Wis. School Expelled From Voucher Program
Posted on: Friday, 28 January 2005, 00:00 CST
MILWAUKEE - The state terminated a school from its Milwaukee voucher program Thursday, after police were called to break up a melee Monday that included an estimated 100 students.
Children told police there were no teachers at the Academic Solutions Center for Learning when the fighting broke out in a classroom and the melee later developed in a common area while officers were investigating the first fight.
According to the order from the state Department of Public Instruction, children told police that teachers either didn't show up for work or called in sick because they hadn't been paid.
The DPI order, signed by Deputy Superintendent Anthony Evers, said the five to seven school security officers and about two administrators in the common area were unable to control the situation. Police issued several citations to students involved.
Police had been called to the school five other times since mid-November, and the school was not meeting terms of its building occupancy certificate, the DPI said.
DPI officials said they concluded the school posed an imminent threat to the health and safety of students, which violates rules for the program, so they terminated it.
That means the school won't get state aid payments through the program until all requirements are met and administrators show they can safely run the school.
The state previously challenged the school's claims of enrolling 700 students, saying it actually had under 500. The voucher program pays about $5,900 per student, allowing low-income families in Milwaukee to send their children to private schools at taxpayer expense.
Milwaukee Public Schools scheduled an open house Feb. 3 to give students from the former voucher school and their parents the opportunity to select an MPS school to attend.
Republicans in the Legislature have been working to raise the enrollment cap on the program for next fall, arguing that an additional 1,500 students are likely to seek a spot, which would raise the total over the current cap of 15 percent of MPS enrollment.
Source: Associated Press/AP Online
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