Letter: Voucher system bad for education

TO THE EDITOR: Information is available from the Wisconsin Department of Public Instruction regarding the school voucher system. This system was put in place in the Milwaukee Public School System to put public money into private schools that would help inner city students achieve better grades and increase graduation rates among that population. This program has been in force long enough to have good data to indicate neither of these goals have been realized through this program.

I have just learned Gov. Walker wants to expand this program to more school districts in eastern Wisconsin. I have to question why.

The private schools these students attend do not have to live by the rules imposed for public instruction. They do not have to have special education or intervention programs to assist students. They can decide to help, or they can send the child back to public schools.

The kicker is they do this after the Third Friday in September count (the state imposed date for final enrollment numbers used to distribute funding). The private school will have counted this student as attending and will therefore receive reimbursement. However, the public school that must continue to education this child gets little to no state funding because this student wasn’t on their Third Friday count. And this student will probably have to be given special education or intervention at a high cost that is not reimbursable but absorbed by an already money-strapped school district.

The taxpayers pay for private education when their own public education system is suffering. I don’t wonder why Milwaukee schools have trouble educating students. Our education system is suffering, and this is just one more nail in the coffin of public education. If this continues, how will your grandchildren be educated?

Contact your legislator and demand answers. Let them know how important public education is to you.

Tags: hager city, opinion, letters, politics, education, school