Milwaukee's School Choice: Preliminary Analysis Gives Average Grades

Anneliese Dickman:

Back in 2001, then-Milwaukee Mayor John Norquist summarized his case for school choice by stating: "Vouchers work. They don't hurt taxpayers, and they encourage public schools to do better."

Norquist's conviction was strongly supported by school choice proponents and vociferously refuted by opponents. All the while, the Public Policy Forum cautioned that very little data existed to either support or refute him.

Now, for the first time in over a decade, data are available to shed light on the efficacy and effectiveness of Milwaukee's private school voucher program. An ambitious five-year longitudinal study is under way to evaluate the school choice program and compare its performance to Milwaukee Public Schools. Last month's research reports, the study's first, provide us with the long-elusive data.

As expected, school choice proponents and opponents each have come away with their own distinct interpretations of this data. However, certain conclusions are inescapable.

First, the new findings have reframed the policy debate over school choice, pulling it away from the original goals of school choice proponents. There was a time when school choice was touted as a panacea, as the competitive leverage the public schools needed to improve, as a means to empower parents and save low-income students from bad schools. With the latest data, however, the Milwaukee voucher program is now simply portrayed as a popular program that pleases parents and performs at least as well as MPS.

Posted by Jim Zellmer at March 16, 2008 12:00 AM
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