Results show Wisconsin voucher students test poorly

Results show Wis. voucher students test poorly

Washington Examiner, By: SCOTT BAUER 03/29/11 1:01 AM, Associated Press

Students who received vouchers to attend private or religious schools in Milwaukee performed worse on statewide reading and math tests than their counterparts in public schools, according to test scores released Tuesday that could play an integral role in whether the program expands statewide.

The results, released by the Wisconsin Department of Public Instruction, show that while scores statewide are improving, voucher students are nowhere near their public school counterparts — even in the Milwaukee public schools they left.

Currently, only low-income students in Milwaukee can receive a voucher from the state. Gov. Scott Walker wants to expand the program to all of Milwaukee County and phase out the low-income qualifying ceiling. Some Republican lawmakers are talking about making the program statewide, arguing the option should be available for students unhappy in public schools.

Read more at the Washington Examiner: http://washingtonexaminer.com/news/2011/03/results-show-wis-voucher-students-test-poorly#ixzz1IaAv1sjT

Cleveland students hold their own with voucher students on state tests

By Thomas Ott, The Plain Dealer 

Published: Tuesday, February 22, 2011, 9:37 AM 

The push is on to expand school voucher programs in Ohio, but new state data suggests that students who attend private schools with the help of taxpayer-funded vouchers don't necessarily fare better academically than the children they leave behind.
http://blog.cleveland.com/metro/2011/02/cleveland_students_hold_own_wi.html

Posted on Tue, Apr. 5, 2011
Elmer Smith: Victory Academies: A plan we can all be for
By Elmer Smith, Philadelphia Daily News
Daily News Opinion Columnist
STATE SENS. Vincent Hughes and Anthony Hardy Williams can usually be found in the same foxhole when the shooting starts in Harrisburg.
When they do disagree, they tend to seek middle ground. Even when they can't work it out, the tiff rarely spills out into the public arena.
This time, it's different. They're on opposite sides of a wide philosophical gulf on the issue of school vouchers. There is no middle ground.
http://www.philly.com/philly/columnists/elmer_smith/20110405_Elmer_Smith_.html

Washington Post Answer Sheet Blog Posted at 10:45 PM ET, 04/04/2011
Vouchers, vouchers everywhere
By Valerie Strauss
Public education is facing enough obstacles these days without another one, courtesy of the Supreme Court. But on Monday, in a 5-4 vote, the court issued a ruling that supports an Arizona program that permits public money to be used for private schools, which are mostly religious.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/answer-sheet/post/vouchers-vouchers-everywhere/2011/04/04/AFf3v6fC_blog.html

PA School Districts Brace for Big Cuts
Philadelphia Inquirer, April 4^th 2011
By Dan Hardy and Adriene Lu
http://www.philly.com/philly/news/20110404_Pa__school_districts_brace_for_big_cuts.html?page=1&c=y

In the article below, it is unfortunate that Mr. Trombetta and Mr. Barker felt the need to paint all public schools with the same brush - as failing.  Here is the annual AYP status of Mr. Trombetta's PA Cyber School, the state's largest cyber charter, from PDE's website:

2003: Warning
2004: Made AYP
2005: Warning
2006: School Improvement I
2007: Making Progress
2008: School Improvement II
2009: Making Progress in School Improvement II
2010: Made AYP

PUBLISHED: MARCH 30, 2011 12:01 AM EST
Digital technologies must change failed public education model

GOERIE.COM OPINION BY JAMES BARKER AND NICK TROMBETTA, CONTRIBUTING WRITERS

Only a break with the past and an embrace of the present will give us the public education system we all need and want -- and our children deserve.

As local, state and national headlines remind us daily, our current model of public education is in a steep decline. Developed in response to the needs of the Industrial Revolution, it served our nation well through most of the 20th century. In recent decades, however, it has grown increasingly outmoded. Despite extraordinary reform measures, which have proved extraordinarily expensive yet exasperatingly ineffective, we merely have been prolonging the inevitable: public education, as we have known it, cannot be sustained.

http://www.goerie.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=2011303309987

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