Teacher: Now when you get a court file from the court, there are sealed documents in there.

Zac Schultz: Josh Watson is one of the happy stories of statewide expansion of school choice.

Debbie Watson: For me, it was kind of a godsend because being a single parent…

Zac Schultz: After Debbie Watson’s husband passed away, she struggled to find the money to continue to send her son to Newman Catholic School. It was a relief when he was selected to receive a voucher.

Debbie Watson: When I found out I got the email, it was kind of like winning the lottery. It really was. I was just like, wow, what a load off my shoulders for the next two years.

Scott Walker: Overall, we want to provide the best education possible for every child in this state.

Zac Schultz: It was good that Josh got it when he did, because under Governor Walker’s newest proposal to expand school choice Josh would not be eligible. Why? Because he’s not a switcher. We’ll explain.

Scott Walker: Tonight I’m excited to announce our plans to lift the cap on vouchers.

Zac Schultz: Currently, outside the Milwaukee and Racine programs, school choice is limited to 1,000 kids statewide attending the 31 private schools with the most applications. Under this new plan, there would be no cap on the number of students who can get a voucher and they could attend any private school they chose. The current family income limits would still apply, but the expansion would only be open to “switchers”, kids who are currently enrolled in a public school or are too young for school. The entrance points will be Kindergarten, 1st grade, and 9th grade.

Janet Klosinski: We know it’s very different from the current program.

Zac Schultz: Dr. Janet Klosinski is the President of Newman Catholic Schools . She says the choice program has been a success, but she’s not ready to comment on the Governor’s proposed expansion.

Janet Klosinski: Right now it’s a political process.

Zac Schultz: She remembers what happened two years ago when Governor Walker first proposed his voucher expansion. In 2013, the Legislature completely rewrote the concept.

Janet Klosinski: We no longer use the school report card to determine if a school is eligible for vouchers.

Zac Schultz: And what became the current program has no relation to what Governor Walker asked for. She knows that could happen again.

Janet Klosinski: That’s a political debate at this point in time, so we’re really waiting to see what becomes law.

Zac Schultz: Does everybody have concerns?

Janet Klosinski: Yes.

Zac Schultz: Dr. Kathleen Williams is Superintendent of the Wausau School District.

Teacher: Your first word is “trot.”

Students: Trot.

Kathleen Williams : The greatest fear is the fear of the unknown and how something is going to roll out and what the actual intent is.

[Children singing]

Zac Schultz: Under the current choice program, 80% of the vouchers went to students who were already paying tuition in private schools. The current system is funded by a separate pot of money in the State Budget. With this choice expansion focused on “switchers”, public schools will lose enrollment and the funding for the vouchers will come from the local public schools.

Kathleen Williams : We will not know, this coming year, how many students and what that cost is going to be well into the school year.

Zac Schultz: The Governor’s plan would add up all the new “switchers” statewide and calculate how much their public school receives in per-pupil state aid. Each voucher would be worth the same, which if it follows the statewide average would be about $5500.

Kathleen Williams : It’s going to put every school system in a pickle.

Janet Klosinski: That voucher will be significantly less than what Newman currently receives. Right now vouchers for grades K-8 are are worth $7200 and high schoolers are worth $7900. Newman charges $5000 a year. If the future vouchers are worth $5500, they’d still be coming out out ahead, but it would be a reduction.

Zac Schultz: So the money coming in from the State for that voucher was higher than the cost of tuition, but it was not the cost of educating the student fully in Newman Catholic Schools.

Janet Klosinski: The competition for students wouldn’t just be between the public schools and the biggest private schools.

Bill Zuelsdorff: If we don’t get into this program, that’s not going to be good for us.

Zac Schultz: Bill Zuelsdorff is Principal at Trinity Lutheran School in Wausau. He knows their future is in the voucher program.

Bill Zuelsdorff: The mind set we have is get as many applications as you can, encourage people, talk talk about it.

Zac Schultz: Trinity charges $1000 a year for members and $2000 for nonmembers. For the first two years of the choice program, they didn’t receive enough applications to be one of the 25 schools that got vouchers. Governor Walker’s proposal would erase that worry.

Bill Zuelsdorff: That’s kind of where we’re at right now. You have the hold your breath, wait and see.

Zac Schultz: At the same time, Zuelsdorff knows it was Republican partisan politics that created the statewide choice program and down the road Democratic partisan politics could end it.

Bill Zuelsdorff: The day could come where the plug is pulled. If you put all your eggs in that basket, then you’re going to be in trouble.

Zac Schultz: Trinity Lutheran is relatively small, and only has room for a few more students each year, but they know choice is about more than just growth. It’s competition.

Bill Zuelsdorff: We’re gonna be losing opportunities for families to to come to us because they’ll say, “You’re not in this program. I got free options out there, and because of that, we’re just taking you off the list.”

Zac Schultz: That competition could create difficult choices for families down the road.

Tony Cicha: You like playing with snowballs?

Kids: Yeah!

Zac Schultz: Tony Cicha has five kids in Newman Catholic schools, with one more at home. With preferences in place for siblings, all five got vouchers last year.

Tony Cicha: Within a matter of a few hours, they just kept popping up on the Internet saying they’ve been accepted. Next one been accepted, next one been accepted.

Zac Schultz: Choice has saved Tony from another difficult choice.

Tony Cicha: I contemplated taking out a second mortgage on the house in order to be able to make payments for the School System. Now it’s a relief. We don’t have to do that.

Zac Schultz: Tony says the public schools are fine, but they’re missing something for him.

Tony Cicha: The big downside is that they don’t support prayer, and prayer for me and my wife is critical.

Zac Schultz: But under Governor Walker’s proposal, families like Tony’s will only have a couple of entry points to the voucher system. Remember, kids switching from public to private school can only get in the program at Kindergarten, 1st and 9th grade. So if your kids are already in private school, the only way into the program is to put them in public school in 8th grade and switch them back to private in 9th grade.

Josh Watson: Yeah. That would be not comfortable decision to have to make.

Debbie Watson: I think it would kind of be a little silly to do that.

Zac Schultz: Debbie Watson says she wouldn’t do that even if it saved her $20,000 for four years tuition.

Debbie Watson: Even though it would keep me out of the choice program it wouldn’t be a choice for me because I believe so strongly in Catholic education that I wouldn’t want him to miss even one year of that.

Zac Schultz: But some families will likely make that decision. And once there, the public schools hope to keep the kids there.

Kathleen Williams: We will love them and care for them as if they’d been here since they were in preschool.