Fund public schools or private schools? We can’t afford both

Wisconsin’s candidates for Governor disagree on many issues. But perhaps no single issue illustrates the disparity in their vision for the states as education. Governor Tony Evers has spent his life in public education, as a teacher, a principal, and as the state’s superintendent of schools. His opponent, Tim Michels, is calling not to build up Wisconsin’s public schools, but to tear them down. He calls putting more money into public education in Wisconsin “the definition of insanity.” He prefers an immediate statewide expansion of the school voucher program, using taxpayer dollars to send children to private schools. The problem with Michels’ plan is that every dollar that is used to send students to private schools is a dollar that isn’t going to fund public education. No wonder so many school districts are turning to voters for more funding in November referendums. Wisconsin’s school voucher program hasn’t exactly been a resounding success. The program has grown from just a few hundred students when school vouchers were first offered to more than 47,000 statewide today. But there is zero evidence that students attending private schools are getting a better education. Test scores show that students attending voucher schools are no better at reading or math than those attending public schools. Putting more money into school vouchers essentially has the state operating two school systems, one public and one private. That simply is unsustainable, and causes further damage to a public education, once known as the great equalizer.