School Choice a Win for Students and Taxpayers

An Oct. 5 op-ed by Diane Odeen criticizes the private schools in the school choice programs in southeastern Wisconsin, but uses errant data and empty rhetoric.

Simply put, her claims are incorrect.

The claim that state government spent more money on the choice program while cutting public school aid is based on a faulty premise. The state merely gave more opportunities to students in Milwaukee and Racine to find a better school. As a result, more students voluntarily joined the choice program where they see better results at dramatically lower cost to taxpayers. The state did not increase funding per student, they just gave more parents the option to choose.

The school choice cost of $6,442 per student is significantly less than average Wisconsin public school cost of $13,199. The Legislative Fiscal Bureau shows that the savings generated from the school choice program in Milwaukee saved 345 outstate school districts more than $81 million in 2011. This means if the school choice program ended the Hudson School District would have lost $565,874, Saint Croix Central would have lost $126,283, and River Falls would have lost $413,636 in aid.

Additionally, the School Choice Demonstration Project shows that students in the school choice program had higher graduation rates than their public school counterparts and were more likely to get into and remain in college. Better results and lower costs are a winning combination for all of Wisconsin.

Finally, schools are held accountable and must perform two annual audits, one on education expenditures and one on financial practices. Standardized tests are also required for all participating students.

Empowering parents to choose the school that best fits their child’s needs creates some very lively debates. Typically, those that scream the loudest are those who don’t want to give their own power back to parents.

  --Jim Bender, School Choice Wisconsin