Tom Ultican reviews here how school choice has devastated (DeVos-tated?) the public schools of Milwaukee.
Milwaukee is the city with public schools, charter schools, and voucher schools. It is also one of the lowest performing urban districts tested by NAEP.
He begins:
This past school year, Wisconsin taxpayers sent $250,000,000 to religious schools. Catholics received the largest slice, but protestants, evangelicals and Jews got their cuts. Wisconsin’s Department of Public Instruction (DPI) reveals that private Islamic schools took in $6,350,000. Of the 212 schools collecting voucher money, 197 were religious schools.
The Wisconsin voucher program was expanded before the 2014-2015 school year. The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reported, “Seventy-five percent of eligible students who applied for taxpayer-funded subsidies to attend private and religious schools this fall in the statewide voucher program already attend private schools, ….”
Money taken from the public schools attended by the vast majority of Milwaukee’s students is sent to private religious schools. Public schools must adjust for stranded costs while paying to serve a higher percentage of special education students because private schools won’t take them. Forcing public schools to increase class sizes, reduce offerings such as music and lay off staff.
The public schools have a disproportionate number of students with disabilities, because the charter schools and voucher schools don’t want them.
Ultican recounts the history of charters and vouchers in Milwaukee and Wisconsin. He reminds us that charter schools are NOT public schools. They are privately managed organizations draining money from public schools.
And he concludes:
In the Zelman v. Simmons-Harris case, the Supreme Court ruled in a 5-4 decision that vouchers to religious school did not violate the Establishment Clause of the Constitution. This decision re-wrote more than a century worth of precedence and further eroded the separation of church and state. No matter how this case was decided, it is patently un-American to force citizens to send money to religious organizations that they do not support.
Privatizing public education is a horrible idea. Public-schools are the bedrock upon which America’s democracy is built. Now strange conservatives and their fellow traveler in the Democratic party, the neoliberals, are claiming that democratically elected school boards are an anachronism. Know this; if someone is opposing democratic governance, they are proposing totalitarian rule by the wealthy.
Diane Ravitch's blog 
The church of the invisible hand must destroy democratic eduction in order to market its commercial corporate brand. Otherwise, who would buy it?
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The last line has it right. I would not have agreed when I was a puppy but there can be no doubt that democratic governance and the public good are being undermined by the super rich. As I noted in another comment yesterday, the public library is also a target of privatizers who want Amazon-like efficiencies in service. This is a direct result of corporate welfare and other policies aimed at deFunding public services.
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Gates accelerated library computerization through grants -with the result that tech tyrants were enriched. What a surprise.
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An additionally scary truth: privatizers not only want Amazon-like efficiencies but Amazon-like creation of thought: those in charge o building this newly intermixed library input/output are NOT diverse in thought or solutions.
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I relate to your statement. Just a few years ago, I would have thought this statement I wrote was over the top. Now it just seems to be a reality that I must accept and fight against.
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Diane’s final paragraph should be assigned reading to every American.
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Posted at https://www.opednews.com/Quicklink/End-of-Public-Schools-in-M-in-Best_Web_OpEds-Charter-Schools_Education_Schools_Students-180728-303.html
with comments which have links to relevant posts here.
Public schools take everyone. It is the only road to income equality. When austerity ripped funding from states and cities, the schools were doomed.AFT Documents Massive Underfunding of Public Schools https://dianeravitch.net/2018/07/17/aft-documents-massive-underfunding-of-public-schools/
Smaller classes are the most effective in increasing learning objectives. Huge class size resulted. Now segregation has returned as private schools reject students for a variety of reasons.
Look at what is afoot in North Carolina https://dianeravitch.net/2018/07/19/north-carolina-an-insider-on-the-hoax-of-school-choice/ as Diane Ravitch says: ” A few days ago, I posted teacher Stuart Egan’s description of the attack on public schools in North Carolina, https://dianeravitch.net/2018/07/16/stuart-egan-who-is-behind-the-assault-on-public-education-in-north-carolina/ which identified the malefactors who are luring kids to charter schools, religious schools, cyber charters, and home schools, driving down public school enrollment to 81%.”
And Forget about transparency or accountability if you are in the charter industry. Even the school board asks permission from the charters to regulate them and holds closed-door meetings to negotiate what they are willing to do. Philadelphia: Charters Ask School Board to Lower Standards for Them! https://dianeravitch.net/2018/07/15/philadelphia-charters-ask-school-board-to-lower-standards-for-them/
Read, at OEN, my series on privitization https://www.opednews.com/Series/PRIVITIZATION-by-Susan-Lee-Schwartz-150925-546.html?f=PRIVITIZATION-by-Susan-Lee-Schwartz-150925-546.htmlRead the many links to how legislatures took down public schools even as the media blamed teachers.https://www.opednews.com/Series/legislature-and-governorsL-by-Susan-Lee-Schwartz-150217-816.html?f=legislature-and-governorsL-by-Susan-Lee-Schwartz-150217-816.html
Read https://dianeravitch.net/2018/07/16/ecot-and-payoffs-to-ohio-politicians-how-to-avoid-any-accountability/ How Public Money is stolen: Diane Ravitch, former Ass’t Secy’ of Education, posted many times over the years about the giant fraud called the Electronic Classroom of Tomorrow in Ohio, or ECOT. Ohio doesn’t permit for-profit charters, yet ECOT was set up–like many ‘nonprofit charters’–to produce huge profits for its owner, William Lager, who opened ECOT in 2001. it was closed down in 2018 after collecting about $1 billion from the state. After a major expose in the New York Times https://www.nytimes.com/2016/05/19/us/online-charter-schools-electronic-classroom-of-tomorrow.html showing that ECOT had the lowest graduation rate of any school in the nation and that Lager’s related companies were making large profits by providing goods and services to the school, Ohio officials began to take a closer look at ECOT
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“Seventy-five percent of eligible students who applied for taxpayer-funded subsidies to attend private and religious schools this fall in the statewide voucher program already attend private schools, ….”
How come vouchers are always defended in terms of helping “poor” people in “bad” communities with “struggling” schools have greater access to choice? How do 75% of “eligible” students need more “help” with financing a choice they’ve made and apparently, had already figured out how to pay for? If I’m misunderstanding something here, someone please correct me.
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The vouchers are increasingly a subsidy for people whose children never attended a public school.
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That explains David Leonhardt’s loving of the reformers. His folks didn’t get any tax help to pay for his tuition at the 2nd most expensive school in NYC. Either it’s that explanation for Leonhardt ‘s disregard of facts in his column in the NYT, or it’s because public schools prevent hedge funders and tech tyrants from having big paydays. Gates’ right hand for education said the goal of privatization was “different brands on a large scale”. (Philanthropy Roundtable)
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My guess is that his views reflect the echo chamber he inhabits.
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Q The vouchers are increasingly a subsidy for people whose children never attended a public school. END Q
This is not a problem. You do not have to go swimming in a sewer to know that it stinks. People are “hip” to the fact that the quality of public education in this nation varies wildly.
Some parents make the choice to abandon bad public schools, without first sending their children to them!
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Here is the explanation:
Q How come vouchers are always defended in terms of helping “poor” people in “bad” communities with “struggling” schools have greater access to choice? How do 75% of “eligible” students need more “help” with financing a choice they’ve made and apparently, had already figured out how to pay for? If I’m misunderstanding something here, someone please correct me. END Q
Vouchers are not always defended in these terms. Voucher programs are often initiated by offering them first to students in poorly performing schools. This is the “camel’s nose in the tent” tactic. It is often difficult to start a state-wide program immediately. So, voucher proponents bring in a small program to help inner-city students, Native American students, military (dependent) students, etc. Once the program is established, it can be expanded (See what is happening in Arizona)
Some (not all) families can struggle, and come up with money to afford alternate education for their children, and pay school taxes simultaneously. Wealthy families pay taxes and tuition with less difficulty.
Voucher programs provide some relief to families who are having difficulty paying school taxes and private school tuition. The difficulty that families encounter, varies with their income level.
Only families at the bottom of the income scale, cannot afford both school taxes and private school tuition. That is why inner-city schools in economically depressed areas are a virtual monopoly, and part of the reason that (public) schools in these areas, are so terrible.
Voucher programs also help families who are home-schooling. By rebating some of the taxes to families, more families can afford to have one parent stop working outside the home, and then operate their own home-school.
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Of the private schools that receive tax subsidies, 76% are religious schools, and 14% exclude students and staff who identify as gender non-conforming.
Sources: https://www.federationforchildren.org ALSO: https://www.stepupforstudents.org/for-donors/tax-credited-contributions/
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Laura, the first link does not open.
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SIGH. People are being had and they don’t know it.
Thanks, Diane.
I am always impressed with the retired and currently working public school teachers who comment…they are so smart. I learn from them, too.
Not entirely related, but tangentially related…and this is true, too.
I know parents who have kids in middle school who enroll their children in schools where there is a “high-profile” coach thinking that their kids way to college is playing sports. Some even have moved or are planning to move to another state in order for their kids to have a good sports coach. CRAZY. The deformers would call this “grit.” Unbelievable. I call this “being manipulated.”
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What is occurring in Milwaukee (and other locales with school choice) is the phenomenon of “Creative Destruction”. As more families withdraw their children (and the funding) to alternate schools, the dysfunctional publicly-operated schools, will decline. see
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Creative_destruction
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Bogus argument, Charles, just like Sean Parker’s claim that tech tyrants take risks when they put money into education villainthropies.
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