Milwaukee has the nation’s longest-running voucher program. Kansas is following its lead with the passage of the corporate tax credit “scholarship” program to allow low income students to attend private schools. What’s the problem with that? It takes money from the state general fund and provides no measures of accountability for the schools receiving the “scholarships”.
Milwaukee’s program has standards, but even so, “Over the past 10 years, Wisconsin taxpayers have paid about $139 million to private schools that were subsequently barred from the state’s voucher system for failing to meet requirements related to finances, accreditation, student safety and auditing, a State Journal review has found. . . Northside High School, for example, received $1.7 million in state vouchers for low-income students attending the private school before being terminated from the program in its first year in 2006 for failing to provide an adequate curriculum.”
Did your legislator support the corporate tax credit scholarship program? Is this an efficient use of state resources?