How do you fix a struggling education system in one of the most poverty-stricken cities in the country? One might try to increase funding, apply for federal assistance and pragmatically ablate ineffective schools and strategies. Or, if you were Governor Jim Doyle or Mayor Tom Barrett, you might try to cut off community input and emasculate one of the oldest institutions of American grass roots democracy: the elected school board.
Anyone aware of the Wisconsin that exists off the Isthmus knows the Milwaukee Public School System has serious problems. These problems end up costing tax payers untold millions of dollars in penal and social services funding. In fact, every four students that fail to graduate high school in MPS cost $1 million in lost taxes and services spending. If one has any intention of staying in this great state after graduation, then the future of MPS matters. In fact, it is affecting the student body right now. Consider how the deleterious effect of poor schools in our largest city not only puts the leash both on the state’s economy,and funding for its university system, but also how it influences the perpetual inflation of tuition that will be due in a week or two.
Of course, all that is small potatoes compared to the harm a poorly funded and underperforming school system has on the kids it is charged with preparing for college and life in an increasingly competitive global economy. Now, if you buy into the hype around the legislation currently being mulled down State Street that would put the Milwaukee mayor in charge of appointing the school superintendent — instead of the current system, which calls for elected board members to make that decision — you might think a centralization of power over MPS would allow for more consistent leadership and the implementation of broad, visionary changes. This might be a reasonable position if Barrett were willing to offer up novel ideas and show a glimmer of leadership on the issue. At present it isn’t really clear what the mayor’s priorities are besides aggregating power.
Advocates of the proposed consolidation have argued the measure was a crucial part of Wisconsin’s effort to win a piece of the $4.35 billion Race-To-The-Top pie from the Obama administration. Such an argument may have seemed compelling until Education Secretary Arne Duncan made it clear that such a change wasn’t necessary, in part because such changes do not constitute tested, evidence based reform.
Takeover proponents then posited reform could help resolve racial disparities in academic achievement. Even though Madison has a greater gap in racial achievement than Milwaukee, we don’t see Mayor Dave seeking to usurp the local school board. When we look at the failure of the Milwaukee mayor’s office to address the grievous racial disparities in the socio-economic infrastructure of the city — one would have a smoother ride driving on the moon than on the city’s north side — ineptitude and disinterest are among the first words that come to mind. There is no indication that the bureaucratic shake-up advocated by mayoral control advocates would help address the achievement gap.
Now, backing off a bit, if one ignores the significant community opposition to the takeover — 57 percent opposed according to a poll last fall — and the dearth of ideas emanating from Barrett himself, it is probably true that kids in MPS would be no worse for wear should the mayor take over. Of course the community would lose most of its influence over the system, disenfranchising teachers and parents alike, but the worst consequence of the takeover would be the false sense of progress it would engender in stakeholders and policy makers.
While it is encouraging to see the reinvigorated attention focused on improving MPS, it’s sad to see the discussion take place on such ambitionless grounds. The real problems plaguing MPS have for too long been shrouded under the veil of difficulty and taboo. While the predominantly affluent, white media laments the failings of MPS, they blissfully ignore the deeper problems. Seemingly anachronistic racial segregation, abject poverty, communities’ riddled by the horrors of drugs, addiction, crime and gang violence form a constellation of problems robbing too many of Milwaukee’s children of the security and confidence requisite for a healthy childhood and academic success.
Other problems belie the myth that a top-down leadership shake-up can put MPS on the path to recovery. Unfunded mandates for special education and increasing pension costs for teachers fueled in large part by rising health care costs — which will apparently only be addressed in a piecemeal fashion by upcoming health care reform — exacerbate problems in the failing voucher experiment in Milwaukee. While charter schools have largely failed to distinguish themselves from public schools in the city, they dump the load of the most vulnerable students — i.e. those with special needs and non-native English speakers — on the public system.
Despite all the campaigning for anti-democratic reforms, the district has observed small but real improvements in the past several years. Unfortunately, there will be little hope for real progress while initiative lies in the hands of uninspired men, political leaders too risk-averse to take on the fundamental issues preventing Milwaukee, and Wisconsin, from reaching their full potential.
Sam Stevenson ([email protected]) is a graduate student in public health.
