This is an opinion piece by Nicholas J. Kelly posted to Wisconsin Right Now on January 16, 2024. There are two key takeaways from Wisconsin’s pioneering school choice programs. First, students in the programs outperform their public school peers.  Second, the taxpayer cost is sixty-nine percent of public school spending. As president of School Choice Wisconsin, these results spur my work every day.  At School Choice Wisconsin we connect with schools and families to imagine a better future — whether that means expanding a school, finding the right option for a particular student, or simply spreading the word about the…

This is an opinion piece by Nicholas J. Kelly posted to Wisconsin Right Now on August 14, 2024. Primary elections are over. A 12-week sprint to the general election is underway. A major shift in public opinion on school choice and K-12 education will be a factor in legislative races statewide. Given the general consensus that new legislative maps will produce closely contested November outcomes, the views of likely voters on school choice will be decisive. Wes Anderson, the most experienced pollster on Wisconsin education issues in the last two decades, says a tipping point has been reached. When Anderson…

This is an opinion piece by Nicholas J. Kelly posted to Wisconsin Right Now on June 18, 2024. No response to the regrettable MPS debacle will be adequate if it does not include expanded educational choice for all families. Every child deserves an exit pass. Educational choice is the single policy with demonstrable results in the decades of MPS “reform” efforts. Scores of choice students have gone up while those of MPS students have declined. More than half of the city’s parents now use options enacted in the 1990s under Governor Tommy Thompson. The latest data available show that in…

This is an opinion piece by Nicholas J. Kelly posted to Wisconsin Right Now on February 12, 2024. It’s a rare day when everyone is a winner from an education finance measure. New information from the non-partisan, authoritative Legislative Fiscal Bureau (LFB) confirms that is the case for Assembly Bill 900. School boards, school district business managers, and parental choice advocates: Take note! Learn about this proposal and tell your legislators to support its change that treats Wisconsin taxpayers fairly. At issue is school choice decoupling, a topic I wrote about here last month. Briefly, the state currently uses two…