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At a recent town hall, both Democratic candidates for Wisconsin governor, state Rep. Francesca Hong and Lt. Gov. Mandela Barnes, promised to end the school selection system in their province.
Meanwhile, a progressive legal organization, Law Forward, filed a petition to end the Dairy State’s school choice programs, arguing that the programs are unconstitutional. A 2000 state supreme court ruling that allowed vouchers did so only as long as the legislature provided “adequate resources” to traditional public schools. Although the state currently funds Milwaukee Public Schools at the rate of $25,000 per student, Law Forward suspects that these resources are insufficient.
Wisconsin’s highest court could be up for grabs – the court transitioned to a progressive majority in 2023.
If the effort were to succeed, it would be an embarrassment to the 60,000 students currently enrolled in one of Wisconsin’s programs and a blot on the record of the Democratic Party. It would show that this group prefers to submit to the pressure of the teachers’ unions and the progressives rather than fulfill the needs of the students.
WISCONSIN STATE SUPERINTENDENT CALLS FOR ‘END TO SCHOOL CHOICE’
The left is looking to roll back gains in school choice across the country. One of their first targets is Wisconsin. (Stock)
Milwaukee boasts the nation’s first voucher program after Republican Gov. Tommy Thompson teamed up with local civil rights groups to pass the choice policy in 1990. Significantly, it was the civil rights framework, not the appeal to liberal or religious concerns, that won support.
In his book “Voucher Wars,” attorney Clint Bolick recounts the lines of African-American parents who support vouchers by attending every court hearing. The Wall Street Journal ran three op-eds in support of the plan and Bolick writes that “for the first time in a major national press, the civil rights banner has been raised over the school choice movement.” Such a declaration remains true.
The biggest beneficiaries of choice policies are students who receive vouchers and thus have access to school options that they would not be able to afford otherwise. Students who attend participating schools are more likely to attend college, stay in college, and avoid crime into adulthood.
HOUSTON SCHOOL DISTRICT ATTEMPTS TO TALK TO PARENTS WHILE LOSING STUDENTS AMID SCHOOL CHOICE COMPETITION
Wealthy families are already using their resources to buy homes in prosperous communities with successful schools. Vouchers offer this same ability to everyone.
Some of the surprising beneficiaries of school choice, however, are students who remain in traditional public schools. There is a strong body of literature studying the so-called “competitive effects” of selective school systems, where competition from charter, private and other such options exerts pressure on public schools to improve outcomes for their students. Good intentions are admirable, but nothing inspires institutional change like a fundamental threat.
In a recent report for Education Next, researcher Patrick Graff compares the educational effects of competitive pressure from school choice to the effects of increased spending. He writes that spending on Florida’s selective programs “improved the success of public school students” more “than if they had the same amount of new money instead spent directly on the public school system.” Researchers found similar results in Milwaukee.
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Wisconsin is only leading the charge for a growing effort among Democrats to kill school choice policies. Illinois ended a similar school choice program in 2023. Arizona Democrats have attempted several referendums to eliminate or limit pro-choice policies in the Grand Canyon State. And a number of policies at the federal level have been proposed to impose burdensome laws on educational freedom.
Milwaukee boasts the nation’s first voucher program after Republican Gov. Tommy Thompson teamed up with local civil rights groups to pass the choice policy in 1990. Significantly, it was the civil rights framework, not the appeal to liberal or religious concerns, that won support.
But these dire indicators of school choice should not be reality. Florida is an educational course. Gov. Republican Ron DeSantis won because a well-informed social media campaign pressed the issue, stressing Democrat challenger Andrew Gillum’s opposition to school choice. In the end, DeSantis won because of so-called “school choice moms,” including a significant portion of African-American women who voted for him on the issue of school choice.
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However, this battle is ending, it has several lessons for the country’s reformers: The end of vouchers, tax credits and education savings account programs remain difficult, even moderate Democrats oppose the freedom of education, and most importantly, every student deserves access to quality education. Destroy these programs, and it may mark a victory for the Democrats, but it is a loss for the children and their families.
