Here & Now

Luther Olsen Outlines School Choice Accountability Bill

Zac Schultz:

The controversy over the statewide expansion of the voucher system is about to move on to the next phase, accountability. A proposal at the Capitol would set standards for private schools that accept voucher students and rate them the same way we rate public schools. One of the authors behind this bill is actually the same man who helped negotiate the compromise over Choice expansion in the budget. Joining me now from Fond du Lac is Republican senator Luther Olsen. Senator Olsen, thanks for being here.

Luther Olsen:

Good to be here, Zac.

Zac Schultz:

Well, give us a quick rundown of how this bill holds voucher schools accountable for the taxpayer money involved.

Luther Olsen:

Well, it does hold the voucher schools accountable, but it also holds the public schools accountable and the charter schools accountable. What we did in this bill is said that we are going to hold all schools that get public money accountable. And so what we did is said, okay, using the report card, and we use measurements of achievement and growth, and growth is new to the whole system, saying we’re going to give schools five– one of five different grades. And if you– That’s what the accountability part is and the measurement. Then on the other end there’s consequences, because for years I believed the only people that are ever held accountable for what goes on in a school is the students. Now we’re going to hold the adults accountable also, and we’re going to say, if you are in the bottom ranking for three years, then action has to be taken to improve to get you out of those things, whether you’re a public school, a Choice school or a charter school. And after three years, if you have not improved, then if you’re a charter school, your charter gets dropped. If you’re a Choice school, you can no longer take Choice students, voucher students. And if you’re a public school, three things can happen. You have to have wholesale changes, you become a charter school or the school district has to shut you down and start over. Now, there’s different consequences, because in all honesty we have a law that says boys and girls have to go to school, and the state has to provide schools for kids to go. So we just can’t say, oh, this school district or this school can’t be in existence, because we have to have a place for them to go. So we say, okay, you have to be there, but you have to make serious changes. And I think people have been asking for that for a long time, and I believe we have a good bill that will get those things done.

Zac Schultz:

So the penalties are tiered in sets of three years for failure, but isn’t six years a long time for a school to fail before the state can actually do something severe?

Luther Olsen:

Well, what we do is we say three years, because we have growth now, and so when you do growth, you have to have someplace to start and see if they’re growing as long– and also achievement. So things start after three years. The school district has to make some changes. Things have to happen. If they don’t, then the hammer comes down. But you have to give the local folks an opportunity to improve. If they’re not improving, well, then, you know, serious things happen. But right now according to the law, a school can– nothing happens until you’re four years in a failing, low-performing school. So this shortens it to three. And then three years of improvement. Because you got to give them time to improve.

Zac Schultz:

Now, School Choice advocates are already criticizing your bill, and Republican leaders in both houses and the governor all say they expect changes. How likely is it that something passes this fall?

Luther Olsen:

Well, I’m really optimistic that something will pass. We’ve worked on this bill for two years. As you know, last year, last session, we were looking at something, but the state was looking at the waivers for NCLB, so we weren’t sure what kind of a deal DPI and the federal government was going to make on accountability. So we had to make sure we knew what that was. Now we are responding to that and saying, here is our accountability measures. So we've met numerous times with DPI, numerous times with the Choice voucher folks, numerous times with the charter folks. And so they’ve all been a player in this bill for– and we took concerns they had and put them in there. Things that they were concerned about came out. Everybody had a big give-and-take to get this bill where it is today.

Zac Schultz:

Now, one of the things in the bill is that Milwaukee schools are already considered to have had three years of failure. Does that put them behind the eight-ball in a different way from other schools then?

Luther Olsen:

Well, no. It probably puts them ahead of the eight-ball because, you know, with No Child Left Behind, we’ve had measurements, and Milwaukee has not– A lot of schools have not measured up. So we decided, working with DPI, that why would we stop the clock from things that were happening in MPS and just say, okay, DPI, you back away, don’t do the things that you’re doing there to help them improve. We didn’t want that to stop and then have to start all over. So we said, okay, in this instance we are assuming, and we’re really not assuming, because it’s the fact, that you’ve been at the low level for three years, things have started, so at the– In the essence, in three more years if things don’t improve in those schools, drastic measures need to be taken.

Zac Schultz:

And switching topics just slightly, Assembly Speaker Robin Vos is already talking about expanding the number of vouchers in the next budget. Do you think that fight is inevitable?

Luther Olsen:

Well, it’s sort of interesting. We saw the numbers yesterday, and it looks like that 500 boys and girls from the public school, or just a little better than 500, applied to go to the voucher schools, which is pretty much the number that we put the limit on. The rest of them are already there. So what concerns me, and has concerned me from the beginning, is if we do this and go down this road, we are coming up with an another entitlement program where students that we have never paid for, now we’re going to pay for. And if you wind up paying for all about 100,000 boys and girls who go to private schools, you’re talking about $700, $800 million, which I don’t know where we’re going to come from. There was not, you know, a huge mass exodus of students from the public schools wanting to go to the voucher schools under– or the private schools under this program. It was just a little better than 500, which was the number we set. I don’t think we ever intended this, I didn’t, to say if you’re already going to a private school, we’re going to fund you. But I kind of thought that’s what was going to happen and apparently that’s what’s happening.

Zac Schultz:

All right, something we’ll be paying attention to, as will you. Senator Olsen, thanks for your time.

Luther Olsen:

Thanks, Zac. It's been good talking to you.