Gov. Jim Doyle and state Assembly Speaker John Gard are on the brink of reaching an agreement to expand enrollment in Milwaukee's private school voucher program, according to sources.

An agreement is likely to be announced by week's end and is expected to include a substantial increase - about $25 million - in funding of the statewide class size reduction program known as SAGE.

Two sources told the Journal Sentinel that the agreement would allow the number of low-income students using publicly funded vouchers in Milwaukee to increase from roughly 15,000 to about 22,500. It also reportedly calls for all schools using vouchers - currently 124 private and religious schools - to obtain one of several forms of accreditation within several years. Many have such accreditation now, but some, including some of the weakest schools, do not.

Doyle, a Democrat, and Gard, a Republican - as well as other key figures in the dispute over the future of the voucher program - held a summit meeting in Madison last Friday to discuss resolving the issue. Discussions have continued this week.

"We're making progress, and we're hopeful there is something we're going to be announcing pretty quickly, but we're not at that point now," Doyle said.

Gard spokeswoman Christine Mangi said no agreement had been reached and negotiations are continuing.

A large increase in the voucher cap had been sought by backers of the program; Doyle had pushed for increased accountability measures for voucher schools and more money for SAGE.

Milwaukee Mayor Tom Barrett told Journal Sentinel editors and reporters Wednesday that he expected an announcement about an agreement soon and that it would be "very good for the families in the program and very bad for Milwaukee taxpayers."

The agreement does not include property tax help for Milwaukee residents, as Barrett had urged, but he said political figures on both sides of the discussions told him the impact of the voucher program on Milwaukee taxpayers would be considered in state budget work a year from now.

One person close to the negotiations said that adding money to the SAGE program would benefit Milwaukee more than anywhere else in the state because about a third of the students involved in SAGE are in Milwaukee Public Schools.

Program has reached cap

The voucher program has reached its current legal cap. Voucher supporters have pushed hard for resolving the issue, and have pressured Doyle through a barrage of radio and television ads. They warned that a plan from the state Department of Public Instruction for how to deal with rationing vouchers would cause educational disruptions for thousands of students and could lead to many schools closing.

Doyle said last week that he was willing to increase the size of the program by 5,000 students; voucher advocates argued for eliminating the cap entirely but, late last week, said they would agree to an increase of 10,000.

SAGE is a statewide program that gives schools serving low-income students extra money if they keep the size of classes for five-year-old kindergarten through third grade to 15 students per teacher or fewer. If they do that, they have been given an additional $2,000 per student since the mid-1990s. Doyle proposed a year ago that the amount be increased, but it was not approved by Republicans in the state budget. Doyle tied his support for a voucher increase to more SAGE money in recent months.

Doyle proposed last year that all voucher schools be accredited by one of a number of educational organizations. He told a Journal Sentinel reporter recently that he wanted to be sure reliable outsiders checked out schools to determine if they were legitimate schools. About a half dozen voucher schools have been forced to close in the last two years because of business irregularities, violence or failure to meet the state definition of a private school.

The expected agreement largely accepts Doyle's position on accreditation, giving schools three years to comply.

But Doyle had proposed that all voucher students take the state's standardized tests of educational proficiency and report school scores publicly, as is required of all public school students, and the agreement would not include that. Voucher leaders have long opposed such a step.

The agreement is expected to give support to a study of the voucher program to be conducted primarily by researchers from Georgetown University and to be privately funded. Voucher supporters have long sought such a study, while critics claimed it was not enough of a step toward accountability.

Some would be tested

Plans for the study include having a random sample of voucher students take the state tests and comparing their results to random samples of MPS students and charter school students. The study also could lead to test scores for a large number of voucher schools being made public.

Dan McKinley, the executive director of PAVE, a group that supports many of the voucher schools through scholarships for their students, said he has been working, along with others, for more "transparency" in the school choice system.

He said he supports a system where schools would need to have accreditation or provisional accreditation after three years of operation.

McKinley, whose group does not give money to a significant roster of schools because of concerns about their programs, said he believes that at least 90% of current schools could earn accreditation or provisional accreditation within three years.

"Of the other schools, some would never be able to get accredited and would have to close their doors, which would be a good thing," he said. And another set "would have to work very hard to become accredited, which would also be a good thing."

McKinley said he is hopeful on the possibility of a workable deal. "Last week, it got to the point where it was almost political theater, and that doesn't really do anything. You need serious people to sit down and work out the issues."

Barrett said he has no philosophical objection to the voucher program growing. What bothers him, he said, is what he calls the "funding flaws" that increase Milwaukee property taxes and that do not allow voucher students to be counted in the complicated formula used in determining state aid to local schools - in effect, reducing Milwaukee's total aid.

He said that if it expands to 22,500 students, the voucher program would be equivalent to one of the largest school districts in the state but that the financing system for the program was created with a much smaller experiment in mind.

"I don't think anyone is talking anymore about a little experiment," he said. "I want to stop the problem (of the financing of vouchers) before it gets worse."

Under the voucher program, up to $6,351 is being paid this school year to private schools for each voucher. The state is expected to pay more than $90 million for vouchers this year.

Stacy Forster of the Journal Sentinel's Madison Bureau contributed to this report.