Responding to a complaint filed by the American Civil Liberties Union, the U.S. Department of Justice warned voucher schools in Milwaukee to stop excluding, counseling out, or otherwise discriminating against students with disabilities.
“The state cannot, by delegating the education function to private voucher schools, place students beyond the reach of the federal laws that require Wisconsin to eliminate disability discrimination in its administration of public programs,” DOJ officials wrote in the letter to Wisconsin Department of Public Instruction Superintendent Tony Evers.
Voucher programs across the nation–now operating in 20 states–will be affected, and states are now obliged to monitor voucher programs to be sure they are in compliance with federal laws protecting the rights of students with disabilities.
The ACLU contended that the voucher program excluded students with disabilities, and if they were admitted, they were systematically expelled and/or pushed out. This practice led to a very large percentage of students with disabilities in the public school district even as its funding was declining due to loss of enrollment to vouchers and charters. Consequently, the so-called “failing” district cannot possibly recover because the private schools don’t accept students with disabilities and the public school has to accept all comers. And despite their exclusion of students with disabilities, the voucher schools in Wisconsin DO NOT outperform the public schools.
A statement issued by the ACLU warned of the danger of choice programs:
“Publicly-funded voucher programs have the effect of setting up a separate escape hatch for only a few, leaving the majority of the poor students in schools that are even less likely to succeed than they were before the voucher program or tax credit began. Furthermore, the private schools that spring up to educate a child for $6,500 are producing results that are no better than the public school district – in Milwaukee, for example, three years of comparison test scores show they are performing worse than the public system. We also know that the Milwaukee parents who take advantage of these programs tend to have higher education levels and children without disabilities, leaving the public school district with a higher percentage of children with disabilities and parents with less education. There are few checks in place to ensure that all of the schools accepting vouchers are more than glorified day care providing convenient hours for parents.”
Even more ominous is the specter of segregation academies in the south:
“…some private schools in states like Georgia and Alabama, where tax credits have recently been put into place, were founded as segregation academies to thwart federal integration efforts. While the program in Milwaukee and its school district serve almost entirely students of color, as “school choice” spreads around the country, the stage is set for these programs to become even more exclusionary and segregated. We know this because Milwaukee’s voucher program already excludes students with disabilities and segregates them into the public school district while at the same time stripping the district of much needed funds to educate them. If we permit this to continue, we are condoning separate schools for a number of groups of students, including racial minorities, students with disabilities, religious minorities and LGBT students. What we have known for the fifty years since Brown v. Board of Education is that separate is not equal. School voucher programs and tax credits do not provide a choice for everyone. They create publicly funded separate schools.”
Diane Ravitch's blog 
This complaint was filed by the ACLU and Disability Rights Wisconsin. I was the lead attorney for DRW on that complaint while I was still there. The sad part of this story is that though the letter was sent to the Wis. Dept. of Public Instruction on April 9th, DPI is still “reviewing” it, even though it allegedly opposes voucher expansion in Wisconsin. It is time for real leadership at DPI on this issue.
Flies in the face of the voucher cult at the Walton-funded Department of Ed Reform at the University of Arkansas.
Educators have been saying this for decades about vouchers, yet the rich and powerful have successfully convinced those who make decisions that, by saying so, educators were just defending the “status quo.” Enough is enough–it’s time for all public advocacy groups to sue these wayward policy-makers for political malpractice and take back our education system. Viva la revolution!
What about exclusion of ELL students? They too are protected under federal law.
And if the feds care about exclusion of students receiving special education services and, hopefully about exclusion of ELL students, why not hold them to the same standard?
Can the ACLU in other states sue over charter school exclusion/push outs of special education and ELL students?
What does anyone think is happening at charter schools. It is a proven fact. What is the ACLU doing sleeping at the wheel again. Why go after only the minor problem, why not go after all of it. Vouchers are the minor problem with privatization concerning the total number of students in the U.S. next to charter schools. How about behavior problems, ESL and low performers? They do the same to them. We need an organization like the ACLU they just do not really do their job with schools. Certainly not in L.A. as they all get their money it seems to not do schools as they do nothing. Full jokers concerning education in my experience. The former head of the ACLU I heard say in public their goal was to be the richest in the U.S. How about the best? Most civil rights and community groups like the NAACP, Urban League et al. get their money from those they should be watching. How can that work correctly. Money controls everytime. Go look at what the NAACP is doing to Reverend Pinkney in Benton Harbor and you will see what I mean and many other examples. They have lost their way through money to support their lifestyles. Go look at what they support and what they do not and where they get their money from.
Maybe the courts and appointed officials can be of some help after all. Brown v. Board of Ed. and Plyler v. Doe were pretty big. They did not come courtesy of the legislature or elected officials.
@systemschangeconsulting:
There is even one high school in MPS that thinks it’s too elite to teach sped kids and has fought with the district that sped kids are not a good “fit” for their school. But, yes, the charter and choice schools also discriminate and, if you live in MPS district a school is chosen for your child at the school that is the best fit for the child. The fact that I had no choice after moving to the city of Milwaukee, my child was placed at this high school and the admin, even some staff has bullied my son on a regular basis. What the children have been allowed to do to him physically and verbally, as staff turns a blind eye or ear to the “situation”. When my son is assaulted by a child, he’s told it’s his own fault and he is punished, generally with a suspension. There were two manifestation hearings, one right after the other, the second was without notice, where the admin tried to “change his placement”. They tried to expel him, and he’s not violent at all, he’s the victim of it. This particular high school thinks it is a choice or charter school, but it is not. I must commend the sped supervisors and the sped staff at the central office. They really do stand up for the child, but getting the school to comply, in other words, to simply do their jobs that my tax dollars, and everyone else’s as well pay them to do. This break down and destruction of the neighborhood schools, especially the high schools, is a direct reflection on what happens when tax dollars go from the public schools and gets funneled into the choice/private or charter schools. Sped kids get pushed around by admin or funneled into a one size fits all room, usually labeled MRP, with is intended for the children that have displayed violent tendencies. And I can tell you, that is a FAPE issue.
I definitely support providing students with disabilities with as many options as possible, and this is good news that folks receiving public dollars are being expected to provide similar services.
My only caution would this: Many private schools (and charters) are set up to provide high quality services to students with disabilities. They may not have certain personnel on site, or otherwise be able to provide certain services. Because of this, I’m not sure it’s in the best interest of some students to attend any and all schools, regardless of services offered. I also think it may well be beyond the capacity of those schools to make necessary provisions for all children to attend. I think it’s important to keep in mind that, even in traditional public schools, all children aren’t eligible (or wouldn’t be best served) in all settings. For example, there are gifted and talented programs and magnet schools which are selective and differentially serve kids. More related to disability services, there are still many schools where children are struggling but do not have access to certain services because there are exclusionary rules in place about who qualifies.
All of this is to say that I’m not sure there has ever been a precedence within public education that all students must be able to access all services/sites regardless of need. If it doesn’t make educational sense for a student to attent a site, that should be considered.
On a related but different note, I think it’s important to not confuse accountability with best practice in service delivery. Accountability should NEVER be used to advocate for a student’s placement in an education program. I don’t think folks are doing that here, but I think some readers might misconstrue some arguments as saying that, because public schools are being held accountable and being compared with charters or voucher-accepting schools, they should not have to exclusively shoulder the responsibility of educating students with disabilities. Inherent in this argument is that we should allow for the dispersion of students with disabilities to level the playing field. To me, it is extremely unethical to advocate for student placement for the benefit of the SCHOOL, as opposed to the child.
On a final side note, I don’t support vouchers for a number of reasons, so please don’t read my comments as being in support of them. However, given a certain system we may be operating under, there are still better and worse choices we can make for students. Let’s not be selfish and put a child with a disability in a worse placement simply so we don’t have to be held accountable for him/her.
Charters have been doing this for years. Why hasn’t the ACLU gone after them also? Hopefully the ACLU will now extend their attention to charters, which are an even bigger problem.