SOME LAWMAKERS SAY SCHOOL PROGRAM MIGHT BE RESTORED IN CONFERENCE COMMITTEE
A showdown over Milwaukee's decade-old school choice program was set in motion when the Democratic-controlled Senate passed its plan to eliminate the state's $1.1 billion budget deficit, including a measure that would slash vouchers for the choice program.

But some lawmakers say the signing of these school choice cuts into law is more than a big "if" - it is highly unlikely.

"No. I think it's unacceptable to the Assembly and the governor," said state Sen. Gary R. George (D-Milwaukee), who broke rank with his party to vote against the Senate's budget proposal.

"And it's regrettable that the (choice) families become fodder in the war," he said.

The Senate budget plan would cut the choice subsidy that allows more than 10,000 low-income children in Milwaukee to attend private schools from $5,780 per student to $2,000 for grade school students and $3,000 for high schoolers.

Republicans control the Assembly and have adopted a different budget repair plan. The two measures soon will be debated by a legislative conference committee charged with resolving the differences.

George called the Senate plan, which would cut a total of $23 million from the choice program, "obviously punitive," and criticized its sponsor, Sen. Russ S. Decker (D-Schofield) as "especially insensitive to the needs of minority children."

Opposition not just to choice

George said he had other reasons for opposing the Senate budget plan. He faulted an amendment, introduced by Sen. Rod Moen (D-Whitehall), that would allow Ashley Furniture Industries in Arcadia to expand its plant into wetlands, calling it "an end-run around environmental law." He labeled the Senate's approach to the budget "a formula for delay and conflict at a time when we need budget leadership."

State Sen. Gwendolynne S. Moore (D-Democrat) found much to like in the Senate plan. She praised the plan to eliminate the deficit for the 2001-'03 period because it does not raise taxes; it ensures access to health care for low-income families; and it restores millions of dollars in shared revenue aid to the City of Milwaukee and Milwaukee County.

But Moore stressed, "When you put a package together, there are things that you like and things that you don't like."

What she did not like, she said, was the move to cut vouchers for school choice.

"I personally think that the proposals to end the parental choice program were too severe and too immediate," she said. "I think it will get to the conference committee and be taken out. That would be my hope. . . . I don't think it will survive the final package."

In a written statement, Moore expressed "grave concerns" about the funding mechanism for school choice, which, she said, "draws funding away from the 90 percent of Milwaukee's schoolchildren" who attend the city's public schools.

State Sen. Richard A. Grobschmidt (D-South Milwaukee) called the overall education policy in the Senate plan "quite positive." The plan would add some $18 million in special education money and increase per-pupil spending to match the increase in the consumer price index.

But Grobschmidt expressed concerns about the Senate's cuts to school choice and stressed that the budget process is far from over.

"I have not in the past been a supporter of school choice," he said. "But it is currently in place, and it would be hard at this point to basically eliminate the program."

One possible compromise that could be discussed in the conference committee would be to require private schools that participate in the choice program to undergo the same standardized tests and assessments as public schools. That type of approach would appeal to lawmakers outside of Milwaukee, Grobschmidt said, allowing them to compare the performances of students in the choice program with those in the public schools.

For now, though, lawmakers may find it difficult politically to support deep cuts to the choice program. Milwaukee Mayor John O. Norquist was unavailable for comment Sunday, but his spokesman, Steve Filmanowicz, said leaders of both parties have been striving to be seen as pro-education.

Political risk is noted

"Do they want to send a very anti-education message by forcing parents to send their children out of the school of their choice?" Filmanowicz asked.

Another question raised by the Senate budget plan is what would happen to the Milwaukee Public Schools if the choice program were to take a large hit. Presumably some of the choice students would return to the public schools, increasing enrollment, expenses and even the demand for additional school buildings.

School choice supporters say that elimination of the program would cost some private schools so many of their students that they would have to close, hurting both choice and non-choice families.

School choice supporters also say that Milwaukee would require more state aid because of increasing enrollment, which would mean a corresponding loss of state aid in districts outside the city.

But school choice critic Chris Ahmuty, executive director of the ACLU of Wisconsin, said Sunday night that the city's public schools have "been hurt by choice all along" because choice schools have not been required to take children with learning disabilities.