He’s Throwing Away My Dream

Who?
That would be our Governer. Governor James Doyle.

What?

In 1995, then-Gov. Tommy Thompson joined with state legislators to expand choice in Milwaukee to include religious schools, but a compromise set a limit on the number of participating students at 15% of the enrollment in Milwaukee Public Schools. Today that means some 14,500 students, and demand is now higher than that for the slots which give $6,351 annual scholarships to students opting for choice schools (The public schools’ per pupil spending is about 80% higher).

…

The irony is that public educators in Milwaukee believe choice has helped improve all the city’s schools. “No longer is MPS a monopoly,” says Milwaukee Public Schools superintendent William Andrekopoulos. “That competitive nature has raised the bar for educators in Milwaukee to provide a good product or they know that parents will walk.” The city’s public schools have made dramatic changes that educators elsewhere can only dream of. Public schools now share many buildings with their private counterparts, which helps alleviate the shortage of classrooms.

So the DPI (Department of Public Instruction) has said that it will apply the cap not only to the program as a whole but to each participating school. This could potentially lead to a closure of some of the schools and take away the dreams of parents and students who have choose this route. Who does this effect? This effects the inner city youth and their parents who’s only options for a better life is the education of their kids. The front lines of today’s civil rights struggle are not in the South but in Milwaukee with Governor Doyle standing in the school’s doorway.

Full WSJ Opinion Journal Article

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