Child abuse at Milwaukee voucher school reveals a failed 'school reform'

by Caroline Grannan · 2009-04-11 06:51:00 UTC
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You could make a creepy pastiche of quotes from news coverage (at least while there is still a press in the United States) of rogue charter and, in this case, voucher schools. This one is from Milwaukee, site of a pioneering private-school voucher program that has been cheered for years by the national education reform crowd -- or "education deform," as the less starry-eyed would put it.

Thank goodness for freedom from burdensome bureaucratic regulations.

If Milwaukee school officials aren't seriously planning to end the voucher experiment, it's a chilling testament to the power wielded by the wealthy and influential forces pushing their agenda on public education in our country. And President Obama, who has been unaccountably influenced by the school reformers, needs to take another look at what he's buying into.

Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel

Dispute over state funds leads to closure of voucher school

Kids, parents fault school for harsh treatment, academic failings

By Alan Borsuk

April 2, 2009
Only a few things are known about LaBrew Troopers Military University School.

Among them:

The school has received more than $4.5 million from the State of Wisconsin in the last six years.

No one in the general public knows anything about how students have done academically.

The most vivid pillar of its program has been its emphasis on physical discipline - making students carry desks over their heads, twisting their arms until they "give," forcing them to do push-ups for infractions.

One student said he fell asleep in class because he wasn't feeling well. His punishment, he said, was a pitcher of water poured over his head.

Several students, including one who was 6, said if that they did something one of the school's sergeants didn't like, their arms would be twisted behind their backs until they were in pain. "You give?" they would be asked. They would be held that way until they said, "I give."

Others described doing push-ups while propped on milk crates until they were so tired they fell off the crates, and getting their wrists bent forward by force until the children were in pain. A girl, 9, said her punishments included carrying around a bag of sand.

... None of what the adults and children said involved why the school is in trouble. State regulation allows almost no oversight over the programs in the private schools, short of the health or safety of students being threatened. LaBrew is not required to release any information on test scores or other data about student performance, and it has not done so.

Caroline Grannan
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