Expanding choice may cost more, hurt poor

0 Comments | Milwaukee Journal, The, Mar 14, 1995 | by STEVE SCHULTZE

Journal Madison bureau

Madison, Wis. Gov. Tommy G. Thompson's proposed expansion of the school choice program to include religious schools would wind up costing taxpayers more for education or squeeze poor people out, according to an education expert.

Thompson's latest push to provide state vouchers for parochial school tuition for children from low-income Milwaukee families would lead to a wide- open religious voucher program for the entire state, said John Witte, a University of Wisconsin-Madison education professor.

Witte, in an interview Monday and in testimony before a legislative committee, said lawmakers must face the potential for a huge voucher expansion that could greatly boost the state's overall education spending.

"The Legislature had better know what they are doing," Witte said. "It will be very hard to resist the pressure to expand it statewide.

"You are going to have to face the question," Witte told the Joint Audit Committee: "Are you going to provide vouchers for every religious school in Wisconsin?"

At the same hearing, John Huebscher, a lobbyist for the Wisconsin Catholic Conference, said lawmakers shouldn't fear possible pressure to expand religious school choice.

"If there is pressure to expand it, it's going to be because it works," he said. Huebscher said a statewide expansion was unlikely because religious schools aren't available in some rural areas and, in many cities, parents are satisfied with public schools.

Witte was testifying at a hearing on an audit of the state's choice program, which since its inception in 1990 has been limited to allowing low-income Milwaukeeans to send their children to non-sectarian private schools.

Witte has conducted annual reviews of the program and recently concluded there were no significant differences in test scores between Milwaukee students enrolled in the choice program at private schools and those attending Milwaukee Public Schools.

Reverse Effect?

State residents spend more than $1 billion a year for private schools, which educate about 18% of Wisconsin's school-age children, he said.

If those costs were added to state school spending, that would boost the annual bill for taxpayers to about $4 billion.

Aside from costs, the other danger of such an expansion would be a shift of resources to middle- and upper-income families, he said. Most families who send their children to private schools have above-average incomes. Advantage for the Wealthy

If religious school vouchers became available statewide, there would be a tendency for the better educated and better connected middle-class families to take advantage, Witte said.

With any limit on participation, that would invariably mean that poor families would get squeezed out, he said.

"It could have a reverse effect on poor people," he said, meaning the program that initially was intended to provide education options for the poor might work the opposite.

That runs counter to the original argument for school choice: that it should enable low-income families to have the same freedom as more wealthy families to have a private school option for their children.

In other testimony Monday, David Riemer, an aide to Milwaukee Mayor John O. Norquist, argued that state funding for religious schools would not violate the constitutional requirement that church and state be kept separate.

He said vouchers for religious schools would not put the state in the position of advocating a particular religion, which was a key motive for the First Amendment ban on establishment of officially sanctioned religions.

Riemer said there was ample precedent both for state funding for private schools and for state regulation of private schools. The state provides grants to students attending private colleges, for example.

The state also regulates private schools on minimum teaching standards, teacher licensure and health standards, he noted. Illinois May Pass It

Meanwhile, Wisconsin is in a race with Illinois to see which state can pass the first religious school voucher law. The Illinois Senate has approved a limited religious voucher plan for Chicago, which would spend up to $5 million a year for four years to pay for religious school vouchers for about 2,000 students.

The Illinois House is expected to take up the measure within the next two months.

James Lago, executive director of the Illinois Catholic Conference, the group that spearheaded the measure, said the legislation was narrowly drafted to get something passed.

"The intent was to start small and expand it later," Lago said. Thompson's budget drew criticism last week over an obscure charter-schools provision that school-choice opponents say could provide a back-door way to legalize state funding for parochial schools.