Wisconsin Presses Forward on School Choice

Rachel Sheffield / June 07, 2011

Wisconsin is home to the longest-running and largest school choice program in the nation. Now, state legislators are taking steps to open wider the doors of educational opportunities for families in the Badger State.

For the last 20 years, Wisconsin students have benefited from the Milwaukee Parental Choice Program (MPCP), which provides vouchers to low-income Milwaukee students to attend private schools of their choice. Now, action taken just this week by the state’s Joint Finance Committee would expand the program by implementing a variety of reforms. As the American Federation of Children explains:

The legislation—which comprises proposals from Democratic and Republic lawmakers—would eliminate the student enrollment cap on the MPCP, expand the program to include middle-income families earning up to 300 percent of the federal poverty level, increase the number of private schools eligible to accept students with vouchers, and eliminate the possibility that students initially eligible could be removed from the choice program if their parents’ income increases after their children have been admitted. (more…)