Green's Plan to Expand School Choice
U.S. Representative Mark Green, the Republican nominee for Governor of Wisconsin, (1 ) has proposed expanding the Milwaukee Parental School Choice Program, which provides vouchers for low-income students to attend private schools, three ways:
1. Allow private schools located in suburban Milwaukee County to participate.
2. Increase the income limit.
3. Remove the 22,500 enrollment "cap."
Given that Governor Jim Doyle has been cold to the Program, Green has made School Choice an issue in the current campaign for Governor. It is also certain to be a big issue in the Spring 2007 election for the Milwaukee School Board, especially for the vacant city-wide seat. Although the Program is administered by the State, the support of the Milwaukee School Board will be essential to retain the backing of State legislators.
Even if the Program is a good one, are Green's proposals beneficial to Milwaukee school-children and the taxpayers of the State as a whole? Let's check them out, one at a time:
1. Including suburban private schools, such as the Torah Academy for Girls (Glendale) and Hillel Academy (Whitefish Bay) , gives the parents of low-income families more good schools to choose from, so it is definitely a good idea. This is more important than the fact that the voucher money will be spent outside city limits.
2. Right now family income cannot exceed 220% of the federal poverty level for Choice students. Green wants to raise this limit, but did not say by how much. Since this Program was sold to the people of Wisconsin as a way to help low-income children attend private schools, some income limit must apply. About 17,000 students participate in the Program under the current limitation. Rep. Green should justify including more middle-class families at this time, especially since there is room for only 5,500 more kids under the current cap, and including suburban private schools would certainly boost enrollment in the Program.
3. An enrollment cap is necessary because the money used to the fund the vouchers (about $100 million per year) is taken from State aid to Milwaukee Public Schools (MPS). MPS can offset the loss of this aid by reducing number of classes and teachers, since the Choice Progam reduces MPS enrollment by about 17%.
However MPS has an enormous investment in school buildings, and the cost of heating and maintaining these buildings does not decline as a consequence of a reduction in the student body. MPS can cut these costs only by closing schools, and even then there is some minimal maintence expense until the buildings are either sold or rented out.
Since this infrastructure is a long-term investment by the taxpayers of Milwaukee, offsetting a decline in MPS enrollment due to an expansion of School Choice requires long-term planning for divestiture of these assets. Removing the cap completely could mean a sudden, sharp decline in State funding that would plunge MPS into fiscal disaster.
A more prudent course would be to reconsider the cap every two years or so, thereby giving MPS ample notice to plan for teacher recruitment and space allocation on the basis of revised enrollment projections.
Green did not mention the need for more State monitoring of Choice schools. For the first time, Wisconsin now requires that Choice schools be accredited. Fine, but we also need some evaluation of these schools based upon student achievement. I believe that if all non-performing schools were kicked-out of the Program, the cap would not be an issue for a long time.
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(1) Although Wisconsin has a Green Party, Mark Green did not seek its nomination.
1. Allow private schools located in suburban Milwaukee County to participate.
2. Increase the income limit.
3. Remove the 22,500 enrollment "cap."
Given that Governor Jim Doyle has been cold to the Program, Green has made School Choice an issue in the current campaign for Governor. It is also certain to be a big issue in the Spring 2007 election for the Milwaukee School Board, especially for the vacant city-wide seat. Although the Program is administered by the State, the support of the Milwaukee School Board will be essential to retain the backing of State legislators.
Even if the Program is a good one, are Green's proposals beneficial to Milwaukee school-children and the taxpayers of the State as a whole? Let's check them out, one at a time:
1. Including suburban private schools, such as the Torah Academy for Girls (Glendale) and Hillel Academy (Whitefish Bay) , gives the parents of low-income families more good schools to choose from, so it is definitely a good idea. This is more important than the fact that the voucher money will be spent outside city limits.
2. Right now family income cannot exceed 220% of the federal poverty level for Choice students. Green wants to raise this limit, but did not say by how much. Since this Program was sold to the people of Wisconsin as a way to help low-income children attend private schools, some income limit must apply. About 17,000 students participate in the Program under the current limitation. Rep. Green should justify including more middle-class families at this time, especially since there is room for only 5,500 more kids under the current cap, and including suburban private schools would certainly boost enrollment in the Program.
3. An enrollment cap is necessary because the money used to the fund the vouchers (about $100 million per year) is taken from State aid to Milwaukee Public Schools (MPS). MPS can offset the loss of this aid by reducing number of classes and teachers, since the Choice Progam reduces MPS enrollment by about 17%.
However MPS has an enormous investment in school buildings, and the cost of heating and maintaining these buildings does not decline as a consequence of a reduction in the student body. MPS can cut these costs only by closing schools, and even then there is some minimal maintence expense until the buildings are either sold or rented out.
Since this infrastructure is a long-term investment by the taxpayers of Milwaukee, offsetting a decline in MPS enrollment due to an expansion of School Choice requires long-term planning for divestiture of these assets. Removing the cap completely could mean a sudden, sharp decline in State funding that would plunge MPS into fiscal disaster.
A more prudent course would be to reconsider the cap every two years or so, thereby giving MPS ample notice to plan for teacher recruitment and space allocation on the basis of revised enrollment projections.
Green did not mention the need for more State monitoring of Choice schools. For the first time, Wisconsin now requires that Choice schools be accredited. Fine, but we also need some evaluation of these schools based upon student achievement. I believe that if all non-performing schools were kicked-out of the Program, the cap would not be an issue for a long time.
_________________________________________
(1) Although Wisconsin has a Green Party, Mark Green did not seek its nomination.
posted by Gerald S Glazer at 9:37 AM
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