Monday, June 23, 2014

"In fairness" and "School Choice Demonstration Project" Should Not Be Used in the Same Sentence

Chris Rickert: Ideological lines remain strong in latest school voucher flap   (Wisconsin State Journal, 6/22/2014)

That a pretty big rangeIn fairness, a 2012 report by the University of Arkansas-based School Choice Demonstration Project, which studies the 24-year-old Milwaukee voucher program, estimates that between 7.5 percent and 14.6 percent of voucher students had disabilities. 

Milwaukee Public Schools is able to provide specific percentages in this annual report.




The Big Money Behind School Choice.  (Wisconsin Watch, 9/18/2011)

Exhibit AThe Walton Family Foundation highlights “systemic K-12 education reform” as one of the areas in which it is “making a positive difference.” In 2010 it invested $157 million in this cause, including efforts to shape public policy.

This includes $300,000 to School Choice Wisconsin; $250,000 each to three existing or proposed charter schools in Milwaukee and Madison; $275,000 to the University of Wisconsin-Madison for research and evaluation; and a total of $496,000 to Marquette University’s Institute for the Transformation of Learning, headed by school choice advocate Howard Fuller. 

The Walton Family Foundation also gave at least $600,000 last year to the University of Arkansas’ School Choice Demonstration Project, which is conducting a multi-year assessment of Milwaukee’s school choice program (see sidebar), including a report earlier this year that has been criticized as too rosy.

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