Gov. Scott Walker recently announced plans to expand the school voucher program in Wisconsin, providing more students from underperforming school districts the option to attend private schools. He said doing so would allow all students in the state access to a quality education, “regardless of their zip code.”
While we certainly agree with the notion that all students deserve access to a quality education, we believe that funneling resources into the voucher program is a short-term fix that disregards the need for reform in the public education system.
According to the Wisconsin Department of Public Instruction, in the 2011-’12 school year only 33.1 percent of tenth grade students in the Milwaukee Public School District scored as advanced or proficient in mathematics on achievement tests. The average Milwaukee Public School student’s ACT score was 16.
Clearly, certain public schools are not able to provide their students with the quality education every child deserves. The solution to this problem, however, does not lie in telling the students to go to school elsewhere. Using vouchers as the solution to public education problems essentially deems these struggling schools “lost causes.” We believe that admitting defeat when it comes to the education of the next generation is unacceptable.
To be clear, we find nothing inherently wrong with providing students with options for the schools they attend. We do, however, believe that public money should be going to improve the public school system, rather than to private schools. With schools that are so obviously struggling, it is clear that some sort of reform needs to occur. But reform requires resources—resources that with the expansion of the voucher system will be going to private entities rather than public schools.
The newly proposed biennial budget would increase funding to K-12 education by $129.2 million, with $73 million of that increase set to go to the voucher system. After the $834 million in cuts to public education in the 2011-’13 budget, we do not believe that a majority of this increase should end up in the pockets of private schools.
Whatever reform needs to happen, we recognize it will be difficult. Admittedly, it is much easier to turn a blind eye to the problems that face these schools than it would be to try and fix them. Rhetoric surrounding improving the public education system has become so politicized that often we seem to lose sight of the notion we all want to work to the same ends—a better future for the youth of our country.
In short, the voucher system is just a small bandage on the gaping wound that is the public education system. Admittedly, this board does not have the solution to the problems that exist in underperforming schools. We are not even sure that one exists. But somewhere out there, there is an option that is better than the status quo. Wisconsin’s resources need to go toward finding that option.
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