But also, families are voting with their feet — sending a net 13,005 students out of Madison’s public schoolssince 2005 through the state’s Open Enrollment program. They took with them about $90 million in state funding. Write off another $20.5 million from low-income parents using vouchers for eligible private schools.
Remember that next time Madison Metro School District (MMSD) asks for your checkbook. When Democrats whine about vouchers “taking money away from public schools!” they’re talking about conscientious parents fleeing a school system that pays more attention to equity than education. State money follows the student!(Corollary: government serves the individual, not the other way around!)
To Rickert’s Wisconsin State Journal account of enrollment, the Werkes compared academics and spending in central Dane County’s eight school districts. Our faceless bureaucrats used as their source numbers from the WI Institute of Law & Liberty — much more reliable than the DEI-jiggered numbers at the WI Dept of Public Instruction.
Madison’s public schools lag its 7 neighbors in almost every category. Almost 15% of MMSD students never graduate; nearly a third of students are chronically absent; district math and reading scores are among the state’s worst. As of the 2022 school year (before DPI cooked the books), fewer than half (41.4%) of Madison students were at grade level in reading & writing (although that is up from 38.0% in 2015). Math scored 36.3% — down from 2015.
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Where have all the students gone? Commentary.
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Madison taxpayers have long supported far above average (now > $25,000 per student) K-12 tax & spending practices. This, despite long term, disastrous reading results.
Madison Schools: More $, No Accountability
The taxpayer funded Madison School District long used Reading Recovery…
The data clearly indicate that being able to read is not a requirement for graduation at (Madison) East, especially if you are black or Hispanic”
My Question to Wisconsin Governor Tony Evers on Teacher Mulligans and our Disastrous Reading Results
2017: West High Reading Interventionist Teacher’s Remarks to the School Board on Madison’s Disastrous Reading Results
Madison’s taxpayer supported K-12 school district, despite spending far more than most, has long tolerated disastrous reading results.
“An emphasis on adult employment”
Wisconsin Public Policy Forum Madison School District Report[PDF]
WEAC: $1.57 million for Four Wisconsin Senators
Friday Afternoon Veto: Governor Evers Rejects AB446/SB454; an effort to address our long term, disastrous reading results
Booked, but can’t read (Madison): functional literacy, National citizenship and the new face of Dred Scott in the age of mass incarceration.
When A Stands for Average: Students at the UW-Madison School of Education Receive Sky-High Grades. How Smart is That?