The False Promises of Vouchers: Who Really
Benefits at Taxpayer Expense?
June 21, 2001
TO: Barb Dembski, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
FROM: Chris Ahmuty, Executive Director, ACLU/WI
DATE: June 21, 2001
The chickens have come home to roost - all over the State Capitol
in Madison. Our state government is facing a "structural deficit" over
the next two years of nearly $780 million. The politicians and special
interests that have gotten us into this fix are forcing all Wisconsinites
to face some tough questions. One of the toughest questions is what
to do with the state's ten-year-old experiment in school vouchers. This
scheme is known as the "Milwaukee Parental Choice Program." In the 2000-2001
school year Milwaukee's voucher program will cost the state approximately
$49 million.
It's true the American Civil Liberties Union is among the diverse
ranks of those opposed to vouchers, nationally and in Wisconsin. Given
the experience of the Milwaukee voucher program, especially since its
expansion to include more schools in 1998, the ACLU is just as opposed
as ever to vouchers. The ACLU would rather see our state's limited resources
provide an adequate education for all children than see state funds
diverted to the benefit of private schools in Milwaukee.
Milwaukee's private school voucher scheme has always promised more
than it delivers or could hope to deliver. It promises to put poor parents
on a par with rich parents - it does not. It promises help to any low
income student residing in the city of Milwaukee - it does not. It promises
(and this is a whopper) to solve the problems of Milwaukee's public
schools through the magic of competition - it does not.
Any parent, who thought they could enroll their child in an elite
school with a voucher, is misinformed. Under the voucher scheme it's
ultimately the private schools that get to choose how many seats to
make available to poor kids. Enrollment information given in the February
2000 Legislative Audit Bureau evaluation of the Milwaukee Parental Choice
Program is revealing. For the 1998-99 school year there were only 11
choice students out of a total enrollment of 974 at Marquette University
High School. Four of those students were African-American. Likewise,
at Divine Savior Holy Angels high school, there were three choice students
out of a total enrollment of 507. There apparently is no shortage of
space in schools started up in store fronts, former day care centers,
or facilities newly constructed or remodeled at taxpayer expense.
Any low income parent of a child with special needs will see that
schools get to chose under the voucher program. Voucher schools are
only required to offer those services to assist students with special
needs that the school can provide with minor adjustments. It is true
that voucher school students may be eligible for the limited services
that Milwaukee Public Schools provide to any student enrolled in private
schools. Most children with special needs and the high cost that are
often associated with special services will remain in the public schools.
At least 44 private schools of the 103 private schools that participate
in the voucher program say they will close if funding is reduced, according
to "voucher advocate" Howard Fuller. The schools have benefited from
the voucher program and now they apparently fear their ride at taxpayer's
expense is coming to an end.
The voucher schools have benefited unfairly because they have been
allowed to determine the conditions of their participation and spend
the money as they see fit. Since 1998 the schools have demanded and
usually gotten their way whenever concerns arose. For instance, the
new schools in the program after expansion no longer agreed to give
assurances that they would not discriminate. The Legislature changed
the rules to suit them. And because, the private schools are not required
to have any standards for expulsions, they may easily get rid of students
they find difficult to educate.
Some schools have tried to circumvent the pupil selection process
by nearly exclusively signing up children who already were attending
their private school, marketing to congregations associated with particular
schools since there are no standards for citywide advertising, and now
some schools have prescribed and utilized unauthorized procedures for
early admission.
State Representative Polly Williams, the "mother of school choice"
has consistently called to task those voucher schools that have tried
to charge impermissible additional fees on parents or required parents
to engage in extraordinary fund raising activities. A recent Milwaukee
Journal Sentinel story quoted Williams: "It's not about empowering school
buildings. It's not about empowering school administrations. But over
the years, that's what we see." Williams is referring in part to the
construction boom at voucher schools - which is perfectly legal because
the private schools may spend their state aid for any purpose.
What particularly troubling about Milwaukee's voucher program is that
the schools receive millions of dollars more in state aid than they
would have received if the voucher students were paying their own tuition.
During the 2000-2001 school year, the state aid for a student enrolled
full time at a voucher school is $5,326 or the private school's operating
and debt service cost per student, whichever is less. At many schools,
especially religious voucher schools, the state aid is significantly
more than tuition. At the religious schools one suspects congregations
have always subsidized their schools, because after all the schools
are educating the future adherents of their religion. The voucher program
in essence has taxpayers taking over this subsidy from the religious
institutions. If the program were truly to benefit the parents directly,
the state won't send checks worth more than tuition to the private schools.
Undoubtedly, some will argue that this gravy train for voucher schools
is worthwhile, even if out of control, because competition from voucher
schools supposedly makes public schools better. There is no evidence
that taking resources away from public schools makes them better. The
only thing we know is that there are good and bad private schools as
well as good and bad public schools. No group of educators would have
designed a program for the improvement of the public schools that facilitates
their abandonment. School vouchers are promoted more by politicians,
economic theorists, business opportunists and parochial school advocates
than by education reformers.
Public school students in Wisconsin have a constitutional right to
a sound basic education. The Wisconsin Supreme Court recently announced
that this right is based on an adequacy standard. How can the Milwaukee
Public Schools, or other districts around Wisconsin, ever hope to provide
an adequate education to all their children? The vast majority of our
children who will remain in public schools will suffer, if our limited
resources are diverted to the benefit of private schools. We cannot
afford a two-tiered system of public financed education.
Chris Ahmuty
Executive Director, American Civil Liberties Union of Wisconsin
If you agree with the ACLU and want to protect diversity in our schools
and metropolitan areas, please consider joining the hundreds of thousands
of patriotic Americans who are members of the ACLU.
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