Public school vs. choice will color election
On Tuesday, the first day of the school year for hundreds of thousands students in Wisconsin, Tony Evers took part in the kick-off program at Maple Tree School, a public school on the northwest side of Milwaukee.
Scott Walker took part in the kick-off program at La Casa de Esperanza, a charter school in Waukesha.
Maybe that’s all you need to know if you want to get a handle on education issues in the race for governor between Walker, the Republican incumbent who labels himself “the education governor,” and Evers, the Democratic challenger who has been state superintendent of public instruction for nine years.
Focusing on their choices of locales for first-day hoopla can oversimplify the candidates’ positions on a lot of complicated matters.
But it is a central dynamic of the race that Evers generally is strongly supported by people connected to advocacy for public schools and Walker generally is strongly supported by people connected to advocacy for charter schools and private schools involved in the state’s voucher programs.
I think of myself like the color commentator in the booth for football broadcasts. I try to provide thoughts on how the game is being played without taking sides. That’s my goal here.
But I have a few observations on the public school-school choice divide (and may have more in coming weeks on other aspects of education in the governor’s race).
The many candidates in the Democratic primary for governor decided a month ago generally took one form or another of stands for cutting back or cutting off funding for charter schools and vouchers programs that allow public money to support kids going to private schools.
Evers took a comparatively moderate position, but he supports capping the growth of at least some parts of Wisconsin’s growing “school choice” scene and he makes it clear that he’s a public schools guy.
Choice likely here to stay
A few days before the primary, I spoke to a group generally made up of Democratic voters. I told them not to get their hopes up for undoing school choice programs.
Why did I say that?
It is very unlikely that the state Assembly will have a majority of Democrats after the November election. The Republican majority is large and there aren’t so many seats that could go either way. It’s somewhat more conceivable that the Senate might go Democratic, but that doesn’t seem likely either.
So if Evers wins, you have a split government, which raises visions of deadlock on a lot of big questions. Getting bold things done either by the governor or the Legislature isn’t likely.
Looking to the budget that will be the biggest order of business, my crystal ball shows a lot of posturing and, eventually, negotiating, trading and compromising.
The chance Republicans will budge on rollbacks to school choice programs are really small, although some concessions on growing those programs might be in the cards.
And if Walker wins? Obviously, there won’t be any rollbacks. But growth might not be so robust either, not with the strength public school advocacy has picked up in the last couple years statewide and not if expansion looks like it will be expensive.
Yes, the simple picture is that an
Evers win would bode better for public school spending and a Walker win would bode better for voucher and charter programs.
But maybe not by that much. I caution against big assumptions. The most likely outcome, whichever candidate wins, is that no one is going away.
Public school voices gain strength
Public schools are going to stay the biggest part of the Wisconsin school scene, and voices for helping them maintain and gain strength are being heard across the state. Public schools aren’t likely to be kicked around in the next budget, just as they fared better than many expected in the 2017 budget.
(However, it’s fair to assume they will get more money if Evers is governor.)
The large and established voucher programs in Milwaukee and Racine are unlikely to take backward steps, either. Not only does the political forecast in the Capitol suggest that, but the practical sides of undoing what exists would be formidable.
When you talk about voucher students in private schools in Milwaukee, you’re talking about more than 25,000 kids. Where would they all go? Would major disruption of the school landscape in Milwaukee be constructive?
The charter school picture remains the hardest to understand (starting with how few people can correctly define a charter school).
But particularly in Milwaukee, where
charter schools have the strongest presence, this sector isn’t going away, either. And some of the best schools in the city are charters (if you don’t think so, please go visit them and then we’ll talk).
So in this race for governor — and in state history going back a quarter century — we have this split in education advocacy that is wide, deep and still pretty heated.
And we have huge sore spots in student success that have not gotten better in many years.
Walker said on the first day of school, “We’ve made historic investments in our K-12 public schools and charter and choice schools because we want to ensure every student receives access to a quality education.”
Evers said, “I’m guided by the belief that what’s best for our kids is what’s best for our state. As governor, I’ll increase funding for public education and ensure every student has the opportunity to succeed.”
Everyone can join in wishing whichever candidate wins the fullest success in improving the quality of education for all children statewide.
But this seems like a good question for the candidates and for all of us: What happens if what unites Wisconsin when it comes to the need to do better hits up against what divides Wisconsin when it comes to working on solutions?
Alan J. Borsuk is senior fellow in law and public policy at Marquette Law School. Reach him at alan.borsuk@marquette.edu.