Milwaukee children using vouchers surpass 20,000

Parent Cafe
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<p>From 20,000</a> students now use vouchers - JSOnline</p>

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The number of Milwaukee children attending private schools using publicly funded vouchers has crossed 20,000 for the first time, according to data released by the Wisconsin Department of Public Instruction.</p>

<p>At the same time, the number of students in the main roster of Milwaukee Public Schools elementary, middle and high schools has fallen below 80,000 for the first time in well over a decade and declined for at least the 10th year in a row.</p>

<p>Amid a host of other factors shaping the school landscape in Milwaukee, those two trends point to some of the key stresses and looming issues for both MPS, which remains one of the nation's larger school systems, and the voucher program, the largest, oldest and arguably most significant urban school voucher program in the United States. </p>

<p>Nationwide, the momentum behind support for voucher programs such as the one in Milwaukee has been limited, and most likely has lost further steam with the election of Sen. Barack Obama to be president. Although Obama favors charter schools - generally, independent publicly funded schools that have more public accountability than private schools - he has not favored vouchers, and the Congress, controlled firmly by Democrats, is not going to support such plans either. </p>

<p>But in Milwaukee, the voucher program keeps growing. Participation - limited to low-income children who live in the city and attend schools in the city - has gone up every year since 1998, when the state Supreme Court ruled it was legal to include religious schools.

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<p>Also in the article: </p>

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St. Anthony Catholic School on the south side has 1,021 voucher students this fall, making it the first school to claim payment for more than 1,000 children and the largest K-8 school in the city.</p>

<p>Messmer High School and Preparatory School reported it had 938 voucher students. Messmer also operates St. Leo Catholic Urban Academy, with 180 students, and St. Rose Catholic Urban Academy, with 177. That means schools with a total of 1,295 voucher students are being operated by Messmer.

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<p>At a time when many Catholic schools are considering the acceptance of the poisoned "gift" of converting to a charter school to allow them to SURVIVE, it's remarkable to see how the parents react when the issue is about their OWN children and when there are workable options to a failing system. And, fwiw, this is not a story about fat cats looking at pricey private schools!</p>

<p>Our next president might consider organizing a town hall meeting in Milwaukee and explain to the families of the 20,000 students who opted out of the MPS how misguided they are.</p>

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<p>Same thing is happening here in Toledo and at a much faster rate! Here are the cities with the highest percentage of students enrolled in charter schools:</p>

<p><a href=“http://www.publiccharters.org/files/publications/2008%20Market%20Share%20Report.pdf[/url]”>http://www.publiccharters.org/files/publications/2008%20Market%20Share%20Report.pdf&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

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<p>Is it too early to tell if the new schools are having better luck at educating these low income kids?</p>

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<p>ellemenope - I don’t think there is any comparison. The private schools really outperform their public counterparts. See the cite below for one such summary.</p>

<p>Study: “Graduation Rates for Choice and Public School Students in Milwaukee”</p>

<p>Author/Source: Jay P. Greene, research report (School Choice Wisconsin, 2004)</p>

<p>Findings: Compared Milwaukee public school graduation rates with those of low-income participants in the city’s private-school voucher program. Greene found that the voucher students were more than one-and-a-half-times as likely to graduate as the public school students [echoing Neal’s findings, above, except not limited to minority students]. More remarkable still, Greene found this graduation rate advantage existed even when he compared the voucher students to those attending Milwaukee’s elite group of academically selective public schools. </p>

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<p>In fairness, I think there is a huge selection bias in the private school population. Those kids are at the private parochial schools because they in one way or another have parents that care - which, let’s face it, irrespective of any social program or redistribution of wealth scheme is the thing that matters most above all in any child’s development. Combine that with very obvious IQ differences amongst and between certain groups, and one begins to get closer to the root of the problem in American education, which of course rarely gets mentioned in a politically correct environment. </p>

<p>Private schools also can quickly kick disruptive or unruly students out - and their presence is one of the surest ways to destroy a learning environment. This of course makes a much better learning environment for all, and ends the tyranny of the ill behaved minority in those private schools. </p>

<p>Obama is not against vouchers because of any deep philosophical disagreement with them. He is against them because they are a huge threat to the public education bureaucracy and teachers unions. Milwaukee’s experience and results scare the living heck out of these types. And public sector employees above all else are the bedrock of the Democratic Party. Obama needs to look out for them, and surely will. Children are just fodder in that debate. </p>

<p>Look, we are all in favor of a strong public school system. And I don’t like the notion that the public schools in inner cities will be educating the cast-offs no one else wants. But when the public school systems in so many large cities - Detroit, DC, New York, Chicago, New Orleans, Newark and the LAUSD - pump out so many troubled and ill educated people notwithstanding that, in sharp contrast to years past, more money is being spent in these places than ever, there has to be a point where caring parents have to be given a choice. They cannot be punished for living in a poor neighborhood with a lousy, dangerous public schools system, especially when the parochial schools can succeed at a fraction of the cost. </p>

<p>Look for this administration to somehow curtail the Milwaukee program. It is kryptonite to very established special interests.</p>

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<p>While I can’t disagree with the potential of a new threat, the Milwaukee program has resisted challenges from the moment it started in 1990. The NEA and their hired academic goons have tried *everything *possible all the way to State Supreme Court in Wisconsin from the US Supreme Court. It is extremely farfetched that the federal arm of the US will try to curtail he state rights of Wisconsin, and it is equally hard to believe that a more liberal Supreme Court would reopen the Milwaukee case. In the meantime, the program has not only survived those challenges but has been to expand to include religious schools continue to increase in size. </p>

<p>It is indeed kryptonite to very established special interests … the special interest that not only want to preserve the quasi-monopoly of government-run schools but insist on the ERADICATION of all other types of school. The sad reality is that publicly funded government AND private schools can function at the same time and achieve better results FOR the citizens. </p>

<p>The fear that a public system of education would disappear because of a libertarian assault is ridiculous. Just as ridiculous as the continuous support for a monopoly in education. </p>

<p>Would the United States consider a national airline for all our transportation needs? Oh well, that might be a wrong question in 2009! :)</p>

<p>PS For full disclosure, the study by Greene has been challenged in the same way as Greene attacked the previous reports by Witte and others.</p>

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<p>Voucher programs should be available to everyone. The Teacher Union fights it every chance they can get because they seem to be far more concerned about job protection and a monopoly rather than being held accountable and subject to competition. I’m glad to see low-income families able to take advantage of the program.</p>

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It seems that Obama should be open to this since he sends his own kids to private school and apparently Mrs. Obama has been touring private schools in DC this week. If he thinks private schools are the best solution for wealthy families, like his, I hope he will also find a way to make them more accessible to those who can less afford them by allowing those families to direct where the money that will be spent educating their child should go.</p>

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<p>Not so fast…There are big differences in the schools accepting vouchers. Most of our schools have sprung up overnight. 90% of Toledo’s charter schools are on academic probation, even after 3 years. Some of the schools have closed down due to misappropriation of funds. One of the best private schools here in Toledo is losing some of their long-term students because they feel the school is taking in some of these voucher-kids and having to “dumb-down” classes, but due to the economy, they feel they don’t have much of a choice. The whole scenario is just not working.</p>

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<p>^^ But the situation with the private schools should be self-correcting since if parents are dissatisfied with the performance or conduct of a school they can move their kid to another one and eventually that school would go out of business. The same option isn’t generally there with public schools. And yes, ‘caveat emptor’ applies to the selection of the private school just as with the purchase of any service.</p>

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<p>For those who claim that being against vouchers has anything to do with protecting teacher unions, are you ready to pay for all children to get vouchers? Are you ready to pay the amount it would take for them to get into the top tier private schools? Or are we going to simply wind up with yet another layer of publically funded schools that rank below the private schools that those who can afford it pay to give their children an edge?</p>

<p>Vouchers, magnet schools and the like are “lifeboat” solutions. They provide a safe place for small percentage of public school studnets. And the rest? The ones who private schools do not or whose parents are unable/unwilling to work the system? In otherwords, the majority of students continue sinking to the bottom. </p>

<p>So, yes, fund the vouchers, fund the magnet schools but let’s get real about what it’s going to take to reform education for the majority of the students public education serves. I’m old enough to remember “A Nation at Risk” and the marketplace based reforms and the attitude of not investing in education but rather trying to discipline students, especially students in the poorest areas, into improving. It didn’t work then, it won’t work now.</p>

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<p>^^ The idea in many plans is that the ‘voucher’ is equal to the money already spent per pupil in the public school so it simply gives them the ability to choose the destination for their funds. It doesn’t necessarily result in a significant cost increase at all.</p>

<p>There will, of course, be ‘tiers’ of private schools and the intent won’t be to enable them to go to any school they might want but to enable them to have the possibility of a reasonable choice with the side effect of bringing competition and accountability to bear and empowering the families - especially those currently in the low income group which are often facing the biggest issues.</p>

<p>fyi - I had my kids in private school for a while. The COA at the private school was less than that spent per kid in the public school (but of course, I was paying that as well) yet the instruction was superior. I know some people who would have liked to do something similar but just couldn’t quite swing the extra cost. A voucher would have allowed them to have the choice.</p>

<p>Apparently 20,000 kids’ families made the choice to use vouchers in the subject school district.</p>

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<p>I’m aware of how vouchers work. (that sounds snippy and I do not mean it that way. I am currently studying to become a special education teacher and have done a lot of research on this issue recently.)</p>

<p>My point remains the same. It’s a lifeboat and they are limited by definition. I attended private high school and the instruction was superior. It was superior because they could pick and choose their students. How are we going to improve education for those students?</p>

<p>As I said, I am not against vouchers in theory. But unless there is a rise in funds for the public schools, the schools that are going to be educating the students that private schools can decline, then I cannot support it. It’s disgraceful the way magnet and voucher programs are held up as success stories in public education when no mention is made of what is happening to the majority of the students in that public educational system. Life boats work, got it. Where is the activism for the rest of the students in the system?</p>

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<p>Milwaukee is very different in its economic and ethnic makeup than it was a generation ago, and very different than any other city in the state. There has been an outmigration of middle class families. They should have fixed the public schools years ago instead of letting people opt out, then every child would have benefited, not just those with proactive parents. And the city would have kept many people who choose the suburbs. Before using Milwaukee as an example one should compare its demographics and history to the city of interest.</p>

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<p>Look at the cities on the charter school list. It’s obvious what they have in common. THEY ARE IN POOR AREAS…New Orleans, Washington, D.C., the Rustbelt States. Vouchers are going to solve the problems??</p>

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<p>I agree that in many senses vouchers are lifeboat solutions. </p>

<p>But no one wants to really send the tough message - that having kids young, out of wedlock, and in circumstances where they cannot be adequately cared for or parented is the problem. The media certainly is reluctant to do so. </p>

<p>And this is a huge cultural problem that contributes more than anything to the disparity in academic attainment and income. It also in my view contributes to the inter-generational lags in IQ scores among certain groups. And it isn’t a religious or right wing issue - its about straight out life strategies that time and time again simply work. </p>

<p>Government cannot solve all of these problems, but it can send the right message and it can cease to subsidize negative behaviors. There are kids that come to school in first grade so far behind they never catch up. And billions in programs like Head Start don’t produce any long term positive impact - they end up in high school right along with the non-Head Start kids. The negative culture at home snares them. </p>

<p>The hope of the Obama administration is that we can now engage in straight talk without being deemed racist. I desperately want him to push just that. </p>

<p>I am constantly amazed at the irony of single motherhood. The group most able to practice it - single, well-off, educated and largely politically liberal women - e.g., the well paid senior associate at the big law firm or the senior manager at a Big 4 accounting firm - all of this ilk - avoid single motherhood like the plague and embrace marriage like crazy - they know that it is the foundation for their kids to do well in life and give them the chance- far more than the issue of the money that may be available. Hence their offspring get called “privileged” - where the reality is that they just have two parents who give a damn - hardly novel historically. And the group least likely to swing it - poorly educated women with a series of questionable life decisions behind them - opt to do the single mother thing most often. I have sympathy for them - there’s likely not a lot of great men around to marry - but heck,that is the point, isn’t it? When is someone going to consistently point to obvious cultural problem? It drives our problems in the schools, and causes us to spend billions to little result. A Juan Williams or Bill Cosby here and there just isn’t cutting it.</p>

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<p>I think the only way that vouchers work is when there is an exisitng alternative system like the Catholic Schools that can absorb large numbers of kids within an established school system. One-off new schools seem to fair poorly over time.</p>

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<p>Vouchers cannot provide the one thing that we all know makes a difference in educational outcomes: two parents that care about their kids’ education <strong>and participate in it.</strong></p>

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<p>No but they can remove kids from an environment where nobody cares much.</p>

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<p>Would you mind sharing a few of the sources you encountered during your extensive research, and perhaps share what the conclusions your current school expect you to reach regarding vouchers?</p>

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<p>I would expect that families going the voucher route are those who are concerned with education. Unfortunately, a lot of those kids left behind in the public school system have parents or a single parent who don’t care about education in the least for a host of reasons. Many public schools in poor areas are excellent schools with excellent teachers left with poor resources and with kids who barely have a parent. Another factor contributing is the much higher percentage of special needs kids in the inner city due to learning disabilities from mothers who were drug addicts, alcoholics etc. Vouchers aren’t going to solve these problems.</p>