Johnson, Feingold Clash Over Plan Involving Disabled Students

Wisconsin U.S. Senate campaign rivals Ron Johnson and Russ Feingold disagree over Johnson’s plan to limit federal enforcement of the Americans with Disabilities Act at taxpayer-funded private voucher schools.

Johnson, the incumbent Republican, said his proposed amendment to a spending bill would curtail U.S. Justice Department probes into disabled students’ rights at the voucher institutions. The plan comes after a four-year investigation of Milwaukee’s voucher program.

“If you are going to conduct an investigation, have a cloud hanging over an organization’s head for years, you ought to find out why,” Johnson said. “There should be procedures in place, so these Justice Department investigations don’t continue forever.”

Johnson denied his measure would harm disabled Children. But Democratic challenger Russ Feingold accused Johnson, in effect, of saying disabled students at voucher schools don’t deserve equal protection.

“So I think he should retract this,” Feingold said. “It’s a terrible position he’s taken and the response has been very strong. It’s almost unimaginable that somebody would say it’s okay to allow this kind of discrimination in a school that gets public dollars.”

The American Civil Liberties Union of Wisconsin also criticized the amendment.