Rep. Bob Turner Plans to Vote Against School Choice

The Milwaukee parental choice program was established in 1989 as Act 336, just before I was elected to the State Assembly. Some of you may be aware that this legislation was shepherded through the Legislature by former State Representative Annette “Polly” Williams of Milwaukee.

Under this program, state funds are used to pay for the cost of children from low-income families in the City of Milwaukee to attend, at no charge, private “voucher” schools located in the City. Pupils began attending voucher schools under the program in 1990-91, as I began my first term in the State Assembly. 

In 1990-91, the program served 300 students, and in 2010-2011, it has grown to 20,300 students. To be eligible to attend a voucher school for the first time, a pupil’s total family income must not exceed 175% of the federal poverty level. 

The standards for participating voucher schools are minimal. They may employ teachers with no training and only a GED, and administrators without a high school or college degree. They are not required to accept students with exceptional educational needs if significant adjustments to school programs or facilities are required.

Until 2009, voucher schools were not required to test their students with the WKCE (Wisconsin Knowledge and Concepts Examination) that is given to all 4th, 8th and 10th grade public school students in Wisconsin. The results of the testing showed that voucher students scored the same or worse as students attending a Milwaukee public school. 

Funding for the Milwaukee Parental Choice Program is administered by the State Superintendent of Public Instruction. Four equal installments in September, November, February, and May of each school year are paid to the parents, who must then endorse the checks exclusively to the voucher school. The per pupil amount currently stands at $6,442 per  year, or the school’s operating and debt service cost per pupil related to educational programming. These costs are determined by the State Department of Public Instruction (DPI).

The current pending state budget bill, 2011-13 Sentate Bill 27, will expand the Milwaukee parental choice program to all school districts in Milwaukee County.  This will have the effect of more affluent families taking advantage of this program so that their children can attend a school that hand picks the best students possible and limits, or does not accept, any special needs students.   

Last night, Members of the Legislature’s Joint Finance Committee, which is currently considering the state budget, voted to expand the school voucher program to Racine. 

With the Racine Unified School District receiving the second largest projected budget cut in the state, over $11 million in school aid and over $40 million in revenue reduction, we cannot allow additional voucher schools to be started in Racine. This would have an effect of lowering the standards of education for children from poverty and raising it for affluent children. Under the original Milwaukee parental choice program, this scenario has the opposite of the intended effect.

As State Superintendent Tony Evers stated in a memo to Joint Finance Committee members on May 23, “Having invested 20 years and over $1 billion in school choice, these lackluster results are especially troubling, given the large disparity of children with special education needs between the two programs.  While voucher champions rally around expansion, the 2011-13 state budget makes catastrophic cuts in funding for public schools.  To put this in perspective, the cuts to MPS will balloon elementary class sizes to 34 per class, while funding for school choice is increased by millions.” 

I strongly agree with the Superintendent’s comments. I also feel that parental involvement is the key to our students’ educational  achievement. Therefore, I will vote against the 2011-2013 state budget that contains an expansion of voucher schools in the Racine Unified School District.

Representative Bob Turner (D-Racine) represents a portion of Mount Pleasant.