-11
Saint Joseph School	K-4
Shoreland Lutheran High School	*9-12
Trinity Lutheran School	Pre-K-2
Wisconsin Lutheran School	K-2, 4-5

All eight schools will begin accepting student applications this month. Half of the programs will also consider new pupils for their second semesters this winter, though the program’s cap may limit participation as the year goes on.

The Racine voucher program is part of the state’s largest voucher reform since 1996, when parochial schools were allowed to participate in the country’s first modern school choice program. 2011 will mark the first year that vouchers have expanded beyond the city of Milwaukee.

In its first year, the Racine program will be limited to just 250 students. This number will rise to 500 students in 2012-13 and continue uncapped beyond that. As student participation increases, the number of eligible schools is likely to rise as well.

Tags: Education, freedom, Governor Walker, Milwaukee, Racine, School Choice
Posted in News | August 10, 2011 | | Comments Off

Public Support for Voucher Programs Grows, but Teacher Opinions Differ from the General Public

By Christian D’Andrea
MacIver Institute Education Policy Analyst

According to a Harvard study, Americans are increasingly in favor of school vouchers in 2011. Teachers, however, don’t feel the same way.

A recent study conducted by Education Next and Harvard University has uncovered a growing divide between teacher and public opinion when it comes to educational issues. The article, titled “The Public Weighs In on School Reform,” shows that teachers and regular citizens had differing views on how factors affect classrooms.

The biggest shift in 2011 was expanded public support of voucher programs, something that hits especially close to home in Wisconsin. Forty-seven percent of public respondents said that they would support a program that uses government funding to help students attend private schools. This was an increase of eight percent compared to 2010’s mark. The program was described as “a proposal to give families with children in public schools a wider choice, by allowing them to enroll their children in private schools instead, with government helping to pay the tuition.”

Wisconsin’s recent expansion of the Milwaukee Parental Choice Program, as well as the additional educational opportunities for students in Racine, seems to fall in line with this trend. Though there has been some vocal dissent about the future of school choice in the Badger State in recent years, this Knowledge Networks survey suggests that the tide of public opinion is rising across America.

A similar topic, charter schools, did not see similar gains as voucher programs did. However, teachers’ approval of these schools rose from 39 percent to 45 percent, two percent higher than the public’s approval of charter schools.

Key Results from the 2011 PEPG Survey
	Teachers	General Public
Percent favoring school choice	35	47
Percent favoring charter schools	45	43
Percent favoring teacher tenure	53	20
Percent favoring merit pay based on standardized tests	18	47
Percent that think teachers’ unions have a positive effect on schools	58	29

Other questions left wide divides between regular citizens and professional teachers. Topics like merit pay and teacher tenure showed significant rifts between the two parties. Opinions on the effect of teachers’ unions saw significant changes since the 2010 survey. While the general population stayed relatively unchanged in their view of these organizations, 58 percent of teachers thought that unions have a positive effect on public schools, a jump from 51 percent in last year’s research.

In all, the survey highlights some of the areas where teachers and the general public have the least in common.. Not surprisingly, issues like union involvement and merit pay – that is, items that directly relate to teacher compensation – are at the forefront of this disparity. However, the two sides will have to work together in order to push meaningful reform forward in the future. This Harvard study suggests that those gaps may be tougher to bridge than we thought.

The PEPG Survey can be found here.

Tags: Education, Free Market, MPS, School Choice
Posted in News, mi reports | August 8, 2011 | | 1 Comment

Governor Walker Signs Balanced Budget with No Tax Increases

Fifty Vetoes Include Provisions on Milwaukee Police Pay, Access Restrictions on Public Officials’ Financial Connections, Spaceport Earmark

MacIver News Service | June 26, 2011 | Updated 5:30 pm

[Green Bay, Wisc…] Stressing the desire to create a better jobs climate in Wisconsin, Governor Scott Walker today signed the 2011-13 budget at a Green Bay manufacturing plant.

The budget balances a $3.6 billion deficit without raising taxes and, Walker says, continues to support critical services, while promoting job growth and investing in education.

“Our balanced budget makes tough choices while providing a path to recovery and prosperity for our state and our people,” Governor Walker (R) said at Fox Valley Metal-Tech. “Through honest budgeting, we are showing the way forward.”

Walker’s plan received high praise from Wisconsin’s business community.

“Governor Walker and legislative Republicans deserve tremendous credit for making tough decisions to balance the state budget without raising taxes,” said Kurt R. Bauer, President/CEO of Wisconsin Manufacturers & Commerce. “The budget provides greater certainty for business executives and that should encourage job growth.”

Still Photo Captured from YouTube Video of Budget Address

The budget eliminates the state’s $3.6 billion deficit. Only seven states in the nation faced larger per capita deficits than Wisconsin.

“Just as any parent would dread leaving their kids in debt, it is the dream of every father and mother to leave their children a little better off, and that’s what our budget will do,” said Governor Walker.

The governor issued 50 revisions to the plan legislators sent him, although the controversial restrictions on craft brewers survived his veto pen.

In part, Walker:

Vetoed a provision allowing Milwaukee police officers to be paid while appealing dismissal
Eliminated the provision restricting public access to officials’ economic interest statements
Cut the $10,000 in segregated fees earmarked to the Aerospace Authority in Sheboygan
Issued a partial veto regarding WiscNet that will prohibit UW System from competing with private sector businesses in telecom services and removes the ability of the Joint Committee on Finance to waive deadlines
Vetoed the requirement that all child care providers submit fingerprints to state and instead will seeks rule change to mandate for those providers participating in Wisconsin Shares

The governor’s full veto message can be found, here:

Walker highlighted the plan’s property tax freeze, which he says will save the average homeowner over $700 dollars over the next two years.

“It is my hope that due to this budget, thousands of Wisconsinites can breathe just a little bit easier and not worry about how they’re going to stay in the home they love,” said walker.

The budget also includes a manufacturing tax credit and capital gains tax credit aimed at creating jobs in Wisconsin.

While legislative Demcorats were critical of the spending cuts in the plan, Republicans were adamant that the budget continues support for BadgerCare, Medical Assistance, and SeniorCare. They say the budget allocates an additional $1.2 billion into the state’s Medicaid program and the note that nearly all new revenue the state receives over the next two years will go to the Department of Health Services.

“The budget signed into law today by Gov. Walker that shamelessly attacks Wisconsin’s shared values and middle class families is certainly a dark chapter in our state’s proud history,” said Assembly Minority Leader Peter Barca (D-Kenosha) in an online post Sunday. “We must continue to tell the stories of struggling middle-class, working Wisconsinites that will suffer additional hardships as a result of Gov. Walker’s poor budget choices and his assault on worker rights.”

Despite $800 million in cuts to aid to local school districts, Walker says the budget continues to prioritize education. Public K-12 schools are the single largest expenditure in the budget, he notes, and the state will also begin a new statewide student information system which will allow for real-time state-wide data collection from schools on everything from course grades to attendance. That will allow for better tracking of students and better accountability metrics for teachers, administrators, and schools, supporters argue.

The Governor’s budget also expands Choice and Charter schools, removing the enrollment caps on the state’s online public virtual charter schools and the Milwaukee Parental Choice Program, while beginning a choice program in Racine.

In his budget remarks, the Governor expressed optimism that the tumult of recent months in Madison could be a thing of the past.

“The recent debates in Madison found us spending too much time focused on our differences, rather than our similarities,” Walker said. “But today we turn the page.”

Barca, however, signaled that the acrimony is likely to continue.

“To take back our state legislature and to build our case for recalling Gov. Walker and Republican senators in the months ahead, we must continue to pull back the shroud of darkness and secrecy they have imposed on our state – we have to provide the sunlight that will ultimately disinfect Wisconsin of their radical and misguided agenda,” he wrote.

Yet, Walker said his experiences hearing from the families of Wisconsin gives him reason to be optimistic.

“We may disagree on the issue of the day, but we always find a way to unite and reach out when it means helping our neighbors in need; or inspiring our children to achieve success,” said Walker.

Tags: Economy, Education, Free Market, Government Reform, Governor Walker, Jobs, Open Records, Regulations, School Choice, Spending, State Budget, Sunshine, Taxes
Posted in News | June 26, 2011 | | 5 Comments

Legislation Pushes Forward with Choice in Racine, Abandons Green Bay

MacIver News Service | June 16, 2011

[Madison, Wisc...] A proposed parent petition school voucher program in Green Bay will not be included in the biennium budget for 2011-2013. After being introduced last Friday in a Joint Finance Committee hearing, the proposed expansion was removed from the budget bill as it was discussed Wednesday afternoon in the Assembly.

While expansions of the Milwaukee Parental Choice Program that would remove geographic limitations for schools, increase the income limits, and allow students in Racine to receive vouchers remained intact, Green Bay ended up on the cutting floor. Addressing reporters, Rep. Robin Vos (R – Rochester) suggested that the program lacked sufficient support amongst administrators and lawmakers alike. However, Vos failed to address evidence that the majority of parents in the city were in favor of such a program.

Green Bay is a city that has seen a growing trend of educational problems in recent years. Statistically, the district’s students trail the state averages in several categories, including average WKCE scores, high school completion rates, schoolwide suspension rates, and most significantly, student economic status.

Additionally, the Green Bay Area Public School District is just one of four districts in Wisconsin have failed to meet federal Adequate Yearly Progress (AYP) standards over the past two years. The other districts are Madison, Milwaukee, and Racine. By the next school year, two of those three cities listed will have choice programs to help students leave failing schools.

While the expansion of the Milwaukee Parental Choice Program will open up new worlds of opportunity for some Wisconsin students, Green Bay’s students will have to wait. Their public schools might not face the same challenges that pupils and educators have in Milwaukee and Racine, but the growing trend of missing AYP suggests that Green Bay’s schools aren’t providing a high level of education for all students. Combine this with the growing count of economically disadvantaged families in the area, and you’re left with a problem. Students who can’t afford to choose a private school that works for them are stuck in their traditional neighborhood school, regardless of its ability to educate children.

Expanding charter school legislation will help broaden Green Bay’s horizons, but not nearly as much as a parent-triggered school choice program would have. While Wednesday’s legislation cleared a path for some students in eastern Wisconsin, children in the state’s third-largest city were left behind. Help may be on the way, but for now this will go down as a missed opportunity for the families of Green Bay.

Tags: School Choice, State Budget
Posted in News, mi reports | June 16, 2011 | | Comments Off

Wis. Advances Largest Expansion of School Choice Program

By Christian D’Andrea
MacIver Institute Education Policy Analyst

The Joint Finance Committee passed an omnibus school choice motion Thursday night that will expand educational opportunities for students across southeastern Wisconsin. Students across Milwaukee and Racine will have unprecedented access to quality schools thanks to a growing voucher system.

The Milwaukee Parental Choice Program – America’s first modern school choice legislation – moved closer to arguably its largest expansion ever, and definitely the most significant increase since 1996. New regulations will open the existing program to more families and more schools while establishing a companion voucher system 25 miles south in Racine. Several new provisions, including the removing the student cap in Milwaukee, raising the family income limit for qualifying students, and opening the program to schools regardless of location make this one of Wisconsin’s most significant education reforms in 15 years.

The impact of this policy will be substantial. Students in Milwaukee or Racine that meet the new family income requirement – no more than 300% of the Federal poverty limit, or $67,050 for a family of four – will be eligible for a voucher of $6,442 to attend a private school. For families with married couples, this threshold will be reduced by $7,000.

Private schools must first register with the state and adhere to specific standards in order to be eligible to receive these students. Unlike in past years, there is no limit to how many students can receive vouchers to attend the school of their choosing.

While student eligibility will be limited to the residents within Milwaukee and Racine, a new frontier of school eligibility has been reached. Changes adopted by the Finance Committee erase an artificial geographic limitation of the program. As a result, institutions outside of city limits will be eligible to accept voucher students regardless of their location. A parent’s right to pursue the best education for his/her child will no longer be arbitrarily limited by the government because the location of that school

The Racine expansion is a bold step in extending the state’s voucher system, and a potential test program for future developments going forward. The city’s program will start in 2011-2012 with 250 students before expanding to a cap of 500 students in 2012-2013. There will be no limits on student enrollment in the years following that.

Rumored expansions to Green Bay and Kenosha were not included in this version of the budget. However, opportunities still exist to potentially reach these cities as legislation continues.

Another key tenet of these changes to the MPCP will deal with how families are treated within the program. The program will now include a “Once In, Always In” clause that will ensure that students that qualify for the program will be eligible to receive a voucher throughout the course of their education. As a result, parents won’t have to worry about taking a higher-paying job that would bump them over the program’s income limit, since their children will not be at risk of losing their voucher as a result.

These expansions still have to be passed in the Assembly and Senate before becoming law, and will likely be heard at the Capitol in the coming weeks. If the motion passes, it will have a significant impact on the 102,034 public school students in Milwaukee and Racine. For children with no choice but to go to a failing neighborhood school, it means a new opportunity to learn. For families in two of Wisconsin’s largest cities, it means a new source of hope for their future.

Tags: Education, Governor Walker, MPS, School Choice, State Budget
Posted in News, mi reports | June 3, 2011 | | Comments Off

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