CONLEY COMMENTARY (WSAU) – A letter to the editor in the Wausau Pilot and Review calls for the state to stop “pouring money” into its school voucher programs. The argument is that some state funding travels with the student. The school that the student enrolls in gets the money. The district that the student leaves loses out.
The letter writer notes that the Wausau School District lost nearly $4-million in state aid last year from students who live in Wausau but go to school elsewhere.
Hmmm… why is that? If you recall during the COVID years, the Wausau Public Schools were the last to return to in-person instruction. There were many parents who realized that virtual learning was an abject failure. Some families opted to send their students to neighboring districts who’d already figured out how to re-open. Four, five, six years later those students have made friends, and are involved in sports and activities in their new schools. They don’t want to go back – nor should they be forced to.
And I think very highly of the Wausau Public Schools. All four of my children are graduates of Wausau West, and each of them received an excellent education.
But suppose you live in Milwaukee. Those schools are failure factories. Without a choice choice program, those students are stuck. And the argument that vouchers rob the school district of money doesn’t hold true. Milwaukee Public Schools already spends more money per-student than any district in the state; and they have more administrators than any other district. If the money went to actual instruction, the most promising Milwaukee students should have individual tutors and be on their way to Ivy League colleges. ‘Why not?’ is a fair question.
Apologists should stop trying to take away the only escape that those students have.
The best and easiest way for school districts to hold onto their per-student funding is to make their schools so good that parents and students choose them over all other choices.
Chris Conley
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