June 18, 2013

by Christian D'Andrea
MacIver Institute Education Policy Analyst

[Madison, Wisc...] The budget approved by the Joint Committee on Finance would expand the reach of independent charter schools in Milwaukee County by 2014. According to DPI data, this small geographical change in the budget may prove to be a major gain for the area's economically disadvantaged students. Students in 2R charters outperformed their classmates in traditional MPS classrooms or instrumentality charter schools once again in 2013, according to state testing data, in fourth grade reading and math, as well as in 10th grade reading.

A review of the 2012-2013 Wisconsin Knowledge and Concepts Examination shows that Milwaukee's 2R charter schools - institutions that are public schools but run outside of the Milwaukee Public School umbrella of influence - outscored the city's traditional public schools and instrumentality charter schools in fourth grade reading and math. That advantage remained in 10th grade math skills as well. These gains occurred even though these schools educated a similar number of economically disadvantaged students as the average MPS classroom.

This continues a trend that the MacIver Institute examined back in 2011 that showed that 2R charters perform better on DPI's achievement metrics. That theory is furthered by the state's first round of School Report Cards, which came out in 2012. These data provide evidence that Wisconsin's independent charter schools are having a positive impact when it comes to educating economically disadvantaged students.

While traditional MPS schools led the way in high school reading scores, the city's non-instrumentality charter schools placed significantly higher in fourth grade and somewhat higher in high school math. Those strong results helped 2R institutions post a state report card score that was nearly 10 points higher than their peer institutions. However, it is important to note that these report card numbers come from the 2011-2012 school year, and are likely to change when the second year of results is released this summer. For this study, schools were limited to those operating in 2012-2013 in Milwaukee.

These schools, which are established by either the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee or the City of Milwaukee, will have the opportunity to expand outside of city limits in 2014. The Wisconsin Joint Finance Committee recently voted to approve an omnibus educational package that would allow UW-Milwaukee to grant charters to schools across Milwaukee County. This compromise replaced Governor Scott Walker's plan to create a charter oversight board that would have the power to grant independent charters across Wisconsin.

While charter schools typically outperformed traditional public schools, these results still lagged behind the statewide average. These low results on WKCE and WSAS results were a trend that affected all schools in Wisconsin thanks to new, higher standards on state tests.

It is also important to note that some of the best individual performances in both sectors came from the schools that served below average populations of economically disadvantaged students. Whittier Elementary School, with 37.4 percent of its students fitting into that category, led all MPS charters with a 4th grade reading proficiency rate of 50 percent and was second in math at 60 percent. In the independent charter sector, Woodlands School led the ranks in 4th grade reading with a 56.7 proficient rate and was third in mathematics at 50 percent.

However, having a high concentration of students from impoverished families was not necessarily an indicator of failure. 2R charter school Tenor High School (82.7% economically disadvantaged) outscored their sector's average in both reading and math according to the WSAS. Central City Cyberschool (100%) outscored their sector's average in math and had similar outcomes in reading. Amongst MPS charter schools, ALBA (95.8%) and the International Peace Academy High School (90.6%) both outscored the MPS Charter average.

This year's batch of DPI is a strong indicator of what schools are performing well in Milwaukee. While a limited reach into student growth measurements prevents us from seeing just how much value these classrooms are adding to a student's education, these results are an important look into how students are learning according to traditional standards. We'll know more as the next round of School Report Cards becomes available, but so far the evidence suggests that the city's independent charter schools are doing a better job of educating some of Milwaukee's poorest students despite operating at a significantly lower funding level than traditional public schools.

That's a strong indicator that the reforms behind these schools are beginning to take root and help a dynamic student base that needs more educational options now than ever before. According to state data, these schools are producing more with less, and that's helping to create a rising tide of educational standards in Brew City. For the full database of Milwaukee charter school results used for this study, click here.

[Madison, Wisc...] The Joint Committee on Finance passed a budget in the first week of June that looks to reduce bonding by nearly $370 million. Bonding under Governor Scott Walker's budget proposal totaled $2.17 billion, but the JFC approved budget decreases bonding authority to $1.8 billion.

Update:

The MacIver Institute has learned more about the Fighting Forward conference sponsored by departments within UW System. Updates from Friday and Saturday's events are below.

Quotes:

Heidi Wegleitner, Lawyer with Legal Action Wisconsin and Dane County Supervisor

"We need more militarism - a solidarity between low-income people, the working class, and unions."

M Adams, Member of Take Back the Land and Freedom Inc.

"I do not think you should be able to buy or sell land. We all own it. We're going to take what is ours, whether you like it or not."

Take Back the Land is an organization that, in their words, "liberates" privately owned land to use for their own purposes. One of the examples Adams gave was for a home on the east side of Madison that was foreclosed on by Bank of America. The organization "liberated" the home, changed the locks, and many people moved in.

Bob Peterson, President of the Milwaukee Teachers Education Association, compares the expansion of school choice to opposing civil rights in the 1960's.

Peterson said at a workshop entitle Privatization of Public Education, "Choice is very powerful. The concept is as American as apple pie, and individual choice has long been considered a component of liberty in this country. But when choice becomes identified just with wholesale marketplace and replacement of public policy and public institutions, it's a code word. School choice in Wisconsin is a code word for abandonment of public education. Just as states rights was a code word in 1960 for opposing federal civil rights legislation, today choice is a code."

He harshly criticized Governor Walker's characterization of the public sector as failing, arguing that offering private solutions is a simple case of abandonment. He additionally denounced the participation of religious schools in the public voucher program.

"85% of students in Wisconsin who receive public school vouchers attend a religious school. Vouchers, above all, are a way to funnel tax dollars out of public schools and into private, especially religious schools," Peterson said. The public voucher system, according to Peterson, is a "direct attack on democracy" and a part of the nationwide Republican agenda to eliminate public school education overall.

He also attacked the enrollment caps included in the legislation, calling them "bogus." If the program is seen as even remotely successful by the administration, the caps will easily be raised in the future, if not written out entirely.

Peterson highlighted the many issues plaguing Wisconsin's K-12 education system, and acknowledged that the situation in many areas, especially Milwaukee, is bleak.

"Public schools have huge problems. A lot of them are based on the fact that the schools are in communities which have suffered years of depression-like conditions," Peterson said. "When children come from families that are beleaguered, families that are struggling, obviously it makes my job as a teacher much more difficult."

UW Assistant Professor claims UW public-private partnerships were created to reject unionized labor.

Noah Weeth-Feinstein, an Assistant Professor at UW-Madison's School of Education, discussed changes to the University of Wisconsin system, which point to a privatization of the public institution. Weeth-Feinstein cited the Wisconsin Institutes for Discovery (WID) and the Badger Partnership as two projects that exemplified the neoliberal rolling back of public institutions and the subsequent moving forward of private institutions in their place.

Weeth-Feinstein noted that both projects used the language of flexibility, competition, and entrepreneurship, despite the fact that they were very different endeavors. WID, as a public-private partnership, was supposed to provide flexibility to the University to perform research it could otherwise not do. The end result, according to Weeth-Feinstein, was the flexibility to reject unionized labor, particularly unionized janitors, in the building.

Weeth-Feinstein also told the audience not to accept "common sense" arguments, such Governor Walker's assertion that providing more classes directly relating to job-specific skills is simply common sense. That type of approach, according to Weeth-Feinstein, leads to an unjustified emphasis on market-based values.

He criticized the fact that UW professors in engineering, economics, and other topic areas in high demand are paid more than those professors who study the humanities. This type of dependency on market-based values, he argued, limits UW's ability to establish its own set of values.

"We can never choose our own values," Weeth-Feinstein said. "We can never be more just than the norm."

University of Illinois Professor argues that the public sector plays a vital role in economic growth and if "left to private business, there's no future for many of us."

Bob McChesney, Professor of Communications at the University of Illinois, attacked austere measures in a seminar entitled Confronting Austerity: Causes and Collective Action. McChesney argued that austerity comes down to the decisions of political leaders who prefer to see a stagnant, collapsing economy rather than undermine their own power. "There's no explanation for it except that we have some dummies in power," he said.

The professor denounced the role of business in running the economy, arguing that the public sector plays a vital role in economic growth, and that "left to private business, there's no future for many of us." McChesney ultimately described austerity as not only a bad choice or a stupid choice, but one which is "suicidal."

He urged the audience to reopen the debate of whether or not capitalism can be replaced, given today's worldwide crisis. In the 1960s, McChesney argued, widespread calls existed to abolish capitalism despite the system's success. He dubbed it ironic that today, capitalism is in crisis and "everyone acts like it can't be replaced."

The MacIver Institute has emailed questions to Patrick Barrett, Administrative Director of the Havens Center, about the conference and will update the story if he responds.

Original Post on Monday June 17, 2013 at 12:02am

[Madison, Wisc...] A group of university professors and liberal political organizers came together in Madison for a conference on the working class in which many of the participants were extremely critical of capitalism. The program was entitled Fighting Forward: A Labor and Working Class Summit and took place on June 12-15 at the Madison Area Technical College.

Despite the fact that one of the two organizing groups was the Labor and Working Class Studies Project of the University of Wisconsin's Haven Center, Conference Planning Committee member and UW-Madison administrator Patrick Barrett contested that "No public funds were spent on this summit." When he said this at one of the seminars on Thursday, one audience member replied "too bad."

The panelists in the Fighting Forward seminars all advocated change in America's current capitalist system to varying degrees, with many calling for the outright replacement of capitalism. University of Illinois Professor Bob McChesney expounded upon his beliefs that austerity measures--like those enacted by Governor Scott Walker in 2011--were not intended to improve the economy, but were rather the elite's attempt to maintain their position at the top of the hierarchy even at the cost of a stagnating or declining economy. McChesney later went on to state that the current NSA security scandal in Washington was a result of the current system, saying, "militarism is the heart and soul of capitalism."

Patrick Barrett then laid out his idea for enacting change to the flaws McChesney spoke of, and he saw elections as only one part of the political process. In his vision, politics was the struggle between different social and political forces over certain "strategic terrain," such as schools, the media, and other institutions. In Barrett's opinion, the goal of politics was to aggressively take control and redesign this "strategic terrain" in such a way that it benefitted your political side to the detriment of your adversaries.

In this, he thought that the right had more success in recent years than the left, and pointed towards to 1971 Powell Memorandum as one of the key reasons for it. In that letter from future Supreme Court Justice Lewis Powell to a friend in the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, Powell argued that capitalism was under attack from the left and that the most disturbing part of it was that it was coming from universities, the media, and the arts and sciences, and Powell argued for some sort of response to be taken by American business. This, Barrett believes, was the reason that the left had lost so much power since the 1970s.

Participants were sure that the majority opinion was on their side, but were divided as to whether or not this would help them prevail in the end. Some believed that with proper organization and voter turn out, they could overturn the system. Others were more cynical, stating their beliefs that Republicans were involved in widespread voter suppression and that initiatives such as the GOP-supported Voter ID legislation was intended to keep liberals from voting.

Many of the participants saw rejecting radicals on the left as counter productive, and thought that the rejection of groups such as Occupy Wall Street only drove American politics further to the right. No matter the methods, all participants agreed that there was a fundamental problem with capitalism and that it had to go.

As the MacIver Institute learns more about the conference and its workshops, we will post that information.

[Madison, Wisc...] The Joint Committee on Finance passed a budget in the first week of June. With the news that the state would have over $500 million in additional revenue, JFC made some changes to Governor Scott Walker's budget that included a $648 million income tax cut, a modification to the school choice expansion, and an increase in the per-pupil spending for K-12 public schools. After all the Committee's changes, Wisconsin is estimated end fiscal year 2015 with a $109 million surplus, an $80 million improvement on the Governor's original surplus.

[Madison, Wisc...] The Joint Committee on Finance approved a budget in the first week of June that includes a $648 million income tax cut. The plan will decrease rates for all tax brackets, and reduce the amount of brackets from five to four. Rep. Dale Kooyenga (R-Brookfield), a key author of the proposal, has told the MacIver Institute that this is just a first step in tax reform for the state, and he hopes to continue to lower taxes in future budgets. Even with the tax cut passed in JFC's version of the budget, most taxpayers in Wisconsin will pay a higher income tax rate than millionaires in Indiana, Illinois, and Michigan.

Warning: Inappropriate Language, Viewer Discretion is Advised.

Multiple masked individuals scream profanities at mining workers in the Penokee Hills in a recent video discovered by Right Wisconsin. According to their report, these eco-terrorists "slashed tires, stole equipment and pitched other tools into the woods. They wrecked hydraulic controls and tore out erosion controls."

The Fox Valley Initiative, a local tea party group in the Appleton and Green Bay area, purchased multiple billboard ads in the area that encourage individuals to contact Sen. Mike Ellis (R-Neenah) and Sen. Rob Cowles (R-Green Bay) about expanding school choice. The billboards feature pictures of Ellis and Cowles as Pharaoh with the statement "Set our children free!"

The above news story is from WBAY TV Action News 2 in Green Bay.

[Madison, Wisc...] From June 12-15, many departments from the University of Wisconsin System are sponsoring Fighting Forward: A Labor and Working Class Summit, an event that Rep. Steve Nass (R-Whitewater) said was "higher education prioritizing liberal indoctrination of students instead of the concept of educational sifting and winnowing."

One of the main sponsors of the conference is the Labor and Working Class Studies Project, a branch of the UW-Madison Havens Center for the Study of Social Structure and Social Change. The Havens Center is housed within the Sociology Department at UW-Madison.

If the main sponsor of this event is an academic department at the state's largest public university, are Wisconsin tax dollars funding this event?

The MacIver Institute began investigating Fighting Forward after learning that multiple UW System departments were co-sponsoring the event and that many UW professors would be leading certain workshops.

Some of the UW organizations that are co-sponsors include the Havens Center, the UW-Madison Community and Environmental Sociology Department, and the UW-Madison Gender and Women's Studies Program.

Both the Community and Environmental Sociology Department and Gender and Women's Studies Program denied any direct funding for the event. They both claimed that their sponsorship only entailed verbal endorsement of the conference, which includes a link on a university-run website.

Emails and phone calls to the Havens Center have gone unanswered.

The MacIver Institute will continue to investigate this event to find out if professors were being paid while leading workshops, if any UW-System funding paid for parts of the event, and if any tax dollars at all were used for the conference.

Updates will be provided as they become available.

MacIver News Service | June 14, 2013

[Madison, Wisc...] Last week, the Joint Committee on Finance (JFC) finished its work on the 2013-2015 state budget. As groups across the state begin to assess the changes in the new budget, Republican and Democratic legislators on the Committee offered their own takes on where the budget succeeded or failed.

Sen. Alberta Darling (R-River Hills) and Rep. John Nygren (R-Marinette), JFC Co-Chairs, highlighted the Committee's attempts to build upon Governor Scott Walker's stated priorities.

Darling and Nygren listed the Committee's most positive changes as having "nearly doubled the proposed income tax cut, provided additional funding for education and expanded educational choices for students and parents statewide." By focusing on these three aspects of the budget, the leading Republicans underscored their emphasis on tax cuts as crucial to job creation as well as the transformation of education through increased funding and school choice programs.

Other Republicans echoed Darling and Nygren's statement. When asked what they believed to be the top three accomplishments of the Committee's budget, Sen. Mary Lazich (R-New Berlin), Sen. Glenn Grothman (R-West Bend) and Rep. Pat Strachota (R-West Bend) all listed tax reform as the greatest success.

Lazich explained that the Committee's tax reform, which would decrease all income tax rates and reduce the amount of brackets from five to four, would provide "relief to all Wisconsin income tax payers."

Given this change, coupled with the simplification of some portions of the tax code, Lazich expressed hope that Wisconsin would no longer be one of the highest taxed states.

Taxes and spending similarly proved to be the biggest concern for Grothman, whose second and third biggest accomplishments for the Committee's budget were the University of Wisconsin's tuition freeze, and the property tax freeze, respectively.

Rep. Cory Mason (D-Racine) and Rep. Jon Richards (D-Milwaukee) also reacted to the JFC's version of the budget. By and large, they expressed disappointment in the changes that the Republican-led committee made. Where Republicans praised the income tax cut, Mason and Richards felt that the cut was "targeting even more money toward the wealthy," money they say was taken from public schools in the previous budget.

They also criticized the expansion of Wisconsin's school choice program, which they called "unaccountable."

Finally, the two Democrats focused on the changes in health care. Mason and Richards denounced the rejection of the Medicaid expansion, saying that the Republican's plan will cost more money and cover fewer people. They both hope to focus the debate on education, health care, and job training during the upcoming Assembly debate.

Lazich, however, praised the changes to the Medical Assistance (MA) program and education in the JFC's version of the budget. According to Lazich, all Wisconsin residents will have access to health care whether through BadgerCare or private health insurance exchanges setup by the Affordable Care Act.

She also praised the Committee's increased funding for K-12 public schools, a $150 per-pupil increase for each fiscal year. She supported measures to expand school choice, increase funding for private school vouchers and charter schools, and the private school tuition tax credit. Lazich said, "hard working families paying hefty property taxes for public schools, in additional to private school tuition, will see some relief."

Strachota echoed Lazich's satisfaction with the education reform passed in JFC's budget, citing both reforms to the UW system as well as K-12 education as major accomplishments. She additionally praised the Committee's nearly $650 million income tax cut.

The Assembly is scheduled to debate the budget on Tuesday and Wednesday next week.

[Madison, Wisc...] Representative Steve Nass (R-Whitewater) chastised UW-Madison on Thursday for their sponsorship of the Fighting Forward Conference, calling the event "higher education prioritizing liberal indoctrination of students instead of the concept of educational sifting and winnowing."

The conference, a labor summit featuring a series of seminars and events, is ongoing until June 15 in Madison. Official co-sponsors include the UW-Madison Havens Center, Community and Environmental Sociology Department, and Gender and Women's Studies Program, among others.

One workshop on the schedule is "Putting Militancy Back in the Labor Movement." Don Taylor, Assistant Professor at the University of Wisconsin-Extension School for Workers, is the chair of this workshop. Nass referred to this specific event as a key example of extreme union activism in the conference's agenda.

Nass denounced the University's involvement, arguing "the workshops aren't only about union activism. Overall, the workshops are meant to encourage more faculty to incorporate even greater amounts of their liberal ideology in the higher education classrooms."

The conference is part of a project to strengthen collaborations between campus-labor-community groups. It is run by the Working Class Studies Association in conjunction with the Labor and Working Class Studies Project, which is within the Havens Center in UW-Madison's Sociology Department.

Other workshops include Transitional Steps to a Socialist Future: Visions of Economic Democracy, The Autonomy of Solidarity, and "Occupy" Session II: Movements and Cultures of Solidarity.

The full press release from Nass can be seen here.

[Madison, Wisc...] If Democrats had their way in the Joint Committee on Finance (JFC), they would have passed a budget last week that increased spending by more than $1.5 billion over Governor Scott Walker's proposed budget.

Democratic members of JFC also voted to adopt the Governor's recommendation for increased bonding for the Building Commission. That plan would call for more than $1.1 billion in bonding, $250 million more than the measure passed by Republicans on the Committee.

The MacIver Institute recently completed a comprehensive analysis of motions that were introduced by Democrats on JFC. That analysis showed that if approved, these motions would have dramatically changed Wisconsin's fiscal outlook.

The Finance Committee is made up of 16 members, 12 Republicans and four Democrats.

Just over $500 million of additional spending would have gone to the dramatic Medicaid expansion proposed under President Obama's Affordable Care Act. Walker and Republicans decided to reject the expansion in part because of the uncertainty of the federal funds.

Democrats argued that the spending on the Medicaid expansion would be entirely covered by the federal government but legislative and congressional leaders fear otherwise.

Congressman Paul Ryan, Chairman of the House Budget Committee, warned states against accepting the Medicaid expansion.

"The fastest thing that's going to go when we're cutting spending in Washington is a 100 or 90 percent match rate for Medicaid. There's no way. It doesn't matter if Republicans are running Congress or Democrats are running Congress. There's no way we're going to keep those match rates like that." Ryan said.

Democrats proposed two actual spending cuts out of more than 40 total motions. They voted to cut funding to the Wisconsin Economic Development Corporation by nearly $17 million, and Sen. Bob Wirch (D-Pleasant Prairie) wanted to sell the Governor's executive residence for an annual savings of $250,000.

They also proposed lower income tax rates for some people in the state. JFC Democrats proposed an income tax cut on individuals in the bottom two tax brackets that would provide $302 million in tax relief to married-joint filers making less than $29,020 a year and individuals that make less than $21,760.

Taxpayers in the lower brackets would only have two years of reduced rates. Democrats ensured that the tax cut would end in tax year 2015, raising the rates back to current levels.

The tax reform plan authored by Rep. Dale Kooyenga (R-Brookfield) that was modified and passed by fellow JFC Republicans lowers income tax rates for every Wisconsin taxpayer, reduces the brackets from five to four, and is permanent.

The State Assembly is scheduled to debate the budget on Tuesday.

[Madison, Wisc...] The 2013-2015 state budget passed by the Joint Committee on Finance (JFC) last week will reduce taxes and fees on Wisconsinites by $677 million according to a new memo from the non-partisan Legislative Fiscal Bureau (LFB).

Net taxes in the state will decrease by $684.9 million, a majority of which comes from Rep. Dale Kooyenga's (R-Brookfield) income tax cut. The income tax cut will provide $647.9 million in total tax relief. The Committee increased Governor Scott Walker's income tax cut by more than $300 million.

The income tax cut passed by JFC will decrease rates for all brackets, reduce the amount of brackets from five to four, and change or delete about 20 tax credits.

On top of the income tax cut, the JFC budget will provide $30 million for a private school tuition tax credit, $8.5 million for individuals to carry forward operating loss deductions on their taxes up to 20 years, and $5.5 million to expand the veterans and surviving spouses tax credit.

The Committee's budget also reduces taxes on small businesses by eliminating the economic development surcharge on farms, partnerships, and individuals, which will provide $16 million in tax relief.

The new budget bill also creates a sum sufficient GPR appropriation of not more than $30 million that will cover the interest owed to the federal government for the State's Unemployment Insurance (UI) debt. This appropriation is estimated to save Wisconsin businesses $26 million over the biennium.

JFC voted to reduce the handgun purchaser record check fee as well, which is estimated to save Wisconsin sportsmen $860,000.

Members of the Committee did pass some tax increases. The Committee voted to update the state's tax code to match the federal tax code for income and franchise tax purposes, resulting in an estimated $33.7 million increase. Proponents claim this will make state and federal taxes more similar, which will lower the costs to prepare them.

The new version of the budget also modifies the veterans and surviving spouse credit to phase out high-income claimants, and limit the amount of property taxes that can be reimbursed to $2,500. This provision will increase revenue by $15.7 million.

Businesses that have a very high rate of laid off employees will also see an increase in tax rates due to the increased cost for UI benefits to their unemployed workers. Increased UI tax rates for these companies, beginning in 2015, will raise state revenue by $18.8 million.

The budget proposal from JFC also increases net fees in Wisconsin by $7.7 million. Joint Finance voted to increase the OWI driver improvement surcharge by $70 for each offense, increasing revenue by $1.9 million. The bill also will increase revenue by $3.8 million by adding a DNA analysis surcharge of $250 for all felony convictions and $200 for all misdemeanor convictions.

Each County Register of Deeds will see a fee increase for records that are filed with their office, raising state revenue by $2.6 million.

There will also be an increase in fees for facilities that emit air pollutants under the JFC budget. These facilities that are subject to federal regulation delegated to the DNR under the Clean Air Act would see $3.7 million in additional fees.

Assembly debate on the budget begins on Tuesday. The full memo from LFB can be seen here.

Update:

The Assembly passed AB 225 on Wednesday on a voice vote.

Assembly Speaker Robin Vos told reporters on Wednesday he plans on bringing back a Voter ID bill this fall after court challenges to the law have been decided.

"I certainly don't want to pass a fix to voter ID if there's no need to do it whatsoever," he said. "But I am pledging that we're going to make sure that we have whatever is necessary to take place so we have the opportunity for a voter ID requirement in place by the November 2014 elections."

Rep. Jeff Stone (R-Greendale), the lead author of the bill, said taking Voter ID out did not merit writing a brand new bill, and so a substitute amendment was offered instead.

"Photo ID, while it was maybe the lead item in this bill, it wasn't the only thing. So it was an opportunity to work forward while we were able to get some bipartisan agreement at this point in this session," he said.

Wednesday June 10, 2013 at 4:26pm

[Madison, Wisc...] Legislation that started out as an election reform bill received a major overhaul on Monday to gain bipartisan support in the Assembly Committee on Campaigns and Elections.

Assembly Bill 225, authored by Rep. Jeff Stone (R-Greendale), was originally meant to modify the Voter ID legislation that was passed last session and reform the election process in Wisconsin.

Many parts of the original bill were removed with a substitute amendment on Monday, including the section on voter identification. The original bill allowed certain veteran identification cards to be used to vote, and also created exemptions for certain individuals who would not need to show an ID to vote.

These individuals would be required to sign a statement affirming that they consider themselves to be 1) "indigent and cannot obtain proof of identification without payment or fee; 2) he or she has a religious objection to being photographed; or 3) he or she cannot obtain the documentation required to obtain proof of identification," according to the Legislative Reference Bureau.

The original bill also would have required local elected officials to be charged with a crime to recalled from office. The substitute amendment removes this language from AB 225.

The substitute amendment also adds to AB 225 by doubling the campaign contribution limits for statewide candidates and creates an online system for voter registration.

The online voter registration system would be a secure internet site maintained by the Government Accountability Board (GAB). Voters would have to have a valid driver's license or identification card, register no later than the 20th day before an election and the registration form would allow the Department of Transportation to forward a copy of the voter's electronic signature to the GAB for verification.

The amended bill passed in Committee on an 8-1 vote with Rep. David Craig (R-Big Bend) voting in opposition.

Craig told the MacIver News Service that he still has questions about the substitute amendment, which he said made drastic changes to the original bill. "My vote does not speak to the overall merit of the legislation as I intend to use this time to gather more information prior to its final consideration on the floor." Craig said.

The bill is expected to be taken up by the full Assembly in an upcoming floor session.

by Christian D'Andrea
MacIver Institute Education Policy Analyst

Milwaukee students in voucher schools are more likely to graduate from high school, as well as more likely to attend a four-year college. That's according to one of the most revealing pieces of the School Choice Demonstration Project's (SCDP) review of the Milwaukee Parental Choice Program (MPCP), and now it's been peer reviewed and published in the Policy Studies Journal.

Policy Studies Journal is a peer-reviewed academic journal that touches on a wide range of public policy issues. Thanks to a high impact factor - which measures the number of citations that stem from an article's inclusion in the publication - the PSJ is considered to be one of the most influential journals in the realm of public administration.

The SCDP data, a republished, reviewed, and highlighted discourse on information from the group's 2012 release, suggests that students from matched samples in MPCP and traditional MPS high schools in 2006 graduated at significantly different rates, with voucher students holding an advantage. Students in the MPCP sample graduated in four years at a 76 percent mark, which MPS students only earned their diplomas in 69 percent of the observed situations.

MPS gained ground when it came to five-year graduates, matriculating another 9.5 percent while MPCP schools only posted a 5.4 percent mark. This gap was even narrower when whittled down to students who were eighth graders in 2006-2007. In that group, 73.7 percent of MPCP students graduated on time, while 71.6 percent of observed students in MPS classrooms claimed the same honors. In all, 79 percent of voucher pupils and 76 percent of traditional public school students graduated from that 2006-2007 freshman class.

This advantage persisted when it came to attending a four-year college. MPCP students were "marginally more likely" to enroll in one of these institutions, according to the only statistically significant results revolving around higher education and these students. MPS students were more likely to enroll in a two-year school than their voucher-educated counterparts.

The study attempted to delve into the issues behind these dropouts as well by surveying the parents of students in both groups. That dug up plenty of information that goes beyond what the Department of Public Instruction collects on students in Wisconsin's largest school district. These responses suggest that MPS students were more likely to be considered as "still in school" despite being more than a year past their expected graduation rate at a 22-18 percent basis.

Voucher students were more likely to leave their schools because they were either bored in the classroom or did not like their new schools. They were also more likely to drop out because they could not keep up with the coursework. Interestingly, students that did not graduate in voucher schools were more likely to cite expulsion or suspension as a cause than similar students in public schools, though this survey data is based on a small observational sample size.

Additionally, traditional MPS students in the sample group were almost twice as likely to drop out thanks to incarceration.

There are some problems with the findings of the study, however. MPCP enrollment dropped significantly between elementary school and high school thanks in part to a comparatively low number of private schools in the program that offered classes in grades 9-12. This may be tied to the program's funding, which drew criticism for being unable to meet the demands of running a high school institution at just $6,442 per student. This issue may earn some relief in coming years, as Wisconsin legislation is set to increase the per-student funding for voucher high schools to $7,856 and tie all future public school funding raises to these school choice programs.

Another problem with the data is a high attrition rate for MPCP students. 56 percent of the pupils examined in the SCDP sample were no longer enrolled in a voucher school by the time that they reached 12th grade. The study shows that students that who remained in the voucher sector over a longer period of time performed better than those who stayed for less time, but this volatility may pose differences in student behavior that cannot be explained in this data.

The latest publication on graduation rates in Milwaukee's voucher schools is a deeper look into the only value-added longitudinal study of student outcomes in America's first modern school choice program. It furthers the SCDP's claims that students in voucher schools are more likely to graduate than their peers, and uses subsample controls to account for outside influences like parental attainment and other factors. However, the research isn't bulletproof due to educational regulations in Milwaukee and Wisconsin that would make a controlled, random selection-based field trial possible.

Even with those caveats, this data still provides a valuable look at the actual impact when a student in Milwaukee attends a private school through a state-funded voucher. These students are more likely to graduate, more likely to graduate on-time, and more likely to attend a four-year college afterwards. While the scope of this data is limited, future emphasis on student growth and better measurements for student achievement will help fuel the debate over just how effective vouchers are in Milwaukee for years to come.

The full report from the Policy Studies Journal can be seen here.

[Madison, Wisc...] A package containing some major reforms to Wisconsin's unemployment insurance policy passed the State Senate late Tuesday afternoon on a 17-15 vote.

Democrats argued the bill undermined the authority of the Unemployment Insurance Advisory Council, a group of lobbyists who meet regularly at the Department of Workforce Development and set the state's UI policy.

"We have always unanimously supported their decisions," said Sen. Dave Hansen (D-Green Bay). "The way [this bill] came before us violates the very tradition we've had in place for decades."

This year Senator Frank Lasee (R-De Pere) and Representative Dan Knodl (R-Germantown) challenged that tradition.

As the MacIver News Service previously reported, the state ran out of UI funds in 2009 and had to start borrowing funds from the federal government, which eventually resulted in a debt of $1.24 billion, plus interest. Federal law does not allow for the interest payments to come out of the UI reserve fund, and so DWD has been sending Wisconsin employers extra bills to cover the interest.

Lasee and Knodl believe that situation arose because Wisconsin is far more generous with UI benefits than most other states. For example, there are 18 reasons a worker in Wisconsin can quit their job and still receive UI benefits. Also, a worker can be fired for stealing from their employers, and then still receive benefits.

Reasons like those prompted Knodl (and other lawmakers) to send a list of 33 recommendations to the UI council. The council made recommendations for changes, that were then included either in the state budget or in AB 219/SB 200. Most were adopted entirely and others were modified. It does not appear any of the council's recommendations were rejected altogether.

Senator Hansen suggested the Advisory Council does not currently, and should not in the future, be limited to an advisory role.

"We are setting up a path where our Unemployment Insurance Advisory Council is either ignored or becomes strictly advisory and that is not a path that we want to take," he said.

Senator John Lehman (D-Racine) argued it wasn't right to interfere with the council's work.

"We shouldn't pose as front line members of a committee that historically works on compromises that in the past Republicans didn't like that Democrats didn't like, but we did not touch it," he said.

Seven of the 33 items were adopted by the Joint Committee on Finance in the budget, like changes to misconduct language, elimination of many quit exceptions, and using GPR to make the interest payments instead of charging employers.

Four of the items were eliminated. The remaining 22 were included in the Senate and Assembly bills. That included things like job search requirements, how DWD overpayments are handled and increase the agencies ability to recoup overpayments.

Washington is also tuned into UI concerns. A recent federal law prevents individuals from collecting both UI and Disability at the same time. That was also one of the 33 items for reform in Wisconsin.

The State Assembly is expected to take up the UI bill on Wednesday.