Upd. (Humor)Mtg 5/9 1:30 - Republicans Selling Milwaukee Schools - Charter School Buyers?

Do you think there is any fiscal impact (don't worry about academic/sports impacts) if we just let Milwaukee Schools sell assets to Charter Schools and the like?  Not to the Wisconsin State Budget!   The Charter Schools will be all loaded up with State Taxpayer "Voucher" money - failed banks like the no risk loans!

All while Walker is away making a speech on the subject (out of state)!  WisPolitics.com has just reprinted the Press Release from AFP (although hard to tell)
 Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker to deliver school choice policy address at D.C. summit 5/9

From DC and Facebook 5/9: Anti-voucher protest in Washington, DC today at pro-voucher conference featuring Gov. Scott Walker.

Easy Email Below!

Senate

EXECUTIVE SESSION

Committee on Education

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The committee will hold an executive session on the following items at the time specified below:

Monday, May 9, 2011
1:30 PM
300 Southeast
State Capitol

Senate Bill 20

Relating to: authorizing the City of Milwaukee to sell city-owned property used for school purposes.

By Senators Darling, Lazich, Carpenter and Grothman; cosponsored by Representatives Honadel, Fields, Pridemore, Berceau, Thiesfeldt, Strachota, Bies, Rivard and Marklein.

Senator Luther Olsen
Chair

Walker's War on Education - Vouchers ... more in Cap Times, NYTimes

Meanwhile at the NYTimes Level - 4/9

The Deadlocked Debate Over Education Reform
______________________________
In the CapTimes By Joel McNally, April 9th, 2011 - Click on Title to see article

Joel McNally: The school voucher scam

Further credits : Joel McNally of Milwaukee writes a regular column for The Capital Times. joelmcnally@att.net

From the source...

According to the researchers, only a minuscule 1.5 percent of voucher students have special needs, compared to nearly 20 percent of MPS students.

... And get this. They say even if voucher students don’t do any better, the program is still a tremendous success because it accomplishes the same poor result at half the cost.

... With taxpayers supporting two educational systems instead of one, funds for public schools where needs are the greatest are drastically reduced and, suddenly, a government program sold as a benefit to the poor becomes just another tax giveaway to the wealthy.

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We have all heard about cherry picking the results and picking the bad cherry in the results ... and picking your headline carefully!  When you read the above and then do some searching in Google, etc. you may be left wondering ... who do I believe?

Well this may not sort it out for you, but -


http://www.jsonline.com/news/education/29543004.html Feb. 26, 2008

As I examined the above article I can see where Joel McNally has drawn his conclusions - and I assume he used as much of more recent and original source material as possible - not as myself so far relying on these secondary interpretations.

http://host.madison.com/wsj/news/local/education/local_schools/article_4f083f0e-59a7-11e0-8d74-001cc4c03286.html

As I read this "time capsule" of articles with their "selected facts" I have to express my skepticism that the Milwaukee Voucher program is any kind of roaring success.

... then there is this ... from the "American Federation for Children" in a post on their website ...

January 11, 2011 (Washington, D.C.) — Student participants in the Milwaukee school voucher program have graduation rates that are 18 percent higher than those of students in Milwaukee Public Schools (MPS), according to a new report released by John Robert Warren, an education expert and professor at the University of Minnesota.
Data gathered since 2003 show clearly the benefits of the Milwaukee Parental Choice Program (MPCP)—which allows students from low-income families to attend participating private schools in Wisconsin’s largest city.  Had graduation rates for MPS matched those of the MPCP, nearly 4,000 additional students would have graduated from 2003 to 2009.  Job-related productivity from those additional graduates would have also resulted in approximately $4.2 million in additional tax revenue.

The only thing I would caution is that this group, of which I now nothing about, solicits donations ... I would like to know more ... there are a lot of names in their "About Us".  Second they are an invitation only group .. it appears ... is this another ALEC?

more from source on site ...

AFC's National Policy Summit 2011

Join us for our second invitation-only insider school choice briefing. What progress has been made and where are we headed in the coming year? School Choice Now: Empowering America's Children connects donors, policymakers, and opinion leaders to discuss how we can best provide educational opportunities to the children who need them most. Register at the link below!

Speaker Boehner, US House Vote to Restore and Extend D.C. Vouchers

The US House of Representatives has passed the bipartisan SOAR Act, which would restore and extend the voucher program for low-income children in the District of Columbia.

WI 1848 Forward: #Walker 's War on #Education - #Vouchers ... more in #CapTimes, #NYTimes #47% vs #1%

WI 3/29/11 - New DPI data - Voucher Performance

DPI Press Releases - a place to begin looking to be informed!

Study under discussion 105 schools plan to participate in Milwaukee Parental Choice Program

CapTimes: Chalkboard: Test results show choice schools perform worse than public schools 1st paragraph

Great. Now Milwaukee has TWO failing taxpayer-financed school systems when it comes to educating low income kids (and that's 89 per cent of the total population of Milwaukee Public Schools).

WSJ - DPI: Students in Milwaukee voucher program didn't perform better in state tests

From this blog: WI - Education - 3/25 - Wait until Tues. - War on Public Education 

WI 1848 Forward:WI 3/29/11 -New #DPI data - School #Voucher Performance : #Charter #Walker #Evers #Public $$ for CEO

WI - Education - 3/25/11 - Wait until Tues. - War on Public Education

Perspective from Blog: Wisconsin: 1890 – Mess with education at your risk! Capitol Times  ~3/16

War on Public Education  

Some interesting numbers (below in the linked article) but it sometimes is really questionable how "performance" gets described as less expensive, low performing, same opportunity.  The judgments need to be tempered and adjusted for infrastructure costs, teacher attainment (or even teacher pay and benefits), class room hours, class size, student turnover, technical and vocational infrastructure and the abilities/disabilties inherent in the student population.  As noted below more data is out Tuesday - it may add some light but more likely just heat as proponents seek to discredit each other and their numbers in order to promote their own.  Seems as if it is really just an "ideological" argument with some preferring corporate / private / profit education to public education and the kids get lost in the shuffle.


The Second Front in the War on Public Education - 3/25
GOP seeks to expand school voucher program by Matthew DeFOUR

And state test scores to be released Tuesday, which for the first time include 10,600 Milwaukee voucher students, could suggest they are testing no better than poor students in the Milwaukee Public Schools.

The First Front in the War on Public Education - From the Blog :
WI - Education - Who needs local democracy - New State Bureaucracy Proposed
WI - Charter Schools - Listening now - Public on the Outside, Private on the Inside? - Senate Bill 22 Hearing 


WI 1848 Forward: 3/25/11 - Wait until Tues. - #Walker War on Public #Education #edu #wiUnion wivote #Vouchers