Escritos por Bob Peterson en español

Si tiene interés en mis escritos en español, puede encontrarlos a continuación:

Enseñaza para la justicia social

Contando números para la justicia social, por Bob Peterson. Docencia Nº 47, Agosto 2012, Santiago, Chile. P. 53-67.

http://www.revistadocencia.cl/pdf/20120917232541.pdf

Presidentes y Esclavos: Ayudando a los estudiantes a encontrar la verdad, por Bob Peterson. Rethinking Multicultural Education edited by Wayne Au, Rethinking Schools, 2009.  Milwaukee, Wisconsin.

http://zinnedproject.org/wp-content/uploads/2009/10/Spanish_Version_Presidents_Slaves.pdf

La Escuela Fratney

La Escuela Fratney: un viaje hacia la democracia, por Bob Peterson, en Escuelas democráticas, comps. por Michael W. Apple y James A. Beane. Ediciones Morata, S.L., Madrid, 1997.p. 95-130.

https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B12ZLvdhd_1YYWNyMzhwWjZ0UnM/view?usp=sharing

La lucha por la democracia y la calidad de la educación: la escuela Fratney, (Milwaukee, Wisconsin, EEUU), por Libia Stella Niño. Educación y Cultura No. 100, Bogota, Colombia.

https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B12ZLvdhd_1YbU9lc2dPcmFfVTQ/view?usp=sharing

El sindicalismo magisterial de justicia social

Un movimiento para revitalizar el sindicato de maestros, reflexiones de campo, por Bob Peterson. Rethinking Schools, Winter 2014-1015, Vol. 29 #2, Milwaukee, WI , p. 13-21.

http://rethinkingschools.org/static/archive/29_02/RS29-2_peterson_esp.pdf

Principios de enseñanza de justicia social y los tres componentes del sindicalismo magisterial de justicia social, por Bob Peterson, 18.10.2015

https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B12ZLvdhd_1YbkVzczNaSnI3ZkE/view?usp=sharing

Repensar la estrategia del sindicalismo magisterial, por Bob Peterson. Opciones Pedagógicas, Número 24, Año 2001, Bogota, Colombia p. 66-80.

https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B12ZLvdhd_1YdW1PZ0ZqRllFeVk/view?usp=sharing

Artículo por estudiantes sobre las intervenciones militares de los EEUU

Los marinos han aterrizados: Las intervenciones militares de Estados Unidos y la globalización, por Bob Peterson, en Rethinking Globalization: Teaching for Justice in an Unjust World edited by Bill Bigelow and Bob Peterson. Rethinking Schools, 2001, Milwaukee Wisconsin pp. 118-121.

https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B12ZLvdhd_1YV1dfVHRjT29CQ0E/view?usp=sharing

Contra la privatización de las escuelas publicas

El apoderamiento de MPS: Una idea fracasada que le fallará a los niños de la ciudad de Milwaukee, por Bob Peterson. Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, Milwaukee, Wisconsin, 17 de mayo de 2015.

https://drive.google.com/file/d/0BxHgH-Gtog63cW9sd1ZIbFVpc2s/view

Libro infantil – El Dr. Martín Luther King

El doctor Martín Luther King: El hombre, la lucha y la esperanza, por Bob Peterson. Milwaukee, Wisconsin, 1985, 29 páginas.

https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B12ZLvdhd_1YZ3N0WmMtMG5LVFU/view?usp=sharing

Artículos sobre el trabajo de Bob Peterson y otro activistas

El Activismo por la justicia social está formando un sindicato más perfecto (y duradero), por Cindy Long. NEA Today, 28 de septiembre de 2015.

https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B12ZLvdhd_1YeXRxR2lqRnBKdG8/view?usp=sharing

Abele misses key facts as he helps Republicans takeover MPS

Chris Abele is mistaken.

Milwaukee County Executive Abele's recent claim that he is "committed to making sure MPS is not harmed" during the process of the state-ordered takeover of MPS, shows he doesn't understand what's really going on in Milwaukee.  

Abele's recent op ed in the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel followed a forceful statement by several community leaders against the MPS takeover. The No Takeover movement is clearly growing and being felt by the powers that be.

Here are four things Abele apparently doesn't  understand about schools in Milwaukee:

1) The schools that Abele's commissioner will force MPS to charter will be non-instrumentality schools. They will be run by private operators. Therefore the employees will NOT be PUBLIC employees, not be eligible to participate in the state's retirement system. Most will not have the right to just cause in discipline matters. These are NOT public schools -- at least not in terms of the people who work there.

2) The schools are not directly controlled by the democratically elected school board. The school board isn't required to approve such charters. Even more important, however, once these schools are chartered by the commissioner they can essentially do what they want. Past practice bears this out: The leadership of the non-instrumentality Carmen HighSchool has tried to take over Bradley Tech High School despite explicit opposition from the school board and the superintendent. In other words, some of these so-called "public" schools are trying to replicate themselves against the will of the democratically elected school board. These are NOT public schools -- at least not in terms of the democratic decision-making progress.

3) Data show that the 15 MPS non-instrumentality schools, with only one exception, serve significantly fewer students with special needs. Similarly these schools, with only one exception, serve fewer students who are classified as "MRP" -- most restrictive placement. The two charts below have the data from MPS for the 2013-2014 school year..

4) Abele writes in his oped that "Milwaukee County is in a unique position to provide to provide services... such as mental health, transit, and housing [to schools]." That's great. No need to do it through a commissioner or wait until the threat of an MPS Takeover, however. Community advocates and the MTEA have been promoting the notion of community schools for some years. Abele should have his staff call the community schools coordinators at James Madison High School, Bradley Tech HS, Auer Avenue and Hopkins Lloyd Community School and use those schools as a start.

The Milwaukee Public Schools is the only institution in this city that has the capacity, commitment and legal obligation to serve ALL students in Milwaukee. 

Chris Abele needs to understand that his participation in this Republican Takeover effort inherently damages the Milwaukee Public Schools. 

We should keep the pressure on  Able to say NO to the Takeover. If he does move forward, he should appoint a commissioner who is absolutely in support of public schools and then instruct the person to do the absolute minimum: Put a tiny school in an empty building to satisfy the state law for the first year and then create no more non-instrumentality schools in subsequent years but instead put County resources into supporting the students who attend MPS.

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A final note. A huge thanks to the thousands of staff, parents, students and community members who participated in the Walk Ins last Friday. And a thanks to staff, parents and students of Highland Community School (which is a non-instrumentality charter school) for consistently standing with with MPS advocates opposing the MPS takeover.  Finally, a thanks to Jack Norman for the graphics used in this blog.

Why we oppose the takeover of Milwaukee's public schools

On Friday morning, thousands of parents, educators, students and community members gathered outside more than 100 public schools in Milwaukee. Our purpose: to stand up as a community to celebrate each individual public school in our community, and to voice our opposition to a proposed public school takeover in our city.

A public school takeover plan, passed as part of the state budget last July, looms over our schools, our children, and our city. State legislators have charged Milwaukee County Executive Chris Abele with choosing a school takeover czar or "commissioner" this fall. The commissioner would then choose one to three schools to convert into privately run charter or voucher schools for the 2016-'17 school year. In each subsequent year, up to five schools could be handed over to private operators.

Milwaukee parents and community members are concerned about this plan for several reasons:

■The plan threatens the entire Milwaukee school district — not just the schools identified for takeover. More than 40% of children in Milwaukee already attend privately run charter or voucher schools. When taxpayer money is taken away from public schools to fund privately run charter and voucher schools, public school students lose funding and opportunities. Eventually, the financial burden will become too great for our public school system to bear. Similar challenges have brought school systems to their financial brink in districts from Detroit to Chester Uplands, Pa.

■The takeover plan offers no new ideas or resources to help children succeed. Milwaukee already has 25 years of experience with a failed voucher school program and privately run charter schools with a checkered history. Simply changing who runs a school does not lead to student success.

■The takeover schools will leave students without critical services. Voucher schools and privately run charter schools are not required to meet the needs of special education students or English language learners. It is an outrage that a privately run charter or voucher school could take over a public school and then refuse to educate the students who used to be enrolled there, due to their learning needs.

■School takeovers will eliminate good jobs in our city — particularly for African-Americans and Latinos. Takeovers have hurt the local economy in New Orleans, Memphis, and Detroit. They have eroded, in particular, middle class communities of color. And they have led to a less diverse teaching force.

■Most significantly, the school takeover plan eliminates democratic local control, disenfranchises black and Latino communities, and punishes mostly students of color. A recent report by the Alliance to Reclaim Our Schools shows that across the nation, school takeovers happen almost exclusively in African-American and Latino communities: Of nearly 50,000 students whose schools were taken over, 97% were black or Latino.

Milwaukee parents have a different plan to improve schools by turning them into Community Schools — a nationally recognized model that increased graduation rates in Cincinnati by more than 30%. State legislators who want to help should support this proven model.

Public school students in our state are under attack. From billions in budget cuts to the constant threat that your school may not be there next year, uncertainty reigns. Parents, educators, community leaders, and students are right to demand better.

Our spirits were buoyed Friday morning when we stood shoulder to shoulder with public school supporters who are ready not only to support and protect our schools, but to lift them up and strengthen them as we build the schools and communities our children deserve.

This commentary was submitted by Ingrid Walker Henry, co-chair, Schools and Communities United; Dr. Tony Baez, former director Centro Hispano; the Rev. Willie Briscoe, president, MICAH; Angela McManaman, president, Parents for Public Schools; Christine Neumann-Ortiz, executive director, Voces de la Frontera; Gina Palazzari, interim executive director, Wisconsin Jobs Now; Fred Royal, president, NAACP Milwaukee branch; and Kim Schroeder, president, MTEA.

Printed originally in the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, September 18, 2015   http://www.jsonline.com/news/opinion/why-we-oppose-the-takeover-of-milwaukees-public-schools-b99579300z1-328199071.html

Walker Deserves an “F” for his attack on Milwaukee Public Schools

 Just days before children started the new school year, Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker leveled charges against the Milwaukee Public Schools and exposed a level of ignorance about the conditions of African Americans that surprised even his most ardent critics.

Chuck Todd of Meet the Press interviewed Walker for the August 30 show, and in a segment available only in the on-line version, he asked Walker:

“There is a higher incarceration rate for African American men in Wisconsin than anywhere in the country, … a study that said African American children in Wisconsin ranked 50th in the nation when it comes to opportunity, and the African American unemployment is double the national average. Why is it?”

Walker’s response: 

“It’s the sad truth. It’s been true for decades. Part of it, I think, is some of the poor policies in the city of Milwaukee. We pushed back on it. You look at the Milwaukee Public School system has a real challenge and one of the big disparities… has been there. That’s part of the reason why I’ve been such an advocate long before I was governor for school choice….”

A few moments later Chuck Todd interrupted Walker, “Like this is on Milwaukee – there’s not much more you could have done.”

“Right now… we’ve done all sorts of things. We put out hundreds of millions of dollars to help rebuild the economy out there but again you have to have leaders who are willing to use the tools we have given them…. As president I am going to try empower cities, towns, and villages of all different sizes to have more freedom and more liberties to do things without the restrictions from Washington and without some of the restrictions you see one of the biggest areas of big government and union control as commonplace has been Milwaukee.”

As his sole example, Walked talked about the case of Megan Sampson, a high-school English teacher who was laid off from Milwaukee Public Schools in 2010. The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel noted, “Walker has used her as the face of Act 10, his signature bill that curtailed collective bargaining for most public employee unions. Since Walker referenced her in a Wall Street Journal op-ed in 2011, Sampson has asked Walker to stop using her story and renewed her calls this year when Walker began using it in presidential campaign appearances.”

What’s wrong with Walker’s statements?

Walker asserts that Milwaukee Public Schools is the main reason for Wisconsin’s high incarceration rate of black males, the high black unemployment rate, and the fact that our state is worst in the country in protecting the well-being of African American children, based on 12 key indicators. Really?

Keep in mind that Wisconsin’s incarceration rate of African American males is 12.8% – the highest of any state in the nation, twice the national average – in a country with the highest incarceration rate in the world.

As Schools and Communities United pointed out in its document Fulfill the Promise: The Schools and Communities Our Children Deserve, these statistics are only part of what it called the New Jim Crow. Metropolitan Milwaukee is the most residentially segregated metropolitan area in the nation between blacks and white and between rich and poor. It has second highest black poverty rate (39.2%, 4.9x great than white) among the 40 large benchmark metropolitan areas. It has the lowest percentage of Hispanic-owned businesses among the top 36 metropolitan areas. And just this week the New York Times reported that Milwaukee has had the greatest percentage increase in homicides among all cities in the nation.

Walker made no reference to these daunting problems, nor to any serious plans to address these issues of increasing inequality and racial injustice.

Walker, has offered two "solutions” to these problems. 1) Dismantle the public schools and provide taxpayer dollars to private, unaccountable schools. 2) Strip the right to collectively bargain on a range of issues from most public sector unions and local democratically elected governmental bodies.

For a quarter of a century vouchers have been a conservative’s dream – no unions, no school board, no state-mandated curriculum or regulations – and what has been the result? Vouchers schools on the whole perform worse than the Milwaukee Public Schools. Milwaukee has had the largest city-based private school voucher program. If it is as great as Walker implies why hasn’t it improved school outcomes for children or solved these larger social problems? One thing it has done, is transfer more than $1.2 billion tax payer dollars to private schools.

Moreover, Walker’s scapegoating of educators, public schools, teacher unions and local school boards distracts people from the serious conversations and actions needed to address these complex problems.

Milwaukee Public Schools is the only institution in the city that has the capacity, commitment and legal obligation to serve all students. Like other public institutions it reflects our nation’s historic problems of institutional racism, and class and gender bias. And like most large school systems it is dealing with many problems not of its own making: homelessness, children and families lacking health care, poverty, stable housing and family sustaining jobs. 

What’s refreshing about MPS is that the school board, administration, the Milwaukee Teachers' Education Association and most of its dedicated staff are committed to addressing and overcoming these school-related problems and being part of community-wide efforts to help solve the larger social problems that affect us all. The recent initiative between MPS, the MTEA, United Way and community groups like MICAH and Schools and Communities United  to build the community school model at four MPS schools is one such example.

The fundamental question for presidential wannabes like Governor Walker, is whether they will join with the broader community to improve and fully fund our public schools, or continue down the failed path of abandoning the public schools while spending hundreds of millions of dollars of tax payers money on private, unaccountable entities.

Until we see that change, Governor Walker continue to receive an “F” in my grade book.

Walker Shows His Real Politics: Destroy the commons starting with public schools

Governor Scott Walker signed a biennial state budget Sunday afternoon that accelerates his quest to destroy the public sector in Wisconsin. Within 24 hours, Walker will formally announce his candidacy for president to take his right-wing agenda nationwide.

The Wisconsin budget accelerates Walker’s four-year attack on the public sector, in particular the public schools. Among its measures are an expansion of a voucher program that provides taxpayer funding of private schools and cuts of $250 million to the state’s nationally renowned public university system.

Walker has the most far-reaching budget veto powers of any governor, and some people had hoped that he might ameliorate some of the more draconian measures of his budget, which was approved by the Republican controlled legislature last week. But Walker by and large let the 1,500-page budget intact, using his line-by-line veto powers to make minor tweaks.

There is one common theme to Walker’s budget: underfunding public institutions, expanding the privatization of government functions, restricting environmental protections, and decimating workers’ rights. Among its many provisions:

• Mandatory drug testing for those seeking unemployment insurance and public assistance services;

• A repeal of “prevailing wage law” requirements for local government projects, and elimination of a state mandate that factory and retail workers get at least one day off per week.

• Removing the term ”‘living wage” from state statues, referring only to a minimum wage, which in Wisconsin is $7.25 per hour.

• Decreases subsidies for recycling,

• Eliminates dozens of scientists’ position at the Department of Natural Resources, opens up thousands of acres in state forests to commercial timber cutting, restricts local zoning along lake shorelines and raises user fees at state parks.

Walker’s most damaging and telling attack on the public sector involves education.

The University of Wisconsin took a massive $250 million budget cut. In addition, tenure is no longer protected by state law but instead will be determined by the University’s Board of Regents, most of whom are gubernatorial appointees.

K-12 public schools were particularly decimated. Shortly before the budget’s signing, Wisconsin State Superintendent of Schools Tony Evers publicly requested that Walker veto more than 20 education measures that would undermine the state’s public schools. Walker refused.

Instead, the budget continues Walker’s agenda of undermining public education.

A majority of public school districts in Wisconsin will receive less funding this year, and no school district’s state funding will keep up to inflation. At the same time, the budget expands taxpayer support of private voucher schools, which are overwhelmingly religious schools and which are subject to minimal public oversight. (For instance, voucher schools do not have to follow the state’s law prohibiting discrimination against students on the basis of sex, sexual orientation, marital or pregnancy status. Nor are they subject to the state’s open meetings and records requirements.)

The budget also creates a new and complicated  “special needs voucher” law that was opposed by all special education advocacy groups because of its detrimental effect on special education protections.

The budget also increases the number of authorizers of privately run charter schools that are not subject to the oversight of publicly elected local school boards.

In previous years, all publicly funded schools in Wisconsin — traditional public schools, voucher schools, charter schools — were required to take the same standardized tests, in order to have some semblance of comparing student achievement. The budget eliminates that requirement.

In Milwaukee, the state’s largest district and home to predominantly African-American and Latino students, the budget includes a “takeover” plan that increases privatization and decreases oversight by the elected school board of the Milwaukee Public Schools (MPS).

The plan empowers the Milwaukee County Executive to appoint a “commissioner” who will have parallel power with the MPS school board. The commissioner can privatize up to three of the city’s schools the first two years, and up five every year thereafter.

Perhaps most indicative of Walker’s perspective is the budget’s elimination of the Chapter 220 urban-metropolitan schools desegregation program. At a time when racism and racial tensions have reached alarming levels across the United States, Walker has eliminated the only program in the state designed to counter segregation in the public schools and improve opportunities for African-Americans.

Walker signed the budget in Waukesha County, an overwhelmingly white county that is among one of the wealthiest and most conservative in the entire United States.

On Monday, Walker will return to Waukesha and officially launch his bid for President. It is an apt indication of which side he will protect in what is an increasingly divided and unequal country.

photo credit: Barbara J. Miner

Walker’s Budget Undermines Public Education, with Bull’s-eye on Milwaukee

Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker is expected to do two things in the next few days: Formally announce his candidacy for President and sign Wisconsin’s biennial budget.

The first may receive national attention, but it is the second that will disastrously affect Wisconsin — and that should receive national play.

Buried within the budget are 135 non-budget policy items — a toxic cocktail of attacks on public education, democracy, environmental protections and labor rights.

For Wisconsin’s schools, the budget is a blueprint for abandoning public education. In Milwaukee, in addition to insufficient funding, the budget includes a “takeover” plan that increases privatization and decreases democratic control of the city’s public schools.

The budget was passed by the Republican-controlled Senate a few minutes before midnight Tuesday, with all Democrats and one Republican voting “no”. The Assembly is expected to pass the budget Wednesday and send it to Walker by the end of the week.

The attack on the Milwaukee Public Schools (MPS) is in the context of a frontal assault on public education across the state. The budget cuts $250 million from the University of Wisconsin system, holds overall K-12 funding flat in the first year with modest increases in the second (which, given inflation, means cuts). And while programs promoting privately-run charters are expanded, the budget eliminates Chapter 220 — a metropolitan-wide program designed to reduce racial segregation in public schools and improve equal opportunity for students of color.

The budget is also expanding the statewide voucher program, under which tax dollars are funneled  into private, overwhelmingly religious schools. (The program is modeled after Milwaukee’s private school voucher program which began in 1990 and which now includes 112 schools and 25,000 students.)

The “takeover” plan for Milwaukee, where nearly two-thirds of the state’s African-American population live, was proposed by two white suburban legislators, Sen. Alberta Darling (R) and Rep. Dale Kooyenga (R). Because the plan was inserted into the budget rather than proposed in a separate bill, there was never a public hearing.

The plan empowers the Milwaukee County Executive to appoint a “commissioner” who will have parallel power with the elected school board overseeing MPS. The commissioner can privatize up to three of the city’s schools the first two years, and up five every year thereafter.

The take-over plan is replete with problems that are indicative of Governor Walker’s approach to public policy and the public sector. These problems include:

1) Expands failed policies. The notion of  improving public schools by turning them over to private charter or voucher operators has been tried before — and failed.

For 25 years, voucher schools in Milwaukee have been a conservative’s dream – no unions, no school board, no state-mandated curriculum or regulations – and what has been the result? Vouchers schools on the whole perform worse than the Milwaukee Public Schools. In the last quarter century, vouchers schools have drained over a billion dollars of taxpayers’ money away from Milwaukee students who depend on the public schools. This  under-resourcing of public schools means larger class sizes, less individual attention and greatly reduced access to art, music libraries and physical education compared with suburban counter parts.

2) Undermines democracy. Elected school boards and lack of choices are not the problem with our schools. Milwaukee arguably has more publicly funded school options than any urban system in the country, from citywide and neighborhood-based public schools, to MPS charter schools, to city-controlled charter schools, to charters run by the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, to private voucher schools, to open enrollment that includes suburban districts. The rhetoric around governance is a smokescreen to get rid of democratically elected school boards and publicly controlled schools. Yes, democracy can be messy, but the alternative is worse. If we decide to abandon every democratic institution that is not up to our hopes and dreams, why not get rid of the U.S. Congress? Or the Wisconsin Legislature?

3) Exacerbates inequality. Data show that privately run charter and voucher schools serve significantly fewer students with special needs, English language learners and more difficult to educate students. Students are counseled out and pushed back into public schools. The “takeover” plan will only increase this problem.

4) Continues Milwaukee’s plantation mentality. Milwaukee is the most segregated metropolitan region in the nation. It should give pause when two white suburban legislators propose having a white county executive appoint a “commissioner” who can  pluck schools away from the democratically elected school board of an overwhelmingly nonwhite district.

No one denies that the Milwaukee Public Schools need to do a better job. Yet the state budget expands a disturbing history of abandonment, which will only makes matter worse.  

Despite its problems, the Milwaukee Public Schools is the only institution in the city with the capacity, commitment and legal obligation to serve all our students. Our schools are the foundation of our democracy and of our future.

When we abandon our public schools, we not only abandon democracy, we abandon our children’s future.

Gov. Walker has the most far-reaching budget veto powers of any governor, and can literally change the budget line by line. How he uses that veto pen will foretell his national plans as he enters the Republican presidential primary.

In Wisconsin, where we have four years of experience with Walker, we expect him to continue his policies of abandoning public institutions, hurting the poor, and undermining the middle class. Hopefully, national observers will see through Walker’s rhetoric and analyze the realities of his state budget.

Schools and Communities United Stands in Solidarity with Milwaukee Transit Workers

The following is the speech given by Bob Peterson on July 2, 2015 on behalf of Schools and Communities United at a rally in support of the Milwaukee Transit Workers (ATU) in their struggle for respect and a fair contract.

Hello Milwaukee Transit Workers!

The Milwaukee Teachers' Education Association and Schools andCommunities United stand in solidarity with you.

Schools and Communities United is a coalition of over 20 community organizations working to improve and defend public schools.

But quality public schools will only happen in healthy neighborhoods. So we fight for both the schools and the communities that our children deserve.

And our children and their families deserve a community with a strong public transit system, a system that treats its workers with respect and dignity and provides adequate compensation.

If it’s public, Gov. Walker and County Executive Abele want it defunded and turned over to private interests. Whether it’s our public university, our public schools, public radio, public TV, public health care, public natural resources, or public transportation — it’s on Walker’s hit list. And all too often it’s on Abele’s hit list as well.

Chris Abele previously collaborated with Walker and Republican legislators to eviscerate the power of the County Board.

Now Abele is collaborating with two suburban legislators -- Senator Darling and Representative Kooyenga to attack the Milwaukee Public Schools. They plan to have Abele appoint a commissioner who would have equal power of the elected school board --  power to take over dozens of  Milwaukee public schools and turn them over to private operators.

These attacks – on Milwaukee Transit Workers and on MPS have two things in common.

First they are attacks on two essential public services like schools and transit that serve ALL people.

Second they are taking place in the most hyper segregated metropolitan area in the nation where white power brokers think they can ride rough shod over communities of color – whether it’s white suburban legislators putting a white County Executive in charge of a commissioner to take over public schools that serve mainly students of color. or whether it’s a white County Executive who ignores the fact that the vast majority of transit workers in this city are African American. I call that racism. 

Schools and Communities United calls on the people of Milwaukee to stand with the Milwaukee transit workers and demand that the all public services be fully funded and kept public!

A failed idea will fail Milwaukee’s kids

During my 30 years of teaching fifth grade, I’ve always encouraged my students to look critically at problems and to learn from mistakes.

Sen. Darling’s and Rep. Kooyenga’s plan to take over public schools in Milwaukee does neither. 

The few details in their plan provide no framework for actually improving academic achievement. Equally important, the plan ignores the Milwaukee community’s experience with similar efforts to dismantle our public schools and undermine our democratic institutions.

There are several glaring problems with the Darling/Kooyenga plan.

1) Not learning from mistakes. Attempting to improve public schools by turning them over to private charter or voucher operators has been tried before — and failed. For 25 years vouchers have been a conservative’s dream – no unions, no school board, no state-mandated curriculum or regulations. What has been the result? Vouchers schools on the whole perform worse academically than the Milwaukee Public Schools.

Vouchers schools have drained over a billion dollars of taxpayers’ money away from public schools and into private schools with little public accountability. The defunding of public schools has meant larger class sizes, less individual attention to students and greatly reduced access to art, music, libraries and physical education within Milwaukee’s public schools. Let’s fully fund our public schools and fix them, not abandon them.

2) Undermines democracy. Governance is not the problem with our schools — Milwaukee arguably has more governance options than any urban system in the country.  The rhetoric around governance in the Darling/Kooyenga scheme is a smokescreen to get rid of democratically elected and accountable school boards and schools. 

There are two ways to undermine democracy. First by attacking voter rights through limiting early voting options and requiring photo IDs. Another way is to remove entire institutions from democratic control. Yes, democracy can be messy, but the alternative is worse. If we decide to abandon every democratic institution that is not up to our hopes and dreams, why not get rid of the U.S. Congress? Or the Wisconsin legislature?

3) Part of a coordinated attack. The Darling/Kooyenga plan can’t be viewed in isolation. It’s in the context of Walker’s budget that continues deep cuts in public education across the state, and increases statewide privatization of public schools. In addition, Walker’s budget eliminates Chapter 220 – the only educational program in Milwaukee designed to reduce racial segregation in public schools and improve equal opportunity for students of color.

4) Exacerbates inequality. Data show that privately-run charter and voucher schools serve significantly fewer students with special needs, English language learners and more difficult to educate students. Students are counseled out and pushed back into public schools. The Kooyenga/Darling plan will only increase this problem.

5) Refusal to learn from other urban areas. Other urban districts have tried similar takeovers, with disastrous results. A takeover plan in Detroit is costing the state $72 million, with the mayor raising strong objections. In Memphis, several national charter operators have repeatedly proposed new schools, only to abruptly cancel their plans. And in New Orleans, thousands of students — including those with special needs — are being underserved. Let’s learn from, not replicate, the problems that have come up in these other cities.

6) Continues Milwaukee’s Plantation Mentality. The plan’s colonial implications — what MICAH President Rev. Willy Brisco calls the “plantation” mentality that dominates social policy in Milwaukee — are disturbing.  Milwaukee is the most segregated metropolitan region in the nation. Sixty years ago the U.S. Supreme court, in its Brown decision that was fundamental to overthrowing Jim Crow segregation, noted that “separate is inherently unequal.” It should give people pause when two white suburban legislators propose having a white County Executive appoint a “commissioner” to be able to pluck schools away from the democratically elected school board of an overwhelmingly non-white district.

If we want to truly provide equal education opportunities, why not try something truly radical. Why not build a countywide school system – democratically elected and controlled and open to all children, regardless of the ZIP code where they were born. Not only would this open up well-funded schools with excellent opportunities and learning conditions to the children of Milwaukee, it would attack the dual problems of segregation and inequality that plague our region.

7) Sending the wrong message to our children. What message do we send to the next generation when we condone a plan to remove control of public institutions from a democratically elected board? When we undermine a Superintendent with a Doctorate from Harvard University and instead place public schools in the hands of a “commissioner” to be appointed by a county executive who doesn't even have a college degree and was not elected to run schools? When we allow a plan that specifically says the children of Milwaukee do not need licensed teachers?

These are just some of the many problems in the Darling/Kooyenga plan.

This proposal should be rejected by anyone who believes in democracy and the importance of educating all children.

The Milwaukee Public Schools is the only institution in the city with the capacity, commitment and legal obligation to serve all our students.

Our schools are the foundation of our democracy and of our future. Let’s unite to support and improve our public schools, not abandon them.

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This op ed was published in the May 17, 2015 print edition of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel.

WI GOP Legislators Plan to Takeover Milwaukee’s Poorest Public Schools -- A racist attack on democracy and public schools

Wisconsin State Senator Darling and Assembly Kooyenga recently issued new version of their “recovery zone”proposal for the Milwaukee Public Schools. Their proposal to take over several of Milwaukee’s public schools is an insult to the Milwaukee community and is part of a larger plan to privatize schools throughout the state. I call on all people who believe in public schools and democracy to oppose this plan.

For two white suburban legislators to propose that the white County Executive appoint a “Commissioner” who will have “parallel authority” to the democratically elected school board is a racist attack on the democratic rights of the citizens of Milwaukee, the majority of whom are black and brown. The Commissioner will be able to privatize five schools a year under this proposal.

This proposal is replete with false assumptions, misguided assertions, and unworkable ideas. It would be laughable if not for the fact that anti-Milwaukee bias and anti-public education sentiment among some power brokers in Madison make this threat real.

Twenty-five years of experience with voucher and charter schools in Milwaukee has proven that turning schools over to private operators is not a silver bullet for improving academic achievement. There is no guarantee that students at a privatized school will perform better.

The false assumptions and assertions of Darling and Kooyenga’s plan include the following:

1) The basic “solution” proposed by Darling and Kooyenga is that their “new governance structure in MPS [is] to free students from nonperforming schools.” The assertion that there is a need to provide “new opportunities” to parents and students ignores the fact that the city of Milwaukee has more school options for parents to choose from than virtually any other city in the nation.

2) The assumption that privatizing schools” will improve educational achievement in Milwaukee ignores the fact that after a quarter of a century of massive school “choice” in Milwaukee, there is little evidence showing improved educational achievement.

3) Labeling schools “failing” due to low test scores is wrong. There are a multiplicity of factors – such as low attendance, concentrated poverty, impact of high levels of students with special needs or English language learners – that may contribute to low scores. This does not mean the school is failing. In fact, it is a signal that other institutions in our society are failing.

4) The assertion that “consequences of these ‘failing schools’ are a significant factor in contributing to Milwaukee’s declining economic and social health” shows little understanding of the social, economic, and political history of our city. It ignores the long history of racial segregation in housing, schools and jobs, the devastating consequences of the corporate decisions to move tens of thousands of family sustaining jobs out of Milwaukee, and the hyper-segregation and growing inequality and joblessness that plagues our city.

5) There is no cost estimate or funding source provided for the “Commissioner’s” work, which according to the proposal, includes doing a qualitative analysis of 55 schools and directly managing several schools or supervising charter operators.

6) Under the proposal parents, students and community members are stripped of their democratic rights as to the future of their schools because power will be transferred from the democratically elected school board to an appointed “Commissioner.” The Commissioner will have unilateral authority to choose schools that will be taken from the public school system and privatized.

7) Educators at the privatized schools will be required to “waive current and future privileges to be represented by any union,” which is contrary to federal law governing private sector employers.
8) Apparently the educators at the schools established by the Commissioner will not have to have a teacher or administrator license because, “employees shall receive non-portable licenses as requested by the commissioner.”

Sign the petition against the recover zone and this proposal 

Walker's Budget: Hypocritical and Racist

Testimony before the Wisconsin Joint Finance Committee

Milwaukee, Wisconsin • March 20, 2015

Bob Peterson, President of the Milwaukee Teachers’ Education Association

I have taught 10 and 11 year-old children for 30 years in MPS.

When I taught at La Escuela Fratney in Milwaukee’s Riverwest neighborhood I had the opportunity to see the power of Chapter 220. White students from Mequon and Whitefish Bay used 220 to take advantage of our school’s two-way bilingual program as their parents wanted their children to learn two languages with student of many races. Over the years, I’ve heard from those parents and students what a valuable experience it was in their lives.

Of course, that is a side benefit of the program. The power of the program is that it provides. African-American children the right to access educational opportunities in the suburbs, something that was out of reach for most families given the Milwaukee regions’ hyper segregation.

Today metropolitan Milwaukee is #1 in the nation in black/white residential segregation and # 1 in residential segregation based on poverty.

Is it not odd that when the State Legislature has gone out of its way to expand taxpayer funded private school options throughout the state, the one “choice” program on the chopping block is the only one that reduces racial isolation and segregation?

Ending Chapter 220 when expanding vouchers and charters is at best hypocritical and at worst racist.

In addition, the funds provided to MPS for Chapter 220 are significant and without those, MPS would be face a serious fiscal crisis with dire consequences for the students.

Instead of ending Chapter 220 increase support for public education, the foundation of our democracy.

Public school systems in our communities are the only institutions have the have the capacity, commitment and legal obligations to serve all students. While it may be seductive to expand taxpayer-funded private schools through vouchers and charters for the few, the result is to limit and degrade the choice for the many.

Vouchers and privately run charters drain money from public schools and do not serve all children. They serve fewer students with special needs, fewer English Language learners and regularly push back to public schools the hardest to educate children.

History will be the judge. Will the 2015 Wisconsin State Legislature continue to undermine Wisconsin public schools through funneling millions to private schools or will you recognize the necessity to support public schools as the corner stone of our democracy?

Fulfill the Promise of Public Education

Remarks by MTEA President Bob Peterson at the Support Public Schools Rally featuring Diane Ravitch • March 18, 2015 

If there’s ever been a time in our nation’s history to defend and improve our public schools, that time is now!

If there’s ever been a place that needs people to defend public education, that place is Milwaukee and Wisconsin. So thank you Diane Ravitch for being with us here today.

We must work together to fulfill the promise of public education and create the schools and communities our children deserve.

There is a war going on against the public sector and the common good. And Milwaukee is ground zero in that war.

Twenty-five years ago proponents of private school vouchers claimed that to improve Milwaukee schools they had to get rid of district bureaucracy, state regulations and teacher unions. Well, for the past quarter of a century they’ve experimented on the children of Milwaukee – no bureaucracy, no state regulations, no unions in their voucher schools.

The result: worse academic achievement than public schools, serve very few children with special needs, no accountability, lots of fly-by-night operations, and a constant push-out of hard to educate students back into the public schools. The oldest and largest voucher program in the nation has failed.

What is Gov Walker’s response to this failure? Expand vouchers statewide.

Milwaukee Common Council was the first city government in the nation to be allowed to charter privately-run schools. The results: little accountability, pathetic oversight. Their schools serve one half as many children with special needs as MPS and 1/3 as many English language learners. Last fall one of their schools offered adults a $200 bribe for each new child they brought to school on third Friday.

What is Walker’s response to this fiasco? Expand privately-run charter schools statewide.

Walker’s plan is simple. Give tax breaks to the rich. Turn down hundreds of millions of federal dollars for high-speed rail, Badger Care, and early childhood education. Destroy unions. Vilify teachers. Accept huge donations from the Koch Brothers. Declare a budget crisis and make further cuts to education and social services.

His agenda is about promoting privatization, undermining democracy, and abandoning public institutions.

If it’s public, Walker and the 1% want it defunded and turned over to private interests. Whether it’s our public university, our public schools, public radio, public TV, public transportation, public health care, or our public natural resources — it’s on Walker’s hit list. Writer Arundhati Roy summed it up, “Privatization of essential infrastructure is essentially undemocratic.”

Four years ago Walker and his supporters made the largest budget cuts in public education in the history of Wisconsin. It meant less individual attention to our students. Less art, music, phy ed and librarians. This year Walker plans to cut $300 million from the UW system, $127 million from the public schools.

We must not allow a Governor who has not had enough education to know whether the earth is six thousand or 4.5 billion years old to destroy our good state.

        

There are other people waiting in the wings to propose even more draconian legislation. Senator Alberta Darling and Rep. Kooyenga, have proposed a New Orleans’s style Recovery Zone for Milwaukee to further privatize our schools. We have one message for Darling and Keyenga: Keep your hands off MPS!

But folks it’s not only the Republicans who are preventing our children from getting the schools they deserve.

In 2009 we saw a Democratic Governor and Milwaukee Mayor propose a mayoral takeover of the MPS school board. Arne Duncan supported it. The Democrats for Education Reform sent in lobbyists to promote it. 

But people in Milwaukee fought back. The Coalition to Stop the MPS Takeover, MPS School Board members and Congresswoman Gwen Moore said no and we won.

We still have a democratically elected school board so vote on April 7.

On the federal level we aren’t winning. Corporate-backed, bipartisan education policy is a disaster for children.

George Bush’s No Child’s Behind Left and President Obama’s Race to the Bottom have promoted school privatization and a massive increase in testing.

This obsession with testing and the idolatry of data are squeezing the joy out of learning. They’re destroying the craft of teaching and turning teachers into test technicians and data collectors. Classrooms are becoming test prep centers, suffocating creativity, collaboration, inquiry, reading of whole books, and culturally relevant pedagogy.

Teachers waste hours inputting and analyzing data that reveals little that they don’t already know about their students. They’re forced to implement scripted curriculum that is antithetical to quality teaching.

Should our children be subjected to endless test prep and narrow curriculum? Or should they have well rounded education that President Obama’s daughters and Joe Biden’s grandchildren receive at the Sidwell Friends School? Or that Arne Duncan received as a child at the Chicago Lab School?

The children of Milwaukee also deserve the best. Our schools should not be data driven, but child driven and data informed. It’s time to demand that students have more time to learn and have teachers more time to teach.

That is what Schools and Communities United outlined in its report Fulfill thePromise: The Schools and Communities our Children Deserve. Fair funding. More teaching. Less testing. Teach the whole child. Smaller class sizes. Expand bilingual education. Community schools. Our schools should be greenhouses of democracy in revitalized neighborhoods.

The Milwaukee Public Schools is the only institution in our community that has the capacity, commitment and legal obligation to serve all children.

We should be proud of that, but also recognize that unless we work together to defend and improve our public schools, what was once a great city and state will be gone.

The enemies of public schools are strong and well financed. Our struggle to defend public schools and the entire public sector will only be successful if we are part of a broader social movement for economic and political democracy and racial justice. We need to work with other social movements like Black Lives Matter, Raise Up 15 for living wage, immigrant rights, the environmental movement and prison reform.

It is will be a long fight. But there is no alternative. Together we can and will create the schools and communities our children deserve.