The Consequences of Governance Fragmentation

This book details the unintended financial and performance consequences of governance fragmentation resulting from Milwaukee’s private school voucher policy. It examines this policy through the lens of public administration, presenting a framework on how to reassert democratic accountability in complex public-private governance networks.

---

The Consequences of Governance Fragmentation explains the ongoing legacy of Milwaukee’s longstanding school voucher policy. The book details the evolution of school choice in Milwaukee, its impacts on student achievement, key externalities such as school closures and political conflict, and the ways in which the Milwaukee voucher program challenges traditional notions of accountability and democratic control. Michael R. Ford concludes that the voucher policy has fragmented public education to the point where true aggregate level progress of pupils is impossible and proposes an umbrella governance structure to bring funding and accountability equity to all publicly funded Milwaukee schools.