Seventy-three percent of Wisconsin students who received a state voucher to attend private school this year were already enrolled in private school last year, according to data released in October. Another 3 percent didn’t attend school and 2.4 percent were home-schooled.

Republican Gov. Scott Walker and other supporters of the voucher program claim that it allows students to escape from struggling public schools, but critics of the program point to the new numbers as proof that it is really just a thinly veiled attack on public education.

“These numbers expose the expansion of the unaccountable private school voucher program for the scam that it is,” said Scot Ross, director of One Wisconsin Now, which opposes vouchers. “It’s not about helping kids; it’s a far-right-driven effort to privatize schools and satisfy the wealthy campaign contributors and well-connected special interests behind it.”

The program was expanded across the state this year, with a cap of 500 students that will increase to 1,000 students next year. Vouchers previously were available only in Milwaukee or the Racine area.

Albany Times-Union, Oct. 29