08/18/2026
As a public school teacher for over 20 years, I've watched Wisconsin's voucher program grow with almost zero accountability — and this new ProPublica investigation shows exactly why that should alarm every taxpayer.
Reporters found 39 Wisconsin private schools where 100% of students used tuition vouchers last year — together taking in roughly $87 million in public money to educate 7,923 kids. These are essentially publicly funded schools operating with none of the oversight we require of real public schools.
Take Atlas Preparatory Academy in Milwaukee: it received more than $4.3 million in voucher money for 357 students, has low test scores and declining enrollment, and earned the state's lowest performance rating. Yet its board chair also works as a paid administrator earning over $150,000 — a dual role that would be flatly prohibited at a public school. His accounting firm also pulled in tens of thousands more from the school in contracts.
Back in 2011, state education officials themselves asked "when is a private school really a public school?" and floated real accountability measures for these schools. Fifteen years later, we still have no answer — and no accountability. Meanwhile, voucher schools aren't required to serve all students with disabilities, can openly discriminate against any students, and they don't have to follow Wisconsin's open records law the way public districts do.
As a public school teacher, I served in a district held accountable for every dollar, every test score, every decision. It's time voucher schools that cash public checks played by the same rules. Public money demands public accountability.
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