DPI wants to police choice schools
Some on both sides are open to new state plan
By SARAH CARR
Last Update: Last Updated: Nov. 5, 2003
The Wisconsin superintendent of schools Wednesday proposed changing state law to give Department of Public Instruction officials much broader and more binding control over schools participating in Milwaukee's controversial voucher program.
For the first time in the program's 13-year history, the move appears to have the support of at least some educators and politicians on all sides of the debate.
The increased authority would include background checks of employees at the schools; stricter requirements that the schools demonstrate financial viability; and a more explicit provision allowing the DPI to kick schools out of the program if they fail to comply with the rules.
The push for additional safeguards is partly a response to the reopening of Alex's Academics of Excellence this year. The school opened despite chronic financial problems. The Journal Sentinel also turned up accusations by ex-employees of drug use and chaotic conditions in the school.
"The situation at Alex's has become something of a focal point," said Tony Evers, the deputy state superintendent.
State Superintendent Elizabeth Burmaster said the proposals are "common-sense suggestions. Schools receiving state funds need this measure of accountability."
Although this appears to be one of the first times a consensus has emerged on the need for greater oversight, choice advocates are still divided over whether the DPI should be leading the way.
"I think there needs to be some type of oversight, but that it should not come from the DPI," said Brother Bob Smith, the president of Messmer High School. "The conversation should begin with people who are involved in the program and have its interest and history at heart."
The Milwaukee Parental Choice Program, created in 1990, provides thousands of low-income families with state-funded tuition vouchers to attend private schools. Bills expanding the program recently passed both the Assembly and Senate, but will likely be vetoed by Gov. Jim Doyle.
The DPI's proposal, which was sent Wednesday afternoon to Senate and Assembly leaders, would require that schools in the program conduct criminal background checks "through the Department of Justice" on all school employees. It would also require that schools new to choice participate in a "fiscal management training program" approved by the DPI. And it would allow the state superintendent to remove a school from the program if she determined that conditions there "present an imminent threat to the health and safety of students."
Howard Fuller, the director of the Institute for the Transformation of Learning and a longtime voucher advocate, said he supports many of the department's suggestions.
"Schools ought to be financially viable, and we need to be certain that is the case," he said Tuesday, before the plan was announced. "We want young people to be in buildings that are safe."
The heat is on politicians in both parties to support the changes in some form.
An amendment by Sen. Gwen Moore (D-Milwaukee), which would have required background checks as well as other forms of tightened regulation, was defeated on a party-line vote last month. At the time, some Republicans who voted against the amendment said they were not opposed to all of the provisions, but wanted to wait for the DPI proposal.
Choice advocates have said in recent months that the DPI may have more authority against schools such as Alex's than it is using. But Moore said Wednesday that the state superintendent has "absolutely no authority."
"A background check is kind of a bottom-line thing," Moore said. "An occupancy permit is bottom-line stuff. Some sort of record of financial responsibility so in the middle of the semester the school won't be evicted, this is bottom-line, non-negotiable stuff."
The Alliance for Choices in Education, a pro-voucher group, issued a statement Wednesday saying it supports nearly all of Burmaster's recommendations. The alliance put out an alternative proposal Wednesday that includes most of Burmaster's provisions, but changes some of the wording about background checks. While the DPI proposal would mandate that schools not hire employees convicted of certain crimes, the alliance proposal would give them more discretion in making a decision.
Choice supporters say most of the schools in the program - including those run by the Archdiocese of Milwaukee - already have a system of background checks in place.
While Fuller on Tuesday appeared to support most of what would be the DPI's proposal, Smith was more wary.
"We would be fools to think they have the best interest of choice at heart," Smith said Wednesday. "They are blatantly lying, and I am not fooled for a minute to think that all of a sudden they have found religion and are going to do this objectively."
Burmaster responded that the program has no "meaningful quality control measures."
"We've worked with a number of legislators and people involved in the choice program," she added.