Fitzgerald says special needs voucher expansion coming back

By Ryan Ekvall | Wisconsin Reporter

MAYVILLE – Senate Majority Leader Scott Fitzgerald, R-Juneau, left the door open for expansion of school choice for special needs students, saying the Senate will take a closer look at a controversial initiative that was left out of the Republican budget proposal this fall.

“We didn’t address the special needs question,” Fitzgerald told reporters on Thursday in Mayville. “I think the reason for that is because there’s two different approaches. One is to address it with a scholarship, a voucher. The other is to address it with open enrollment.”

Gov. Scott Walker had proposed a scholarship or voucher program to allow up to 5 percent of the state’s special education students to enroll in private, public or charter schools at no cost to parents. The provision was removed from the budget as part of the education deal struck between Walker and on-the-fence Republican senators. That deal resulted in a $150 per-pupil increase in school aid and a revamped statewide expansion of the private school voucher program.

Walker said Thursday he would honor that deal, which caps voucher expansion to 500 students next year and 1,000 students the following year. Currently, Milwaukee and Racine are the only districts that have voucher programs.