On Jan. 9, Gail Hicks testified before the Urban Education Committee of the Wisconsin Assembly and called out Milwaukee's "New Hustler Academies" -- the nickname she and her colleagues have bestowed upon the many unscrupulous charter and voucher schools that have sprung up in Milwaukee since Wisconsin's largest city became one of this country's largest experiments in educational privatization.
Less than a week later came this headline in the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel:
Milwaukee voucher school LifeSkills Academy closes 'in the dead of the night'The article told an appalling story:
A small private school participating in the Milwaukee Parental Choice Program abruptly closed in the middle of December, but not before collecting more than $200,000 from taxpayers this academic year to educate students who now attend other schools, state officials confirmed.LifeSkills became a voucher school in 2008, and through the years received over two million dollars in taxpayer funding.LifeSkills Academy, a K-8 school that had dwindled to 66 students, appears to have closed around Dec. 12, according to a letter sent to the school from the Department of Public Instruction.
And what did Wisconsin get for the money?
Follow me below the tangled orange political web to find out.