On the first day of classes, the "education governor" visits...a taxpayer-backed charter school

Our Fair Governor made an interesting choice for his “First Day of School” photo op today.

Had a great time welcoming back students at @LaCasaWI this morning! We’ve made historic investments in our K-12 public schools and charter and choice schools because we want to ensure every student receives access to a quality education. #StudentSuccess https://t.co/9rHBEYxO1h pic.twitter.com/sXai0COY1X

— Governor Walker (@GovWalker) September 4, 2018

La Casa de Esperanza isn’t a technically a “voucher” school, as there’s really no student tuition to be paid for, but is instead a “2r” independent charter school, which is defined by the Department of Public Instruction as follows.

The terms "2r" or "2x" refer to the section of the charter school law within s. 118.40 that grants these entities authority to authorize charter schools. All independent charter schools are considered non-instrumentality schools since since the employees of the school are not employed by any school district but are instead employed by the operating organization of the charter school.

Which of course means that those teachers lack union protections and any kind of publically elected oversight other than the leaders at UW-Milwaukee, (who is the authorizing agency that lets the La Casa operators run the school), and UWM officials have about 1,000 bigger things to worry about than the operations of some charter school in Waukesha.

Odd enough to have that photo op at a charter school and not a typical public school, but look at what happened inside of the school doors.

During the visit, Brad Piazza of La Casa de Esperanza's Board of Directors presented Governor Walker with the Legacy Award for his leadership on parental choice in education."Providing a quality K-12 education that prepares students for college, career, and life is my top priority," said Governor Walker in a statement. "We've made historic investments in our K-12 public schools and charter and choice schools because we want to ensure every student in Wisconsin receives access to a quality education regardless of their ZIP Code."

Which likely means Mr. Piazza’s has or will give a nice check to the Betsy DeVos/Scott Jensen conduits, which will be spit out over the next 9 weeks in ads that will never say the word “vouchers" or "charters", and are 50-50 at best to even mention education.

Since Walker and WisGOP took office in 2011, funding "2r" independent charters like La Casa have risen by more than 20% from $57.425 million to $68.976 million, and the per-student payment to these schools has risen from $7,775 in 2011 to $8,612 for this school year (10.8%). And in 2015, just like vouchers, these 2r schools were allowed to open outside of Milwaukee and Racine, and La Casa de Esperanza was the first school outside of those 2 cities to take advantage.

In addition, the nearly $69 million that the 2r schools are getting comes from funneling away $69 million of general formula aids from Wisconsin school districts …even if the student never attended a regular public school.

Meanwhile, Democrats on the state’s Joint Finance Committee used the first day of school to remind us of the larger Walker/DeVos/Jensen education scam paid by taxpayers – vouchers for students to attend private, religious schools. The numbers come from a memo sent by the Joint Finance Committee to the JFC Dems on the subject.

In the 2017-19 biennium so far, voucher schools have received $269.6 million in state funding, while public schools have seen a $90.6 million reduction in state aid. (And this is only for the voucher program. Aid reductions to independent charters and other privatization programs are on top of this).

· Approximately $475 million of taxpayer dollars were paid to voucher schools over the 2015-17 biennium, during which time public schools in those districts faced a $150 million aid reduction

· Private school voucher programs in Wisconsin have already received over $2.5 billion [$2,576,900,000 approx.] in total state funding, and that number is only growing.

“As our children go back to school, we want the best for them and their bright futures. But Republicans have funneled millions of tax dollars to unaccountable voucher schools while our K-12 public schools continue to go to referendum just to keep the lights on," said Rep. Katrina Shankland (D-Stevens Point).

“Instead of funneling tax dollars to private schools, the legislature should fairly fund our public schools so that everyone in Wisconsin has the same opportunity to learn and succeed.” “Taxpayers have the right to know how much of their hard earned dollars are going toward voucher schools, especially since voucher schools are not required to meet the same accountability standards as public schools and have shown no significant improvements over public school performance,” said Sen. Jon Erpenbach (D-Middleton).

And no matter how much our “education governor” (hold on, I’m doubled over in laughter…OK, better) tries to claim that his one-time bump in per-pupil and sparsity aids somehow makes up for 7 prior years of underfunding and denigration, the money-funnel from public schools to campaign contributors in the voucher/charter lobby doesn’t lie.

So it seems fitting that on the first day of school, Walker showed up at the independent charter school that has taken advantage of his laws expanding of where state school aids can flow to. It reveals Gov Dropout’s true objectives on K-12 education- removing local control from voters and their school districts, busting teachers’ unions through these “independent” schools, and giving state money to private operators who will reward his campaign handsomely.