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The ugliest outcome of the Milwaukee Parental Choice Program - if we consider the program's initial purpose and intent - may be yet to come, Mr. Witte warns.
THE MILWAUKEE Parental Choice Program began in 1990 as the first educational voucher program in the United States. While some may not consider the program in its original form to be a "voucher program," because payments went directly to schools, it is referred to as such in most analyses. I will use the terms voucher program and choice program interchangeably.
The program was initially limited in a number of ways: families had to have incomes of 175% of the poverty line or less, students could not have been in private schools in the previous year, only secular private schools could participate, schools had to select choice students randomly if there were more applicants than available seats in a grade, and there were limits placed on the number of voucher students in each school (originally 49%, raised to 65% in 1993) and in the program as a whole (originally approximately 950, raised to 1,500 in 1993). By subsequent court order, the private schools were not required to admit students with disabilities. The voucher amount was set at the per-pupil state aid that would have gone to the Milwaukee Public School (MPS) system The vouchers have risen over the years from approximately $2,500 to $4,900 per child.
In the fall of 1990, I was asked by the Wisconsin Department of Public Instruction to evaluate the voucher program. I did so for five years, ending with a FifthYearReport issued on 31 December 1995. I raised funds for the evaluations from private foundations and the University of Wisconsin. My compensation came only in the form of partial released time from teaching obligations.
Our research team collected data using surveys, case-study methods, outcome measures, and administrative data. We wrote five annual reports and have put the Fourthand Fifth-Year Reports (which are cumulative), as well as the quantitative data and other papers and articles, on the Internet.1 I encourage readers to refer to the original reports and papers, which provide most of the evidence for this summary article.
The results of this "experiment" are not easily or simply summarized. As previous reports...