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State Senator Russ Decker (D-Weston) is criticizing the School Choice Demonstration Project for failing to collect and report test score data for Milwaukee’s private school voucher program. The information is required as part of the 2005 legislation lifting the enrollment cap on the Milwaukee voucher program.
“This is yet another example of the voucher program’s unwillingness to comply with minimal academic accountability requirements,” Decker said.
In an August 28 letter to the Legislative Audit Bureau (LAB), Decker requested a list of all of the schools complying with the reporting requirement as well as the aggregated test scores for each voucher school. Under the 2005 law, Milwaukee voucher schools are required to provide all standardized test scores to the School Choice Demonstration Project, a pro-voucher research institute based within Georgetown University. Reporting was to begin in 2006 and continue until 2011. The Legislative Audit Bureau was intended to receive the data and then report the information to the Legislature.
Responding to Decker’s letter, State Auditor Jan Mueller indicated the LAB has not yet received any test data. Mueller also indicated that LAB had requested status reports on the test score data on three occasions and is now being told that data will be provided later this year – more than a year late.
“ Wisconsin taxpayers will shell out $246 million for the voucher program over the next two years, and they deserve to know how these schools are performing,” Decker said.
Already this school year, the State Department of Public Instruction has barred 11 schools from participating in the state-subsidized voucher program for a variety of reasons including unsound fiscal practices and lack of a valid occupancy certificate. Over the past several years dozens of schools have been terminated or ruled ineligible to participate. That includes one school being run by a convicted rapist, another whose principal stole $330,000 in tax dollars to buy two Mercedes Benz cars and others padding enrollment numbers to secure more tax dollars.
“Academic and fiscal accountability are critical to ensuring that tax dollars are not being misused and students are getting a proper education. Accountability will also weed out the bad apples from those private schools that are doing a good job of educating their students,” Decker said.
Posted October 3, 2007