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ForImmediateRelease May15,2013

Contact:JimBender

Progressive Think Tank Produces Fancy Report75 Page Report Even Has Impressive Color Graphs

MADISON A new study distributed by the Forward Institute follows the sameacademic philosophy of many grade school reports - fancy graphs, big words and an

impressive cover page graphic. Unfortunately, some in the media will fall for this rusethat is based on faulty assumptions, incorrect correlations and ideologically driven

conclusions. Just like that grade school report, Forward Institute hopes the fancy graphswill divert your attention away from the shady work.

This isn't research, it is myth perpetuation, Jim Bender said. There are so many

factual errors and gross misinterpretations that it would take another 75 page study tohighlight all of the errors. Clearly, the Forward Institute is not a research organization

and is merely creating more unfounded talking points for school choice opponents.

They question the adequacy of education in MPCP schools because they have highergraduation rates compared to students in MPS, but slightly fewer students scoring

proficient on a single year of 10th grade test scores, and try to argue that bringing MPCPstudents up to proficiency costs taxpayers more money. But these are accusations without

any correlative data to back up the claim.

Conversely, The School Choice Demonstration Project Study, a peer-reviewed studywhich actually compared and tracked a matched group of MPS and MPCP students found

that MPCP students had greater improvement in reading test scores over time and had ahigher percentage of students not only graduating, but enrolling and staying in college.

Perhaps the easiest item to point out to reporters is the assertion that the voucher amount

is greater than public school funding. A great article by Matt Defour in the WisconsinState Journal shows why the Legislative Fiscal Bureau thinks this comparison is so

faulty. (http://tinyurl.com/bcvfx2o) This is important because if Forward Institute getssomething this easy so wrong, the rest of their work becomes laughable.

In the end, the Forward Institute resolves that Wisconsin should spend more money on

public schools, eliminate the voucher program and charter schools and should not use theDPI report card for anything meaningful. Never has ideology trumped evidence so

clearly.

School Choice Wisconsin is a nonprofit organization that seeks to ensure an honest debate about

school choice by providing accurate information on the impact of school choice on families,

communities, and schools. www.chooseyourschoolwi.org

219 N. Milwaukee Street, Milwaukee, WI 53202 Phone 414 319-9160 Fax 414 765-0220