By host Tom Ashbrook:

For a decade and a half, the country has been debating school vouchers. And for that same fifteen years, the city of Milwaukee in Wisconsin has been using public money to help poor families pay for private school.

School vouchers have been a conservative hobby horse for years, but very few communities actually use them. Milwaukee is the voucher mecca. Last week, Wisconsin moved to raise the portion of Milwaukee students with voucher access to 22 percent, the highest in the country.

Poor kids in bad schools need something. Is this it? Private schools, often religious, paid for with public funds?

Hear about public schools, private schools, school vouchers and the Milwaukee story.

Guests:

Alan Borsuk, reporter for the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel

John Witte, Professor of Political Science and Public Affairs at the University of Wisconsin and author of “The Market Approach to Education: An Analysis of America’s First Voucher Program”

Howard Fuller, Former superintendent of Milwaukee Public Schools, Director of the Institute for the Transformation of Learning at Marquette University

Stan Johnson, director of the Wisconsin Education Association Council