A Bad Deal

Seth got to it before me, but it sounds like there's probably going to be a Milwaukee Parental Choice Program "cap" deal tomorrow:

An agreement is likely to be announced Thursday and is expected to include a substantial increase in state funding of the class size reduction program known as SAGE.

Two sources told the Journal Sentinel that the agreement will likely allow an increase in the number of low-income students using publicly funded vouchers to attend private schools and religious schools in Milwaukee from roughly 15,000 to about 22,500. It also reportedly calls for all schools using vouchers--currently 124 schools--to obtain one of several forms of accreditation within several years. Many have such accreditation now, but some, including some of the weakest schools, do not. [. . .]

The agreement does not include property tax help for Milwaukee residents, as Barrett had urged, but political figures on both sides of the discussions have suggested issues related to the impact of the voucher program on Milwaukee taxpayers will be considered in state budget work a year from now.

From the sound of it, this is a bad deal. The increase in the cap--this puts it at about 25%, unless the 22,500 is a static number and not based on a percentage of MPS enrollment--should keep us from getting near the cap for close to a decade. That, at least, will prevent any more "phony" crises, like the current one, manufactured by pro-voucher advocates and their Republican allies.

But it's what's not in this plan that has me thinking it's a bad deal. Now, I'm just working from the same press reports everyone else has, since no one bothers to invite me to these summit meetings. There seems to be no relief for Milwaukee taxpayers. As my regular readers (I think I'm up to eight now) will know, Milwaukee property tax payers pay $1000 more for a voucher student than for an MPS student. At the new cap, that's $22.5 million dollars that could be going back to taxpayers.

It also seems like, beyond accreditation (which I applaud), there are no accountability measures in the package. So Milwaukee parents still will be flying mostly blind when it comes to the quality of the voucher schools they might be considering.

In other words, the rest of the state gets a good deal with SAGE funding. Milwaukee's private schools can continue to eat at the public trough. And Milwaukee's parents--not to mention Milwaukee's taxpayers--keep getting screwed.

Thanks for nothing!

And confidential to SJK: I said the issue would be good for two weeks . . . I was right, but barely . . .