School Board Committee Acts Against Privatization at Ground Zero

            Supporters of public education and democracy won a well-deserved victory in Milwaukee this week. Now we need to protect that victory.

            After two hours of testimony from an overflow crowd of parents, teachers, students, and community members, a Milwaukee School Board committee removed privately run charter schools from a plan to improve “low performing” schools in the district. The issue goes before the full school board on Thursday.

            Milwaukee is ground zero in the school privatization wars. For a quarter of century there has been a calculated, well-financed, and systematic effort to dismantle the city’s public school system. Conservatives in Wisconsin, emboldened by their control of the state government, have stepped up their efforts to transform public education into a privately run commodity.

            But there is a growing pushback. Teachers and community members are increasingly aware of the essential links between public education, public accountability and democracy.

ESSENTIAL BACKGROUND

            In 1990, the state legislature allowed private schools in Milwaukee to receive public dollars; before long Milwaukee had the country’s largest publicly funded voucher program. Interestingly, Milwaukee voters have never been allowed to vote on the voucher program. Likewise, when the state legislature expanded a voucher program across the state last year, the public never voted on the expansion.

            Today, there are about 110 voucher schools in Milwaukee, and 85 percent are religious-based. (Exact numbers for the voucher schools are elusive. Just last month, a voucher school closed in the middle of the night.)

            Over the years the Milwaukee voucher program has eaten up almost $1.3 billion in public tax dollars — and an additional $161 million this year. Yet the voucher schools perform no better on state-administered tests, and in many cases worse, than MPS students.

            Milwaukee is also a national leader in promoting privately run charter schools. In 1998, the City of Milwaukee became the nation’s first city government to establish privately run schools. The University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee was also empowered to charter schools.

            In Wisconsin, such charters are described as “independent.” In practice, “independent” is a euphemism for easing the public out and turning schools over to private entities. “Privately run” is a far better description.

            In Milwaukee, as is the case in districts elsewhere, these privately run charters, tend to serve fewer English Language Learners or students with special needs. Overall, the City of Milwaukee and UWM charter schools serve two-thirds fewer students who are English Language Learners, and half as many students with special needs, when compared to MPS schools, according to the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel.

WHAT NOW?

            The Milwaukee Public Schools administration and school board have been pressured to charter more privately run charter schools.

            Currently, there are 15 privately run charter schools under contract with MPS. Most of these schools service considerably fewer students with special needs than MPS schools. (Enrollment in the district’s privately run schools has only 11 percent students with special needs compared to the district’s average of 21.3 percent. The disparity with “most restrictive placement” (MRP) students is even more glaring. According to district data, of the students with special needs in the district’s privately-run schools, only 5 percent are MRP, compared to 22 percent in traditional public schools.)  

            The administration wants to increase the number of privately run schools. Responding to community pressure, the school board committee on Thursday took a bold step towards respecting community, democracy, and public accountability. Three committee members – Larry Miller, Terry Falk and Meagan Holman – voted to drop the administration’s plan to bring in more privately run charters.

           

            In the coming days, intense pressure will be placed on MPS board members to capitulate to the privatizers. The issue will be obfuscated. But this is the fundamental question: Will public education be guided by principles of democracy or by the demands of privatization. Will Milwaukee’s publicly funded schools serve the communities where they are located, or will they be turned over to national McFranchise charter chains?

            There are inherent links between public schools, democracy and community. The right to a public education is enshrined in the Wisconsin Constitution. Furthermore, the Milwaukee Public Schools is the only institution in the city with capacity, commitment and legal obligation to serve all students.

            We need to improve our public schools, not dismantle them.

            Final action on the committee’s recommendation will be taken at the full board meeting Thursday night, January 30.

           

            Demand that the entire the Milwaukee School Board say “no” to privatization and say “yes” to community-based solutions.

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To read a copy of my testimony I presented at the School Board hearing click here.

Wisconsin Grinches Attack Teachers

Wisconsin Republicans are outgrinching Dr. Seuss’s Grinch.

Like the Grinch who swooped into Whoville to steal all the Christmas gifts, the Wisconsin Grinches will invade villages and hamlets through out the state to steal the right to organize unions during this holiday season.

On Thursday, the Wisconsin Supreme Court vacated a contempt of court ruling by a lower court. The result: for the first three weeks of December – perhaps starting as soon as the day after Thanksgiving – tens of thousands of teachers, secretaries, paraprofessionals, janitors and other public sector workers will be forced to “recertify” their unions.

The Republicans wrote the recertification requirements to make it as hard as possible to win – unions need support from 51% of all workers eligible to be in the union, not just those who vote.

“Only in Walker's Wisconsin can a union get 329 ‘yes’ votes and 14 ‘no’ votes and lose a certification election,” a veteran Wisconsin labor leader commented on a recent recertification election of an AFSCME education local.

A History of Attacks

The Republican’s attack on public sector unions in the past few years has followed a game plan similar to that of Seuss’s Grinch who left “nothing but hooks and some wire” and only a “crumb that was even too small for a mouse.”

It wasn’t enough for Gov. Scott Walker and the Koch brothers-financed legislative henchmen to outlaw Fairshare and payroll dues deduction.

It wasn’t enough that they eviscerated collective bargaining rights for any and all public sector unions (except for the few unions that endorsed Walker for governor in 2010).

Nor did the largest cuts to public education in Wisconsin history satiate the thirst of those who would replace democratically controlled public institutions with private marketplace options. This summer the legislature expanded a failed private school voucher program from Milwaukee to all corners of the state.

The Republican’s claim that the purpose of the voucher expansion was to provide a “choice” to beleaguered public school students proved to be a sham when the DPI released enrollment data. Under the new statewide program nearly 75% of the voucher recipients did not transfer from public schools, but were already enrolled in the religious schools. The essence of the program: transfer of public funds to private schools.

Universal Human Right

On November 21 the Supreme Court resuscitated one of the most toxic provisions of Act 10 – the requirement that public sectors unions annually “recertify.”

The recertification provision is unprecedented in US labor relations and is a direct attack on the universal human right to organize unions. The United Nations’ 1948 Declaration of Human Rights (Article 23) states, “Everyone has the right to form and to join trade unions for the protection of his interests.”

While numerous provisions of Act 10 have seriously compromised the people’s “right to form and join trade unions,” this December public sector workers will reminded of the odious aspects and consequences of the recertification provision:

• A recertification election every year.
• A 51% “yes” vote of all those eligible to be in the union, not just of those who vote. (A standard that, if applied to elected officials such as Governor Walker, would mean they are not actually elected.)
• 51%, instead of 50% + 1, the universally established definition of a “majority”
• That the unions pay for the Wisconsin Employment Relations Commission to conduct the vote. For the MTEA that’s an annual cost of several thousand dollars.
• The entire process diverts time and resources of teachers and their unions away from important matters such improving teaching and learning and advocating for their students.

Fight Back Against the Grinches

Despite these toxic requirements, I’m confident that majority of union locals across the state will “recertify” this holiday season.

When Dr. Seuss’s Grinch came to Whoville and stole all the Christmas presents, the Whos did not despair. They joined together in song and demonstrated the true meaning of Christmas.

           

This holiday season when the Grinches of Wisconsin descend on towns and cities across the state to steal the “right to form and join unions” I believe teachers, educational assistants, secretaries and janitors will join together in songs such as “Solidarity Forever” and vote “yes” for their union.

We will stand up to the Grinches of Wisconsin. 

WI Supreme Court to hear Act 10 but excludes six unions from oral arguments

On Monday the Wisconsin Supreme Court will hear oral arguments on Act 10, the anti-collective bargaining law that led to the largest worker uprising in Wisconsin history in the spring of 2011.  

Late Friday night the Court issued an order barring six unions from participating in the oral arguments. Those unions had successfully filed suit asking Dane County Circuit Court Judge Colas to find the Wisconsin Employment Relations Commission (WERC) in contempt of court, thus prohibiting the WERC from conducting “recertification” elections that were to have started November 1. The mandatory annual recertification elections were one of several anti-worker components of Act 10.

The three dissenting judges in Friday night’s 4-3 ruling called the denial, “unfair and illogical.”

They noted that both the defendants and the plaintiffs suggested that the six unions and the WERC be allocated 10 or 15 minutes each to make their arguments regarding the contempt of court finding which the Supreme Court is going to be ruling on as part of the overall case.

The majority denied that request.

The dissenting judges wrote, “the court’s order today undermines this court’s role as a neutral, fair, impartial and non-partisan arbiter by excluding (without adequate explanation) the victorious-at-the-circuit-court unions from arguing at the supreme court about the contempt motion that the unions filed and won at the circuit court.”

The six unions that successfully sought and won the contempt of court finding include WEAC (which includes the MTEA); AFT-Wisconsin; SEIU Healthcare Wisconsin; Wisconsin Federation of Nurses and Health Care Professionals; Kenosha Education Association; and District Council 40, AFSCME.

The original case, Madison Teachers, Inc. v. Scott Walker, will be argued by Madison attorney Lester Pines representing the MTI. The other plaintiff is Public Employees Local 61, AFL-CI0.

The only other time Act 10 came to the Wisconsin Supreme Court was on a procedural matter regarding whether the way the Republicans passed the law violated the states open meetings law.  During deliberation there was a physical confrontation between two justices. Conservative Justice David Prosser put his hands around the neck of Justice Ann Walsh Bradley.

Crucial Milwaukee Vote on Public School Plan

On Tuesday, Nov. 5, the Milwaukee Common Council is expected to vote on the Milwaukee School Board’s proposal to sell the Malcolm X school property to a community-based developer so that the broader community can be served and so that a new, high-quality public middle school can be established.

The back story is complicated, but boils down to a conflict between pro-public education forces led by the democratically elected school board versus corporate-driven, pro-market education forces led by the Metropolitan Milwaukee Association of Commerce (MMAC).

It appears that the majority of the Common Council members will support the MPS proposal, but nothing is certain. Public school supporters should contact their alderperson on Monday to insist they support the public schools.

The MMAC has a long history of supporting voucher schools and privately-run charter schools. Their financial and political support has spanned decades, and included multiple fights at state and local levels.  The MMAC initiatives have garnered support from conservative forces like the Koch brothers, the Bradley Foundation and Walton Foundation.

Most recently the MMAC has promoted a “recovery” or “achievement” zone in Milwaukee, patterned after similar corporate-backed school privatization schemes in New Orleans and Memphis.

Tuesday’s Vote

When St. Marcus School, a publicly-financed voucher school, attempted to pressure the Milwaukee School Board to sell it the Malcolm X school site, the school board refused. The MMAC stepped in and had their staff draft legislation that Senator Alberta Darling introduced into the state legislature. That legislation, SB 318 would force MPS to sell “surplus” property to private school operators.

Because all school property is technically owned by the city of Milwaukee, property transactions of the school board have to get final approval by the city government. The MMAC and the privatization advocates have been working to convince alderpeople to turn down the school board plan.

Some council members have raised concerns about St. Marcus after they realized that the church is part of the conservative Wisconsin Evangelical Lutheran Synod. The church and synod have a pro-creationist, anti-Catholic, homophobic theology. It does not allow women to vote for the Church Council, which in turn appoints the School Council, the head of which has to be a male.

MPS on the other hand requires school councils to be elected by parents (male AND female). The Milwaukee School Board’s intention is to have the Malcolm X site be a multi-use venue with low-income housing, a cultural and artists center and a public middle school.  

The City Council has had a weak record when it comes to protecting public schools. Milwaukee was the first city in the nation to get authority to charter their own privately-run charter schools. The city has done so with little public oversight or accountability. There is little understanding of the negative impact such schools have had on MPS. A recent report showed that the Milwaukee Public Schools have three times as many English Language Learners and twice as many special education students as the privately-run charter schools chartered by the City of Milwaukee and the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee.

Two years ago, the MMAC and the pro-privatization group, Schools that Can-Milwaukee, pressured the Common Council and Mayor to approve an  “umbrella charter” allowing for eight Rocketship schools in the city.  The first Rocketship School opened this past August on the near south side. Opposition by community groups were partially responsible for Rocketship not reaching its goals.

Tim Sheehy, President of the MMAC is also President of the Rocketship Milwaukee Board of Directors. The MMAC, Rocketship, Wisconsin School Choice, and St. Marcus School all testified in Madison in favor of Senator Darling’s “land grab” bill.

Community opposition to the bill and to the attempt by St. Marcus to take over the Malcolm X site has been strong. Last month the Coalition to Stop the MPS Takeover held a massive press conference in front of North Division High School. News reports and video demonstrate the depth of opposition. A large "Public Education is a Civil Right" march in September targetted MMAC's takeover plan. 

The Milwaukee Common Council has an opportunity this Tuesday to show the people of Milwaukee that they support the Milwaukee Public Schools. They can do so by voting to support the plan proposed by the democratically elected school board.

Rethinking Columbus in New Zealand

People in New Zealand know the truth about Columbus. At least Radio New Zealand broadcaster Wayne Brittenden does. Check out the letter he wrote/read to Columbus.

I was then interviewed. Perhaps the most interesting thing I talked about was how I have my fifth graders put Columbus et al on trial for genocide each fall. It's a powerful activity because it requires group research and understanding, engaging critical thinking, public speaking, multicultural-anti-racism and powerful content (the truth about the European invasion).

To say nothing of popping the Columbus Discovery myth. 

Check out the 18 minute interview here.

Check out the book Rethinking Columbus here. A multicultural bestseller-- Banned in Tucson

Let's continue to Rethink Columbus and all types of colonial oppression and relationships.

Parent Opposition to Early Childhood Testing on the Increase

A growing number of parents are expressing concern over the increasing number of standardized tests and screeners being imposed on young students in Milwaukee.

This year both the state and the school district have increased testing for four-, five-, six- and seven-year-old students in the district.

More and more parents are saying, “Enough!”

Take Jasmine Alinder. She came face to face with the problems of testing young children when she volunteered to help her daughter’s kindergarten teacher administer the district mandated MAP tests. The Measure of Academic Progress tests are computerized assessments in both math and literacy. They are administered three times a year in MPS for grades K5 through 12^th grade.

Jasmine’s short essay, “A Parent’s View: MAP Testing of FiveYear-old Kindergarteners,” went viral on Facebook over the weekend. She writes:

“I know there is a lot of discussion and controversy over what is referred to as ‘high-stakes testing,’ but in all honesty I haven’t paid too much attention to it.  What I saw today, however, was eye opening and leads me to believe that standardized computer tests have no place in our early elementary school classrooms. MAP testing for five year olds does not test math and reading competency. At best it tests patience and computer literacy, which is more likely an indication of computer access at home.  At worst it creates a culture of stress and frustration around standardized testing that may scar some of these children for the rest of their school careers.”

Jasmine and others are not just writing about the problem. They are beginning to organize. Inappropriate use of standardized testing in early grades will be a topic at the upcoming meeting of Parents for Public Schools-Milwaukee. Jasmine is president of the Milwaukee chapter of PPS. The meeting will be this Sunday, October 6 from 3-4 p.m. at the downtown public library in meeting room one. It is open to all parents who support public schools. For more details go to Parents for Public Schools-MKE’s Facebook site.

The MTEA is asking parents and teachers in Milwaukee to fill out a survey to get more information about attitudes towards the test. The survey can be taken by clicking here or going to mtea.org.

Last year, teachers, students and parents successfully stood up in Seattle against the inappropriate use of MAP testing. It appears more and more people are raising similar concerns across the country.

_______________________

For a teacher’s look at the problems of computerized MAP testing in early grades, see Melissa Tempel’s Huffington Post commentary, “Testing Our Limits: The Trouble with Computerized Exams.”

Should Public Taxpayers Pay for Discrimination?

Why MPS should not sell Malcolm X to St. Marcus

The St. Marcus School has been in the news for trying to bully the Milwaukee School Board into selling a large public school to St. Marcus, a private voucher school.

Amid the controversy, no reporter has asked whether the public should be forced to financially support homophobic, anti-woman beliefs that are at odds with democratic rights and public policy. 

Unlike in MPS schools, for instance, the school council at St. Marcus is appointed, not elected. More important, only men are allowed to appoint the St. Marcus council members.

The St. Marcus Evangelical Lutheran Church, which oversees the St. Marcus School, is part of the conservative Wisconsin Evangelical Lutheran Synod. As a religious-based school, St. Marcus and its teachers are expected to defend and promote the synod’s beliefs.

The Wisconsin Evangelical Lutheran Synod (WELS) was founded in Milwaukee in 1850. Its core beliefs include:

• Homosexuality is a sin.
• Living together outside of marriage is a sin.
• Women are not to hold positions of authority over men.  (The synod’s web page notes: “God gave to the man the unique calling of being a loving head and to his wife the unique calling of being a loving helper to him.” 
• A literal interpretation of the Bible.
• The theory of evolution is wrong. (In explaining the discrepancy between the scientific view that the earth is 4-5 billion years old and the Biblical timeline of about 6,000 years, the synod’s website notes: “The short answer is that the earth was created with the appearance of age. On the first day everything looked older than it was.”)
• The Papacy of the Roman Catholic Church is the anti-Christ. (A “Doctrinal Statement on the Anti-Christ” from the WELS website ends with the statement: “Scripture teaches that the Antichrist would be revealed and gives the marks by which the Antichrist is to be recognized (2 Th 2:6,8), and since this prophecy has been clearly fulfilled in the history and development of the Roman Papacy, it is Scripture which reveals that the Papacy is the Antichrist.”

RELIGIOUS FREEDOM VERSUS DISCRIMINATION

I was raised Lutheran (in a more liberal synod) and I believe in religious freedom. One of the ways the United States has lessened problems of religious intolerance is by separating public money from the promotion of specific religious views that may deeply offend and discriminate against people of other belief systems. 

The pastors of the St. Marcus church should be free to promote their religious views. But public policy is governed by principles of democracy. Should the taxpayers of Wisconsin be expected to fund the WELS’ homophobic, anti-woman beliefs and its teaching of pseudo-science such as creationism?

Since 1998, the St. Marcus School has received almost $22 million in public tax dollars via the voucher program, according to figures from the state Department of Public Instruction.

In the 2012-13 school year, 89 percent of the students at St. Marcus received a publicly funded voucher, according to the Public Policy Forum. This, in turn, calls into question why religious voucher schools, some of whom have all their students receiving publicly funded vouchers, are defined as a “private” school.

St. Marcus School wants to use the former Malcolm X school to enroll an additional 900 students — which could bring in an additional $6 million a year in public funding.

It’s a travesty that the Milwaukee mainstream media has never seriously investigated the curriculum at private voucher schools, and whether the schools may be promoting beliefs that run counter to state anti-discrimination laws that all public schools must follow.

As for the St. Marcus School, there has been no public discussion of how the school essentially operates as a white-led, patriarchal organization serving predominantly African American students, and without even a minimal nod toward democratic principles. (The colonial, missionary aspects of the St. Marcus School operations are disturbing, but that’s for another column.)

SCHOOL BOARD HEARING

The St. Marcus School has launched a public campaign, demanding that MPS sell to St. Marcus the former Malcolm X middle school, which encompasses an entire city block. The controversy was discussed at a public hearing before the MPS school board on Thursday, Sept. 12. Several hundred people showed up.

The School Board already has plans for the former Malcolm X building. It has been working for several years with community leaders, business people and government officials from the Bronzeville neighborhood to create a multi-use venue with low-income housing, a cultural and artist center and a school.

At the public hearing, one of the issues raised was that public schools are inherently more democratic, transparent and accountable than private schools.

Every MPS school, for instance, is required to have a democratically elected school council. The majority of the council is comprised of students’ parents or caregivers, and elected by the school’s parents/caregivers. The council also includes the principal and teacher representatives elected by their peers, and at least one community member elected by fellow council members. At high schools, students have a democratically elected representative. Discrimination on the basis of race, gender, sexual orientation or religion is illegal.

St. Marcus operates differently. According to the St. Marcus School charter, the school council is appointed by the church board of directors. According to the St. Marcus church’s bylaws, the church’s board of directors must be men.

Under church bylaws, directors must be “a voting member of the congregation.” If you read the fine print, you will find that only men can be voting members. As the St. Marcus church constitution notes, “Voting members are male [emphasis added] communicant members at least 18 years of age. The voting members shall comprise the voters’ assembly.”

The St. Marcus church bylaws further stipulate that “directors shall be a voting member of the congregation.”

So, according to church regulations, only male members of the St. Marcus church elect the church board of directors. These directors, in turn, must be men. And they, in turn, appoint the St. Marcus School Council. The chair of the council must be a “voting member,”  — i.e., a male. Other school council members must be church members, and can presumably include women.

Yes, it gets a bit complicated — bylaws tend to be written that way. But the bottom line is clear: men make the decisions and women are not to have authority over men. It’s hard in this day and age to find a clearer example of patriarchy.

In a democracy, why should the public be expected to fund institutions that, as a matter of principle, deny women the right to vote?

Here’s another way of looking at it. What would be the public response — and the response of Milwaukee’s political and business leaders — if the state of Wisconsin gave $21 million to an institution that allows African American members, but prohibits African Americans from voting for the organization’s leadership?