Study rouses debate on school landscape Merits of new report

Students who succeed are good for Milwaukee. At some schools, student success is much more frequent than at other schools. Good schools are good for Milwaukee.

Am I telling you anything you don’t already know?

But this becomes controversial when one more element is added: Whether increased student success can be connected with one of the three sectors of Milwaukee’s divided school landscape.

There are people who say the independent charter schools in the city have shown the best trends in student success in recent years.

There are people who say that success within Milwaukee Public Schools deserves a lot more respect than it gets, given the circumstances of so many of the students in the system.

And a new study is fueling the advocacy of those who say the private schools enrolling students using publicly funded vouchers outshine MPS.

Chances are strong that if you are arguing that one sector is doing the best, it’s because you’re closely connected with that sector.

But the sector argument is not a minor matter, given the jostling over money, operating rules, accountability and enrollment that goes on among the sectors, and given that the process of setting the state budget, when these battles get fought once every two years, is about to begin.

Once almost entirely a Milwaukee matter, the sector debate is increasingly worthy of attention across Wisconsin as the statewide availability of vouchers increases and as public school leaders statewide plead for more funding. So what are the facts? To some degree, everyone is right. The charter school record is improving and there are impressive charter schools.

MPS does score some important successes and is showing fresh signs of commitment to improve, although results, both overall and at many individual schools, remain alarming.

And those who say the voucher movement is a success point to research supporting that view.

The overall record of Milwaukee voucher students on Wisconsin’s annual standardized tests is not much different than the record of MPS students. Neither is good.

But going back more than a half dozen years, studies have concluded that graduation rates were better among Milwaukee students who used vouchers for at least part of high school, and the percentage of voucher students who go on to college is higher.

The differences aren’t huge, but they’re noticeable.

A new study from a conservative law firm and think tank, the Wisconsin Institute for Law & Liberty, takes the argument further.

In short, it says that voucher schools will have a positive impact on Milwaukee over the next couple decades worth almost $500 million.

The study says high school graduates have better long-term economic success than dropouts and have fewer run-ins with the law than dropouts.

It says voucher schools have higher success rates than MPS and therefore have more long-term economic benefit than MPS. And it quantifies the differences in dollars.

It’s not such a surprise that a pro-voucher organization put out a study with favorable conclusions about vouchers. That’s one reason some voucher studies have been dismissed by others. And some studies elsewhere have reached unfavorable conclusions about vouchers.

But the WILL report is worth thought. I’ve read it and met with the authors. They were careful about their sources and what they said. But I still have questions.

For one, the study spotlights St. Marcus Lutheran School. St. Marcus, a grade school just north of downtown, is a high-quality operation with a track record of success. It’s easy to call it an asset to the city. But what about voucher schools that aren’t so good?

The WILL study includes projections of the positive economic impact of Reagan High School, an MPS school, and Bruce-Guadalupe School, a charter school.

Are these positive impacts really more associated with the quality of individual schools than with a school sector overall? I wonder. Each sector has strong and weak schools.

A second question: Is there a difference between kids who go to voucher schools or charter schools and those going to MPS? Do the choice schools end up with kids with more likelihood of succeeding?

I’m convinced the answer is not as simple as some people, both proand anti-choice, want to make it.

The research that has found better results in the voucher sector has included comparisons of the success of samples of students in MPS and voucher schools, matched one to one by race, income, neighborhood, test scores entering the study period and other factors. It may be as far as one can go realistically in trying to come up with matched sets for comparison.

But researchers admit there are factors that can’t be nailed down. For one, what, if anything, does it say about a child when parents choose to enroll the child in a choice school?

A third question focuses on kids who need special education services or kids with major behavior problems. The reality, best as I have grasped it over the years, is neither that the voucher schools help only a handful of these kids (some are praiseworthy on this front) nor that the voucher schools are carrying the same load as MPS. Like so many things, the truth lies in between, with MPS getting a bigger share than the private schools of kids with big challenges.

In the end, I don’t dismiss the research that shows positive outcomes for the voucher sector. But I don’t put as much weight on it as pro-voucher advocates would like, because there is too wide a range in quality of schools and the “creaming” argument can’t be put to rest.

My own conclusions are that good schools have good impacts on both students and, in the long run, the community; that there has been some increase in the efforts to get more such schools; and that we have a long way to go in every sector.