To the editor:
The first School Choice Program was created in the Milwaukee schools by the state Legislature in 1989 to allow children of poverty who were not learning to attend a school of their parents’ choice, which in essence meant attending a religious school.
Despite the program’s failure to show an increase in student achievement, Republican lawmakers expanded the program to Racine in the 2011-12 school year and began to expand the vouchers statewide beginning in the 2013-14 school year.
Those who teach in voucher program schools do not have to meet the same requirements for employment as those who teach in public schools. Voucher schools do not have to meet the same standards nor serve all students.
Let’s compare what is happening in Wisconsin to what has happened in New Orleans. In 2014, the closing of all neighborhood public schools was completed. Forty different, privately managed charter schools took their place. These schools have no centralized oversight to guarantee that the needs of all students are met. Teachers were replaced by unlicensed personnel holding alternative certificates. These “teachers” had no training in child development, how to teach children with special needs, or other critical courses required of licensed professionals.
This scenario could happen in Wisconsin with the current voucher expansion unless we become caring citizens and nurture quality public schools. Rather than allowing state funding to go to private schools, we need to reverse the current trend and increase aid to public schools using only public dollars. This would attract top-notch teachers by paying them a wage that is comparable with other professions and would meet the educational needs of all children.
We are poised to lose a growing number of rural Wisconsin schools in the short term and our whole public school system in the long term unless we have a Legislature and governor that reverse course.
Jan Koch,
Shawano
