Several Democratic state legislators announced Tuesday they plan to circulate a petition to remove Gov. Scott Walker’s proposal to expand private school vouchers to nine additional school districts from the biennial budget.
The petition is spearheaded by state Rep. Sondy Pope, D-Cross Plains, and has already drawn support from other legislators including state Reps. Dianne Hesselbein, D-Middleton, and Chris Taylor, D-Madison. Pope said she started the current petition after hearing concerns from citizens about Walker’s expansion plan and the potential negative effects it could have on the state’s public school system that has already dealt with large funding cuts.
She added that petitions have been successful within the state recently, citing last year’s recall petitions.
“I hope that [the petition] serves to provide the governor with evidence that the people of Wisconsin do not want to expand the voucher program at the expense of our public schools,” Pope said. “We are real people, this is where we live and we don’t want [the voucher expansion].”
Additionally, Pope said she was concerned Walker might use his power to veto portions of the final budget to expand the program to every school district in the state, instead of the current nine.
“[The veto is] something that needs to be noted and something that seems to slip past people,” Pope said.
The private school vouchers Walker proposed would give money to qualified low-income families so they could send their children to high performing private schools.
Walker has said the expansion would give students across the state access to the best education available.
