Wolf and Witte arguments don't hold up
Ravitch responds to an op-ed, also in this Ideas Exchange, by Patrick Wolf and John Witte. They were responding to her initial op-ed.
Milwaukee's choice program is a failure. There are now three separate systems - the public schools, with about 80,000 students; the voucher schools, with about 23,000 students, and the charter schools, with about 20,000 students. There is very little difference among the three sectors in terms of student achievement.
Patrick Wolf and John Witte do not agree. They think the voucher and charter programs have been successful. They say that the voucher schools have higher graduation rates, but critics who reviewed their study say that about 75% of the original ninth graders were not still enrolled in a voucher high school by the end of senior year. With such high attrition from voucher schools, the graduation rates are meaningless.
When the voucher and charter movements were first launched in the early 1990s, advocates insisted that competition would cause the public schools to improve. Gov. Scott Walker still says so. Advocates