As the Legislature’s Joint Finance Committee prepares to meet tomorrow (May 23) to review the Governor’s proposed Department of Public Instruction budget for 2019-21, the Wisconsin Institute for Law and Liberty released new data showing how students are faring under the state’s parental choice programs.
The study, “Apples to Apples” makes fair comparisons between public and private school performance by factoring in the socio-economic characteristics of students in the schools. The full study will be released next week.
The study shows that choice students perform better than their public school counterparts. This is significant because Gov. Evers has been claiming there is no difference in student performance between choice and public schools. This is a reason he cites for cutting and regulating the choice programs.
Earlier this month, at the urging of WCRIS schools and other education reform advocates, the Joint Finance Committee deleted Gov. Evers’ choice-harming initiatives from their version of the budget.
The Finance Committee will no doubt be urged Thursday by anti-parental choice legislators to restore Gov. Evers’ cuts. Thankfully, choice proponents will be equipped with the new research, providing further evidence that students are benefiting from parental choice.
The Finance Committee is expected to hold the line and continue to keep the choice cuts out of their proposed budget. As always, WCRIS will be monitoring their activities and will keep you posted through Current Events.
You can read the study here.
