Voucher advocates, opponents fight to win over public, key Senators

Matthew DeFour:

At a recent rally in a Latino community center in Waukesha, Gov. Scott Walker urged a group of mostly private school parents, students and administrators to advocate for his proposal to expand vouchers beyond Milwaukee and Racine.

"I need your help," Walker told a crowd of about 350 people, the majority of them children, on April 25. "We need you to help us spread that message to other lawmakers in our state Capitol, because they need to understand this is not a political statement; this is not a political campaign. ... This is about children."

A week earlier at First United Methodist Church in Downtown Madison, representatives from the Department of Public Instruction and the Wisconsin Association of School Boards laid out the arguments against voucher expansion to a group organized by Grandparents United for Madison Public Schools.

"This is a Waterloo moment for public education," WASB lobbyist Joe Quick told about 60 people.

"You've got good schools here," concurred DPI financial adviser Jeff Pertl. "We've got to fight to protect them."

In recent months, in gymnasiums, libraries, churches and offices across Wisconsin, both sides in the voucher debate have ramped up their efforts to sway public opinion, especially in the districts of a handful of key Republican senators.

Posted by Jim Zellmer at May 6, 2013 12:19 AM
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