Skip to content
annie
annie
School Choice Wisconsin is pleased to announce that Nathan Schwanz has joined its board of directors, Nicholas Kelly, SCW president said today. “Nathan is committed to educational freedom for parents, and he brings to the board strong strategic capability, policy experience, and problem-solving skills,” Kelly said. “He is a highly regarded leader who will help deepen our capability to serve families.” Schwanz is currently the Director of Government Relations for the Medical College of Wisconsin. He formerly was Deputy Chief of Staff to Senate Majority Leader Devin LeMahieu and has a decade of experience in the legislative and executive branches…
The Wisconsin Legislature recently adjourned the regular 2023-2024 session. Unless a special or extraordinary session is called, the Wisconsin Legislature will next convene in January of 2025. Now that the dust has settled, we invite you to watch SCWA registered lobbyists Amy Loudenbeck and Carol Shires as they provide a Legislative Update including: Recap of session statistics Progress report on SCWA policy and budget agenda Preview of SCWA Policy Bulletins to help schools understand and comply with four new laws affecting private choice schools, including crime reporting requirements (Act 12), the literacy bill (Act 20) and more! DOWNLOAD UPDATE SLIDES:…
School Choice Wisconsin Action held a webinar on April 25, 2024, on school safety and firearms in private schools. Cory Brewer and Lauren Greuel from the Wisconsin Institute for Law and Liberty (WILL) and criminal defense attorney Tom Grieve, founder of Grieve Law LLC joined SCW staff during the webinar. Topics covered during the webinar included federal gun-free school zones and Wisconsin concealed carry law. Other pertinent topics regarded how these laws apply in private schools, including private schools attached to places of worship. DOWNLOAD WEBINAR PRESENTATION: Presentation for WILL on Guns, Schools, Churches DOWNLOAD FIREARMS IN SCHOOLS FAQS:…
Watch a webinar from School Choice Wisconsin and DPI’s Customer Service Team held on Tuesday, April 30, 2024, to learn how to prepare your WISEdata for the May 21t Spring Demographic Snapshot and to find end-of-year best practices on how to close out the school year for WISEdata student reporting. Download Webinar Handout
On Thursday, February 15, 2024, School Choice Wisconsin hosted a Q&A session for the Special Needs Scholarship Program (SNSP). School Choice Wisconsin’s Vice President of Operations, Carol Shires, along with Katie Kasper and Lauren Beckmann from the FIRE Foundation of Milwaukee joined participants online to answer the “top 10” frequently asked questions about the SNSP, plus more. Download the SNSP Q&A Session Handout
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…
Schools in Wisconsin must provide “safe and healthful facilities,” but what exactly does that mean? School Choice Wisconsin and the Wisconsin Institute for Law & Liberty held a webinar on August 25, 2023, about safety requirements for private schools. Watch a recording of the webinar featuring Wisconsin Institute for Law & Liberty Attorney Cory Brewer and School Choice Wisconsin President Nicholas Kelly to learn about health and safety requirements for private schools in Wisconsin.
West Allis, Wisconsin – Nic Kelly, President of School Choice Wisconsin, issued the following statement after circulation of a co-sponsorship memo with six bill drafts by Wisconsin legislative democrats earlier today. The so-called “Investing in Our Kids’ Education Initiative – Public Money for Public Schools” bill package seeks drastic and harmful changes which would block new enrollments to and fully phase-out all of Wisconsin’s Parental Choice and Special Needs Scholarship Programs. “School Choice Wisconsin Action is disappointed that any legislator who has witnessed the positive impact of the choice program in Wisconsin for the past 30 years continues to perpetuate…
WEST ALLIS — According to new research published today, schools in Wisconsin’s parental choice programs are significantly more cost-effective than their public school peers. The analysis of publicly-available Department of Public Instruction school report cards and state and local funding data found that private schools in the Milwaukee Parental Choice Program, Racine Parental Choice Program and statewide Wisconsin Parental Choice Program all delivered significantly more bang for the buck than their public school peers: The Milwaukee Parental Choice Program was 89 percent more cost-effective than the Milwaukee Public School District. The Racine Parental Choice Program was 92 percent more cost-effective than…
Data from the Wisconsin Department of Public Instruction enable a comparison of public and private school cost-effectiveness. The results are described in a new School Choice Wisconsin report. Using conservative assumptions, the report shows a marked advantage for schools in the state’s private school choice programs. The advantage is most pronounced in Milwaukee and Racine. A lesser but still sizable advantage exists in the statewide program. Figure 1 shows that per pupil public school revenue substantially exceeds that at private choice schools. DPI Report Card scores show a different picture. Despite less revenue, Figure 2 shows higher Report Card scores…