New School Rules
"Milwaukee's mayor would have the power to ...appoint the superintendent (of schools)...and set its annual tax levy under a legislative proposal Gov. Jim Doyle detailed Tuesday (Oct. 27)......it would also move authority over budget...curriculum, facility decisions and collective bargaining from the School Board to the superintendent."
Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, Oct. 28, 2009
Milwaukee Public Schools (MPS) are clearly in trouble. Only about half of all ninth-grade students ever graduate from high school. Massive fights break out at several high schools. Standard test scores are low.
Milwaukee Mayor Tom Barrett, Governor Doyle and State Superintendent Tony Evers have concluded that transferring power from the elected Board of School Directors to the mayor would bring improvement in this situation. But, why?
The teachers at MPS have the same credentials as those teaching at suburban schools, the facilities are comparable, and the method of governance is the same (an elected board hires the superintendent and staff.) If so, then why are the suburban schools doing so much better?
The answer, which no one wants to face, is that the real difference between city and suburban schools is the demographics of the student body. Suburban students are overwhelmingly white and come from functional two-parent homes where education is valued. Most MPS students are black, another large group is Hispanic, and most come from poor homes. To make matters even worse, large numbers of MPS students transfer from one school to another several times in a single school year, often from or to other states.
There is no political pay-off for elected officials to confront these facts; in fact, to mention them out-loud would probably cost votes. The problems of dysfunctional families cannot be readily addressed by changes in law or administrative practices. The state could merge all school districts in Milwaukee County into a single district, which would lead to integration of the schools (economically as well as racially), but this idea would be anathema to suburbanites.
It is hard to see how the power-shift proposed by the Governor would do any good at all. There is no reason to believe that the mayor would pick a better superintendent than the School Board. Giving the superintendent more power, as proposed, would have little or no effect on teaching or student achievement. I conclude that advocating some change, even irrelevant change, is simply a way to show the public that the officials backing the change are concerned enough about the problems to do something about them.
If Tom Barrett really wants to have some say in school governance, he should junk his plan to run for Governor of Wisconsin, and instead run for the Milwaukee School Board!
Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, Oct. 28, 2009
Milwaukee Public Schools (MPS) are clearly in trouble. Only about half of all ninth-grade students ever graduate from high school. Massive fights break out at several high schools. Standard test scores are low.
Milwaukee Mayor Tom Barrett, Governor Doyle and State Superintendent Tony Evers have concluded that transferring power from the elected Board of School Directors to the mayor would bring improvement in this situation. But, why?
The teachers at MPS have the same credentials as those teaching at suburban schools, the facilities are comparable, and the method of governance is the same (an elected board hires the superintendent and staff.) If so, then why are the suburban schools doing so much better?
The answer, which no one wants to face, is that the real difference between city and suburban schools is the demographics of the student body. Suburban students are overwhelmingly white and come from functional two-parent homes where education is valued. Most MPS students are black, another large group is Hispanic, and most come from poor homes. To make matters even worse, large numbers of MPS students transfer from one school to another several times in a single school year, often from or to other states.
There is no political pay-off for elected officials to confront these facts; in fact, to mention them out-loud would probably cost votes. The problems of dysfunctional families cannot be readily addressed by changes in law or administrative practices. The state could merge all school districts in Milwaukee County into a single district, which would lead to integration of the schools (economically as well as racially), but this idea would be anathema to suburbanites.
It is hard to see how the power-shift proposed by the Governor would do any good at all. There is no reason to believe that the mayor would pick a better superintendent than the School Board. Giving the superintendent more power, as proposed, would have little or no effect on teaching or student achievement. I conclude that advocating some change, even irrelevant change, is simply a way to show the public that the officials backing the change are concerned enough about the problems to do something about them.
If Tom Barrett really wants to have some say in school governance, he should junk his plan to run for Governor of Wisconsin, and instead run for the Milwaukee School Board!
posted by Gerald S Glazer at 5:30 AM
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