Information on the Milwaukee Parental Choice Program

January 2000

The Milwaukee Parental Choice Program (MPCP) is America's oldest program giving children from low-income families tax support to attend private schools.[i]  Citing initiatives such as the MPCP, Education Week has called Milwaukee "ground zero" for urban school reform experiments. The program's long-term viability will be decided when the U.S. Supreme Court eventually hears a challenge to having religious schools in such programs.

1.      Eligibility

         Students are eligible if they are from a Milwaukee family with an income at or below 175 percent of the federal poverty level.[ii]  The number of MPCP students may not exceed 15 percent of enrollment in the Milwaukee Public Schools (MPS), or about 15,800 students. When enacted by the Wisconsin Legislature in 1990, at the urging of State Rep. Polly Williams and Governor Tommy Thompson, the MPCP was limited to non-religious private schools in Milwaukee and one percent of MPS enrollment.   In 1995, the Legislature and Governor Thompson increased the number of eligible children and added religious schools. Following a legal challenge, the Wisconsin Supreme Court upheld the expanded program in 1998.

2.      Growth

         The MPCP has grown from 303 students in seven schools to 8,104 in 91 schools in the 1999-2000 school year. 

3.      Profile of students

         Eligible students must be selected randomly. Participating schools specify available space and may not use such criteria as academic ability, special education needs, or prior disciplinary record to screen MPCP students.  Such criteria are widely used in MPS.[iii]  MPCP schools may give preference to siblings of choice students. In the program's first five years, 95 percent of participating students were from racial and ethnic minority groups and average annual income of participating families was $11,340.  In the fifth year, average family income was $14,210, or 64 percent of the average MPS family income.  Fewer than one in four MPCP students had married parents; fewer than one in ten lived in a home with two parents. The program's official evaluator from 1991 to 1995 said test scores of students entering the program were "very low," ranging from 25.5 - 31.0, compared to a national median of 50.[iv]  

4.      Prior school attendance

         In 1998-99, 64 percent of MPCP students previously had attended an MPS school or were entering school for the first time.  The rest — 36 percent — previously attended a private school.[v]  Many in this second group could not participate in the MPCP because the program was enjoined during the 1995-1998 litigation.  They were able to attend private schools because of a privately financed scholarship program for low-income students.

5.      Choice of schools

         More than one in three MPCP students chose a non-religious school this year.

         MPCP students choose non-religious schools at a rate twice as high as other students attending private Milwaukee schools. 

6.      Growth in number of non-religious schools

         In the first year of the MPCP, seven non-religious schools participated.  Their number is 28 this year.  Most of the growth has come from schools that started operations as a result of the MPCP.

7.      Civil rights protection

         MPCP students are covered by 42 U.S.C. 2000d of the 1964 U.S. Civil Rights Act, which provides that:  “No person in the United States shall, on the ground of race, color, or national origin, be excluded from participating in, be denied the benefits of, or be subjected to discrimination under any program or activity.”

8.      Impact on racial segregation

         Choice opponents claimed the MPCP would worsen racial segregation in Milwaukee schools.   In response, Howard Fuller, Ph.D., and George Mitchell analyzed public and private school enrollment in Milwaukee.  As the following table illustrates, they found that expansion of the MPCP since 1995 was associated with an increase in racial balance in Milwaukee’s private schools.[vi]

Private school enrollment in Milwaukee since 1995

         Fuller and Mitchell also cited data suggesting that school-by-school racial isolation in private schools was less than in MPS schools.

9.   Religious affiliation and participation

         MPCP schools may not consider the religious affiliation of choice students in the admission process.  In addition, MPCP parents may request that their child not participate in any religious activity.  The People for the American Way (PFAW) alleges that MPCP schools have violated this and related provisions. The claim is based on answers allegedly given by schools to anonymous phone callers hired by PFAW-NAACP to pose as parents.   There has been no independent verification of these claims.  The Wisconsin Department of Public Instruction stated during a November 17, 1999 public hearing that it has no record of an actual parent or student complaint regarding admission practices in the 10-year history of the MPCP.

10.    Cost

         In 1999-2000, participating private schools receive $5,106 per pupil or the private school’s per pupil cost of education, whichever is less.  The MPS per pupil budget is $9,310 for the same period.[vii]

11.    Fiscal impact on public schools

         Choice opponents say the MPCP has an unfair financial impact on public schools.  Responding to that claim, Fuller and Mitchell studied MPS finances during the first nine years of school choice.[viii]  The following chart, which summarizes their findings, shows that MPS's financial situation improved substantially after the MPCP was enacted and expanded.

12. Constitutionality

         During its ten-year history, the MPCP twice has been challenged in court.  Both times, the Wisconsin Supreme Court upheld the program.  In the second case, it ruled that including religious schools did not violate religious establishment provisions of the Wisconsin or U.S. Constitutions.[ix]  The United States Supreme Court declined to hear an appeal of the second (1998) Wisconsin ruling, ending for the time being questions about the program's legality. State and federal courts have issued conflicting rulings on school choice programs elsewhere.  The United States Supreme Court has so far declined to accept a case that might provide a definitive ruling.  Observers are watching to see when the court will hear such a case.

13.  Program assessment

         In a new book, Wisconsin's official evaluator from 1990 to 1995, University of Wisconsin political science professor John Witte, voiced support for targeted programs such as the MPCP.[x]  Quoting Witte, the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel said his primary message is that "choice can be a useful tool to aid families and educators in inner city and poor communities where education has been a struggle for several generations...If programs are devised correctly, they can provide meaningful educational choices to families that now do not have such choices.

         Also quoting Witte's book, a 1999 paper includes this overall perspective of school choice:   "Choice provides a truly radical departure from education as usual.  For those concerned with the course and quality of education now or in the future, it challenges the basic framework of the policy regime.  It also focuses attention on parents as critical actors in a system where they are often neglected or relegated to quite subservient support roles.  And, finally, if packaged properly, it invokes deep value structures revolving around the twin poles of freedom of choice and the unjust denial of equal opportunity..."[xi]

         Others who have studied the MPCP include:

•         David Ruenzel, a contributing reporter for Education Week, who wrote that:  "...[T]he Milwaukee choice plan has...deeply involved long-alienated parents in their children's schooling.  This is of crucial importance, standing as a powerful retort to educators who have long suggested that parents burdened by social and economic problems could devote but minimal attention to educational issues."  Ruenzel observed that "[i]f choice parents were largely invisible in their old public schools, they are visible everywhere in their new schools — in the corridors, in the office, and even in the classroom, where they sometimes work as aides."[xii]

•         Cecilia Rouse, a Princeton University economics professor, wrote in Harvard's Quarterly Journal of Economics that "...being selected to participate in the choice program appears to have increased the math achievement of low-income, minority students by 1.5-2.3 percentile points per year (emphasis added)."[xiii]   The chart on the next page, reprinted with the Rouse's permission, illustrates these gains.

         Adjusted math (NCE) test scores, by years since application to Choice Program, all cohorts.

•         Jay Greene, Paul Peterson, and Jiangtao Du (respectively, political science professors at the University of Texas-Austin and Harvard University and a statistical researcher at Harvard). The Brookings Institution and Education and Urban Society reported that they found statistically significant gains in math and reading scores for students in the choice program three and four years.[xiv]  The figure on the next page summarizes the magnitude of their reported gains.

         The UW's Witte differs with Rouse and Greene, et.al., on test scores.  Witte found "...no substantial difference...between the Choice and MPS students....On a positive note, estimates for the overall samples...do not substantially decline as the students enter higher grades.  This is not the normal pattern in that usually urban student average scores decline relative to national norms in higher grades..."

         The program's history includes examples of isolated problems:

•         During its first five years, three choice schools closed in mid-year because of educational or financial mismanagement.  Witte says such circumstances show that "extreme variation in quality characterizes inner-city private schools much as it does inner-city public schools."  

•         Building inspectors recently found code violations at a handful of MPCP schools.  The Wisconsin Department of Public Instruction (DPI) found a similar set of problems in a number of Wisconsin's public schools.  According to the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, a DPI "survey identified 117 schools [with] problems meeting building code 'life safety' requirements, such as emergency lighting and warning systems or exit signs."[xv]

14.    Opinion in Milwaukee

         School choice was a major issue during the April 1999 MPS school board elections.  In five contested races, voters rejected opponents of choice, including three incumbents.

         Separately, a Fall 1999 Milwaukee Journal Sentinel opinion poll found that "Milwaukee's precedent-setting private school voucher program...drew support of 60% of all those in the survey and even higher proportions among" African American [74%) and Hispanic [77%] respondents.[xvi]

         A diverse coalition has supported enactment and growth of the MPCP, including:

•         Parents for School Choice, representing low-income and minority  parents.

•         The Metropolitan Milwaukee Association of Commerce (MMAC), southeastern Wisconsin's largest group of employers, which made school choice its top legislative priority.

•         Clergy for Educational Options, a predominantly African American organization of pastors and other clergy in Milwaukee churches.

•         A bipartisan group of elected officials, including several MPS school board members, Democratic Milwaukee Mayor John Norquist, several Democratic state representatives and state senators from the Milwaukee area, Republican Governor Thompson, and a majority of Republican state legislators. 

15.    Impact on public school reform

         Choice supporters say the policy can strengthen public schools, which will continue to educate most urban children.  While MPS students rank low on statewide academic achievement tests, there are signs that the district is responding to the idea of increased choice and accountability to parents:

•         With one exception, MPS declined until 1999 to use state authority to charter independent schools.   Reflecting the recent elections, MPS has chartered three non-profit private schools for the 2000-01 school year and has approved charters for two of its own school

•         MPS has dropped its opposition to a pioneering 1997 state law — the nation's first — that gives independent chartering authority to the Common Council of the City of Milwaukee, the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, and Milwaukee Area Technical College.[xvi]

•         During the January 2000 school selection period for the 2000-01 school year, MPS schools are running radio and print ads urging parents to enroll at their school.  These MPS schools now see themselves in competition for children eligible for the MPCP.

•         MPS has expanded the number of popular programs and schools, including Montessori education and early childhood programs

•         In the 1998 school selection period, MPS purchased radio ads urging parents to choose an MPS school and said the district would provide an individual tutor to children who could not read by second grade.

•         MPS and its teachers' union have agreed to loosen system-wide seniority rules that determine how most schools are staffed.

16.    Accountability

         Wisconsin's Supreme Court said MPCP statutes provide "more than sufficient control and accountability...to ensure that the program serves the public purpose to which it is directed."   The court said choice schools "are also subject to the additional checks inherent in the notion of school choice....If the private school does not meet the parents' expectations, the parents may remove the child from the school and go elsewhere."  The Court added:  “[T]he state need not, and in fact is not given the authority to impose a ‘comprehensive, discriminating, and continuing state surveillance’ over the participating sectarian private schools."  To do so, it said, could "result in an excessive governmental entanglement with religion" that is not constitutionally permitted.

         MPCP schools must follow statutes that apply to all private schools in Wisconsin.  In addition, they must:

•         Follow   health and safety codes that apply to public schools;

•         Use uniform accounting standards set by the Wisconsin Department of Public Instruction (DPI);

•         Submit a yearly audit to the DPI;

•         Show that they have met at least one of  four performance standards involving student advancement, student attendance, academic progress, and parent involvement.

Attachments

I.        "Ahead of the Curve," Education Week, January 13, 1999.

II.      "A Choice in the Matter," Education Week, September 27, 1995.

III.    "Ex-Milwaukee evaluator endorses school choice," Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, January 9, 2000.

IV.    Milwaukee Parental Choice Program Statutes, Section 119.23, Wisconsin Statutes.

V.     Milwaukee Parental Choice Program, Student Application Form, 2000-2001 School Year.

VI.    Tax-Supported K-12 Voucher Programs — Summary of Milwaukee, Cleveland, and Florida legislation.

For answers to questions on this report, contact:

Howard Fuller, Director
Institute for the Transformation of Learning
Marquette University
P.O. 1881
Milwaukee WI 53201-1881

 (414) 288-5775  (414) 288-6199

fullerh@marquette.edu

George Mitchell, Sharon Schmeling, Debbie Meyer
Office of Research, Institute for the Transformation of Learning
2025 N. Summit Avenue, Suite 101
Milwaukee WI 53202

 (414) 765-0691     (414) 765-1271 (FAX)

 mitchco@execpc.com, schmeling@parentchoice.org, debbie@parentchoice.org

 
To contact the DPI administrator of the MPCP:

 Charles Toulmin
Wisconsin Department of Public Instruction
125 S. Webster St.
Madison WI 53707

 (608) 266-2853

http://www.dpi.state.wi.us/dpi/dfm/sms/choice.html

To contact MPCP schools or arrange a visit:

See individual schools listed on DPI website, or contact:

Sherry Street, Project Director
American Education Reform Council
2025 N. Summit Ave., Suite 103
Milwaukee WI 53202

 (414) 319-9160  FAX (414) 765-0220
street@parentchoice.org

For information on legal issues, contact:

John E. Kramer, Vice President for Communications
Institute for Justice
1717 Pennsylvania Ave., N.W., Suite 200
Washington, D.C.  20006

(202) 955-1300 ext. 205
jkramer@ij.org

Endnotes