Here we go again.

Here we go again. 

Ingrid Walker-Henry’s Sept. 28 attack on parent choice presents the tired litany of falsehoods regularly advanced by those who want to limit educational opportunities for Milwaukee families.  

Ms. Walker-Henry is the president of the Milwaukee Teachers’ Education Association. She clearly seeks to divert attention from the tidal wave of news this year by describing the many reasons parents seek options other than Milwaukee Public Schools.

Readers deserve to know that the attacks published against the Milwaukee Parental Choice Program are, at best, flawed and, at worst, dishonest. 

While the author questioned the results from private, charter, and voucher schools, the fact of the matter is that 58 percent of choice students attend Milwaukee private schools rated highest by the Department of Public Instruction, according to the Wisconsin Policy Forum. Sadly, that number is only 20 percent for MPS. Statewide, DPI data show low-income private choice students substantially outperform public school peers. In Milwaukee, Racine, and statewide, private choice students outscore all public school students on the college readiness ACT test.

Walker-Henry goes on to falsely claim that, “It is widely known that private voucher schools often bring students in for third Friday counts – the day in September on which student attendance determines state per pupil funding – and then counsel them out of their schools.”

The reality is that we’ve known for more than two decades that this claim is untrue. Writing in 2003, the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel’s Alan Borsuk noted that voucher opponents had circulated the claim for years. He wrote, “There is one problem with the claim: No facts back it up.”

Throughout her column, Walker-Henry clung to the same tired talking points about private and voucher schools in Milwaukee refusing to educate special needs students.

That claim also falls short. Independent research shows that the share of special needs students in private choice schools is at least seven times higher than the false MTEA number. More recent research estimates that at least 10 percent of Milwaukee private choice students have special education needs. This estimate does not include the 2,703 students enrolled in the Special Needs Scholarship Program, 741 of whom are in schools in Milwaukee.

According to the WPF, “When fully phased in, the April 2024 referendum could increase MPS per pupil revenues by nearly $4,000 over the next four years, raising them above $17,000 per student. The increase would likely lift MPS core funding above that of each of the 10 largest school districts in Wisconsin…” By comparison, average per-pupil payments to private choice schools will be about 73 percent of the MPS level. That’s a far cry from Walker-Henry’s claim that MPS students have somehow been “defund.”

Apart from these and other substantive errors, Ms. Walker-Henry is wrong on the most basic facts. She writes that the Milwaukee private choice program has “been expanded to include private charter schools…” As everyone (but Ms. Walker-Henry) knows, charter schools are public schools.

If MTEA had its way, more than 29,000 Milwaukee students would be displaced from the schools their parents have chosen for them. Even Gov. Tony Evers opposed a lawsuit seeking such an outcome. As he told the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, the suit would have “traumatic” effects by “uprooting the lives of a whole bunch of kids.”

Unlike the MTEA, School Choice Wisconsin (SCW) supports all K-12 options. This includes MPS, chosen by parents of 66,864 students last year. Also, unlike the MTEA, we will stick to the facts: letting parents pick the education option that is best for their kids works.

Nicholas Kelly is the President of School Choice Wisconsin.