DID SCHOOL CHOICE DESTROY PUBLIC EDUCATION IN MILWAUKEE?
The big story out of Milwaukee is not whether the 20% of students who went to voucher schools, charter schools, and out-of-district schools did better or worse. While they did, for the most part, do better, what’s really important is that the 80% who stayed in the traditional public schools are also doing much better. Contrary to dire warnings that School Choice would depopulate, defund and demoralize the public schools, the opposite has happened. Faced with real competition, the public schools rose to the occasion. They instituted dramatic changes and got dramatic results. Today, 12 years after the dreaded “V” word came to Milwaukee, the public schools have more students and more teachers; higher budgets, higher test scores and higher graduation rates. To permit public schools to compete effectively, the Milwaukee school board gave each school the right to select its principal, choose its new teachers, and control its budget. Ineffective teachers were removed faster, teacher assignmen
