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Assembly to Improve “Deal” for Voucher Schools
By Wisconsin School Administrators Alliance staff | June 19, 2013
In a last minute set of changes to the state budget bill, Assembly Republican leaders plan to move the goal post on the “deal” struck with Senate Republicans on voucher expansion. For information on this so-called “technical” amendment, see the Draft Legislative Fiscal Bureau memo.
Under the amendment, another $5.3 million in state taxpayer money would be funneled into the program that allows students to attend religious and other private schools at taxpayer expense in eastern Racine County. That program is based in the home county of Vos, a longtime voucher proponent who helped establish the Racine program two years ago. The changes would bring another 750 students into that program, according to projections from the nonpartisan Legislative Fiscal Bureau. Another change would create a higher income threshold for married parents in a new voucher program for areas outside of Racine and Milwaukee, the only two areas with existing voucher programs. The program for the rest of the state was to be available to families making 185% of the federal poverty level or less. Under the amendment, married couples would be able to exceed that level by another $7,000 and still participate in the program.
See Journal Sentinel online coverage.
I think most Wisconsinites understand that a deal is a deal when you shake hands on it. It’s that way on the farm. It’s that way on Main Street. But, given what’s happening on the state budget, you really have to ask yourself, “When is a deal a deal in the State Capitol?”
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