Here & Now

Dane Radecki Discusses School Choice Enrollment

Zac Schultz:

First, the Department of Public Instruction has released a list of the 25 private schools or school systems that will be part of the expanded school choice program. This map shows all the cities where School Choice will be present starting this fall. Under the expansion of School Choice, 500 kids will get taxpayer-funded vouchers to attend a private school. The Department of Public Instruction will use a lottery system to fill ten spots at each of the 25 schools. The other 250 spots will be filled randomly. More than 2000 students applied for a voucher, two-thirds already attend a private school. Only 24% attended a public school last year. Next year the Choice program will expand to 1,000 kids, but Republicans are already calling for more. Republican assembly speaker Robin Vos released a statement saying, in part, This clearly proves the need for further expansion of statewide school choice and I look forward to accomplishing that in the next budget. The city with the most applicants and the most school systems is Green Bay. Green Bay Area Catholic Education, or Grace, broke their nine schools into three districts, and each made the top 25. Joining us now from Green Bay is Father Dane Radecki, the president of Grace. Father Radecki, thanks for joining us today.

Dane Radecki:

Good to be with you, Zac.

Zac Schultz:

According to the Department of Public Instruction, 236 students applied for a voucher to attend a Grace school. How many of those kids already attend a Grace school?

Dane Radecki:

All but 80 of those would already be enrolling from kindergarten through 8th grade.

Zac Schultz:

And you guys put together a pretty active program to make sure that the parents and the kids that are already in your school system knew they could take advantage of this. Tell me about that community outreach.

Dane Radecki:

We responded to a number of inquiries and worked collaboratively with all of our nine schools to not only educate them about the program, but also follow through with the questions that they had, and assist them with the registration and application process.

Zac Schultz:

Now, should we really call this School Choice if most of the kids receiving the vouchers have already chosen to attend a private school? Is that still an accurate term?

Dane Radecki:

Well, it’s really parental choice. I believe that one of the quieter elements that most people don’t really fully grasp is how much financial assistance our schools are already giving to our local families who would like their children to attend our schools. And many of those families did qualify at the 185% or lower, you know, of the poverty rate, and therefore they, like everyone else, want the security of being able to retain their children within our schools.

Zac Schultz:

Now, you’re guaranteed 30 students because of the three systems that are in this, and with the lottery the odds say you could double that. 60 students at the state rate would bring in nearly $400,000 in state funding. What kind of impact will that make in your schools and for these families?

Dane Radecki:

Well, first of all, the calculated cost of educating a student is the level at which we would be reimbursed for each of our voucher students, and for us it is not– It doesn’t hit the ceiling that was established by the legislature. So our amount would be lower than that because our cost of educating a student is just about $5,000 per student. It obviously adds to our budget and gives us the resources to be able to address some of the issues that have been difficult for us to handle under simply the tuition revenue stream.

Zac Schultz:

Because so many of the students that will likely be attending with vouchers are already students, do you anticipate the need to hire additional teachers? Will this just mean more program support?

Dane Radecki:

In the current year we assessed, with all of our principals, the number of open seats at each grade level. So we won’t anticipate, in this first year, adding any additional staff.

Zac Schultz:

Now, a proposal at the Capitol would create a new accountability system for voucher schools, including a report card that’s very similar to the public school report cards. What do you think of that system?

Dane Radecki:

We already are very accountable, and I don’t think we should have any fear of additional accountability. Each and every one of our schools is already accredited by a recognized accrediting agency. Our parents receive standardized test scores at the beginning and end of the year to assess student learning. And through a variety of financial accounting measures and other ways in which we have to make reports to the diocese, et cetera, we are already familiar with accountability standards.

Zac Schultz:

Now, one of the concerns I heard from a lot of private schools that were getting involved with Choice is they feared a lot of state interference would take away some of the nimbleness, they say, makes them better alternative than public schools. Do you fear the burden of extra paperwork or any of the other things that may come with this?

Dane Radecki:

I don’t know that I would say I’d fear the paperwork. There certainly was a tremendous amount of it going on in this last month, and it– but I think this time crunch that both the Department of Public Instruction as well as those of us making application for this program, the time crunch was an issue for us. But obviously it was worth our effort to help support our families.

Zac Schultz:

And very quickly, the school choice program will double to 1,000 students next year. Republicans in the Capitol are already talking about increasing that in future budgets. Is there enough demand from students in Green Bay to continue expansion?

Dane Radecki:

Well, in this first year there were, if you looked at all of the schools that were part of the initial application process, there were 400 to 500 students alone in our Green Bay area. Anecdotally, I also listened to some families who said they were going to wait until the odds were better, because of the limited number in the first year. So it’s really not clear exactly how far and wide the expansion needs to go to meet the demand, but I certainly support that notion of expansion, giving all parents the choice, especially those with greatest economic need.

Zac Schultz:

Father Dane Radecki, president of the Green Bay Area Catholic Education, thanks for your time today. We appreciate it, sir.