Browsing: School Choice

There is never one cure-all for complex societal problems like poverty or morally, economically and emotionally untethered children. The first thing is to recognize the problem for what it is. The numbers make that easy.

In Burlington, as elsewhere, families wake up to a revolution being inflicted on children.

The polling shows more and more parents want that opportunity for their kids – and more and more other Wisconsinites believe the right thing to do is to give it to them now.

Principal Julieane Cook of St. Martini Lutheran School on Milwaukee’s south side takes time out twice a day from her administrative duties for “sensory breaks” – where she works with special needs students because no additional staff or resources are available. Private school principals and administrators say in a Badger Institute survey that many special needs children in private schools are left behind because of inequitable allocation of federal resources. Click on the News tab at the top of the page to read the story.

Special needs students are left behind because of inequitable allocation of federal resources, administrators say in survey

“My family wanted private schools because private schools take education seriously. They offer a more rich education and prepare me for my future,” said Sahara Aden, of Milwaukee. But her family couldn’t afford the steep tuition.

The special education voucher program will help a small but deserving group of kids who repeatedly have been denied the opportunities available to their non-disabled peers.

There is strong public support for special needs vouchers: 62% of Wisconsin residents support such a program, according to a WPRI poll.

The Wisconsin Special Needs Scholarship initiative would give parents the opportunity to do what they believe is best for their child, much like parents who seek the best medical treatment for their child’s illness.

The system is performing so poorly that major changes, not just tweaks, are needed.

According to a WPRI poll, 62% of Wisconsinites somewhat or completely support a special needs voucher proposal, while 27% are somewhat or completely opposed.

The last thing Wisconsin and the WIAA need are state lawmakers or the governor (of either party) calling the shots in high school sports.

It is counterproductive to force school districts to rebrand a popular district-option while the state expands the competitive atmosphere of K-12 education.

Allow local districts to count students from their districts attending independent charter schools and then transfer the state and local revenue generated by each pupil to the charter school.

Taking small steps to tone down the rhetoric on both sides and demonstrate why increased trust is warranted is a much more realistic and preferable route.

Liberals and conservatives see starkly different worlds through it The statewide expansion of the school choice program has left its…

What was the most surprising part of the education package passed by the Joint Committee on Finance? 

Almost two full years ago, right at the height of a heated legislative debate in Madison over whether to expand school choice, Disability Rights Wisconsin and the ACLU filed a complaint with the U.S. Department of Justice alleging that schools in the Milwaukee Parental Choice Program discriminate against children with disabilities.

Shortly after November’s presidential election, America’s pundit class was flush with theories about how President Obama could win every battleground…

His combative conservatism is a welcome challenge to Bush-era compromises with Democrats. By Frederick M. Hess Frederick M. Hess is…