Better and cheaper: That's voucher schools

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[keep your powder dry]

School choice opponent Barbara Miner says that Wisconsin legislators should "just say no" to Gov. Scott Walker's proposal to expand educational options for Milwaukee parents (Crossroads, March 13).

My advice to legislators?

Just say yes.

Those who do will have Milwaukee residents, especially Milwaukee parents, on their side.

In a recent poll, Milwaukeeans rate the 20-year-old Milwaukee Parental Choice Program successful by a two-to-one margin (60%-28%). The results cut across racial and economic lines and extend even to households without school-age children.

Parents are especially enthusiastic. Two-thirds say the program is successful, and 64% endorse expansion.

There is good reason for their support. Students in Milwaukee's school choice program graduate from high school at rates 18% higher than Milwaukee Public Schools students, according to estimates by University of Minnesota professor John Robert Warren.

Had MPS achieved the higher rate attained by choice students, an additional 3,939 Milwaukee students would have graduated between 2003 and 2009. That represents a lot of lives: Consider that almost 90% of the state's school districts enroll fewer than 3,939 students. Separate research shows that the annual impact from these graduates would have been about $4.2 million in extra tax revenue and $24.9 million in additional personal income.

Overall tax support for a student in the choice program is less than half that for an MPS student. The average Milwaukee property tax levy this year for a student in the choice program this year is now less than for a student in MPS, according to the nonpartisan Legislative Fiscal Bureau.

[keep your powder dry]

Further proof that Wisconsin Democrats want you poor, dumb, and represented by a Union?

[Reeses]

Cheaper still: internet home school. The internet makes public schools as obsolete as public libraries.

[stefanbatory]

but the internet cant babysit your child while both parents go off to work to pay the taxes for all levels of government.

[sportutegrl]

It should be illegal for the government to buy a good or service that can be bought elsewhere at a higher quality for less money.

[Monorprise]

I agree the best way to weaken the union thugs is to put their monopoly out of business, given they are already preparing to throw everything they have at you and then some the Wisconsin republicans need to do it without delay.