Another school year, and more money being sent to vouchers

With the third week in October finishing up, the Wisconsin Department of Public Instruction finalized their allocations for the state's school voucher program. And to no one's surprise, the voucher program keeps getting bigger, and more expensive.

Student enrollment in the various programs is determined by counts that take place on the third Friday in September. Across the three programs, 36,249 students received a voucher to attend one of the 238 participating private schools. This is an increase of 2,684 students and 29 schools across the three programs compared to the prior school year. The 2017-18 enrollment for the three voucher programs is 35,176.0 full-time equivalent (FTE) students, an increase of 2,620.9 FTE from 2016-17. In most cases, one student counts as one FTE. However, in certain cases, the FTE can be less. For example, depending on services provided, a 4-year-old kindergarten (K4) student may be counted as 0.5 FTE or 0.6 FTE.

For the 2017-18 school year, each participating private school may receive a voucher payment of $7,530 per FTE in grades kindergarten through eight and $8,176 per FTE for students enrolled in grades nine through 12. The cost of the three programs combined is estimated at $269.7 million for the 2017-18 school year, which is an increase of about $25.5 million from the prior year.

Actually, that “$25.5 million increase” is based on the budgeted amount in 2016-17. If we go to the actual expenses reported in the state's Annual Fiscal Report, it would be an increase of $28.7 million (11.9%) compared to last year, and $39 million compared to 2 years ago.

The statewide voucher program is one that’s had a significant effect in recent years, as not only did vouchers break out past the Racine and Milwaukee school districts, but it has a direct effect on the amount of aid those public schools receive.

The statewide private school choice program is paid for in two ways, dependent upon when a student first received a voucher. General purpose revenue (GPR) pays for students who first participated in the program prior to 2015-16 on a sum sufficient basis. Incoming pupils, those who first participated in the 2015-16 school year or after, are paid for through a deduction in state aid from the public school district where the student resides.

Incoming pupils in the WPCP are included in the resident public school district’s membership for state general aid purposes, but the district may not levy to backfill the aid reduction. The district instead receives a non-recurring revenue limit exemption, which the school board may include when setting its 2018 school taxes. The exemption is equal to a given district’s reduction in aid.

Another trend that is continuing in 2017-18 is that less than 1 in 6 students receiving vouchers are transferring from public schools.

2016-17 enrollment of 2017-18 voucher students (headcount)
Private School 75.0%
Public School 15.8%
Not in School 5.5%
Homeschooled 3.6%
Out of state 0.1%

And this reveals one of the biggest scams in a voucher program riddled with them. Taxpayers are subsidizing private school students that were already attending the schools, and were already having tuition taken care of (either by the parents of the student or through scholarships/aid from the school). This allows the private school to get an extra source of revenue and an ability to reinvest their tuition/aid funds, a double-gain for these overwhelmingly religious schools.

On the flip side, the local public school gets money TAKEN AWAY FROM IT, even though that voucher student may never have spent a day in a public school classroom in that community. And it’s at a level that is higher than the average amount of state aid per student, while forcing a cut in school spending per student for the local district.

If you look at the stats for which public school districts had the most residents receiving vouchers (and losing state aid in the process), you’ll see a lot of medium-size cities and a couple of Milwaukee suburbs. I am leaving Racine out of this analysis as they are under a different system that allows for more vouchers and higher income levels.

Most students “lost” to vouchers, 2017-18, by FTE
Green Bay 402.50
Kenosha 221.50
Appleton 207.00
West Allis-West Milwaukee 166.40
Oshkosh 147.00
Waukesha 144.60
Sheboygan 141.00
Eau Claire 125.00
Fond du Lac 111.10
Wausau 100.00

An organization called School Funding Reform for Wisconsin has created a nice graphic which shows the State Senate districts having the most tax dollars funneled out of their public schools and into vouchers.


My area isn't losing much. Yours may be very different

I’ll leave out the Racine-area stats again, and not surprisingly, the two senators from Green Bay have the most funds being sent away. But you’ll notice that a whole lot of GOP districts are next on that list.

Total voucher payments, Wis Senate districts, 2017-18
Cowles (R) $4.039 million
Hansen (D) $3.087 million
LeMahieu (R) $2.139 million
Roth (R) $2.130 million
Feyen (R) $1.968 million
Vukmir (R) $1.906 million
Kapenga (R) $1.437 million

Oh, and did you know that other than Feyen (elected with help from Bradley/DeVos voucher money last November), the last 5 Republicans on the list are all up for re-election in 2018? This includes the seat of ALEC Queen Vukmir, who abandoned the 5th district to run for US Senate (fellow voucher whore Dale (Koo-Koo) Kooyenga is trying to replace her).

Interestingly, the areas represented by Roth, LeMahieu and Feyen are right in the heart of Congressman Glenn Grothman’s district. Not only is Grothman publically saying he is in a dogfight to keep his seat in Congress against Dan Kohl next year, but Grothman also backed every voucher expansion this state put in from 2011-2015, and was the lead author of a 2013 budget provision allowing richer Wisconsinites to deduct their private school tuition from their taxes.

Maybe 2018 would be a good time for you in Eastern and Central Wisconsin to pay back Grothman and other WisGOPs for all the money they have stolen away from your public schools and the higher taxes you have had to pay as a result of their Bradley/DeVos-based scam. Just a thought.