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School voucher plan advances

By HILLARY GAVAN
Beloit Daily News
October 6, 2011

The Wisconsin school voucher bill is advancing through the state legislature, without Beloit as one of the voucher school districts added.

The Senate Education Committee on Wednesday approved Senate Bill 174, which limits expansion of the school voucher program beyond the existing school districts of Milwaukee and Racine. The bill will then go before the full state Senate, Assembly, and on to the governor.

The bill states that school districts that haven’t already qualified as a school district eligible for the parental choice program may not subsequently qualify unless the Legislature includes more districts.

The bill was co-authored by Sen. Tim Cullen, D-Janesville, a member of the Senate Education Committee, and had bipartisan support.

When Gov. Scott Walker’s state budget was approved, the voucher program was only intended to include Milwaukee and Racine, but over time a number of other districts were considered to be included such as Beloit, Green Bay and Kenosha.

Cullen said the bill has strong support and is likely to pass, and clears up language in the budget bill.

“This bill (Senate Bill 174) makes it clear that it can’t go statewide without legislative approval,” Cullen said.

Cullen said the school voucher program isn’t a good option for Beloit. He said enrollment is growing and the district is improving.

Beloit School District Superintendent Steve McNeal attended a public hearing held by the Senate Education Committee at the state capitol Wednesday, speaking in favor of the new limits in the bill. McNeal said that the parental choice program had a negative effect on the Milwaukee public schools, by taking kids away to private schools.

It’s left the public school district with less public funding and state aid because the money has been shifted to private schools. Because that money is being pulled away for kids who don’t need special help, it leaves kids with more needs less of the resources, McNeal said.

The problem, McNeal said, is that kids with financial means and higher academic scores get admitted to the private schools. It leaves the public schools with a higher percentage of special education students and less resources. Private schools aren’t held to the same standards, such adhering to adequate yearly progress standards and offering individual educational plans for students with disabilities.

“It does divide classes and it certainly segregates our special education department and kids with needs” McNeal said.

Students without transportation, for example, would not be able to use the voucher program. In the case of Beloit there are few private school options. Because vouchers don’t extend to the State of Illinois, transportation would be extremely prohibitive.