State Sen. Kelda Roys, a Democrat candidate for governor, wants to end Wisconsin’s highly successful school voucher program to funnel money back into failing public schools.
State Sen. Kelda Roys, a Democratic candidate for governor, is again calling Wisconsin’s successful school voucher program a “failed experiment” that must be phased out, a stance education experts warn would devastate tens of thousands of low-income and minority families while funneling more money into underperforming public schools.
In an interview Friday on WTMJ Radio’s “Point Taken,” Roys said she wants to protect current participants from immediate disruption but ultimately eliminate the parental choice program.
“We don’t want to take people out of situations that are working for them, but we also have to stop the expansion of vouchers, and we have to bring that failed experiment to a responsible close, over the course of time, so that kids’ lives are not disrupted, but so that our public schools can get the resources that they need to make sure every kid gets a great public education,” Roys said.
The remark stunned school choice advocates. Wisconsin’s Parental Choice Programs now serve more than 60,000 students — nearly half of all private school enrollment statewide — at roughly 78% of the per-pupil cost of traditional public schools. Independent analyses, including a 2025 School Choice Wisconsin report, show voucher students consistently outperform their public school peers in reading, math and ACT scores, even though the program enrolls a higher share of low-income and minority children.
Closing the program, critics say, would trigger chaos: thousands of families forced back into district schools already struggling with chronic absenteeism and lower proficiency rates. The state would lose one of its most cost-effective education investments, with voucher schools delivering higher DPI Report Card scores and stronger academic growth at lower taxpayer expense. Milwaukee Parental Choice Program schools, for example, are 76% more productive than Milwaukee Public Schools, according to cost-effectiveness indexes.
The proposal comes as Roys languishes in the polls. The latest Marquette Law School Poll, released Feb. 25 and conducted Feb. 11-19 among 394 Democratic primary voters, showed her at just 1% support in the crowded governor’s race. Sixty-five percent of Democratic primary voters remained undecided.
Supporters of school choice called Roys’ plan a direct attack on parental rights and proven results for the very children she claims to champion. The voucher program, they note, has grown 66% in nine years because families demand better options — options Roys now wants to shutter.
