Interview regarding mayoral control

What are some of the major/root problems at MPS?

The greatest problem for MPS is unequal funding. Based on the state funding formula for education, a school of 400 in the Maple Dale / Indian Hill district (in Milwaukee County) would have begun the 2005-2006 academic year with more than 2 million dollars than a school of 400 in MPS, everything else being equal.

Couple the unequal funding with the extreme poverty in Milwaukee, and it is apparent that children in Milwaukee do not enjoy the same opportunity for a free and appropriate education as children in other districts. The governor has established multiple task forces on financing education, which have all returned the same answer: the state system for funding education is broken in Wisconsin. Unfortunately, nothing has changed.

There are many other problems surrounding education, but unequal funding coupled with the gap in social capital between minorities and whites is by far our greatest challenge.

Do you think a mayoral takeover would solve the problems at MPS? *If not, what are some possible solutions that need to be discussed?

Elected school boards were created a hundred years ago to end the corruption of school systems controlled by city hall. In the newly restored mayoral-controlled systems, old problems are recurring. New York City has seen a skyrocketing of sole-source contracts (also called no-bid or “buddy” contracts) since the reintroduction of mayoral control, at such a rate that it prompted two education activists from opposite ends of the political spectrum to join forces in opposing mayoral control. I understand that Chicago, another mayoral-controlled system, is apparently being investigated for, among other things, allowing middle-class white parents to circumvent admission policies to elite schools.

Research indicates that poor parents, especially minority parents, are totally disenfranchised under mayoral-controlled systems, which is one reason that studies indicate that the racial achievement gap has actually increased in school systems that are under mayoral control.

And how have the Milwaukee city charter schools fared? More poorly than MPS, by far. If the city cannot manage to get even a few schools to perform as well as MPS, then why on earth would we trust the city with a few hundred more schools?

Ultimately, the push for mayoral control is not much different from other reform schemes, such as vouchers and neighborhood schools. It is more than a coincidence that the Metropolitan Milwaukee Association of Commerce (MMAC) and the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, advocates of vouchers, are also pushing mayoral control. They apparently want to do anything but address the root inequalities that plague Milwaukee and other urban districts.

But let’s look at a unique feature of MPS. Unlike most cities, Milwaukee’s recreation programs are administered through its school system. This unique structure has allowed MPS to align the recreation programs with the learning targets in our schools. This feature accounts for one reason that Milwaukee, despite funding inequities, has kept pace with suburban districts. This alignment is one reason that Arne Duncan, the Secretary of Education, wants mayors to be more involved in education (and Duncan stated a few weeks ago that Milwaukee is one of three cities that should keep its board). Ironically, in Milwaukee, mayoral control could, and almost certainly would, weaken the strong link between recreation and education programs.

But where was the mayor before the stimulus money appeared? The mayor never answered any one of my several invitations to support the board in lobbying to reform the broken system that the state uses to finance education. The mayor never joined our calls for adequate reimbursement of special education costs. Now, when the prospect of stimulus funding appears, so does the mayor, talking about how he needs to get involved. Just a coincidence?


Do you think that MPS should try to apply to the federal "Race to the Top" funds (the 4.5 billion dollars up for grabs nationwide)? Or should MPS find more long term solutions first?

The “race to the top” funds are available to states, not to local districts. Of course Wisconsin should apply, but it is not local policy or governance that dims our chances of receiving a grant. State policy is Wisconsin’s greatest obstacle. And the recent behavior of the state Department of Public Instruction (DPI) does not inspire confidence.

For example, the MPS Board and many other Wisconsin school boards have long agitated for dumping the expensive and useless Wisconsin Knowledge and Concepts Examination (WKCE). MPS finally developed our own value-added assessments (although we still have to pay for and subject our students to the WKCE).

Check it out: The MPS value-added assessment has not only been adopted across Wisconsin (such as Madison and Waukesha) but by the entire state of Minnesota and by the Dallas Public School District. In 2006, Chicago Public Schools, one of the districts held out as a model for mayoral control, adopted the MPS value-added model. Just this past year, New York City, which the mayor frequently cites as a model, adopted the MPS model.

And what has been the response of the new DPI chief, Tony Evers? Instead of following the lead of so many other districts, Mr. Evers decided to appoint a task force on assessment, one that will study the WKCE and make recommendations that may or may never be acted upon. Meanwhile, Wisconsin will send millions of dollars to California, home of the WKCE producers.

But what is the solution? How can we improve MPS? Actually the answer is pretty simple. I will restate what our Board President Michael Bonds has often said: MPS will make great strides when the city of Milwaukee focuses on its job: closing the health gap and the unemployment gap and so many of those other things that lie outside of the school board’s purview.

Let’s just take one example. If you are black and suffer from asthma in Wisconsin, you are six times more likely than a white asthmatic to end up in the emergency room. The number one cause of school absence is asthma. If the mayor and the common council want to improve MPS, then they need to focus on improving the lives of Milwaukee families outside of the school day.

If they do, they will be amazed by the wonderful things that are going on inside of our schools. I know. My son has spent fourteen of his seventeen years in MPS and has enjoyed an education that I could not have purchased anywhere else. I’m sorry that the mayor’s children do not attend MPS. If they did, perhaps he would sing a different tune. For me, I just want every Milwaukee student to share the great opportunity that my son has experienced in MPS. That’s why I serve on this board, and I believe that is why 62% of my constituents decided to keep me on the board.

Thank you for giving me this opportunity to tell you what I think.