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John Witte

John Witte is Professor of Political Science and Public Affairs and was Director of the La Follette School for three years. His research has focused on tax policy, politics and education, including charter schools. His current work, supported by the U.S. Department of Education, examines charter schools. He has been a Fellow at the Russell Sage Foundation in New York and at the Center for Advanced Study in the Behavioral Sciences at Stanford.

Professor Witte served in 1984-85 as Executive Director of the Governor’s Task Force to study the quality and equity of Milwaukee public schools. In 1988 he was awarded grants from the Bradley, Spencer, and Joyce foundations to organize a 1989 conference on Choice and Control in American Education, which produced two volumes on educational choice. He has written four other books and more than 40 articles or book chapters. In 1990 he was named the state evaluator of the Milwaukee Parental Choice Program. The Spencer Foundation funded a study of that program through December 1995. His recent work continues the focus on education policy. His most recent book, The Market Approach to Education, examines educational vouchers. He is doing research on charter schools with the aid of a substantial U.S. Department of Education grant. Professor Witte received his doctorate in Political Science from Yale University.