Gov. Scott Walker reads "Wild About Books" to first-grade students at St. Marcus Lutheran School’s new Early Childhood Center Wednesday. The private voucher school, which has unsuccessfully tried to purchase two empty Milwaukee Public Schools buildings to expand, leased a non-district facility this year to serve 103 young students on its waiting list. Walker said St. Marcus has a track record of successfully preparing kids for high school, and he said if re-elected he would support further expanding voucher schools statewide. Credit: ERIN RICHARDS

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Gov. Scott Walker and Mary Burke on Wednesday sharpened the contrast between them on taxpayer-funded private voucher schools, with the GOP governor proposing a significant expansion and his Democratic challenger saying she would eliminate the new statewide program.

As the Nov. 4 election looms, school vouchers are at the forefront of the education debate. But the candidates also sparred Wednesday about whether Burke had been too generous toward teachers during her time on the Madison School Board.

On a morning visit to a high-profile Milwaukee private school, Walker said he supports significantly increasing participation in the 2-year-old statewide voucher program, particularly for low-income students and potentially for students from higher-income families.

"Whether it's an absolute lift or a bigger increase than what we have currently — some of it in the state would have to keep pace with capacity," Walker said.

"I don't know if it would happen all at once, but having more families have those choices, whether it's in Madison or Green Bay or elsewhere across the state, is incredibly important."

Burke picked up the gauntlet Wednesday afternoon, repeating her pledge to reduce the number of vouchers offered by the state for students to attend private, mostly religious schools by eliminating the statewide program entirely.

"This just seems to me like a career politician 60 days before an election is throwing out ideas with no plan for how they're going to be funded," Burke said in a phone interview with reporters.

"What we saw from the statewide program is something like 75% of the children enrolled were never enrolled in public schools. I respect that decision, but I also don't think it should be taxpayer subsidized. I wouldn't have the program at all."

Both supporters and opponents of school vouchers — or "school choice" — have poured money into Wisconsin's elections.

The largest state teachers union, the Wisconsin Education Association Council, gave $1.3 million last month to the Greater Wisconsin Committee, a liberal group that has been running ads critical of Walker. Two of WEAC's political action committees have given a total of $83,128 to Burke directly.

On the other side, the American Federation for Children said last year in a brochure that in the 2012 elections in Wisconsin, including the recalls that year, it had spent $2.4 million supporting pro-voucher candidates.

Along with family members, Dick and Betsy DeVos have given about $343,000 to Walker since 2009. The Grand Rapids, Mich., couple made their fortune in the marketing firm Amway and now support the voucher school movement.

The elections are critical because in general, candidates' stances on vouchers are largely dictated by their political party affiliations. If Republican candidates maintain control of both houses and the governor's seat, voucher-friendly legislation is more likely to pass.

Democrats are trying to take control of the state Senate. Republicans hold the chamber 17-15, with one GOP-leaning seat vacant. Republicans have a stronger majority in the Assembly, and the election is unlikely to change that.

Senate Democrats would oppose the expansion of voucher schools until standards and requirements are established that put those private schools on the same footing as public schools, Senate Minority Leader Chris Larson (D-Milwaukee) said.

Average citizens "don't like the idea of giving away our dollars to unaccountable voucher schools," Larson said.

Jim Bender, the president of School Choice Wisconsin, said Wednesday that whenever anyone asks about what will happen in the Legislature with voucher legislation, he has a simple response.

"Talk to me after the November elections."

Tom Evenson, a spokesman for the Walker campaign, said Wednesday that accountability for all schools receiving public funds would be a part of Walker's first legislative package.

Issue grows nationally

The voucher movement has picked up major steam nationally thanks to Republican-led efforts to create or expand programs that offer taxpayer-funded tuition subsidies for students to attend private, usually religious schools.

The private schools do not have to follow all the same rules as public schools, such as responding to open records requests and serving all students with special needs. They also may follow wholly different curricula, teaching creationism instead of evolution in science class, for example.

Critics say the schools divert money from cash-strapped public school systems.

But voucher advocates say that the private schools are more efficient than the public schools, operating on fewer public dollars and producing the same or better results for disadvantaged kids who wouldn't otherwise be able to afford a private-school education.

Many advocates also like that the schools can institute stricter discipline or uniform policies.

Overall, research shows no major achievement difference between students in Milwaukee Public Schools and students attending private voucher schools that participate in the 24-year-old Milwaukee Parental Choice Program, the longest-running urban school voucher program of its kind in the country.

In both sectors, there are high-performing schools serving predominantly low-income, minority students, as well as a lot of mediocre schools, and then some really low-performers.

Milwaukee's St. Marcus Lutheran School is considered a high-achieving, high-poverty school.

On Wednesday, Walker visited St. Marcus' new Early Childhood Center, a space it has leased four blocks from its main campus to serve an additional 100 young students on its waiting list.

Its main K-8 campus opened earlier this month with about 745 students. According to St. Marcus, 96% of its graduates from eighth grade go on to graduate from high school.

Walker said schools like St. Marcus are key to getting more disadvantaged children to read on grade level and to be well-prepared for high school.

"Our opponent is talking about limiting the amount of choices that parents here and elsewhere across the state have to access the type of quality education you see here at St. Marcus, and I think that's an important distinction in this race," Walker said.

Walker said he wants MPS to succeed, too — he visited one of the city's public schools on Tuesday.

"But for those families that want an alternative, there are places like St. Marcus and we'll continue to invest in them."

Milwaukee's voucher program enrolls more than 25,000 students at more than 100 private schools. And Racine's voucher program, launched in 2011, enrolls around 1,200 students at about 13 private schools.

The statewide voucher program is limited to 1,000 students this year at 26 private schools around Wisconsin.

Burke has said in previous statements provided to the Journal Sentinel that she would support the continuation of the voucher programs in Milwaukee and Racine, but that she would insist on greater accountability policies for both.

But she's in favor of eliminating vouchers outside those cities.

Burke said Wednesday that if all low- and middle-income students were allowed to enroll in the statewide voucher program, it wouldn't be unrealistic to see another 100,000 students participate.

If that happened, she said, where would the state come up with the $721 million needed to fund the vouchers?

Burke has said in previous statements that she would prefer to repeal the statewide program, and put the $30 million used to pay for it now back into neighborhood, public schools.

Madison record called out

Walker on Wednesday also challenged Burke's record on the Madison School Board.

He noted that the graduation rate for black students in Madison is lower than the graduation rate for black students in MPS.

Walker said Burke has had a chance to use his Act 10 law to save the taxpayers millions in Madison, and put those dollars toward alleviating the achievement gap.

"She's failed to do that," Walker said.

Burke responded that Madison is a fiscally responsible district that is one of the few in the state operating under its levy cap.

Madison still has a contract because the teachers union there challenged the Act 10 law in court, and a circuit judge's ruling initially swung in its favor. The teachers union subsequently bargained a contract this year and next year with the district.

Then this summer, the Wisconsin Supreme Court upheld Walker's Act 10 law.

Burke believes in taking a different approach to improving academic achievement. Specifically: hiring quality teachers. You attract quality teachers by offering fair benefits and decent compensation, she said.

Burke called Walker's argument that acting on Act 10 would have put more money back in Madison's classrooms, "shortsighted."

"I completely reject that premise," she said. "I think it shows a lack of knowledge about what is actually going to improve student achievement."

Jason Stein and Patrick Marley of the Journal Sentinel staff contributed to this report from Madison.