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These articles reflect the opinion of the author and are not endorsed by the Greater Milwaukee Green Party.

(Published educationnews.org commentary February 10, 2005)

Milwaukee vouchers demand more school seats
By Daniel Pryzbyla

By state statute, Milwaukee Parental Choice Program student voucher enrollment is limited to 15 percent of Milwaukee public school student population. If MPS enrollment increases, MPCP can also gain seats. It ain’t happening.

Recent data from the Wisconsin Department of Public Instruction (DPI) show 14,427 full-time MPCP students enrolled in 117 private and religious voucher schools for the current 2004-05 school year, just 421 students shy of the 14,848 statutory allotment. But Superintendent William Andrekopoulos plans to gut even more personnel and district schools this year, and next school year too, claiming insufficient funds. MPCP voucherites could see the handwriting on the chalkboard. Loss of MPS students would mean a related loss of students for their program. Worse yet, current rosters already submitted for the 2005-06 school year revealed a sizeable increase of MPCP voucher students.

Following in the shadows of their Republican voucher guru George W. and congressional allies, the Republican majority in the state Assembly waged political battles with Democrats the past month to amend the statute to meet MPCP demands. In their marketplace agenda, competition rules. If enrollment disaster befalls MPS, so be it. With a majority in the state legislature, but trying not to face a possible veto by Democratic Governor Jim Doyle, the Republican Assembly majority on January 27 finally passed a “temporary” 2005-06 one-year fix to up the ante to 16,500 full-time voucher seats. According to a Milwaukee Journal Sentinel story, 11 of the 12 Democrats whose districts are entirely or partially in the city of Milwaukee voted against the proposed expansion. Rightfully so. In the same state statute, voucher tax dollars come at the expense of lost revenue for MPS.

DPI reported state aid increased $61 to $5,943 per full-time (FTE) voucher student for the 2004-05 school year. Total cost of this year’s MPCP is $87,262,100 for the 14,700 FTE voucher students – 45 percent coming from a “reduction in state general aid to MPS” and 55 percent from the state “general purpose revenue.” Thus, MPS share to fund MPCP is $39,257,945. MPS can “replace the reduction” in state aid with an increase in its property tax levy; however, the amount levied is “not included in the definition of partial school revenues.” A double whammy: increased taxes needed for MPS, plus it no longer gets its “partial school revenues.” It wasn’t always this way.

Prior to the 2001-02 school year, MPCP was funded from 50 percent reduction in state general aid to MPS and 50 percent reduction in state general aid to the other 425 school districts. Importantly, under the old law a school district was also allowed to increase its property tax levy, if necessary, to offset any aid reduction, “and these amounts were included in the definition of partial school monies.” All districts, including MPS, received these partial school payments. But as MPCP kept increasing in size during ensuing years, it also meant increasing costs to the 425 other districts. Soon it was, “Hey, we’ve got our own budget problems. Why are we held responsible to also fix MPCP funding in Milwaukee?” More education financing political battles soon emerged. Finally, legislators agreed letting the other 425 districts off the hook by taking 55 percent out of “general purpose revenue” instead,! its current format.

Recently elected Milwaukee Mayor Tom Barrett didn’t take a position for or against lifting the voucher cap, reported Alan Borsuk in the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel January 25, 2005. “I just want the Legislature and the governor, in their negotiations, to make sure the city of Milwaukee taxpayers are held harmless as they decided how to move forward in allowing more kids into the choice program,” he said. “We can’t dig ourselves into a hole any deeper.”

Originally a secular school program when it began in 1990, religion was added to their headcount for the 1998-99 school year by a Republican dominated State Supreme Court decision. This salvaged central city religious schools, especially the collapsing Catholic grade schools, forcing mergers. It excluded the all girls, predominant white Divine Savior Holy Angels Catholic high school on the northwest side, and the all boys, predominant white Marquette University Catholic high school on the near west side, both excellent schools. They’re also in the MPCP program – technically speaking. Of Divine Savior’s 642-student population this year, only 16 are voucher students. Marquette University high school has an enrollment this year of 1,057, with only 26 voucher students. Pius XI Catholic high school on the far southwest side, a predominantly white neighborhood, has a 1,341-student enrollment, with 237! voucher students. Messmer high school, a Catholic school on the north side in a predominantly African American neighborhood, has a majority black enrollment of 574 students, including 427 voucher students. On the verge of closing, MPCP tax money made it possible for the school to remain open.

In its January 2005 report “Who’s putting pressure on voucher enrollment cap?” the Public Policy Forum noted that “most voucher students attend segregated schools.” Of the 113 schools that provided information, these represented 91 percent of the total MPCP enrollment. Overall, 72 percent of vouchers students are minority. About 52 percent are African American, 27 percent are white, and 15 percent are Latino. The report noted that in the 2003-04 school year 83 percent of MPS students were “non-white.” Of the 121 MPCP schools signed up for the upcoming 2005-06 school year, 83 or 69 percent are religious. Of these, Catholic schools are tops at 30 percent, followed by Lutheran schools, 18 percent. Configuring data since the 1999-00 school year of rapid increase in MPCP, the Forum concluded, “Lifting the cap would benefit the fast-growing, new, secular schools,” representing about 10 percent of MPCP! . But in a list of “schools gaining or losing the most students from September 2003 to September 2004,” of the 10 schools gaining the most, 5 were religious schools.

However, a secular school gaining second highest rank on the MPCP list was Academic Solutions Center for Learning, a grade 4 thru grade 12 school. The report noted an increase of 176 students and added voucher payment of $1,045,968 for the 2003-04 school year. Of its new total enrollment of 729 students for the 2005-06 school year, “734” were listed as MPCP students. Must have been a typo. For the Academic Solutions school, it would turn out to be the least of its problems. On January 24, 2005 a large fight erupted inside the school on the city’s near north side, requiring Milwaukee police to be called to break it up. “State Deputy School Superintendent Tony Evers signed an emergency order removing the school from the voucher program on grounds that it is unsafe,” wrote Sarah Carr in the February 1, 2005 Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. The “emergency” order was for 2 weeks. In earlier reports, stude! nts alleged no teachers were present in rooms in the area of the school where the fight began. “The DPI order quoted police officers as saying the fighting on January 24 escalated to a melee that included over 100 students, chaotically fighting among themselves.” Academic Solutions claimed it had 729 students on the official attendance day in September, reported Carr, while DPI said MPS officials who visited the school reported fewer than 500 students.

No doubt, this ghastly news about one of the Forum’s notable MPCP schools made for a bad hair day for Republicans bargaining at the state Capitol seeking additional voucher seats. But similar to recent charter school collapses, oversight remains sporadic at best. In addition, MPCP academic standards drafted and approved by Republicans compared with their counterpart No Child Left Behind (NCLB) education act affecting MPS students is like comparing an elephant with a donkey. “Each private school participating in the program shall meet at least ONE (emphasis added) of the following standards: (1) At least 70 percent of the pupils in the program advance one grade level each year. (2) The private school’s average attendance rate for the pupils in the program is at least 90 percent. (3) At least 80 percent of the pupils in the program demonstrate significant academic progress. (4) At least 70 percent! of the families of pupils in the program meet parent involvement criteria established by the private school.” Imagine superintendents suggesting these standards and single option, then presenting them to U.S. Department of Education chief Margaret Spellings to amend NCLB. “Very funny. Get out of here!”

NCLB high-stakes testing, draconian sanctions literally urging students to leave a public school, and using a single subgroup’s test scores to put an entire school in jeopardy of closing – all feign student concerns. It’s the current Republican smoke and mirrors tactics. Instead, NCLB Title I is political in substance, designed to pave an easier path to implement their real goal of advancing privatization of public education.

In cutbacks and closing MPS schools, Superintendent Andrekopoulos said the “the city is losing students.” Maybe. But he didn’t explain why some of these “closed” public schools are now occupied with charter school students instead. If Republicans win more voucher seats, expect MPCP to also compete for “closed” MPS schools in the city’s rigged education market place.

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