Michael Joyce dead at 63

While no one's death is ever timely, or deserved, there is an irony in realizing that Joyce's death comes at the start of a week that will see the Wisconsin legislature vote on two arch-conservative measures that he, unfortunately, helped catapult into mainstream politics.

The first of those two issues is, of course, the Milwaukee Parental Choice Program, the system of vouchers that hurts the public schools and Milwuakee taxpayers:

Joyce led the Bradley Foundation to be the key financial supporter of building the private school voucher program in Milwaukee. The foundation largely paid for the legal battle that led to a state Supreme Court ruling in 1998 that allowed the program to expand and to include religious schools. It also funded thousands of scholarships for students while the battle was under way.

I have noted this seeming contradiction before, that conservatives (who decry activist judges and trial lawyers) and private organizations would back legal challenges to force the state to give money to private organizations. That's not the definition of conservative I learned in Mr. Eaton's American government class way back when. But the votes scheduled on the voucher cap deal this week come largely as a direct result of Joyce's legacy, not only in funding the expansion fight, but in funding groups like the American Education Reform Council (one of Howard Fuller's groups, now the Alliance for Choices in Education) and School Choice Wisconsin along with other pro-voucher bazillionnaires like the Wal-Mart heirs, and in buying legislators who support the cause of vouchers.

Joyce was also instrumental in shaping the debate on another subject--the ban on gay marriage and civil unions almost certain to pass the Assembly tomorrow. As my internet friend Mitch Gore noted in this encyclopedic hsitory of conservative philanthropy, Joyce was instrumental in creating groups like Empower America and Americans for Community and Faith-Centered Enterprise. The Bradley Foundation under his leadership and beyond, "with the largest assets of the conservative foundations, with its national connections and a sharply focused political agenda, plays a leading role in the conservative movement." Joyce's--and the Bradleys'--history with the anti-gay movement is long-standing and embarrassing for a city like Milwaukee, and a state (our motto is "Forwward!") like Wisconsin.