Reports, Reviews Offer Little to Commend Milwaukee Voucher Schools
Contact:
William J. Mathis, (802) 383-0058, wmathis@sover.net
Casey D. Cobb, (860) 486-6278, casey.cobb@uconn.edu
Casey D. Cobb, (860) 486-6278, casey.cobb@uconn.edu
URL for this press release: http://tinyurl.com/7agpr5w
BOULDER, CO (April 19, 2012) – Three recent reports on the Milwaukee Parental Choice Program (MPCP), produced by the School Choice Demonstration Project at the University of Arkansas use largely sound methods, but the data they assemble provide little to support the 22-year-old school voucher program.
Those are the conclusions of three separate reviews released today of the reports.
The reviews are all written by Casey D. Cobb of the University of Connecticut. They are published by the National Education Policy Center, housed at the University of Colorado Boulder School of Education.
The three reports were produced by the School Choice Demonstration Project, which has conducted a five-year longitudinal growth study of the Milwaukee voucher program. Milwaukee’s program, which was created by state legislation in 1990, enables low-income residents of the Milwaukee Public School district (MPS) to enroll at taxpayer expense in private schools that have been certified by the state Department of Public Instruction.
The reports under review are Nos. 29, 30, and 32, two of which offered what superficially appear to be positive findings: