The 2011-13 state budget expands the school choice program, which provides state-funded tuition vouchers for students in selected districts to attend private schools. The state will spend $27.4 million to support this expansion over the biennium, and reduce support to public schools by $10.5 million to account for these lost students, for a net cost of $16.8 million.
Up until now, the school choice program has only been implemented in Milwaukee. This budget widens the program’s operations in Milwaukee by lifting restrictions on the number of students who can participate in the program, and removing any geographical limitations on where participating schools must be located. (Students must still live in the City of Milwaukee to be eligible.)
The budget specifies that the school choice program can expand to other schools districts that fit a certain set of criteria. Right now, the only other district meeting the criteria is Racine, but other districts in mid-size cities – such as Green Bay – could come into the program as their demographics change. The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel has reported that some legislative leaders plan to introduce separate legislation to prohibit school vouchers from going beyond Racine. The expanded school choice program will have an impact on students who would like to participate in the school choice program. Additional students in Milwaukee will be able to attend private schools using public funds, and for the first time students in Racine will be able to do so as well.
Students in the public school systems will be affected too. As a result of the program expansion, Milwaukee Public Schools will have its state aid cut by $8.7 million and the Racine district is slated for a cut of $1.9 million over the biennium.
The expansion of resources devoted to the school choice program stands in stark contrast to the enormous cuts to public schools included in the budget (see Way #1 of our 31 Ways in 31 Days project). Students in private schools in Milwaukee make up only a fraction of the total students in that community; to shore up private schools at the expense of public schools disadvantages the majority of the city’s children.
As we move forward, we should recognize that a high quality public school system is one of the engines of Wisconsin’s economic development. Let’s make sure we devote the resources necessary to make sure that we protect this valuable investment.
Tamarine Cornelius
Tomorrow—Way #22: Eliminating Food Stamps for Some Legal Immigrants
About the series: “31 Ways in 31 Days” is a series of posts to the WCCF blog exploring the recently-passed biennial budget’s impact on children and families in Wisconsin. Each day in July, we are posting a description of one way the budget will affect kids and families, with an eye toward what should be done going forward to help improve outcomes and move us closer to the goal of making Wisconsin a place where every child has the opportunity to grow up, learn, and thrive in a safe, healthy, economically secure home and community.
