Consider Milwaukee ‘plans’ when voting April 7

On Feb. 17, fewer than 5 percent of Milwaukeeans voted in the primary election for state superintendent. Because the two remaining candidates are heavily promoting their plans to improve the fortunes, literal and academic, of MPS, we have an interest in turning out for the general election April 7.

I have written before that to really fix MPS, we need to fix the endemic problems of the city first-so I doubt that either candidate, Deputy State Superintendent Tony Evers or “parental activist” Rose Fernandez, can provide a magic bullet. But the style and scope of their plans says a lot about both what they think of Milwaukee and how they will run the Department of Public Instruction. 

The Evers plan offers many ideas for MPS, including the use of federal funds to lure nationally-certified teachers into Milwaukee’s most difficult schools. He will offer more money for things like summer school and tutoring programs-with the caveat that those funds would be pulled if improved results don’t follow.

Evers also wants an education version of the Milwaukee 7, the business group that promotes southeastern Wisconsin. An “E7″ would bring together public and private schools, universities, colleges, tech schools, and social service agencies serving children throughout the region. The group would create “a seamless system,” as he calls it, of promotion and collaboration with a focus on every student’s success at every level.

Saying that “DPI has ignored the problems in MPS,” Fernandez offers one large idea. She wants to disband the current elected Milwaukee Board of School Directors and replace it with a “Turnaround Team” appointed by Milwaukee County Executive Scott Walker, Milwaukee Mayor Tom Barrett, and Fernandez herself. She also pledges to spend time every month in Milwaukee to help this team meet its goals.

This team would have three years to address what she calls the “major problems” of MPS, after which control of the city’s schools would return to an elected board-”or boards,” she says, making clear that a break-up of the district is on the table. Fernandez lists all the things the “Turnaround Team” will be empowered to do, but, with the exception of breaking up the district, they are already things the present elected board can do. The difference seems to be who makes the decisions, not what specific decisions to make.

The candidates’ plans show contrast in two ways. The most obvious relates to the fact that the state superintendent has little real policy-making authority. Evers’ ideas can all be done from within DPI; Fernandez’s “Turnaround Team” will require legislative approval. Given the current legislature, I doubt the votes are there, and she doesn’t talk about a back-up plan. However, Fernandez counts on her experience building a coalition to pass virtual schools legislation in 2008, noting, “One thing is certain: nothing will happen if we don’t try.”

There is a second, more subtle difference, in the attitude the candidates have taken toward the city and its schools. There is a certain appeal in having a team of “community experts,” as Fernandez calls them, take the wheel and set a very different course for the city’s schools. But as she says this, she suggests that our having board members who need to get reelected every four years is the problem. In other words, either the MPS board candidates or the voters themselves ignore what’s best for the students in favor of electoral politics.

Evers has a different line about Milwaukee: “I don’t think we do kids a service by making them think they could do better someplace else,” he told me. His plan is to work with the elected leaders to make Milwaukee’s schools better.

More information about the candidates’ plans for Milwaukee are available on their websites, tonyevers.com and changedpi.com.

Jay Bullock is an English teacher at Bay View High School who blogs at folkbum.com. Contact him at mpshallmonitor@gmail.com.

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