Divide Milwaukee Public Schools?
"WEAC's third proposed reform involves breaking up the Milwaukee Public Schools (MPS) district into smaller, more manageable components."
Wisconsin Education Association Council website, posted Feb. 9, 2011
WEAC, the state's major teachers' union, claims that "This bold action is designed to drive greater accountability....make the system easier to manage, give students more opportunities and choices....deepen the engagement of parents,....since it will be easier for them to navigate through a smaller district." Although some of these points are certainly valid (a smaller entity is easier to manage than a larger one, and parents would have more input in a small district), I conclude that the drawbacks of dividing up MPS far outweigh these advantages. Here is why:
Cost: The WEAC position paper does not specify a number of new districts, but let us analyse the plan on the basis of four districts. Each would need a superintendent, and of course every superintendent needs a secretary, maybe even one or more assistants or deputy superintendents. Various educational specialists would be needed, as well as elected school directors. All of these people must be paid, and decent office space would be needed for them. Even if not one more teacher is hired, the cost of running four districts would be larger than running one, which now costs $1.3 billion per year.
Transfers: Milwaukee families move around a lot within the city, and their children usually change schools when they move. Even within the current single MPS system, changing schools means adjusting to new teachers. But if a pupil's move means changing districts, these adjustments will be more difficult, as each district may vary in curriculum, textbooks , and rules.
Teachers: New York City experimented with a similar plan by establishing three decentralized districts in early 1968, each with a local board empowered to hire and remove (1) teachers and principals. The mostly-black board in the Ocean Hill-Brownsville district of Brooklyn promptly removed 13 teachers and six administrators, all white, mostly Jewish, in May of that year. The dismissed teachers appealed to the United Federation of Teachers (UFT), which struck NY public schools for a total of 36 days in the Fall of 1968, after which the aggrieved teachers were reinstated. The entire city became embroiled in a bitter racial and religious feud, which persisted for years.(2)
Although I favor experimenting with new ideas in education, I also contend that we can learn from the bitter experience of New York City, and not repeated a failed experiment here. The Milwaukee Teachers Education Association, an affiliate of WEAC, is also against this proposal.
On this question, I say MTEA is right, and WEAC is wrong.
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(1) Teachers "removed" from a district school by the local board were not fired, but were told to report to NYC Board of Education headquarters in Manhattan for re-assignment. Even though they were paid while awaiting re-assignment, the forced removal still violated the UFT contract.
(2) Wikipedia.
Wisconsin Education Association Council website, posted Feb. 9, 2011
WEAC, the state's major teachers' union, claims that "This bold action is designed to drive greater accountability....make the system easier to manage, give students more opportunities and choices....deepen the engagement of parents,....since it will be easier for them to navigate through a smaller district." Although some of these points are certainly valid (a smaller entity is easier to manage than a larger one, and parents would have more input in a small district), I conclude that the drawbacks of dividing up MPS far outweigh these advantages. Here is why:
Cost: The WEAC position paper does not specify a number of new districts, but let us analyse the plan on the basis of four districts. Each would need a superintendent, and of course every superintendent needs a secretary, maybe even one or more assistants or deputy superintendents. Various educational specialists would be needed, as well as elected school directors. All of these people must be paid, and decent office space would be needed for them. Even if not one more teacher is hired, the cost of running four districts would be larger than running one, which now costs $1.3 billion per year.
Transfers: Milwaukee families move around a lot within the city, and their children usually change schools when they move. Even within the current single MPS system, changing schools means adjusting to new teachers. But if a pupil's move means changing districts, these adjustments will be more difficult, as each district may vary in curriculum, textbooks , and rules.
Teachers: New York City experimented with a similar plan by establishing three decentralized districts in early 1968, each with a local board empowered to hire and remove (1) teachers and principals. The mostly-black board in the Ocean Hill-Brownsville district of Brooklyn promptly removed 13 teachers and six administrators, all white, mostly Jewish, in May of that year. The dismissed teachers appealed to the United Federation of Teachers (UFT), which struck NY public schools for a total of 36 days in the Fall of 1968, after which the aggrieved teachers were reinstated. The entire city became embroiled in a bitter racial and religious feud, which persisted for years.(2)
Although I favor experimenting with new ideas in education, I also contend that we can learn from the bitter experience of New York City, and not repeated a failed experiment here. The Milwaukee Teachers Education Association, an affiliate of WEAC, is also against this proposal.
On this question, I say MTEA is right, and WEAC is wrong.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------
(1) Teachers "removed" from a district school by the local board were not fired, but were told to report to NYC Board of Education headquarters in Manhattan for re-assignment. Even though they were paid while awaiting re-assignment, the forced removal still violated the UFT contract.
(2) Wikipedia.
Labels: decentralization, MPS, WEAC
posted by Gerald S Glazer at 10:53 AM
3 Comments:
Maybe the NY experience can be used to design a workable Milwaukee experience.
For example, why not have white board members for white school school district and black board members for black school districts or simply make sure the racial makeup of the board members matches the racial makeup of the school district.
What is wrong with this?
What is wrong is that race should have nothing to do with education.
There are a lot of things that should not be, but that is life. To assume that race is not a factor is wishful thinking, but not reality.
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