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Health & Fitness

Demand for school vouchers boils over in Racine

By Ryan Ekvall | Wisconsin Reporter

MADISON – Like steam escaping from a teapot, parent demand for vouchers is hissing as the state removes the enrollment cap on the Racine school choice program.

A count by Wisconsin Reporter found 10 of the 13 private schools expect to enroll 830 voucher students in the school choice program in the new school year. The Department of Public Instruction won’t have the official numbers ready until October. Last year, the Racine program was capped at 500 students.

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Of the three schools Wisconsin Reporter could not reach, two had 145 voucher students enrolled last year and the other is new to the program, meaning the number of students in the choice program likely will more than double last year’s totals.

The taxpayer cost for sending a voucher student to a private school — $6,442 — is about half the per-pupil cost in Racine public schools. However, because of the way the funding mechanism works, taxpayers still pay public schools for students they no longer have for one full school year after they’ve left for private schools.

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