I’m about to make such a politically touchy statement that I want to preface it with a few words about my role.
A few people have tried to figure out (or think they know) whether I am pro- or anti-voucher schools. Waste of time.
I tell people that my wife doesn’t know whether I would give a thumbs up or thumbs down overall to the program that now allows almost a quarter of all the students in Milwaukee who are getting publicly funded education to attend private (almost all of them religious) schools.
I view myself like the color commentator on broadcasts of football games. I talk about how the teams are doing, how well the quarterback is playing and so on. But I don’t say whether I’m rooting for the Packers or the Bears.
This distinction is especially important when it comes to vouchers because the program has a 27-year history of being polarizing and controversial.
I admit I’m in favor of good schools and opposed to bad schools. There are quite a few good to excellent private schools in the voucher program. And there have been — and still are — bad schools. I have asked often for more than a decade whether enough was being done about them.