Critiques of WPRI report find recent school choice research to be fatally flawed
December 10, 2007

NEWS RELEASE

For Immediate Release

Critiques of WPRI report find recent school choice research to be fatally flawed

INDIANAPOLIS (December 10, 2007) – The Milton and Rose D. Friedman Foundation and the Institute for Justice (IJ) released today critiques of a recent report from the Wisconsin Policy Research Institute (WPRI) that criticized the effectiveness of Milwaukee's school choice program.

Both the Friedman Foundation and IJ are challenging the methodology employed by WPRI and characterizing the research as fatally flawed.

"Methodology matters. In the past, we have generally believed WPRI research to be of acceptable quality. But their approach to this most recent study of school choice is flawed, and we cannot accept junk science as truth when something as important as education is at stake." said Robert Enlow, Executive Director of the Friedman Foundation. 

The WPRI report fails to include data on educational outcomes, and it fails to include data from the city of Milwaukee in reaching determinations about Milwaukee schools. Absent these two key data sets, readers cannot draw meaningful conclusions about whether Milwaukee students are better off as a result of any form of school choice; however, this is exactly what the WPRI study purports to provide.

The Friedman Foundation's critique is located at:

http://www.friedmanfoundation.org/friedman/research/resources/WPRI's%20Junk%20Science.pdf

The Institute for Justice's critique is located at:

http://www.ij.org/pdf_folder/other_pubs/fatally_flawed.pdf

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Media Contact:

Jen Pittman Fanger

Director of Communications

Milton and Rose D. Friedman Foundation

317.229.2128

jen@friedmanfoundation.org