Voucher Schools Accused of Violating Admissions Laws
Complaint urges DPI to suspend state payments to schools
not in compliance
More than one-third of the 88 private voucher schools in Milwaukee are
or may be violating state law concerning how voucher students must be
selected for admission, according to a complaint filed Wednesday (February
3, 1999) by the People For the American Way Foundation and the Milwaukee
branch of the NAACP.
This charge stems from a review of "random selection" plan
documents filed with the Department of Public Instruction by the voucher
schools themselves.
The plans reveal that 17 voucher schools are clearly violating the legal
requirement that they adopt and utilize a random selection process, and
that there are serious questions DPI should investigate as to whether
an additional 18 voucher schools are violating the requirement.
According to the complaint filed with DPI:
- A number of the schools have ignored the requirement that they admit
voucher students on a nondiscriminatory basis, instead adopting student
selection plans that explicitly favor parishioners or others.
- Others have simply ignored the requirement, failing to submit to the
state any random selection plan at all.
In a detailed letter to State Superintendent John Benson, who is charged
by law with enforcing the random selection requirement, lawyers for PFAWF
and the Milwaukee branch of the NAACP describe the ways in which, they
said, many schools are circumventing, flouting or otherwise ignoring the
state requirement for a random selection plan.
The letter asks DPI to withhold any further payments to these schools
until they bring their procedures into compliance with the law.
A key provision of the Wisconsin voucher program requires participating
private and religious schools to admit voucher students on a truly random
basis. Nonetheless, a number of schools are granting illegal preferences
to students on religious, academic or other grounds, the groups said.
"Voucher schools have a moral and legal obligation to comply with
the law, which means truly random selection of voucher students,"
said PFAWF General Counsel Elliot Mincberg. "The voucher program
was sold to Wisconsin legislators and indeed defended before the Wisconsin
Supreme Court with the promise that all voucher students would get an
equal chance to participate through random selection, not selection based
on religious belief or other factors. That promise has been broken."
Examples of non-random admissions
Here are some examples of Milwaukee schools that are violating the state's
random selection requirement:
- Saint Alexander School's "random selection" plan states
that it creates a preference for Catholic students. It says: "New
students to Saint Alexander's will be accepted in the following order:
Siblings, Catholic Students from Saint Alexander's Parish, Catholic
Students from other parishes, and then non-Catholic students."
- Blessed Sacrament School's "random selection" plan specifically
provides that "Parishioners are not subject to the random selection
process."
- St. Marcus Lutheran School failed to submit a random selection plan,
in violation of state regulations. Instead, it reported to DPI that
its "congregation voted on Sunday, August 16, to participate"
in the voucher program. The very next day, the school "accepted
'Choice' applications during [its] regularly scheduled registration
day. All students who applied were accepted." By announcing the
voucher openings to its congregation before announcing them to the general
public, and then failing to use random selection, St. Marcus Lutheran
School apparently filled its positions with its choice of students,
contrary to the random selection requirement.
- Louis Tucker Academy described its "random selection" plan
as follows (characterized in the complaint as incomprehensible): "The
selection of applicants will be informal and randomly selected based
upon interest. Interest will be determined by the return of applications.
There will be a staff of three that will select an equal amount of applicants
on a applications are received basis. [sic] Staff will be randomly selected
and will not have any prior notice. Each applicant will get a return
notice from the school informing them weather [sic] or not they were
excepted [sic] into our program."
In their letter to Superintendent Benson, Mincberg and Deputy Legal Director
Judith E. Schaeffer, and NAACP attorneys James Hall and William Lynch
request DPI to withhold public funds from the noncompliant schools pending
further investigation by the state and corrective action by the schools
to bring them into compliance with the law.
"This new evidence that voucher schools are not obeying the law
reinforces our strong belief that vouchers are the wrong choice for Milwaukee
and throughout the United States," said PFAWF President Carole Shields.
"Even in Milwaukee, where state law explicitly requires random selection,
a number of voucher schools have blatantly demonstrated their failure
to comply. We will continue to work with the NAACP and other concerned
groups in Milwaukee to make sure that vouchers are not being used to open
the door to new discrimination against school children there -- and to
oppose such programs around the country."
WEAC President Terry Craney said the PFAWF and NAACP review brings to
light one of the most serious flaws in the voucher program.
"We were aware that a number of schools were using subtle procedures
to counsel out difficult-to-educate students and to discourage disabled
students from applying," Craney said. "We were unaware of the
extent of the non-compliance, especially in the religious schools."
Posted February 3, 1999