Some of Wisconsin’s students are not receiving the world-class education they need and deserve, especially in our urban districts. There can really be no debate about that, as the gaps in student achievement between urban schools and their suburban and almost entirely white upper middle-class counterparts are staggering to say the least. Consequently, addressing the “achievement gap” has become a hot issue for both sides of the aisle, yielding diametrically opposed solutions to the problem. Under Gov. Scott Walker, the state is currently pushing “school choice,” a plan the governor claims will expand access to a great education to all Wisconsin children and will provide underprivileged children with the chance to go to a great school. Who doesn’t want that?
Unfortunately for the children of Wisconsin, Walker’s parental choice program is nothing more than another destructive piece of neoliberal legislation supported by the American Legislative Exchange Council, cloaked in positive words and masked behind an upbeat press conference. In reality, school choice is wildly unaccountable, fiscally irresponsible, in violation of the fundamental principle of separation of church and state and worst of all just simply fails in its aim to provide better opportunities for underprivileged Wisconsinites, while simultaneously subsidizing those same opportunities for the children of families that already had them.
For a party that publicly prides itself on “fiscal responsibility,” the GOP’s voucher programs have wasted far more than their share of taxpayer dollars. For example, Life Skills Academy, a private school in Milwaukee, closed abruptly in December, but not before receiving over $2 million in total taxpayer money. Not only did this lack of oversight and accountability waste the Department of Public Instruction’s money, it also subjected more than 60 students to the undue stresses of having to enroll at a new school halfway through the school year. Wisconsin deserves better than that.
Furthermore, Walker’s parental choice program fails its most basic objective: to move underprivileged kids out of struggling inner city districts and into private schools. According to statistics from the DPI, 371 of the 512 students enrolled in the voucher program were already attending private schools. Essentially, the voucher program is subsidizing private tuition for wealthier families, and in many cases directly funneling money into religious schools. Not only does that smell like a blurring of the line between church and state, it also works to exacerbate the problem the program was intended to correct: inequities of opportunity and achievement gaps.
Instead of a genuine attempt to narrow achievement gaps around the state, further analysis reveals Walker’s voucher system to be yet another poorly veiled attempt to funnel public dollars into private pockets at the expense of Wisconsin taxpayers and in this case, children.
Conversely, Democrats look at the inequities in our schools as complex problems that occur due to a number of factors, as opposed to blaming it on bad schools or teachers. Instead, we look at contributing factors like poverty, homelessness, hunger and lack of access to health care and other basic human needs as causes of achievement gaps. We believe that by tackling issues at home and in the community we can and will make a difference in the classroom. Unlike our colleagues across the aisle, we believe in our nationally-recognized public schools. Instead we look to support our schools, teachers and students with the resources they need to succeed, not punish them with massive cuts like we have seen under Walker.
There is no doubt that many of our children deserve better. That said, school choice programs that exacerbate inequality and waste DPI money are clearly not the answer for Wisconsin.
