The Morning After

By Terry Craney
WEAC President

This Letter to the Editor has been sent to newspapers throughout the state.

It’s the morning after for supporters of religious school vouchers.

Having won the state Supreme Court ruling they so aggressively pursued, they may be waking up to the question: “What have we done?”

Proponents of school vouchers have said their main goal is to improve Milwaukee Public Schools. Now they must accept responsibility for the impact of this program on the achievement of the 90,000-plus students who continue to attend MPS.

Here’s what they face:

• Because of the extensive educational challenges resulting from the high poverty rate among students, MPS needs more resources than other districts but has fewer. A recent study found that class sizes in kindergarten through 5th grades in MPS are 23% higher than statewide averages.
• State-imposed revenue controls already have forced MPS to make drastic cuts in education programs.
• If the voucher program is expanded to 15,000 students, MPS will lose millions of dollars in tax funds over time.
• As a result, class sizes will increase even more, building decay will accelerate, and technology will fall even further behind. This shift of funding will create a new form of separate and unequal education.

Research has found no evidence that the voucher program increases student achievement even among participants, much less those left behind.

But the point is this: The success or failure of the voucher program will not be measured by the achievement of students who move to private and religious schools at taxpayers’ expense. It will be measured by the achievement of students left behind in a severely underfunded, deteriorating and sadly neglected public school system.

Posted June 11, 1998