RACINE, Wis. – A parent of a Wisconsin private school voucher student recently gained a new perspective on the troubles he endured when he enrolled his child in the program for the first time this fall.

An EAGnews/WILL report published last month – “DPI’s War on Wisconsin’s School Choice Program” – hit home for the Racine parent, who requested anonymity out of fear of retaliation against his child’s school by state Department of Public Instruction officials.

“We almost lost our voucher after school already started because we finally got married, and my wife’s last name on our taxes and on our application didn’t match,” the father of two said. “They said the name didn’t match the taxes, and they were basically trying to cancel the voucher.

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“It was the Department of (Public Instruction) that brought it to the school, and they had to come back to us to straighten it out.”

The parent wrote in to EAGnews after reading the DPI report, which details complaints from independent auditors and choice school administrators about harassment and intimidation tactics used by DPI against schools in the Milwaukee and Racine Parental Choice Programs.

Choice school administrators contend DPI officials, led by state Superintendent Tony Evers, routinely interpret state laws in ways that cause an unnecessary burden on voucher schools and limit student enrollment. Evers has been a critic of the parental choice program, which recently expanded statewide, because the vouchers allow parents to spend their child’s education dollars at nongovernment, nonunionized private schools. Opinion polls, however, show the vast majority of Wisconsin residents support the voucher program.

“Our children are caught in the crossfire of an ideologically driven expansion of school vouchers that is financially reckless and academically unproven,” Evers alleged of the voucher expansion this summer.

The Racine parent said when he learned of the tactics DPI officials had used in the past to deny enrollment to other eligible voucher students – such as requiring signatures from both biological parents, even in the case of conception by rape – his experience came into better focus.

The father said he initially considered DPI’s demand to produce further proof his wife was who she said she was as a case of “government incompetence,” but after reading the EAGnews report he’s not so sure there isn’t more to it.

“How did we get the voucher in the first place if (the name change) was an issue?” he questioned. “It was all after the fact. We had already gotten the voucher and she was attending school” when state officials attempted to deny her application.

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“Why were they coming to us after school had already started?”

The parent eventually produced a marriage license for state officials and resolved the matter, but said he found the whole experience unnerving.

“It’s getting ridiculous how shady and sneaky these people are,” he said of state officials administering the voucher program.

The parent said that like many folks who have raised issues with DPI, he’s unwilling to risk his daughter’s future, or her school’s participation in the choice program, by publicly challenging DPI officials.

“I don’t want the school to get screwed with by the Department because of me,” he said. “The school is too much of a blessing for my daughter to lose it.”

The power of choice

The Racine parent said he married his wife, a Racine native, last year after moving to the area about five years ago. He quickly realized he didn’t want his oldest daughter, who entered pre-kindergarten this year, to attend Racine’s public schools.

“The public school system in Racine is atrocious,” he said, “but there was no way we were going to be able to afford a private school. I had no clue there were even vouchers available.”

The young student’s grandmother learned of the Racine Parental Choice Program and helped her daughter and son-in-law apply for a voucher for her grandchild.

The Racine dad said the family easily met the income eligibility requirements and were accepted into the program. His daughter is now attending her mother’s alma mater – a private religious school in Racine – where the father said she’s receiving an excellent education despite the attempt by state officials to kick her out of the program.

“I was really sweating my daughters going to Racine schools,” he said. “I knew there was no way I could send my kid to a public school in Racine.”

The Racine dad is grateful the voucher program allows the family to carry on its tradition of private religious education. His wife, and all of her siblings, attended the same school.

His youngest daughter – still a toddler – will also follow in their footsteps, he said.

“I was so excited,” he said of his daughter’s eventual acceptance into the choice program. “We’re homeowners, so I’m paying taxes for public schools. It matters tremendously that my taxes are going to my daughter’s school.”