The Metro section of the June 8 Milwaukee Journal Sentinel devoted above- the-fold space to a story headlined "Study disputes MPS residency rule."
Shrewd readers of the MJS know that any time the word "study" appears in a headline or subhead, odds are said study will have been issued by a "think tank" funded by the right-wing Bradley Foundation. The only real question is whether the organization's ideology will be identified or whether the term "nonpartisan" will be applied, with chuckles all around. (Click here for a classic of the genre.)
In this case the tank in question is the Wisconsin Policy Research Institute. Who are they? Diligent readers who go to the jump and read down the the last paragraph of the 15-graf story learn this:
The Wisconsin Policy Research Institute is a non-profit organization generally associated with conservative policies.
Thank you, Alan J. Borsuk, for that fresh torturing of the English language! Yes, one might construe an organization that was at the vanguard of the voucher "movement," that regularly knocks public education and that has Charlie Sykes on its payroll as being "generally associated" with conservative policies.
Surely there's a debate to be had over the efficacy of the residency rule (though the case WPRI makes seems far from conclusive). But if that debate will be held, the JS owes it to its readers to tell them clearly -- and in the newspaper trade that means high up in the story -- that a group opposing residency also is pushing vouchers and has generally been an ideological opponent of the public school system.
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