About a decade ago, I was sitting in the Milwaukee Public Schools’ central office, in the heat of spelling bee season. My dad joined me, to cheer me on as I progressed through the rounds of the citywide spelling competition, only to face heartbreaking defeat by the word “farther,” even though it was pronounced to me as “further.”
The next time I sat in the central office, I wasn’t there to lodge a formal complaint with the spelling bee committee (even though I had a very valid case!). I was there with my dad trying to get in on the lottery for Chapter 220 students. The Chapter 220 program, currently on the chopping block in the 2015-17 state budget, was created 38 years ago to allow minority children in Milwaukee to attend suburban schools and white students in the suburbs to attend Milwaukee schools, with busing provided.
I unfortunately did not get a slot as a Chapter 220 student, and instead opted to spend four years at Pulaski High School in Milwaukee. The school had some amazing teachers, I made lifelong friends there and I’m so glad I ended up going there. But at times it did feel like I had to fight, scratch and claw to get even an average education. I still do sometimes wonder how much more enriching my high school years would have been if I had been able to win the Chapter 220 lottery and experience high school like many of my peers did.
I know I’m not the only former or current MPS high school student to wonder this. Last year, 495 students of color in Milwaukee Public Schools applied for the Chapter 220 program and only 11 percent of those got in. One of the reasons Gov. Scott Walker’s office cited for ending the program is because of declining interest, and the number of applications decreasing by 205 from the year before does seem to indicate that. But it could also indicate that people saw futility in applying for something with only about a 1 in 10 chance of getting in.
Even with the declining application numbers, the fact that almost 500 students and their parents desire a shot at a better education should indicate the demand in the inner city for something better than what is currently being offered to them. To take away opportunity for these kids when clearly more are needed and wanted should be looked at as unconscionable.
Another counter argument seems to be that more students not going into Chapter 220 and going back to MPS can help raise educational standards at the district, and is a good thing from a funding standpoint. This argument pretty much says that if more students go back into MPS schools, then the state will be forced to provide more funding to MPS. But in a district where standards are so low and class sizes are frequently so high, wouldn’t it be a lot more prudent not to take away opportunities already existing for students of color while also fixing the problems within these schools?
Another potential counter argument is that Walker did this because he is an advocate of voucher and charter schools in the city. But given the choice between small, largely unaccountable schools and schools that have high sense of community, world-class facilities and resources to help students get to college, I’m almost positive that many Walker supporters as well as parents of inner city children would choose the latter. So why does the governor seem to think it is okay to phase out a program that allows inner city children to attend affluent suburban schools?
What the ending of Chapter 220 and the ending of initiatives aimed at leveling the playing field for minorities accepted into universities signifies is that Walker’s policies on minority education seem to align with a viewpoint in favor of segregation. He is explicitly taking away the chance for children of color to have a glimpse at what education is like for affluent areas and telling those children to go back home to take a chance in these failing schools and largely unpredictable charter schools. It may be par for the course in a state that has the most segregated city in the nation (a city in the county Walker presided over for the past eight years), but that doesn’t mean it’s right, and it doesn’t mean we have to stand for it.
Miles Brown (mjbrown22@wisc.edu) is a senior majoring political science and history with a certificate in Russian, East European and Central Asian Studies.
