White liberals take aim at low-income, minority parents.
Ruben, my faithful servant, take a letter. Address it to the parents of 43,000 school choice students in Wisconsin — 28,900 of them in Milwaukee. Most of them are minority race; all of them low income as required by the program.
Dear school choice parent: Democrats are trying to force you back into the failed schools from which you fled. Of the Democrats running for President only Michael Bloomberg supports charter schools, one element of school choice. By contrast, President Trump proposes Education Freedom Scholarships — a dollar-for-dollar tax credit to people and businesses that donate to scholarship organizations that, in turn, provide private school vouchers to students.
Wisconsin Democrats are no better than their national counterparts. Four Democrats in the state legislature have introduced a bill designed to choke off your ability to choose the school that works for your child. Those legislators are Janet Bewley, D-Mason, Dave Considine, D-Baraboo, Jon Erpenbach, D-West Point, and Sondy Pope, D-Mount Horeb.
Notice anything? Yep, none of them are from Milwaukee and all four are white as Wonder Bread.
Democrats block the school house exits
Senate Bill 661 would require voters in referendum to approve your ability to choose the school that works for your family. Yep, it’s the old case of the majority determining the rights of the minority. Two wolves and a lamb voting on what to eat for dinner.
Of the predominantly African American schools whose population is 70 percent black, half (49 percent) to the students attend traditional MPS. The other half is split between choice schools (38 percent) and charter schools (13 percent), according to a study published by Urban Milwaukee.
“School choice is detrimental to our public schools,” state Democrats say, when the reality is that too many public schools are detrimental to learning. Why won’t Democrats tell the public that the state aid follows the student? Why do they insist on penalizing families for choosing what works best for their children?
Competition is the surest reformer
⇒ The Urban Milwaukee study shows that the weighted performance score for MPS traditional schools is 54.9 (“meets few expectations”) out of a perfect 100. For charter schools, it is 74.2 (“exceeds expectations”) and for choice schools it is 70.1 (“meets expectations”).
Urban Milwaukee concludes: “So long as MPS schools continue to ignore the evidence of success by choice and charter schools, it is likely they will continue to lose students to those schools.”
Blaska’s Bottom Line: Your Milwaukee legislative delegation is almost all Democrat. Ask them where they stand on SB 661 and on school choice in general.
Blaska Policy Werkes 
19 responses to “Democrats trying to lose the Milwaukee vote”
Meanwhile, back in reality, Milwaukee voucher schools — many of them Catholic — continue to succeed for their minority students.
The 85 graduating seniors at Cristo Rey High School, a Jesuit School that is thriving, reports stellar results in its first graduating class of 2019, according to the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel.
The school, which stresses college readiness and offers robust work study options, allowed all 85 graduating seniors to attract at least 2 acceptances to four-year colleges.
In sum, the students won $3.5 million in scholarships for their higher education pursuits.
SO, do we favor success or failure?
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Not exactly sure who you’re asking Kevin, but here in Madison the rabid majority progs and their SJW vanguard favor PC identity politics over and above everything else. Failure, what failure, just need more, better, different, tweaking of the (fundamentally flawed) PC model/strategy because eventually it just has to work, but if it doesn’t blame someone or something else or pull a Jen Cheatsus and skedaddle after fucking everything up.
And that’s a wrap!
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Yet again we see the hypocrisy of conservatives, preaching socialism and the right of people to “free stuff”. I believe a “strict Constitutionalist” would be aghast at tax dollars going to religious entities.
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Government provided services, including police, fire protection and basic education, are not socialism and are not “free stuff.” And there has never been a prohibition or restriction on where tax dollars go, to religious organizations or elsewhere. The Constitution calls for freedom of religion and prohibition of the government establishing one. The government can do business with whomever they believe can deliver the desired results.
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Yes, and government provides education in public schools. I agree they are not free services, neither would no cost tuition at public universities or no-cost healthcare be free or socialistic. So why do conservatives label it s such?
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Neither health care entities nor public universities are granted a government sanctioned monopoly. They compete in the marketplace for consumer dollars (as they should.)
But “free college” has to be one of the worst ideas in the history mankind. There can be no worse outcomes achieved, than by putting decisions in the hands of those who will pay no price for being wrong. By the time a 24 year old realizes that getting a Masters degree in Puppetry was not a good idea, it’s too late. Worse than the money he just wasted is that now he sees that his true calling is to get a PhD in Gender Studies. And yes, you will pay for that too.
The Scandinavian countries leaned a long time ago that absolutely free, unlimited health care was untenable. That’s because there is no limit on the demand side of that equation, while the supply side was severely restricted.
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From the Wisconsin Constitution: Freedom of worship; liberty of conscience; state religion; public funds. SECTION 18. [As amended Nov. 1982] The right of every person to worship Almighty God according to the dictates of conscience shall never be infringed; nor shall any person be compelled to attend, erect or support any place of worship, or to maintain any ministry, without consent; nor shall any control of, or interference with, the rights of conscience be permitted, or any preference be given by law to any religious establishments or modes of worship; nor shall any money be drawn from the treasury for the benefit of religious societies, or religious or theological seminaries. [1979 J.R. 36, 1981 J.R. 29, vote Nov. 1982]
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WI Supreme Court:
Jackson v Benson (June 10, 1998)
• WI Supreme Court upheld the Milwaukee Parental School Choice Program as constitutional and determined the program did not violate the requirement for public schools – the program only adds options for parents.
U.S. Supreme Court:
Zelman v Simmons-Harris (June 27, 2002)
• U.S. Supreme Court upheld a Cleveland, Ohio program as constitutional and determined it was not in violation of the First Amendment or the Establishment Clause.
• Under the Private Choice Test developed by the court, a voucher program must meet all of the following criteria to be considered constitutional:
1) Program must have a valid secular purpose.
2) Aid must go to parents and not directly to the schools.
3) A broad class of beneficiaries must be covered.
4) Program must be neutral with respect to religion (opt out).
5) There must be adequate nonreligious options.
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George Parrino_Aren’t you at least impressed by the strong positive outcomes of the Cristo Rey High School, especially in light of the dismal failure of MPS to achieve acceptable overall results?
It seems like you want to argue legalisms when, clearly, these Hispanic students (and their parents) are finding the Catholic paradigm to their liking. Here’s the key — the Catholic schools demand high expectations, not the soft bigotry of low expectations. It helps that the Catholic parents are “all-in” as well.
ONE OTHER THING TO LIKE: The good voucher schools are achieving these strong outcomes at a fraction of the cost of the MPS schools. Kinda puts the public schools to shame.
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Yes, I’m impressed with what’s happening at Christo Rey, why not use the same system in public schools? I remember when parents made sacrifices inorder to send their children to private K-12 schools. I guess it’s just another example of conservatives creating another class of takers, just like they did with RTW.
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George_ My secular friend, you say “why not use the same system in public schools” that has helped Cristo Rey High School unlock Hispanics’ potential in their Catholic school.
Saints be praised! Is this a conversion on the road to Damascus, George?
Are you suggesting public school kids learn the Hail Mary in MPS theology classes? Fish on Fridays?
Could it be, instead, that God Made Man is heaping a bit more love from his Divine Intervention Project on Cristo Rey, because their students humbly are asking for His help?
Shucks, this approach might even help in the continuing chaos of Madison public schools.
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“Why not use the same system in public schools?” The answer, in Madison anyway, is that the liberal elites who run the system would sooner slit their throats than adopt any policy that originated in private schools. They would rather implement the kind of abstract theoretical hogwash taught in places like UW-Madison’s School of Education, the kind that makes them look oh-so-progressive, so forward looking, so ahead of the curve. The fact that their policies hurt the kids they’re meant to help means nothing to them. And anyone who dares criticize them is nothing but a Trump-loving troglodyte.
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I feel sorry for the public school teachers who have to attack school choice at the behest of their union. They can’t make the case that they produce better results than a typical charter school, and they wouldn’t dare make that claim against any Catholic school. They are left with their lame church/state argument, and insisting that protecting their monopoly is best for all.
The question is simple. Who produces the best result for the money? Then that’s who should get the job.
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What union? didn’t Act 10 destroy the teachers union? What of my freedom of religion? or freedom to be free from religion? You believe it’s ok to trample on my constitutional rights, yet scream when people who desire to be free from gun violence trample on another’s perceived right to own a gun without being part of a well trained militia.
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No, the union is still there malfunctioning as usual. Your freedom of, and from religion has not been infringed in and way whatsoever. Your enumerated constitutional rights, including your right to bear arms, are still perfectly intact and not trampled. People do have an expectation to be free of violence, and the right to pursue happiness, as long as they do not infringe on the rights of others. And the right to bear arms is not perceived, it is enumerated.
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You are free to be free from religion. Who is forcing you?
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Ach, Dave, the poor little thing may actually see a cross on a church as he drives past. Or in a cemetery, or billboard. He’s under attack from the ferocious Christians at every turn, I tell you. It’s like “The Birds”!!!! Help!! Help!!!!
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Just walk away from the democrat party. You will be much happier and certainly more likeable.
It is not only the sane thing to do but also the righteous thing to do.
Scroll to bottom page video “that started it all.”
https://www.walkawaycampaign.com/
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Yes Dave, I know the activist justices on the State Supreme Court reversed the Court of Appeals decision defending the State Constitution. At least you did your homework.
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