Republicans want to kick your kid out of the voucher program

We've all known that the day was coming when tough choices would have to be made about Milwaukee's Parental Choice Program, our taxpayer-funded school choice/ voucher measure. PArticipation in the program is capped at 15% of Milwauke Public Schools enrollment, and this past fall, we hit the cap.

Why? Because of the Republican leadership of the Wisconsin legislature.

Unfortunately, hitting the cap means the state Department of Public Instruction will be forced to ration seats in voucher schools this fall. And, because DPI is not allowed, by law, to judge the quality of education provided at schools or deny entry to the program to any "school" that has an occupancy permit and some paperwork, the hardest hit schools in the rationing would be the ones that we know do the best job of educating students:

State Department of Public Instruction [. . .] said the proposal does not distinguish in rationing seats between long-standing, top-performing voucher schools and proposals from people with, at best, dubious credentials who apply for next fall but have no realistic chance of opening. [. . .]

DPI officials say that, although the voucher program's cap would be reduced only by about 250 for next year--from 14,751 for this year to about 14,500--the effect on individual schools could vary widely.

The reason is that a key factor in the formula is the number of voucher students each school applying to be in the program says, as of Feb. 1, it has the capacity to admit for next fall. In the past, those numbers have been very different from the reality of September enrollment. For one thing, individuals or organizations applying to open schools can claim as many seats as they want, even though few of those schools actually open in the following fall and almost all enroll fewer than they claim.

The effect could be to allocate large numbers of seats to schools that don't exist or don't need the seats and to take away seats from some of the most solid schools in the voucher program, three DPI administrators agreed Wednesday.

"Now wait a minute," you might be saying, "how can you blame this on legislative Republicans? Isn't Democratic Governor Jim Doyle the one who keeps vetoing measures to 'lift the cap'?" Well, yes, Doyle has vetoed Republican-written bills to lift the cap, because, frankly, Doyle doesn't much care for the voucher program as-is and is reluctant to lift that cap. I agree with him.

However, for almost two solid years now, Doyle has been saying that yes, there is a crisis point coming, and, yes, he is willing to sit down at the table and work out a solution. Last November, seeing the writing on the wall, Doyle again repeated his call for all parties to come to the table and work out a compromise, even proposing one himself. But who rejected that compromise? Who has been refusing to sit at the table for the last two years? The Republican leadership in the state legislature.

Other Democrats are almost falling over themselves to offer compromises, everyone from Milwaukee Mayor Tom Barrett to, well, me. These are common-sense proposals, that provide for some measure of accountability for the millions in tax dollars lifting the cap will cost, and that remember that there are 100,000 other children in Milwaukee who need our help, too. And yet the Republicans have mindlessly drawn a line in the sand, a line that means up to 4000 families, by one estimate, will get jerked around in this fall's rationing.

So here's your task for the day. Let the legislative Republicans--including Assembly Speaker John Gard, who has the means to "choose" to send his kids to school in Sun Prairie--know that you want them at the table for these discussions, and that their intransigence is unacceptable:

• John Gard, Republican Assembly Speaker
  Room 211 West, State Capitol
  P.O. Box 8952
  Madison, WI 53708
  Telephone:(608) 266-3387 | Fax: (608) 282-3689
  Email: Rep.Gard@legis.state.wi.us
  
• Michael D. Huebsch, Republican Assembly Leader
  Room 215 West, State Capitol
  P.O. Box 8952
  Madison, WI 53708
  Telephone: (608) 266-2401 or (888) 534-0094 | Fax: (608) 282-3694
  Email: Rep.Huebsch@legis.state.wi.us
  
• Debi Towns, Republican Chair of the Assembly Education Committee
  Room 302 North, State Capitol
  P.O. Box 8953
  Madison, WI 53708
  Telephone: (608) 266-9650 or (888) 534-0043
  Email: Rep.Towns@legis.state.wi.us
  
• Alan Lasee, Republican Senate President
  Room 219 South, State Capitol
  P.O. Box 7882
  Madison, WI 53707-7882
  Telephone: (608)266-3512 | Fax: (608) 267-6792
  Email: Sen.Lasee@legis.state.wi.us
  
• Dale Schultz, Republican Senate Leader
  Room 211 South, State Capitol
  P.O. Box 7882
  Madison, WI 53707-7882
  Telephone: (608) 266-0703 or (800) 978-8008 | Fax: (608) 267-0375
  Email: Sen.Schultz@legis.state.wi.us
  
• Luther Olsen, Republican Chair of the Senate Education Committee
  Room 5 South, State Capitol
  P.O. Box 7882
  Madison, WI 53707-7882
  Telephone: (608) 266-0751 | Fax: (608) 267-4350
  Email: Sen.Olsen@legis.state.wi.us