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Walker Budget Sneaks Major Policy Changes Past Education Agency
http://www.prwatch.org/news/2015/03/12768/gov-walker-lift-cap-failing-voucher-schools-dont-tell-dpiNot only did Walker's budget turn a deaf ear to to the department's requests for transparency and accountability, CMD can reveal that a Walker official actually instructed the non-partisan drafting bureau to hide the changes from the state's independent and non-partisan education agency.
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Governor Walker's executive budget, however, did the opposite. Walker's budget lifted the cap while nixing almost all of the measures DPI had asked for—from non-profit schools to bare-bones requirements for school accreditors. And the governor's budget analyst, Megan Stritchko at the Department of Administration, made sure that the DPI was excluded from the process. "Please do not discuss any of the changes with the DPI," she told the nonpartisan lawyer drafting the bill as this email shows below.
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An independent 2012 review by the Wisconsin Legislative Audit Bureau found that Milwaukee voucher students score slightly worse than students in the district's public schools, but what's even more worrying—they enroll fewer students for whom English is a second language, and only a third as many with disabilities. This prompted congressman Mark Pocan (D-WI) to ask for an independent federal probe into "alarming allegations of potentially discriminatory practices" within the schools enrolled in the program.
As the schools are exempt from most state regulations, they have no obligation to provide a comprehensive education—much less a secular one. Carter’s Academy in Milwaukee, for example, uses the K-12 curriculum designed by fundamentalist Christian publisher A Beka Books, which is notorious for homophobic lesson plans on the “gay lobby” and for portraying the Ku Klux Klan in a positive light.
...
Governor Walker's executive budget, however, did the opposite. Walker's budget lifted the cap while nixing almost all of the measures DPI had asked for—from non-profit schools to bare-bones requirements for school accreditors. And the governor's budget analyst, Megan Stritchko at the Department of Administration, made sure that the DPI was excluded from the process. "Please do not discuss any of the changes with the DPI," she told the nonpartisan lawyer drafting the bill as this email shows below.
...
An independent 2012 review by the Wisconsin Legislative Audit Bureau found that Milwaukee voucher students score slightly worse than students in the district's public schools, but what's even more worrying—they enroll fewer students for whom English is a second language, and only a third as many with disabilities. This prompted congressman Mark Pocan (D-WI) to ask for an independent federal probe into "alarming allegations of potentially discriminatory practices" within the schools enrolled in the program.
As the schools are exempt from most state regulations, they have no obligation to provide a comprehensive education—much less a secular one. Carter’s Academy in Milwaukee, for example, uses the K-12 curriculum designed by fundamentalist Christian publisher A Beka Books, which is notorious for homophobic lesson plans on the “gay lobby” and for portraying the Ku Klux Klan in a positive light.
