Doyle Proposes SAGE Increase, Greater Voucher Accountability

Governor Jim Doyle on Monday (March 8, 2004) unveiled the Milwaukee Education Package, a far-reaching plan that would increase funding for the Student Achievement Guarantee in Education (SAGE) program, reform Milwaukee's private school voucher program, attract and retain teachers, strengthen neighborhood schools, and improve health care for schoolchildren.

WEAC and MTEA officials welcomed the governor's proposals, which WEAC President Stan Johnson said go a long way toward ensuring every child in Milwaukee and Wisconsin attends a great school.

"This proposal represents a consensus package that people on all sides of the issue can agree upon," Doyle said. "It is time for all of us to set aside yesterday's disputes, and come together to do what's right for Milwaukee's children. I look forward to working with individuals on all sides of these issues to make this happen."

SAGE

The plan increases funding for the SAGE class-size reduction program by 25%, to $2,500 per pupil.

"WEAC has been a longtime advocate for SAGE," Johnson said. "We led the charge to preserve and expand the program, because it is a proven reform. Research has shown that smaller class sizes improve student achievement."

"We know SAGE works," Milwaukee Teachers' Education Association President Bob Lehmann told reporters at a news conference. "This is an extremely important commitment."

Doyle said that in tight fiscal times, we need to invest in programs that we know work, and SAGE is a proven successful reform. "Investing in SAGE will go a long way toward strengthening the program and lowering class sizes statewide," Doyle said. "And because this program is so important to the future of our state, we will find the money to make it happen."

Voucher program

The package makes several changes to the private school voucher program in order to make it more accountable. "I believe we must do more to hold the choice program accountable to both taxpayers and Milwaukee families," the governor said during a news conference in Milwaukee.

The plan would:

• Require voucher schools to adopt academic standards and administer the 4th-, 8th- and 10th-grade exams and the 3rd-grade reading tests that public school students take.
• Require a Legislative Audit Bureau study of the program. All schools would have to participate.
• Lift the enrollment cap on the program from 15% to 15.5% of Milwaukee Public Schools enrollment.
• Require voucher schools to adopt non-discrimination standards that prohibit a school from discriminating against pupils on the basis of sex; race; religion; national origin; ancestry; creed; pregnancy; marital or parental status; sexual orientation; or physical, mental, emotional, or learning disability.
• Require voucher schools to comply with the state's open records and open meetings laws.
• Allow the state to terminate a school's participation in the voucher program if conditions at the school pose a threat to the health or safety of children; or if a school fails to provide certain information, including an occupancy permit, evidence of financial viability, and evidence of background checks, to DPI by the dates required.
• Require voucher schools to provide DPI with evidence of financial viability, sound fiscal practices, and fiscal management training.
• Require background checks of voucher school staff.
• Grant DPI the authority to ban a school from participating in the voucher program in the following school year if the school misrepresents or fails to provide information in a timely fashion, does not refund overpayments to the state by the date required, or fails to meet at least one of the currently required academic or other standards.
  

Lehmann said the changes show a "commitment to accountability for all children in the community." He said there are good and bad voucher schools. "We don't know which are which" under the current law.

Charter schools

The plan places a moratorium on the expansion of so-called "non-instrumentality" charter schools and removes some limits on them. Non-instrumentality charters are operated by entities other than school districts. In Milwaukee, the Common Council, Milwaukee Area Technical College and University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee are authorized to operate charter schools. Doyle's proposal would allow them to maintain existing charter schools but not open new ones. "Until we know that this program is working to improve student performance, we should not be utilizing limited state resources to create new independent charter schools," Doyle said.

Other proposals

The Milwaukee Education Package also:

• Removes barriers that keep volunteer health care providers out of public schools. "We need to ensure that these volunteers can provide vital health care services to many Milwaukee children who otherwise go without care," Doyle said.
• Includes a $50,000 grant to help Milwaukee Public Schools and the Milwaukee Police Department establish safe routes for children to walk or bicycle to school.
• Provides support for the Milwaukee Partnership Academy literacy program to ensure its sustainability. The academy is a professional development and mentoring program embedded within the course of regular school activities. It uses learning teams, literacy coaches, and principal coaches in each school, and has resulted in gains in student achievement.

Lehmann told reporters that the commitment to literacy coaches in the Partnership Academy is an investment in great teachers and staff.

"The coaches are changing literacy in Milwaukee," he said. "Research shows that the single most important aspect of education is the teacher in the classroom."

Posted March 9, 2004