Illinois should look to Wisconsin and Indiana for education reform inspiration

by Josh Dwyer Illinois’ education system is struggling. Fewer than half of public school students are college-ready in reading, math and science, and last year82 percent of Illinois districts failed to make Adequate Yearly Progress – a key measure in No Child Left Behind that gauges school success. What’s even more startling is that these poor outcomes...

by Josh Dwyer

Illinois’ education system is struggling.

Fewer than half of public school students are college-ready in reading, math and science, and last year82 percent of Illinois districts failed to make Adequate Yearly Progress – a key measure in No Child Left Behind that gauges school success.

What’s even more startling is that these poor outcomes are improvements over previous years.

Districts have made attempts at reforms – such as basing a portion of teachers’ performance evaluations on how much they increase student test scores and instituting small-scale merit pay systems – but nothing has made a significant impact.

Illinois needs to think bigger. Instead of making tweaks to existing polices, the state should instead embrace substantive education reforms that have been shown to improve student performance in other states.

If legislators need inspiration, there’s no better place to look than Wisconsin and Indiana.

Late last month, the Wisconsin Legislature passed a budget measure that expands the state’s historic school choice program. The expansion will allow up to 500 low-income students next year and up to 1,000 in following years to attend private schools.

Under the expansion, students are eligible for scholarships if their families earn no more than 185 percent of the poverty level – $43,567 for a family of four – and only 1 percent of students in a given district can use scholarships.

This is in addition to the more than 25,000 students already using scholarships in Milwaukee and Racine, where students’ families can earn up to 300 percent of the poverty level – $70,650 for a family of four – and still qualify for scholarships.

Study after study shows that Wisconsin’s school choice program has been successful in boosting student outcomes. A recent, high-quality study found that students in Milwaukee who received scholarships scored higher than their peers attending traditional public school on state tests and were more likely to graduate.

Wisconsin isn’t the only state expanding its school choice program.

In fact, Indiana Gov. Mike Pence recently signed a bill that broadens eligibility for the state’s popular school choice program, expands Indiana’s tax credit scholarship and continues a tax deduction for families that are homeschooling their children or are already enrolled in private schools.

Additionally, the bill extends eligibility for the school choice program to siblings of students who are already benefiting from vouchers, allows students residing in districts with an F-rated school to benefit from the program and creates a special needs scholarship for students in families that earn less than 200 percent of the income to qualify for free-and-reduced lunch.

The state expects 456 schools to participate in the school choice program in the upcoming year – a 58 percent increase from the 2012-13 school year.

The success of the programs in Wisconsin and Indiana should send a clear signal to Illinois – that now is the time to embrace school choice.