So let me get this school choice thing right.

[dude1394]

So here is a report card on Wisconsin's school choice program. It started with 341 children but now has grown to 15,000 poorer children attending 120 private schools.

But somehow the democrat party thinks getting 15,000 poor children into private schools is a BAD idea. The democrats continue to damage the very people they espouse to protect. As the Harvard Economist in this article states. "Harvard economist Caroline Hoxby has found that the more competition a public school faces in Milwaukee from private school choice, the greater its academic improvement."

But the democrats say....can't have that, we're too beholden to the NEA to care about actually educating children.

My fervent desire is that the complete public school system is dismantled in favor of a voucher system. Why you could even send your child to a school that did NOT have football (sacrilege I know in texas) but maybe it would be a school that focused on math contests instead. Huh...

...................................

school choice

SCHOOL CHOICE:
LESSONS LEARNED

By SCOTT JENSEN

April 30, 2005 -- FIFTEEN years ago this week, Wisconsin Gov. Tommy Thompson signed into law the nation's first urban school-choice program, letting poor parents use public funds to choose their children's schools.

The state's poorest children were locked into a failing public-school system in Milwaukee where one-third of the children were failing all of their classes and fewer children could expect to graduate than in any other major city in America. So a conservative small-town governor joined with Rep. Polly Williams, an African-American Democrat and Jesse Jackson supporter, to build a narrow bipartisan majority to give Milwaukee's families a new choice and a new hope for their children's future.

Over 15 years, the merits of the Milwaukee program have been argued by academics, litigated by lawyers and both promoted and pummeled by politicians. Looking back, some clear lessons appear:

The Market Works: Markets encourage innovative products to meet consumers' needs while flushing out poorly run businesses and inferior products. In 15 years, the Milwaukee program has grown from an experiment involving 341 children attending seven private schools to a well-established program of around 15,000 poor children attending nearly 120 private schools. Next year, more than 170 private schools hope to participate, reaching or exceeding the cap limiting scholarships to 15 percent of public-school students.

Some of Milwaukee's poorest neighborhoods now host a building boom of more than $100 million in new private school construction. A handful of "scandal schools" failed, but no longer exist because parents moved their children to better schools. Critics point to these school closings as a sign of failure, but I see them as confirmation that the market works. In the public system, underperforming schools stay open.

Competition Improves Public Schools: Former Superintendent Spence Korte has credited choice with providing the pressure he needed to force long-needed changes within the public school system. "Like many other monopolistic operations, you get a little complacent when you're the only game in town," he said. "We needed to be able to compete, to really get better." Present Superintendent Bill Andrekopoulus has said that this "competitive nature has raised the bar for educators in Milwaukee to provide a good product or know that parents will simply walk."

Test scores have climbed each year from 1997 to 2004 in 12 of 15 grade and subject areas. Harvard economist Caroline Hoxby has found that the more competition a public school faces in Milwaukee from private school choice, the greater its academic improvement.

Parents and Voters Like Choice: Each year, thousands seek to enter Milwaukee's school-choice program. Polls show 60 percent of voters statewide back school choice and support nears 80 percent in some of Milwaukee's poorest neighborhoods. The program is popular with taxpayers because it saves money — one credible estimate places property taxpayer savings at more than $100 million.

Children's Lives Are Transformed: In one central city intersection where a horrible shooting occurred years ago, three innovative schools now stand: one attached to a Baptist church, a Lutheran grade school with a public Montessori kindergarten inside (taught by two public school teachers who are union members) and a public elementary school down the street. All three have recently experienced academic improvements and new capital investment, thanks to the choice program. Some of the kids in these schools will go to Messmer High School, the stellar Catholic school where 83 percent of students go on to college despite growing up poor in a minority neighborhood.

Freedom Is the Future: Today, 15 years after the fragile start of Milwaukee's school-choice experiment, hundreds of thousands of children in 11 states and the District of Columbia have the freedom to choose a school that will transform their lives. This year, a record number of legislatures are considering school-choice programs in their state.

I am confident 15 years from now we will marvel that schools were once chosen by bureaucrats, not parents, and that only children from wealthy families were permitted to attend the best schools in their community. Fifteen years from now the lessons learned will be just as clear: In the end, freedom always wins.