Former U.S. education chiefs donate to Milwaukee 'choice.'

National Catholic Reporter, Sept 15, 1995 by Eugene Horn

MILWAUKEE -- Two former U.S. education secretaries have offered moral and financial support to the Milwaukee School Choice Program.

Lamar Alexander, a Republican presidential candidate, and William Bennett hailed the virtues of school choice Sept. 5 on a radio talk show from St. Matthew School and at a press conference at messmer High School, a private Catholic school.

At the press conference, each man presented a personal check for $1,000 to John Stollenwerk, cochairman of Partners Advancing Values in Education, a nonprofit group that has raised more than $1.6 million in emergency funds for students enrolled in the choice program.

In July, Wisconsin Gov. Tommy G. Thompson signed the nation's first law allowing poor parents the right to use public funds to choose religious schools for their children. The measure, approved in June by the state Legislature, expanded the private, nonsectarian school-choice program that has operated in Milwaukee since 1990.

However, the state Supreme Court issued a temporary injunction to prevent expansion of school choice to include religious schools. On Sept. 2, the attorney general's office advised the state Department of Public Instruction that all aspects of the choice program were suspended.

A court ruling on the issue is expected in October. Students in the program continue to attend classes at both religious and nonsectarian schools despite the state's action against the program.

At the press conference, Stollenwerk said his group would continue its drive for emergency funds, hoping to provide $1,000 scholarships to the 400 children affected by the attorney general's decision.

"Every family ought to have the opportunity to send their children to a school that they believe they should attend," said Alexander, who was education secretary under President Bush. "Not only families with money have that choice."

He suggested that school choice was just as constitutional for parents of children in elementary and secondary schools today as was the GI Bill of Rights for World War II veterans who received a college education at government expense.

Alexander called opposition to school choice "the Berlin Wall for domestic public policy in the United States ... that one day will fall down."

Bennett, education secretary under President Reagan, said, "No partnership is greater than the partnership between schools and parents." Good public schools, he said, have nothing to fear from school choice. "There's no inherent doctrine in the 'separation of church and state' issue that would disallow this program," he said, but he also urged respect for the law regardless of how the courts may rule.

Capuchin Br. Bob Smith, Messmer High's principal, said it was great for the school "to be part of a revolution in education for the many poor parents who do not have (an) option for their children." Choice students are enrolled in nearly 100 private schools, including 38 Catholic elementary and four Catholic high schools in the city.

Under the plan, which is limited to schools within the city limits of Milwaukee, the state provides tuition vouchers to students from low-income families. To be eligible, students must come from a family whose income is at or below 175 percent of the poverty level -- about $26,000 for a family of our. The program was to accommodate about 7,000 students for the 1995-96 school year and expand to include 15,000 for the 1996-97 school year.