SCHOOL CHOICE IN MILWAUKEE - PRIVATIZATION OF A DIFFERENT BREED

For decades educational reformers have identified school choice progra ms as a strategy for restructuring public school systems. Practically every stare has considered or adopted a school assignment program that qualifies as a ''choice'' initiative, one in which students and paren ts have some choice in school selection. Increasingly, school district s are contemplating plans that include a choice of private, ar well as public, schools. One of the most far-reaching of these school choice plans is the Milwaukee (Wisconsin) Parental Choice Program, which, as legislated, allows parents to use vouchers to enroll their children in both sectarian and nonsectarian schools in the community. This paper explores the evolution of school choice in Milwaukee and examines the extent to which school choice is representative of other privatization efforts currently under way in the United States.