Tuesday, April 10, 2012

Boiler Plate Response by Walker about Vouchers should tell you something.


The Walker administration’s response the WEAU story below kind of lets the cat out of the bag when it comes to school vouchers; they play on the parents fears that they don’t have control, which is just not true for public schools, and appeal to their insecurities. Try talking to a private administrator at some distant voucher school that would be unaffected by your dissatisfaction or complaints.   
Governor Walker's press office released this statement saying, "Governor Walker supports empowering parents by providing them with additional options to choose from … This will ultimately improve education for all children by encouraging competition … if parents feel that their children will get a better education at a public school than at a choice school, they have the freedom to enroll their children in the public school system.”
Because research has already discounted the claim competition improves the quality, someone forgot to drop the old talking point. Emotional words like “empowering,” “feel,” “choice,” and “freedom” are focus group tested to engage parents without actual data.
   
It’s an encouraging sign to see a Superintendent who questions the voucher propaganda:
WEAU: Superintendent of Eleva-Strum schools Craig Semingson says he's not sure why there's been a nationwide shift towards voucher programs: “The voucher program I believe would hurt smaller public schools. He says he is philosophically opposed to the nature of voucher programs, and adds research doesn't back up supporting the program on academic grounds. “I believe it's a political agenda, because I don't know of any research out there that shows that the public school/private school voucher program increases student achievement.” Semingson says according to a Department of Public Instruction report, students in the voucher program did worse or at best the very same as their counterparts across the state. “Which makes me question what the motive is for continuing the voucher program or even wanting to expand the voucher program,” Semingson says.

No comments:

Post a Comment