WILL Releases Mythbusting Brief on School Choice Program
Policy brief debunks talking points of choice opponents
July 24, 2015 – Milwaukee, WI – Today, the Wisconsin Institute for Law & Liberty released another policy brief to debunk the oft-used talking points of school choice opponents. The recently passed state budget included several changes to Wisconsin’s long-running choice program, including expanding the availability of vouchers to families across Wisconsin and how the program is funded.
For years, defenders of the education status quo and opponents of education reform have been falling back on talking points in attempts to discredit the success of the program and rollback the gains families are making.
WILL’s most recent policy brief lays out the most frequent arguments used in opposition to Wisconsin’s choice program and then methodically dispenses them.
Marty Lueken, Ph.D., WILL’s Education Research Director and economist, notes, “Too often, rhetoric and talking points is given priority over facts. This inhibits an honest discussion about education policy, and what should be a universal desire by parents, policymakers, and opinion leaders to craft policies that provide an education for children that meets their needs.”
The policy brief released today addresses six of the most common misconceptions about Wisconsin’s school choice program – from the assertion that private schools in the choice program are unaccountable to the suggestion that somehow the choice program provides an inferior education to traditional public schools or that these schools do not educate children with disabilities.
Lueken concludes, “It’s important that in the debate surrounding education reform that advocates and opponents work from the same set of facts. This policy brief lays out truths about the program and can serve as a starting point as the changes the Legislature has made to K-12 education policy is implemented in the coming weeks and months.”
A copy of the policy brief is available here.