Mixed Messages on School Choice
Media reports indicate Governor Doyle is signaling a willingness to truly negotiate on School Choice, that he's sounding a more conciliatory tone.
Really?
Check out this letter Doyle fired off to Tim Sheehy at MMAC.
Some excerpts:
This is the kindler, gentler Governor Doyle. Reaching out... Willing to compromise...... It is unfortunate for the children of Milwaukee that you have decided that, rather than work with me on a solution and a compromise, you would rather engage in divisive tactics and push extreme positions that you know I cannot accept.
... this potential crisis was intentionally precipitated by school voucher lobbyists and Republican legislators.... They chose to politicize this issue rather than put the interests of the students first. If you and other voucher advocates had put your effort into honest discussions then we might possibly have solved this issue already.
... I do not support the alternative recently proposed by the Department of Public Instruction, unlike what your dishonest ads imply.... Speaker Gard has been unwilling to engage in productive discussions that would lead to compromise. Instead, the Republican Legislature has sent me bills that they knew I would veto.
... I simply cannot allow the choice program to be expanded at the expense of other public school children in Milwaukee, who under your latest proposal, will see further cuts to their schools. We must help both private and public school children. But that is obviously not the interest of Republican leaders who care more about having a political issue, not helping all the children in Milwaukee.
...attacks and high-pressure tactics that are divisive and unproductive.
Lordy!
4 Comments:
So are these accurate observations more or less harsh than the pro-voucher forces calling the Governor--who has two adult African-American sons--a racist?
Choice advocates are correctly pointing out that the governor is standing in the way of educational opportunities for many black children in Milwaukee. The ACE and MMAC ads, as well as the now infamous Sykes bit, do not call the governor a racist.
What does it matter that he has two adult African-American sons?
It seems the irony is lost on the opponents of Choice that the Governor has exercised it himself - one of his sons went to a fine private school - and more power to him to do that.
But when it comes to children of low income families being able to exercise choice, he throws up caveat after caveat, and has been hostile at best to the program. It is this behavior - his active denial of a better education to those with low incomes, that makes him in the same league with Orville F and George W.
Ah. But there's no proof that voucher schools necessarily provide a better education. They want the public money, but apparently no accountability. You're telling me the school profiled in this summer's Journal Sentinel series on choice schools that included 2 students and whose educational program included field trips to McDonalds was providing those kids a good education? Yeah, sure. How about the school paying teachers (with no high school diploma) 8 bucks an hour? You think those kids are getting a good education? How about the school that apparently had no textbooks or electricity? How about the school where the principal spent public money on 2 Mercedes Benz for himself?
The fact is kids in the city of Milwaukee--even taking the voucher program out of the equation--have more educational choices than kids in almost any other part of the country. They have MPS, MPS sponsored charters, City and UWM sponsored charter schools, the Chapter 220 program, open enrollment, Youth Options, Youth Apprenticeship, and even online virtual schools. Governor Doyle isn't standing in the way of anything--except for inferior quality schools drinking from the public trough.
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