The Misfortune of School Choice

By Jeff Simpson

We recently brought you a quick look inside one of Milwaukee's private voucher schools as seen by the great Rebecca Kemble.  



This is of course on the heels of Robin Vos, telling anyone who will listen:

  More school choice is in Wisconsin's future according to an article by Rep. Robin Vos in the Appleton Post-Crescent.  According to Vos, "every Wisconsin parent should also be given the opportunity to enroll their child in the school of their choice" just like we are free to decide where to live, what to wear, what to say, where to go to college, etc.

            Vos says "we should never have implemented a cap [on the Wisconsin Parental Choice Program] and I will work to get rid of it because schools choice works for Wisconsin." 

 The Progressive's new editor-in-chief, Ruth Coniff,  now gives us her perspective of the trip she took with Ms. Kemble.  

I recently went on a tour of Milwaukee voucher schools for an article in The Progressive magazine that left me in a cold sweat.

I saw kids going to school in a crumbling office building and in a corner store. There's a new voucher school opening in an old car dealership, and there are others in rundown factory buildings that have never been properly cleaned up. Students are being sent to such places at taxpayer expense thanks to Wisconsin's expanding Parental Choice Program. The vast majority of the kids in the Milwaukee voucher program are very poor.

What started as an idea that was supposed to expand opportunity for these kids to attend private and parochial schools has turned into a business opportunity for hucksters who set up fly-by-night schools that profit by taking public funds and running cheap, unregulated schools. You have to see for yourself how bad these places are to believe it.

At Milwaukee's "Academy of Excellence" -- the grungy office-building school -- they are teaching the Bob Jones University curriculum. There are posters in the hall that say "God can see your heart, and he knows that it is wicked." I looked in on a middle-school science class full of eighth-grade boys who were learning Creationism.

This is our vision for public school?

What chance do these kids have of ever climbing out of poverty or of connecting with the middle class? We are leaving them so, so far behind.

 (Edit Note: I hope everyone knows what they teach at Bob Jones University!)







 To be fair, NOT everyone gets left behind by voucher/private schools.  Some are doing incredibly well.

Take Ron Packard, K12's former CEO. In 2012, he earned a base salary of $625,000, a "performance" bonus of $584,375, a stock award worth $1.25 million, and stock options worth $1.5 million. But there's more. The company matched 25 percent of his salary for his retirement fund. Now that's a luxurious pension. And who funds this kind of deal? Taxpayers.

Contrast that with a public-school teacher's average salary of about $50,000 and an annual pension of about $40,000.

Kind of explains why Robin Vos wants to keep sending our tax dollars his way, doesn't it? 

 

Republican War on Public Schools!

By Jeff Simpson

Ruth Coniff at The Progressive has a must read! 

here is a clip, read the whole thing:

It was Schultz who pointed out that his colleagues' plans to siphon tax dollars into private schools, even as they slash funds for public education, means setting up two parallel school systems.
"How conservative is that?" Schultz said recently. "We are trying to duplicate something we already can't afford."
Schultz also objects to the generally sour tone toward teachers, and what he calls "loose talk" in the Capitol that our public schools are "failing."
"Failing schools, hell," he said at a recent public forum. "Would you like to take me and show me, in my district, where are the failing schools?"
Schultz, like most Wisconsinites, takes pride in his local schools and feels warmly toward the teachers who look after the children in his community. Contrast that with the barrage of right-wing attacks on teachers and public education generally this week during National School Choice Week.

  

Scott Suder IS the New Wisconsin

By Jeff Simpson

One of my absolute favorite writers in WI is Ruth Conniff, who recently received a well deserved promotion to editor of The Progressive Magazine.  

I usually love her work, and make a point to read all of her columns. 

Today I vehemently disagree with what she wrote about the recent United Sportsmen controversy.  

What does United Sportsmen have to do with all that?

Since it was formed two years ago, the group has spent a lot of money lobbying for a wolf hunt, easier access to wetlands by developers, and the massive open-pit mine proposed by Gogebic Taconite in northern Wisconsin -- including a measure to keep hunters and other outdoorsmen off the land where GTAC wants to build its mine.

Doesn't sound like much of a conservation group, does it?

Oh, and it sent out a mailing, along with Americans for Prosperity, supporting Republicans in the 2011 recall elections.

Former Assembly Majority Leader Scott Suder, who is about to start making a big salary as a Walker appointee to the Public Service Commission, carefully crafted grant language to exclude real conservation groups from getting the $500,000 state grant. If you were a chapter of a larger, national organization, you were not eligible for the money.

Suder rigged the grant for United Sportsmen. But also, by writing the rules the way he did, he jeopardized $28 million a year in federal wildlife management funds.

Talk about not upholding Wisconsin values.

This is where I disagree.  

This is EXACTLY what Wi values are now.

Until we prove otherwise in an election, reward donors, punish enemies and grab for taxpayer cash are the new WI values.  

Good Government, responsibility, fiscal conservatism, bipartisanship, wanting to benefit all, hard work and earning your pay, are all Wisconsin values of years past. 

As they say that ship has sailed.  

If you don't believe me, just do an Open Records request for a typical say in Scott Suder's life. 

The lobbyist for a self-described sportsmen group offered free fishing excursions to then-Assembly Majority Leader Scott Suder just days before an affiliate of the group secured a now-canceled $500,000 grant from the state, newly released records show.

Suder, an Abbotsford Republican, went on the Lake Michigan outing with the head of the United Sportsmen of Wisconsin in August, about 21/2 months after he engineered money for the grant into the state budget. Also scheduled to be on the Aug. 22-23 trip were a lobbyist and a former lobbyist for the National Rifle Association. The former NRA lobbyist, Darren LaSorte, is also a board member of the foundation affiliated with United Sportsmen.

Don't worry Ms. Conniff, Rep. Nick Milroy agrees with you.   

"Public officials are held to a higher standard," Milroy said. "The people who elect us expect more of us than this."

No Mr. Milroy, unfortunately the people of Wisconsin no longer do.