Editorial: Lift Cap on School Choice Enrollment
By The Wisconsin State Journal
Last Update: February 1, 2005
The state should let more low-income Milwaukee parents enroll their children in "school choice" but also step up efforts to ensure the program's academic and fiscal accountability.
Demand for enrollment in the program is soon expected to exceed a state-imposed cap. The current state limit caps participation in school choice to 15 percent of total Milwaukee Public Schools enrollment. About 14,700 students are currently enrolled, just 150 below the cap, while enrollment is growing at about 1,500 students a year.
Forward-looking Republicans want to avoid shutting children out of a program that fosters healthy competition in schooling and gives parents more educational options for their children. School choice uses state money to pay for low-income kids to attend private schools, including religious institutions. This program would have no limit on the number of children it could enroll in private schools at taxpayer expense this fall under legislation already endorsed by the Legislature's budget committee.
The Department of Public Instruction had proposed a random lottery to pick students rather than lift the cap, but lawmakers wisely overruled this plan to subject poor kids' educational futures to arbitrary chance. Enrollment for the program begins Feb. 1, so quick action is important. Under the bill advancing through the Legislature, the state would use the total number of children who enroll in the program during the coming school year to establish a new cap on program participation for the next school year.
That short-term fix seems reasonable, but the measure must get past Gov. Jim Doyle, who vetoed a Republican plan last year to lift the cap. Doyle prefers a more modest increase in enrollment as part of a larger plan imposing more accountability requirements.
That's a good idea, too. Program supporters claim requirements would be unconstitutional, but that need not be the case. School choice supporters should recognize that to preserve and expand their program, they must accept a system that eases worries about the program's lack of oversight. One option is to create an independent group of educators to evaluate schools on general standards. Another is to require choice schools to administer many of the same standardized tests as public school students.
It's important to preserve flexibility and innovation in education, but it's equally important to ensure accountability and results. Clearly, inadequate oversight has harmed the choice program. Several schools have closed in the last couple of years amid controversy about their academic standards, leadership, and cases of alleged financial fraud.
The state has increased financial reporting requirements. Now Doyle and the Republicans should find a middle ground that lifts the enrollment cap to meet demand while making sure enrollees get a quality education.