Two Republican legislators may further incentivize private
school enrollment, as they will propose a bill to offering tax credits to
parents of students in such schools.

Sen. Glenn Grothman, R-West Bend, said Monday he will be
co-sponsoring the measure with Rep. Dean Kaufert, R-Neenah, as a possible supplement
to Gov. Scott Walker’s voucher school expansion budget initiative.

Public schools continue to have their funding increased
while attendance of private schools in Wisconsin has dropped 147,000 in year
2000 to 123,784 last year, according to Grothman.

Grothman said the bill has been talked about for
years but failed to reach the Senate floor last year. He said he and Kaufert
are reintroducing it to boost fairness for all schooling options.

For parents who may not be entirely able to afford to send
their students private schools, Grothman said it makes sense to help out these
parents because public schools already receive so much support from the government.

“If the cost of education is usually $11,000 or $12,000 a
year in taxpayer money, it seems only fair to give people who go to private
schools $1,500 or $2,000 a year,” he said.

Starting in the taxable year 2014, the lawmakers said in a
statement the tax breaks would save parents of students attending elementary private
schools an additional $1,500 a year and $2,500 more for parents of students in high
school. Walker’s proposal already would provide $6,442 per student.

“Governor Walker is doing it because he feels
private schools will do a better job of teaching core subjects,” Grothman said. “I’m doing it because
I think some of the public schools are too left-winged.”

Grothman said rather than reform
public schools, he would rather children switch to private schools because it would
be to difficult to do, especially in what he said were “left-wing” areas such as Madison.

He added public school education is
somewhat “anti-American” and portrays American history in a negative light by
leaving religion out of the equation.

“If you read about the history of
America, God was a very motivating factor for people like George Washington or James
Madison,” Grothman said. “It’s wrong to take that out of the schools, to
whitewash that away.”

Sen. Tim Cullen, D-Janesville, said
he is against the bill because it diverts public money to private interests.

“Public money should be spent on
public schools,” Cullen said. “What’s going on is a series of ways to figure
out how to take public money into private schools. …All of it is part of a real
political effort. It’s a mistaken effort. I will oppose it as strenuously as I
can.”

Cullen, a member of the Senate
Committee on Education, added he has no problem with students attending
parochial schools to learn about religion, as he did. 

But Cullen also said
theology should not be a function of public schools.

“The idea that public schools are not teaching enough about
God – I don’t follow that,” Cullen said, adding he thinks the bill is terrible
public policy that should be killed in the Legislature. “That’s not our school’s
job. That’s our church’s job. That’s our parochial school’s job. That’s where you
get your religious beliefs and training, and we ought to have that separation.”

Kaufert said in a statement the plan for the legislation providing
tax credits for private school tuition provides parents greater flexibility
school choice for their children.

“I have been a supporter of this tax credit for many years
to help families who choose to send their children to a private school,” he said. “I think
it would be a positive step forward in giving parents throughout Wisconsin more
educational options for their children.”