5-23-13 private school voucher forum

The former Wisconsin superintendent of the year says the bottom line is private school vouchers were a noble idea…but haven’t worked.   Dr. James Shaw spoke at a community forum in Fond du lac Wednesday night on the governor’s controversial proposal to expand school vouchers to nine Wisconsin communities including Fond du Lac.  "They're no more effective than public schools and that just makes common sense because to address student learning you have to have good teachers, you have to have extra help, you have to have parental support, you have to have community involvement,"  Shaw said.  "Those factors, especially quality teaching and good summer school programs and extra tutoring for children...that costs money and its difficult to provide adequate support for children of poverty."  The recently retired Racine School superintendent says learning and poverty are directly related…something he says that’s not addressed by school vouchers.