Voucher Students are only 7% of all Wisconsin K-12 Students. As courts continue dismantling race-based student aid programs, the Milwaukee voucher program stands out as a legally sound, proven alternative for delivering educational equality to minority students. Almost 80% of Milwaukee voucher students are minority, and the average family income of students in many of our schools is often $40,000. The voucher program uses family income, not race as a criterion. This means it delivers real opportunity to the families who need it most while withstanding the legal scrutiny that has toppled other minority aid programs.
If we are serious about educational equality for Black and Hispanic children in Wisconsin, protecting and fully funding the voucher program is not optional. It is essential. Just this past month, we saw Wisconsin rank at the very bottom, #50 out of 50 states, for racial equality. At that same time, graduating seniors across our Milwaukee schools were having senior decision days in which every student, the vast majority who are minority students, has a bright future ahead of them. Minority students in our schools all across Milwaukee are receiving hundreds of thousands of dollars in scholarships to go to college and are often the first in their family to attend higher education. Our schools are doing amazing things for our voucher students.
In Milwaukee County, more than half of all Black men in their 30s have already been incarcerated. Wisconsin is the highest incarcerating state for Black men in the nation. Our schools are working and succeeding in ensuring that tens of thousands of our students never become that statistic. These are our families. We have parents who truly believe that our schools will help their children avoid becoming another school-to-prison pipeline statistic.
Milwaukee’s voucher program has been a lifeline for Black, Hispanic, and low-income families for over three decades. Unlike race-based aid programs that courts are now striking down one by one, the voucher program is built on income and family need, not race. While Friday’s court decision comes as a loss to minority students, it is an opportunity to see that the voucher program is a literal lifeline right now for tens of thousands of students, giving many families the hope they need right now.
With programs disappearing, it is imperative that we protect the voucher program for all of our low-income minority families. Every student should have the chance to succeed in the educational setting that is best for them.
WCRIS serves hundreds of non-religious and religious schools and myriads of students who are not funded by state taxpayer dollars. We fully see the benefits our private schools are having in saving state taxpayers hundreds of millions of dollars every year, while delivering students an outstanding education and contributing to our state’s economy. Our schools give the Governor and the State Legislature the ability to spend more taxpayer dollars on the areas of their choice: public education, healthcare, and voucher programs that serve low-income and special needs students who make up only 7% of Wisconsin’s total K-12 student population and are a literal lifeline for families.
