New Subsidized Private Choice School Slots Going To Kids Already There

Data show that most of the 500 new taxpayer-subsidized private choice school slots approved by the GOP-controlled Legislature are being sought by kids who are already in a private school and who are not attending one of those supposedly-awful public schools with union teachers that parents want to abandon.

So another myth about subsidized choice schools bites the dust; choice as it has evolved in Wisconsin is more about politics than education or freedom to choose:

The majority of the students who applied to receive a taxpayer-funded subsidy to attend a private, religious school in Wisconsin's new statewide voucher program are currently attending private schools, according to new data released Thursday.... 

There were 2,069 eligible students who applied to those schools —located in Green Bay, De Pere, Kenosha, Manitowoc, Oshkosh, Sheboygan and Wisconsin Rapids — and only 503 of the students attended public schools last year.... 

The majority — 67% of students, or 1,393 — attended a private school last year, meaning that the applicants, though coming from low-income families, were already able to attend a private school last year without the help of public assistance.