Gov. Scott Walker’s proposed voucher school expansion would redistribute almost $8 million from affected public school districts to other districts in the state, according to a preliminary Legislative Fiscal Bureau report.
The expansion of voucher schools to nine other districts would potentially cost districts more than $1 million each because of reduced aid, for which they could make up between $123,600 and $324,900. Democrats took the report as evidence the expansion should not go forward, but two top Republicans criticized the methodology.
The nine school districts that would have voucher schools would see reduced aid. However, 324 other districts would get $7.9 million more in aid and 91 districts would see a small change, the report said.
Madison’s public schools could lose $807,135 in the expansion, which would be a 1.4 percent reduction, the report found.
According to the report, the reduced cuts to districts would come from the 38.4 percent of the voucher that school districts pay and the reduced state aid due to the fewer students.
Although the expansion would currently apply to nine school districts, that number could change if new school report cards find more underperforming districts that have more than 4,000 students.
The report assumed 110 students in each district would go to voucher schools and would have otherwise been in a public school. That methodology drew criticism from Assembly Speaker Robin Vos, R-Rochester, and Rep. John Nygren, R-Marinette, who chairs the Legislature’s Joint Finance Committee.
Nygren told reporters Tuesday lawmakers should not necessarily only be concerned about costs, as that no longer takes into account the benefits of voucher schools.
“It’s not always about costs,” Nygren said. “For us … we talk about the child and their ability to get a quality education.”
Vos said the expansion in Racine two years ago showed many students would have attended private schools, not public schools.
Although Vos said the report was factual, the questions legislators asked LFB led to the report not taking some things into account.
“The memo was put out there to be more inflammatory than informative,” Vos told reporters. “My hope is that we will have every opportunity to get the facts out there because broadly across the state, I think, people realize that if you are in a failing school, you should have more options.”
Although both Vos and Nygren support Walker’s proposed expansion, some Senate Republicans have not been as supportive, including Sen. Luther Olsen, R-Ripon, who chairs the Senate’s education committee. They have also said they want to increase public school spending, which is held flat in Walker’s proposal.
Senate Minority Leader Chris Larson, D-Milwaukee, announced in a statement last week he was starting a petition drive against the proposed expansion. He said the proposed voucher school funding increases while keeping public school funding unchanged is wrong.
“The huge disparity between public and private school funding only proliferates the values deficit created in the last budget,” Larson said. “Wisconsin’s working, middle-class families depend on a strong, successful education system to ensure our children are offered the opportunity to succeed in a 21st century economy. This budget fails them. We can do better.”
