Wisconsin Supreme Court throws out ‘nonsensical’ anti-school choice lawsuit

The Wisconsin Supreme Court has unanimously refused to take up a lawsuit against the state’s four school choice programs.

The lawsuit – filed by the leftist Minocqua Brewing Company SuperPAC – alleged school choice defunds public schools and isn’t sufficiently accountable to the state superintendent.

The plaintiffs tried to bypass the lower courts and take their case straight to the Wisconsin Supreme Court, but were denied last Wednesday.

Various school choice advocates celebrated the victory.

“Wisconsin’s parental choice programs have been instrumental in providing educational freedom and better academic outcomes to thousands of Wisconsin families,” said Rick Esenberg, president of the Wisconsin Institute for Law & Liberty. “The now-denied petition filed with the Wisconsin Supreme Court was plagued with misleading, misinformed, and nonsensical legal arguments.”

“This news will come as a great relief to thousands of Wisconsin families and the schools that serve them,” added Nicholas Kelly, president of School Choice Wisconsin. “Parents across the state value a program that works for them.”  

Two of the challenged programs – the Milwaukee and the statewide Parental Choice Programs – serve a combined total of nearly 50,000 low-income students. Students receive vouchers worth $10,000, which amounts to just three-quarters of the state’s average per-pupil funding in public schools. 

The lawsuit also sought to undermine the state’s scholarship for special needs students.  

Recent state data reveal students enrolled in the Milwaukee or Racine school choice programs have much better odds of attending a high-performing school than their traditional public-school counterparts. 

However, the fight to protect education freedom in Wisconsin isn’t over. Local media reported Kirk Bangstad, founder of the Minocqua SuperPAC, plans to file the lawsuit again in a lower court.