Wisconsin Governor Tony Evers Proposes State Budget that Would Slow School Privatization
Wisconsin’s new governor, Tony Evers released a budget plan on Tuesday that confronts the school privatization agenda of former Governor Scott Walker and what remains a Republican-dominated Wisconsin Legislature. Wisconsin has been a leader among the states which have favored the expansion of private school tuition voucher programs and charter schools.
For the Associated Press, Scott Bauer quotes Republican Senate Majority Leader Scott Fitzgerald: “Republicans in the Legislature have spent years helping build the voucher program… We will not support a budget that includes this proposal.”
Wisconsin’s Milwaukee Voucher Program launched the nation’s experiment with school privatization nearly three decades ago. Whether or not Evers succeeds in curbing what has been Wisconsin’s persistent expansion of vouchers and charters, his budget proposal names many of the ways Wisconsin’s expansion of school privatization has violated the public interest.
The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel‘s Molly Beck describes Evers’ plan: “About 28,000 students attend 129 private schools using a taxpayer-funded voucher in Milwaukee as of the 2018-19 school year. Evers’ proposal would freeze the number of seats available in the program beginning in the 2021-22 school year, allowing new students to enroll only when others graduate or leave the program… Enrollment also would be frozen in private voucher schools in other parts of the state based on the program’s headcount at the end of the current school year. As of this school year, about 10,000 students attend private schools using a taxpayer-funded voucher outside of Milwaukee… Evers also proposes to cap enrollment in the state’s newest voucher program for students with disabilities… Under Evers’ proposal, voucher schools also would be banned from charging tuition for students living in poverty under the proposal and would be required to allow students to opt out of religious activities.”
Evers’ plan would also curb the growth of charter schools in Wisconsin: “Evers in his spending plan also would suspend programs created by Republicans in recent years to expand CONTINUE READING: Wisconsin Governor Tony Evers Proposes State Budget that Would Slow School Privatization | janresseger
