Statement from School Choice Wisconsin and Bender Consulting LLC

For Immediate Release

September 23, 2022
Contact: Nicholas J. Kelly

Statement from School Choice Wisconsin and Bender Consulting LLC:

School Choice Wisconsin (SCW) and Jim Bender, after more than a decade of success working together to advance educational options for parents, are moving forward on different paths but will remain allies in the fight for school choice.

“SCW is grateful to Jim for his service. He has been an effective advocate for our mission of providing parental choice to all families,” said SCW Board Chair Bob DeKoch. “We continue to share a commitment to that goal.”

As SCW President and as a consultant, Bender helped achieve a period of important growth. Parental choice expanded to Racine and then statewide, and now includes a program for special needs students. School participation more than tripled to 350 schools and enrollment more than doubled to nearly 50,000.

“Bender Consulting is welcoming new clients and growing in the education advocacy world,” Jim Bender said. “My work alongside SCW moving forward will hopefully enhance a new era of parental empowerment across Wisconsin.”

DeKoch said SCW has named Susan Mitchell to succeed Jim as its Director of Government Affairs. Mitchell founded SCW in 2004. Beginning with the landmark expansion of the Milwaukee Parental Choice Program in 1995, she represented SCW and its predecessors in state government for more than fifteen years.

“A majority of Wisconsin families want expanded educational options and we plan to help achieve that goal. This is a time of great opportunity and SCW plans to maximize it,” said DeKoch.

 

 

Nicholas J. Kelly 
President 
School Choice Wisconsin

 

Jim Bender
[email protected]
Bender Consulting

 

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