Wisconsin Court Upholds State's Test of Vouchers

By Mark Walsh

In a ruling hailed by school-choice advocates, the Wisconsin Supreme Court last week upheld the experimental Milwaukee program that allows a limited number of children from low-income families to attend nonsectarian private schools at state expense.

The 4-to-3 ruling overturned a 1990 state appellate-court ruling that the state legislature had improperly enacted the plan as a rider to an appropriations bill. The majority of the state supreme court held that the program served the significant state purpose of improving the education of children from low-income families, and thus was not a special-interest measure requiring separate passage under the state constitution.

"Clearly, the program is not only of statewide importance but national significance as well,'' said the majority opinion by Justice William G. Callow, "because education of our citizens knows no boundaries and other states could benefit from the knowledge resulting...