Messing with local government
August 27, 2009
By Terry Falk, 8th District School Board Director
After double-digit tax levy increases, critics of Milwaukee Public Schools have argued that an appointed school board would work better than an elected board. Then they looked at their tax bills from the technical colleges to conclude that technical college boards would work better if they were elected rather than being appointed.
Meanwhile, Milwaukee County Board Chairman Lee Holloway wants to get rid of the county executive position. County Executive Scott Walker raised the stakes, recommending to get rid of all county government.
Why should we leave the city and towns out of this discussion? Let’s get rid of them as well and form a metropolitan government. Does every hamlet really need its own police or public works departments? St. Francis could save a ton of money if it combined its school system with Cudahy’s.
Streamlining government has some merit, but often the real objective is getting rid of the people in charge who aren’t matching someone else’s agenda. The talk of taking over MPS didn’t happen until one side concluded it couldn’t win school board elections.
Attacking another unit of government has the advantage of distracting from your own problems. Both Wisconsin Governor Doyle and Milwaukee Mayor Barrett have their own budgetary mess, but that isn’t stopping them from threatening to take over Milwaukee schools even though next year MPS will have one of the lowest levy increases in years at 2.5 percent.
Education Secretary Arne Duncan controls the federal Race to the Top money. Only a few states are projected to get this funding. Duncan supports mayoral control. Do we do mayoral control for the money? The chance that we will get this additional funding is questionable. And funding will last only a couple of years; mayoral control is forever. Do anything for money?
Just how the Milwaukee mayor will do a better job with our school system hasn’t been answered. A new study on Chicago schools questions whether there were any real achievement gains under mayoral control when Duncan was in charge of Chicago schools.
Messing with governmental structures is often about fixing blame, not fixing problems.
www.civiccommittee.org/initiatives/education/Still%20Left%20Behind%20v2.pdf
Terry Falk is the Milwaukee Public Schools Director for the Eighth District, which includes Bay View. To contact him, call (414) 510-9173 or email falktf@milwaukee.k12.wi.us.
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emilym on Sat, 29th Aug 2009 11:45 am
The trouble with all plans to “consolidate” is that they lead to ever-greater black bureaucratic holes into which more money is sucked. They do not lead to greater efficiency; just take a look at the federal government. Have you ever seen such a money-waster?
What about the “too big to fail” banks? (Our bank only has 6 branches, and they never had any trouble.) Or factory farms, which do not operate as efficiently as smaller ones, despite myths to the contrary?
I live in a small township, that runs itself efficiently. If we were forced to consolidate, we’d end up paying the bills of other communities, those who weren’t as careful as we are.