By Steve Gunn
EAGnews.org

MILWAUKEE – Anyone who read about a recent report from the Great Lakes Center for Education Research and Practice, suggesting that students in the Milwaukee voucher program perform no better than their peers in public schools, should take the information with a pound or two of salt.

That’s because the Great Lakes Center is nothing more than a paid mouthpiece for statewide teachers unions in the Great Lakes region. The unions hate voucher programs, and we strongly suspect they paid the “scholars” involved with the Great Lakes Center to come up with “studies” to back up their attacks on the Milwaukee program.

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Why would we suspect such a thing? According to IRS documents, the Great Lakes Center recently accepted $10,000 contributions from the Michigan Education Association, the Illinois Education Association, Education Minnesota and the Ohio Education Association.

Need more evidence? The Great Lake Center’s board of directors includes chairman Luigi Battaglieri, who until recently served as executive director of the Michigan Education Association.

It also includes Steve Cook, president of the Michigan Education Association; Nancy Strachan, vice president of the Michigan Education Association; Dan Burkhalter, executive director of the Wisconsin Education Association Council; Cindy Klickna, president of the Illinois Education Association; Audrey Soglin, executive director of the Illinois Education Association; Tom Dooher, president of Education Minnesota; Brenda Pike, executive director of the Indiana State Teachers Association; and Pat Frost-Brooks, president of the Ohio Education Association.

The Great Lakes Center exists to deliver union propaganda in a scholarly form, to make it appear more authentic and legitimate. Any information the center releases should be viewed with a great deal of skepticism, or quickly dismissed.