Open Enrollment or Vouchers Which is Killing RUSD?

I realize that this blog is a little delayed, but sometimes you have to wait for life to slow down.

When the voucher system first came to eastern Racine County it was cheered by many and booed by a number of people also. It was said that vouchers were an attack on the public school system and that it would kill the public school system by taking away funding and sending them to private schools. Some claimed it was wrong for tax dollars to go to religious schools. However, Pell Grants for college have been awarded to faith based institutions for years. There seems to be no problem with money going to private schools if it is a post-secondary level. 

This past June a last minute addition to the budget expanded the voucher program to the entire county. In a recent Journal Times article leaders for Raymond Elementary and Union Grove High School had a more positive reaction.

“Right now we have a lot of open enrollment kids that come from Racine Unified,” said Raymond Elementary School District Administrator Joe Dawidziak. “As far as students go, I don’t see (the expansion) having much impact (on us).”

“Well over 200 open enrollment students are coming to our high school so if students are going to attend the private schools with vouchers, that’s fine,” he (Al Mollerskov) said. “I’m not opposed to competition.”

These two responses seem to support the view that the Racine Unified will not “die” from the sudden blow of the voucher system. In fact RUSD has been dying a death by 1,000 cuts for well over a decade. The open enrollment system has been around since the late 90’s. It had a very modest effect on RUSD the first year but it quickly snowballed. Each year more and more students have transferred out of the system to other public school districts. This past year (2012-13) RUSD had 1,068 students transfer out. This was the third highest total for any district in the state behind only Milwaukee and Green Bay. By comparison Kenosha Unified had only 314 students transfer out, less than a 1/3 of RUSD. Each student that transfers out means more money leaving the district following him/her to districts like Raymond and Union Grove. Below is a chart showing a year by year break down of transfers and net loss in funding.

Over the past the past fifteen years Racine Unified lost 5,609 students and $34 million in funding. How many of those referendums that have been put to ballot would never have been needed if these students hadn’t left? It should also be pointed out that these are families that still choose public schools just not Racine Unified. They are willing to drive their children to Raymond, Yorkville, or Union Grove to get what they view as a better education.

I would enjoy reading your thoughts below.

(If you don’t trust my math I got my data from the DPI website: http://sms.dpi.wi.gov/sms_oeaid)