State Cuts Notorious Northside from Voucher School Program
After months of complaints about another private voucher school in Milwaukee not meeting minimal standards, the state officially terminated Northside High School's membership in the voucher program.
In early January (2006), a state hearing examiner decided that Northside did not meet the definition of a private school and should not receive voucher payments from the state. The examiner also ordered the school to repay more than a quarter million dollars, which the state gave the school in September under the voucher program.
The state launched an investigation at Northside in October when questions surfaced over whether the school was meeting the requirement of 875 hours of instruction. Since then, there have been several reports of students at the school regularly smoking pot, skipping school and engaging in other non-supervised unruly behavior.
A former co-principal, who was fired in November, told the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel that the school "was an absolute joke. ... Most of the time, (the students) were doing crossword puzzles."
"It's not a school," LaTrina Cooper told the newspaper."It's a holding place for students who I guess couldn't make it in MPS. It's like a detention center. . . . We even had a student who rolled a (marijuana) blunt in front of the teacher in the classroom."
Governor Jim Doyle said this is more evidence that the voucher school program lacks accountability. However, Doyle said his first concern is for families who are hurt when the state is forced to close substandard voucher schools.
"Parents have to scramble to find another school for their kids," Doyle said. "Kids may now have to scramble to catch up to the grade level of their peers. This demonstrates exactly why we need greater accountability in our choice schools."
In his State of the State Address last Tuesday (January 17, 2006), Doyle reiterated his support for increasing accountability for the controversial program.
"I support options for parents, but I can't allow our tax dollars to pay for a principal's Mercedes, or schools with two kids to take field trips to McDonald's," he said, referring to controversies within the program.
In recent days, supporters of expanding the voucher program have been running ads that support the idea of lifting the voucher enrollment cap entirely, and that has brought increased media attention to the topic.
Because of the experimental nature on the voucher program, state law caps enrollment in the voucher program at 15% of Milwaukee Public Schools' enrollment. The governor has proposed raising the cap to 18%, but only as part of a broader package for improving education opportunity for all children in Milwaukee.
WEAC resource page on private voucher schools
Posted January 25, 2005