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Voucher student enrollment grew significantly as a result of legislation signed by Gov. Scott Walker that relaxed income limitations and eliminated enrollment caps in the school choice program, according to a report released Monday by the Public Policy Forum.

Voucher participation grew by 2,200 students in the last year to a total of about 23,200, increasing the program's total cost to $150.9 million, the report says.

The report also found that overall enrollment growth in the private schools that participate in the Milwaukee and Racine school choice programs was a direct result of the expanded voucher program, in which qualifying students receive a taxpayer-financed subsidy worth $6,442 to attend a private school.

And some of the first-year voucher recipients were students who were previously tuition-payers at the same private schools, the report says.

The governor's biennial budget raised income limits for the program, allowing families earning up to 300% of the poverty level to enroll their children in the voucher program starting this school year.

In 2011, the poverty level for a family of four equaled $22,350, according to the report. Under the new voucher guidelines, a family of four making up to $67,050 can participate in the voucher program. The median annual household income in Milwaukee is $35,921.

About half of the 114 private schools involved in the voucher program reported an increase in voucher use that was greater than their overall enrollment growth - meaning that without the voucher program their enrollment may have fallen. Thirteen other schools reported equal rates of growth in voucher use and total enrollment.

Anneliese Dickman, research director for the Public Policy Forum, a nonpartisan and nonprofit research organization, said it is impossible to determine the exact number of new voucher students who were paying tuition at the same schools last year because the state does not ask students what school they attended the previous year.

Another new provision of the voucher program ensures that once a family is enrolled in the voucher program, it can stay permanently - even if the family's income rises and exceeds the program's income cap.

"The families come in with the voucher, so that's a benefit for the schools because that's a stable source of revenue," Dickman said.

Poverty affects achievement

The Public Policy Forum's report also compared student performance among voucher schools based on last year's release of statewide testing data. By law voucher school students were for the first time required to take Wisconsin's annual standardized achievement test that all public school students take. The report focused on the performance levels of schools with high rates of student poverty against schools with considerably lower rates.

Dickman said that poverty and racial status are the factors most closely correlated to student outcomes, and schools with high rates of students living in poverty and minority students tend to have lower proficiency rates.

"We thought, let's zoom in on those (schools) that are high minority and high poverty and see how they're doing," Dickman said. "And if they're doing really well, they're doing better than we would have expected based on their student population."

Among the report's findings:

If counted as a school district, the parental choice program in Milwaukee and Racine would be the third largest in the state.

Students in participating Catholic and Lutheran schools outperformed all other nondenominational private schools in the voucher program.

Overall, voucher students did not score higher than MPS students in either reading or math.

Of the 1,228 ninth-graders enrolled as voucher students in 2007-'08, 883 were still enrolled four years later.

Nearly 23,200 students in the 2011-'12 school year are paying private school tuition with taxpayer-financed vouchers, compared with 11,600 voucher users during 2002-'03. Total enrollment in private schools that participate in the voucher program has increased by more than 5,300 in the last decade.

Still a source of debate

The voucher program began in Milwaukee in 1990 as the Milwaukee Parental Choice Program. Advocates said it would give low-income parents in Milwaukee the same options wealthier parents have to leave struggling Milwaukee public schools.

James Bender, president of School Choice Wisconsin, welcomes the report's findings.

"By removing enrollment caps and expanding eligibility, more families have the ability to choose schools that best fit their children," Bender said. "With a net savings per student and higher graduation rates, taxpayers and students both benefit from expansion of the school choice program."

Critics of the program and its expansion say it drains resources from MPS. They argue students in the voucher program haven't shown better overall results than their peers in MPS. Bob Peterson, president of the Milwaukee Teachers' Education Association, points to voucher students' failure to top MPS students' reading and math scores.

"This is not about improving education in Milwaukee," Peterson said. "It's about transferring students to private schools."

"As far as I'm concerned, it's a failed social policy that ultimately is undermining the public schools and privatizing education," he said.