It's Time for a Moratorium on New Charter Schools in Milwaukee

Do you want the Milwaukee Public Schools to survive?

If so, two steps need to be taken.

First, demand a moratorium on new charter schools in Milwaukee.

Second, call for a citywide discussion on basic expectations for all publicly funded schools. Should children have art and music classes? Should teachers be certified in what they teach?

Back to the first question: the survival of the Milwaukee Public Schools. It is not just people within MPS who are concerned. A recent Public Policy Forum report is a wake up call to the broader community. The report underscores that the unregulated expansion of non-MPS charter and voucher schools is threatening the very survival of MPS.

Despite the problems and challenges facing MPS, it remains the only institution in this city with the capacity, commitment and legal responsibility to educate all the city’s children. If it does not survive, there is no way the charter and voucher schools can meet the needs of the district’s 80,000 students, many of them with special educational needs and limited English proficiency.

A “WILD WEST” APPROACH TO EDUCATION

City and state policymakers have adopted a Wild West “everyone for themselves” approach to education. They have promoted charter and voucher schools with little thought of preserving a functioning system of public education for all children.

More than a decade ago, the state allowed the City of Milwaukee and the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee to charter public schools, with little concern as to how this would affect MPS. Nor have these non-MPS charters led to increased academic achievement in the city. As with MPS, there are some good schools and some schools in drastic need of improvement. 

Taken as a whole, the main repercussions of these city and UWM charters have been to undermine the viability of MPS and to erode public oversight of public schools.

In the last 4 years, the student enrollment in city and UWM charter schools rose by nearly 50 percent. The voucher program, under which private schools receive public tax dollars, has grown by nearly 25 percent. The voucher program, in fact, is equal in size to the third largest school district in the state, just smaller than Madison. The combined enrollment in the City of Milwaukee and UWM charter schools rivals in size the state’s 15^th largest school district, Fond du Lac. (There are roughly 425 school districts in Wisconsin.)

Public oversight of voucher and non-MPS charter schools is minimal to non-existent.

The possibility that MPS may not survive has garnered national attention. Educational historian and New York University professor Diane Ravitch, in a recent opinion, cautioned that Milwaukee “needs one public education sector, not three competing sectors. The time for dual- and triple-systems should have ended in 1954, with the Brown vs. Board of Education decision.”

“Milwaukee needs a bold vision,” she concludes. “It needs a reset.”

DEMAND A MORATORIUM ON NEW CHARTERS

The first step in such a reset is to declare a moratorium on new charter schools in Milwaukee. (A moratorium on voucher expansion is also necessary, but less likely given the education agenda of Gov. Scott Walker and the Republican-dominated state legislature.)

We need to ask: Why is City Hall in the business of running schools in the first place? And, as journalist Barbara Miner has asked, “Does anybody at City Hall have a clue what’s really going on at the city’s charter schools?”

And why is the UW Board of Regents in charge of approving UWM charters? What do they know of K-12 education in Milwaukee and the needs of Milwaukee’s children?

“There are 11,938 students in the “independent” charters in Milwaukee, with the schools funded by more than $92 million in taxpayer dollars,” Miner notes. “Most of the students are at City of Milwaukee and UWM charters, where lines of responsibility and public oversight are, to say the least, murky.”

City of Milwaukee and UWM charters go by the euphemism of “independent” charters. But “privately run” is a far better description, as the public is effectively aced out of any meaningful oversight or say in how these charters function.

WHAT DO WE EXPECT FROM OUR SCHOOLS?

The second step in the Milwaukee reset is to demand community-wide discussion of what we expect from our schools. What should be a basic “standard of care” for all our children?

Should all publicly funded schools be required to have certified teachers? A comprehensive curriculum that includes art, music and physical education? Access to bilingual education and foreign language instruction, science labs and libraries? Schools with nurses, guidance counselors and social workers? Due process rights for students, parents and staff?

Universal pre-kindergarten so that children arrive in school ready to learn? Smaller classes and extra attention for children with high needs?

Instead of asking such questions, however, the City of Milwaukee is busy chartering schools to national franchises such as the California-based Rocketship schools — which target Latino students but provide English-only instruction, and replace art and music classes with computer cubicles.

In the 2012 elections, it became clear that there was a concerted effort to disenfranchise voters, especially people of color, poor people, and the elderly. Luckily, that effort was exposed and only spurred voter turnout.

But there is another way to disenfranchise the public — and that is to remove public institutions from true public oversight and accountability. Here in Milwaukee, vouchers and privately run charter schools are examples of such de-facto disenfranchisement.

It’s time to call a halt to policies that undermine democracy and threaten the survival of the Milwaukee Public Schools.

You don’t have to take my word for it. Listen to the Public Policy Forum’s conclusion.

“Efforts to effectively educate 80,000 schoolchildren [in MPS] cannot and should not take place in a fiscal environment that is plagued with such vast uncertainty and challenged by a set of overriding variables that are so beyond the school district’s control. It is incumbent upon local and state leaders to reach agreement – once and for all – on the role MPS will play in the city’s education framework, and to define and secure the resources required to fulfill that role.”

First we mourn, then we organize

Educators across the nation will enter school with heavy hearts on Monday. Beneath flags at half-mast and between hugs of staff and students, teachers will navigate through difficult questions and raw fears as we remember and honor the victims of the Sandy Hook School tragedy.

First, we mourn.

We mourn for the victims, for their families, for the heroic Sandy Hook staff, and for the entire community of Newtown, Connecticut.

We also mourn for this nation and for the tens of thousands of people whose lives have been affected by this country’s epidemic of mass killings and incessant gun violence.

We also grieve.

As professional educators, we will help our students process their grief and fears. Using social media, teacher unions, school districts and individual teachers have provided resources on how to guide conversations.

Six educators (all women), twelve girls and eight boys (all 1^st graders) were killed in the massacre. Our grieving will never completely end.

We also honor. And the best way to do so is to organize against senseless gun violence.

There are some commentators who say, “No, you can’t take on the gun lobby, you will never win. Talk about keeping children safe, yes. But don’t talk about gun control.”

But, as Nicholas Kristof wrote in Sunday’s New York Times, “What do we make of the contrast between heroic teachers who stand up to a gunman and craven, feckless politicians who won't stand up to the N.R.A.?”

We can hope that our political leaders will, in future weeks, take “meaningful action” against gun violence. We can also hope that this country begins to address the crisis in mental health services.

But the only way to make sure our hopes come true is to organize.

It will take nothing less than a mass movement to ensure that our political leaders fulfill their responsibilities and actually do something rather than lament the power of the pro-gun lobby.

Given the events of Sandy Hook, parents and educators have a particular role to play, including the NEA and AFT leadership. Likewise, community leaders must demand a community-wide response, and religious and business leaders must call  upon their colleagues. Together, we all must demand that our elected leaders address the epidemic of gun violence and the crisis in mental health care.

In the coming days, we will mourn the victims of the Sandy Hook tragedy.

But we must also organize to prevent future such tragedies. We have no choice.

Superintendent Calls for Testing Moratorium

It's rare for a school superintendent to speak truth to power. But that's exactly what Montgomery County Superintendent Joshua Starr did.

According to Valerie Strauss's blog in The Washington Post Starr stated:

• That the nation needs a three year moratorium on standardized testing.
• That the nation "stop the insanity" of  evaluating teachers according to student test scores because it is “bad science.” 
• That the best education reform in country has been Obama's health-care reform.
• That a good way to create assessments for Common Core-aligned curriculum would be to crowd-source the development and let teachers design them rather than have corporations do it. 

Joshua Starr leads the 17th largest school district in the country.

Worthwhile Quick Reads

Obama & Schools, Walker’s National Ambitions, and Charter schools in Milwaukee – three blog posts worth reading.

An Open Letter to President Obama from Bill Ayers. Congratulating Obama on his November victory, Ayers raises three deep concerns about the educational policies the administration pursued the last four years. He criticizes “turning over public assets and spaces to private management; dismantling and opposing any independent, collective voice of teachers; and reducing education to a single narrow metric that claims to recognize an educated person through a test score.”

Lincoln and Walker: Why they do – and don’t – belong in the same headline, by Barbara Miner. Taking off from Steven Spielberg’s new movie Lincoln, Miner reflects on the essential role of African Americans in U.S history—and the GOP’s continual dismissal of the African American vote. She also looks at glaring problems with Walker’s national ambitions. She writes, “Walker has shown little ability to win over voters now coveted by the GOP: young people and women, in particular. And he’s got a horrific record with African Americans.”

Questionable Quality at American Quality Schools, by Terry Falk. Milwaukee has become the target of national charter operations that have few connections to our city, besides the Metropolitan Milwaukee Association of Commerce. These operations and their supporters offer junkets to local politicians and produce slick power points. Unfortunately, the City and University officials in their rush to support such operations, too often leave the children behind. In the case of American Quality Schools, Milwaukee School Board member Terry Falk explains some of the reasons behind the recent school decision to not charter the AQS. 

Wear Red on Nov. 14 – National Education Support Professionals Day

The 3 million plus education support professionals who work in the nation’s public schools deserve everyone’s support. In Milwaukee, this Wednesday, Nov. 14, I ask educators to wear red as a sign of thanks and solidarity with these important education workers.

In the past 18 months teachers and educational assistants often had “wear red” days as we fought against Gov. Scott Walker’s attacks on public schools, public services, and public sector unions.  

This Wednesday, on national Education Support Professionals Day, please wear red again. Wearing red sends a simple message of solidarity with our fellow workers. Please also take the time to personally thank the educational assistants, the safeties, the health care assistants, the secretaries, the cooks, and all the other workers in our school system. You might want to write them a note or card, and encourage students and colleagues to do the same.

The Milwaukee Teachers’ Education Association proudly stands with our paraprofessionals, general aides, interpreters, and safeties, who are members of our union. We also stand with the cooks, food service workers, health care aides, secretaries, engineers, and building helpers who are represented by other unions, or in the case of bus drivers not represented by any union. We stand for strong public institutions that are held accountable through the democratic process.

We wear red and thank education support professionals on Wednesday, and in the days ahead we will support our EAs as they bargain with the school district and fight for respect and justice. Because our educational assistants are among the lowest paid workers in the district and have absorbed the equivalent of a 10% pay cut due to health insurance and retirement benefit changes, it is all the more important for educators, parents and our community to support our educational assistants.

We stand for strong public institutions. They are the building blocks of a democratic society. A key feature of such institutions is treating public sector workers with dignity and respect.

Wear red on Wednesday in solidarity with all Education Support Professionals.

Vote Tuesday - Our Future Depends on It

A couple of election related items worth checking out –

1) Milwaukee Vota 2012 -- A group of high school age youth from Milwaukee put together a great 41-second get-out-the-vote video (English and Spanish). Check it out – appropriate for all age levels.

2) Why can’t felons vote? The question is long overdue – a MJS blog post by Barbara Miner. Miner writes “The United States has more restrictions on voting rights than any other democratic nation in the world, according to Marc Mauer of the highly respected Sentencing Project.” She points out that “Almost 7.7 percent of blacks of voting age cannot [vote] because of their criminal records, compared to 1.8 percent of non-African Americans. In three states — Florida, Kentucky and Virginia — one out of five African Americans is not allowed to vote.” Miner’s essay would be a great discussion started in a high school civics or social studies class.

3) Does Romney love teachers? At the end of the third debate, Mitt Romney said that “he loves teachers.” The President of the Massachusetts Teachers Association has a response worth reading.

4) Tuesday night victory party in Milwaukee. After the final two days of canvassing, phone calling and encouraging everyone we know to vote, consider joining supporters of President Obama and Tammy Baldwin after 8:15 PM on Tuesday night at the Hyatt Regency, 333 W. Kilbourn Ave.

Derek Williams’s Homicide: A Concern for the Entire Community

Derek Williams’s homicide should be a wake up call to the entire Milwaukee community.

Educators should be particularly concerned. The level of racial segregation, disparity, and discrimination in many institutions in metropolitan Milwaukee is intolerable and directly affects the students we teach. We should not be silent on these issues.

Late last month the Milwaukee County medical examiner changed the cause of death of Derek Williams from natural causes to homicide. Williams died in police custody more than a year ago. The original internal police investigation failed to thoroughly examine the evidence. They disregarded the horrific squad car video of Derek’s final minutes in which police officers ignored Derek’s pleas for help as he squirmed in the back seat, hands cuffed behind his back, slowly suffocating.

Williams’s death was a reminder of the sorry history of police discrimination and brutality against the African American community. This includes:

• Black Milwaukee drivers are seven times as likely to be stopped by city police as white resident drivers, according to the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. (Hispanics were stopped four times as often). 
• Police conducted illegal strip searches of community members. 
• The 1958 police killing of Daniel Bell.
• The 1981 police killing of Ernie Lacy.
• The 2004, beating of Frank Jude Jr., self-described as biracial, by off-duty white policeman. (For information on these incidents click here).

And now the death of Derek Williams, the 22-year old father of three.

These matters should concern educators.

William’s death and community/police relations are emblematic of deeper divisions and problems in our community. These include Milwaukee’s hyper-segregation, lack of low-income housing, depression-level jobless rate among African-American males, high infant mortality rates, skyrocketing child poverty rates, and racial gaps in school attendance, graduation, and achievement.

Teachers daily see how poverty and racism affect our community’s children and compromise their future.

We need to demand that city leaders put these issues of race and poverty on the table and lead frank community-wide discussions about them. The discussions, in turn, must result in action.

Educators also know that students should have the opportunity to voice their own concerns and fears and to discuss difficult issues. Schools should be places where children can feel safe, and in age-appropriate ways, share opinions and think critically about problems that our community faces. School curriculum should reflect and build on the backgrounds, heritages and strengths of our students’ families.

We need to stand for justice in our community as we teach about justice in our classrooms.