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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…
Read MoreThis 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…
Read MoreThe Christmas spirit was alive and well into the New Year this weekend as Hispanics for School Choice partnered with generous sponsors to put on a Three Kings Day Celebration in the Madison area. Three Kings Day, or Dia de Los Reyes, is a holiday often celebrated in Hispanic communities to mark the arrival of the magi to Bethlehem to bring gifts to baby Jesus. HFSC’s Three Kings Day event brought together more than 200 people for a toy giveaway that also included traditional rosca de reyes, or kings’ bread, hot chocolate, and an opportunity for children to have their picture…
Read MoreDecember 13, 2023 The Wisconsin Supreme Court today unanimously denied a petition seeking to halt Wisconsin’s parental choice programs. “This news will come as a great relief to thousands of Wisconsin families and the schools that serve them. Parents across the state value a program that works for them,” said Nicholas Kelly, president of School Choice Wisconsin. Kelly thanked the Wisconsin Institute for Law & Liberty for seeking to intervene on behalf of School Choice Wisconsin Action and other parents and students in choice and charter schools and protecting parental choice. He noted that SCW had launched a significant ad…
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Read MoreWEST ALLIS — According to state report cards released today by the Department of Public Instruction, students across Wisconsin’s three largest parental choice programs are more likely than their public school peers to attend a school that exceeds state-established expectations. The Department of Public Instruction found that more than 80 percent of students in the Milwaukee Parental Choice Program attend schools that meet, exceed or significantly exceed expectations compared to 53 percent of students in Milwaukee Public Schools. Forty-two percent of students in the MPCP attend schools that significantly exceed or exceed expectations, compared to 21 percent of MPS students.…
Read MoreWEST ALLIS — School Choice Wisconsin President Nicholas Kelly released the following statement in response to a lawsuit filed by Minocqua Brewing Co. President Kirk Bangstad that would kick 50,000+ low-income students out of Wisconsin’s parental choice programs: “Efforts to kill school choice will hurt thousands of low-income families throughout the state. In Milwaukee and Racine, where four out of five choice students are Black and Hispanic, this would fall most heavily on families desperate for educational options.” A press kit providing background information on School Choice Wisconsin and Wisconsin’s choice programs can be found here. Contact [email protected] for media inquiries.
Read MoreWEST ALLIS — New data released today by the Department of Public Instruction shows that participation in Wisconsin’s parental school choice programs continues to grow. Nearly 55,000 students are enrolled in one of Wisconsin’s four parental choice programs — an increase of 2,760 from last year — attending one of 383 schools. Both marks represent record participation. This comes on the heels of Governor Tony Evers and Republican legislative leaders agreeing to an historic bipartisan funding increase as part of state budget negotiations earlier this year. “School choice is growing because it works. All parents deserve the right to find…
Read MoreOctober 10, 2023 (WEST ALLIS) — Students in Wisconsin’s parental choice programs outperformed public school students across a range of test results released by DPI today. Families who participate in the parental choice programs must be at or below the following federal poverty percentages when they apply: 300% (MPCP and RPCP) and 220% (WPCP). These students are some of the most economically disadvantaged students in Wisconsin. The comparisons below show: Choice students in Milwaukee and Racine outscore Milwaukee and Racine public students from all income levels on academic proficiency tests. Choice students outscore students from all income levels on college-readiness…
Read MoreWEST ALLIS — School Choice Wisconsin and the Wisconsin Institute of Law and Liberty (WILL) today released a new report that shines new light on the amount of special needs students in Wisconsin’s choice schools serve students with disabilities. The report, Serving All: Students with Disabilities in Wisconsin’s Parental Choice Programs, demonstrates that contrary to previously-reported, incomplete data, private schools in Wisconsin’s choice programs enroll roughly the same percentage of students with learning disabilities as public schools. Based on responses from schools enrolling 40 percent of students in the state’s choice programs, the SCW-WILL research found that more than 10…
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