If you had kids and worked at a bank or law firm in New York City, for example, you would think twice about living in the city if you didn t have enough money to send your children to private school the public schools, with few prestigious exceptions, are that bad. The crux of the problem is that the public school system is set up in a way where the customer the parent doesn t really matter, so there s no incentive for the system to do better. Take job security for public school teachers. In Milwaukee, there hasn t been a teacher fired since 1978 who didn t commit a felony. Here s a sign of how little the public school system values children.
Most states have a way of counting students for dispensing aid to school districts.
In Wisconsin, the day of the aid count is the third Friday in September. On that day, school districts count attendance scrupulously. Many schools go to great lengths to attract kids to school so they can be counted, offering fun menus, celebrity guests, and sometimes door prizes. This is not a system that is friendly to children. Through the efforts of state representative Polly Williams a former welfare recipient and a single mother raising four kids and an unusual coalition of Democrats and Republicans, Wisconsin now has a partial system of school choice.