UPDATE from Stop Special Needs Vouchers, Wed 20 May 2015

[Stop Special Needs Vouchers]

Greetings from Stop Special Needs Vouchers -- please feel free to forward widely!

Late Night Special Needs Voucher Vote Shocks Families of Students with Disabilities

At 1:30am on Wednesday May 20, the Joint Finance Committee voted along party lines to add a special needs voucher program to Wisconsin law via the state budget. The plan was a well-kept secret until the very day of the JFC meeting, allowing no public input or testimony whatsoever. 

The special needs voucher proposal is Item 27 on page 7 of the document at http://wispolitics.com/1006/150519Motion457.pdf.  The proposal is very similar to the plan that we opposed and defeated last year, except that voucher students need not have been denied for open enrollment.  Stop Special Needs Vouchers press release on the matter can be found below.

Today, we need to turn to our own legislators. Write, call, whatever it takes to communicate our opposition. We can't let this go quietly.

After the Joint Finance Committee finishes with the budget, it will go to the legislature, and then finally to Governor Walker for vetos and signature. 

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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
May 20, 2015
 

Late Night Special Needs Voucher Vote ShocksFamilies of Students with Disabilities

 Milwaukee, WI – Families of students with disabilities are waking up to shocking news of the early-morning vote by the Joint Finance Committee to introduce a special needs voucher program into the state budget.  Families were afforded no opportunity to express their opposition to these harmful vouchers, as the proposal was announced on Tuesday with no prior public discussion.

The families of Stop Special Needs Vouchers have strongly objected to harmful special needs voucher proposals that have repeatedly been introduced and defeated in Wisconsin. Families are deeply concerned about the lack of rights and protections for students with disabilities in private voucher schools, and the increasing drain on funding for the public schools that must accept and educate students of all abilities.

“In every special needs voucher proposal in every state, private school voucher students have had to give up their special education rights and protections,” said Terri Hart-Ellis, whose 11-year-old daughter Addie has an IEP in the Whitefish Bay school district.  “And every time, the students remaining in the public schools stand to lose resources. As parents and citizens and taxpayers, we deserve a chance to make our case against these harmful vouchers. Last night's vote was a travesty.”


Kelli Simpkins, whose 12-year-old son Mickey has an IEP in the Madison school district, is dismayed by both the process and the content of the budget vote.  “Why did we not hear about this underhanded proposal until 2pm on Tuesday afternoon?” she asked.  “Our voices have been silenced by budgetary sneak attack.  Legislators know that parents all over Wisconsin, not to mention every disability organization in the state, have powerful objections to special needs vouchers – but somehow it didn’t seem to matter.”

Objections from families include not only the lack of rights and protection in voucher schools and the loss of resources for students in public schools, but also the flood of shady-operator schools that will emerge to take advantage of this new source of public funding.  Parents remember all too well the cautionary tale of Lifeskills Academy of Milwaukee, the voucher school that suddenly fled the state in December 2013, leaving 66 Wisconsin students stranded and poorly educated.  Lifeskills Academy reinvented themselves as a special needs voucher school in Florida, where they are still operating today.

The special needs vouchers do not belong in the budget, and do not belong in Wisconsin.

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Other items of Note from the Joint Finance Committee Education Motion

The motion that passed last night also unfortunately did contain the Milwaukee school takeover provision we alerted you to last week.  The motion also contained a lifting of the caps on statewide "regular ed" voucher expansion.

On the positive side, the bill did contain the open enrollment fix for students with disabilities that we have been advocating for, as well as a bump in high-cost special education aid and the restoration of the per pupil cuts that were present in the original budget.  The slightly-improved funding will unfortunately come in the front door and go out the back as far as public schools are concerned, as the various iterations of voucher expansion drain resources from the public schools.

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