If participation in education and training are not acceptable activities for W-2 clients because, as the state has determined, a poor person's preparation for school should be grounded in work, then workers ought to be able to earn enough at a job to begin financing their education and training. Following the hearing, the committee took no action on the bill. The Wisconsin Catholic Conference hailed Attorney General Jim Doyle's conclusion that tax funded remedial education programs may be held on the grounds of religious schools, calling it a historic breakthrough for Wisconsin's Catholic school children. Title I program teachers out of religious schools. Title I federal education services in drafty mobile vans or trailers.
Catholic schools constitute the state's largest single nonpublic education system.
WANS's legal counsel sent a letter to Doyle in August, arguing that Wisconsin's Constitution permitted public school teachers to provide Title I services inside nonpublic schools as the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in June. The ruling will also likely mean that other nonpublic school children who have long been eligible for federal education services will begin to take advantage of them. Because of the transportation difficulties and the time it takes from the child's school day, many nonpublic school parents were opting out of these helpful education programs. Schmeling said Doyle's decision also reflects a changing attitude about aid to students in religious schools. The State Supreme Court is scheduled to hear arguments on the Milwaukee Parental Choice case in early spring.