VOUCHER SCHOOLS | Choose improvement | It’s way too early to pass judgment on voucher schools, but more measures are needed to spur quality.
No one should look at the latest report on the private voucher school program as reason to slam choice schools nor to declare Milwaukee Public Schools the winner in this community’s continuous which-are-better debate.
There are schools in both the parental choice program and MPS that need immediate improvement. With three years of study left, the jury’s still out on the voucher program’s overall educational impact.
But choice supporters should not be encouraged by this early look. The reports by Arkansas researchers, explained in a Journal Sentinel article Thursday by Alan J. Borsuk, showed voucher school students generally matched MPS student performance. Merely mirroring MPS results is nothing to brag about.
Instead, it points to a need for the choice movement to start becoming more open to ensure quality in those schools. This should include ways to keep bad schools from opening in the first place and allowing bad schools already open to be closed more quickly.
On Thursday, Howard Fuller, the former MPS superintendent who’s now a choice leader nationally, said he wants choice school leaders to begin a dialogue for improvement with the governor and the state Legislature. He’s right.
We continue to be strong advocates for parental choice. It’s a value worth preserving. But choosing mediocrity (or worse) over mediocrity (or worse) is a choice, just not the one inherently promised – in return for tax dollars – by the voucher movement.
We agree with Fuller. All schools must be held to high standards and accountability. And when it comes to choice schools, it would be better if the choice community was at the table when these standards are discussed.
More than 20,000 students attend 120 voucher schools in Milwaukee. Fuller wants to see increased regulation of participating schools, and so do we. To keep choice alive – so that new standards aren’t imposed that force out the good choice schools.
Doyle is calling for changes in the voucher program, including requiring teachers to meet higher qualification standards and for voucher schools to give standardized tests and report the results.
There are problems with Doyle’s proposals, but they at least represent an opportunity for meaningful dialogue.
Underperforming schools – whether voucher or in MPS – cannot be accepted.