The voucher cap deal not so much a deal

This is the proverbial pin to pop the proverbial bubble of all those who have gleefully imagined Governor Doyle standing in an equally proverbial schoolhouse door over the Milwaukee Parental Choice Program cap. Some people who know--from first-hand research, and a more careful analysis of the cap deal than I've had time to do so far--point out that the big benefit of the deal will not go to poor, African American students:

Lifting the enrollment cap by 7,500 will most significantly benefit white students, who already make up one-third of the school choice population.

Given the requirement that students no longer will have to be enrolled in MPS prior to receiving a voucher or will have had to have been already enrolled (as nonvoucher students) in an approved choice school, it will be easy for existing voucher schools, mostly Catholic and Lutheran, to simply flip their existing nonvoucher students into their choice program. Thus, they will not be encumbered by the need to engage in a major recruiting effort.

Moreover, since the income limit is proposed to increase from 175 percent of the poverty level (where it now stands) to 220 percent of the poverty level under the proposed deal, upper-working-class and lower-middle-class families will now be eligible to participate. For example, under the new proposal, a family of four earning more than $45,000 a year would now qualify for the voucher program. In addition, if that family's income rises to, let's say, $75,000 over any period of employment, the family would still maintain its eligibility.

With all of these changes to the existing legislation, vouchers would serve as a subsidy for private education rather than, as Speaker Gard says, "hope and opportunity" for the poor.

In Milwaukee, 75 percent of school-age black children have an annual median family income of less than $25,000. If this program were for their benefit, why would there be a need to raise the income cap at all?

They go on to note some more objections to the lack of real accountability measures in the deal. It's worth a complete read.