25 years into Milwaukee's voucher schools, lessons for Wisconsin
Literally hundreds of schools.
Those are four important words, because they come from Jim Bender, president of School Choice Wisconsin, the advocacy group for programs that offer publicly funded vouchers to students to attend private schools in Wisconsin.
"We have talked to literally hundreds of schools that are considering getting into the statewide program in coming years," Bender said when we talked about the 25th anniversary of the launch of Milwaukee's voucher program.
It was the fall of 1990 when the national precedent-setting Milwaukee Parental Choice Program came to life, with participation of seven nonreligious private schools and 337 low-income students. There were a lot of limitations on who could take part. Total public spending in the first year: $733,800.
It's a vastly different picture now.
Many of the limitations are gone; an estimated 26,900 students who live in the city of Milwaukee are using vouchers to attend 117 private schools, the vast majority of them religious. Public spending for the current school year will exceed $190million.
And that's just Milwaukee. Vouchers became available in Racine four years ago, with a capped enrollment under 250.
The cap is gone now, and voucher enrollment is about 2,200, according to state estimates. That's about 10% of the Racine public school enrollment.
Then there's the statewide program. Now in its third year, the caps initially placed on it have been weakened and will fade in coming years.
This fall, outside Milwaukee and Racine, about 3,000 students are using vouchers to attend 79 private schools (out of a total of more than 650 private schools).
In total, that's about 32,000 voucher students, between 3% and 4% of Wisconsin public school enrollment. This year, kindergarten through eighth-grade students generally bring $7,214 each to their private schools; high school students bring $7,860.
Bender said he sees a lot of parallels between the statewide program now and the Milwaukee program in its early years.
And the long-term Milwaukee story has been one of changing rules to expand the program and who can take part.
Whether you like or hate the prospect of this happening statewide, you have to be naive not to think a similar track may occur in Wisconsin if pro-voucher Republicans remain in the governor's office and in majorities in the Legislature.
Support of vouchers among Democratic elected officials is around zero.
Lessons learned
What has been learned in the 25 years of Milwaukee vouchers?
A few thoughts:
■ Public opinion is fairly closely divided overall on vouchers, but whenever they've been made available, there has been demand for them.
No one ever has been required to use a voucher. How big is the potential demand?
Milwaukee might be nearing a point where the demand for religious schools levels off.
But statewide, there's big potential long-term.
■ Parental choice alone doesn't drive quality. This is the No. 1 lesson from Milwaukee, in my book.
In earlier days, quality control on schools was nearly nonexistent.
The idea was that if parents chose schools, that alone would drive quality. That's probably applicable to a lot of parents, but certainly not for a lot of others.
Uncontrolled quality in Milwaukee resulted in the existence of some schools that were scandalously bad.
Repair, in the form of financial and educational oversight, has taken years and is still not strong enough. Just look at some of the schools that still exist.
■ With such a small middle class remaining in Milwaukee, it is hard to picture private schools surviving on Alan J. Borsuk - 25 years into Milwaukee's voucher schools, lessons for Wisconsin:
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About voucher schools
Voucher schools are private schools that receive taxpayer money in the form of tuition payments for qualifying students. All voucher schools are private schools, and most teach religion. As of the 2014-’15 school year, 26,930 students in Milwaukee were using vouchers to attend one of 113 private schools.
The Milwaukee voucher program, officially known as the Milwaukee Parental Choice Program, was started in 1990 and is the longest-running urban school voucher program in the country. Students have to come from low-income or moderate-income families to qualify for a voucher. Once enrolled, they bring the participating school a voucher payment of between $7,000 and $8,000 annually.
The state Legislature created a Racine voucher program in 2011 and a statewide voucher program in 2013.
The Milwaukee voucher program, officially known as the Milwaukee Parental Choice Program, was started in 1990 and is the longest-running urban school voucher program in the country. Students have to come from low-income or moderate-income families to qualify for a voucher. Once enrolled, they bring the participating school a voucher payment of between $7,000 and $8,000 annually.
The state Legislature created a Racine voucher program in 2011 and a statewide voucher program in 2013.