Alan Borsuk is a knowledgeable journalist who has covered education in Milwaukee for many years. He is now professing at Marquette, but still keeps a close watch on what is happening to education in Milwaukee.
In this article, Borsuk says that a new vision is needed to get beyond the stale and failed answers of the past. He is right.
Milwaukee has had vouchers since 1990. longer than any school district in the nation. The students in the voucher schools perform no better than those in the public schools.
Milwaukee has had charter schools for about 20 years. The students in the charter schools do no better than those in the public schools.
As the other sectors have grown, the Milwaukee public schools have experienced sharply declining enrollment. At the same time, the number of students with disabilities is far greater in the public schools than in either the voucher or charter schools. The latter are unable or unwilling to take the children who are most challenging and most expensive to educate. Thus, Milwaukee public schools are “competing” with two sectors who skim off the ablest students and reject the ones they don’t want. Most people would say this is not a level playing field.
Governor Scott Walker’s answer to the Milwaukee problem is to call for more vouchers and charters, and for virtual charters. But if the students in those schools are not outperforming the ones in the public schools after twenty years, why should those sectors grow? And we know from multiple studies that students in virtual schools do worse than those in brick-and-mortar schools.
More of the same is no answer. Doubling down on failure is a bad bet.
Yes, Milwaukee needs a bold vision.
It needs a reset.
It needs one public education sector, not three competing sectors. The time for dual- and triple-systems should have ended in 1954, with the Brown decision.
Milwaukee needs one public school system that receives public dollars, public support, community engagement, and parental involvement.
Vouchers and charters had their chance. They failed.
Now it is time to build a great public school system that meets the needs of the children of Milwaukee.
The children of Milwaukee need universal pre-kindergarten so that they arrive in school ready to learn. The children with high needs require small classes and extra attention. The public schools should provide a superb program in the arts for all children in every grade. They should have a rich curriculum–history, literature, foreign languages, the sciences, mathematics, and civics–for all children. Every student should have daily physical education. The schools should have the nurses, guidance counselors, social workers and librarians they need. Children should have after-school programs where they can learn new skills, strengthen their bodies, and get extra tutoring.
It is impossible to achieve these goals in a city with three competing school systems. It is entirely possible to achieve when there is one school system that becomes the focus of the energies of parents, civic leaders, and the business community.
Many children, one Milwaukee.
Diane Ravitch's blog 
One thing Borsuk doesn’t offer is any new vision at all, though. All he does call for is doubling down, on some unspecified agenda. Please notice this guy mentions none of the real reforms you recommend. What is he advocating for?
He recognizes that the no-excuse drive reform is sagging under the weight of its accumulated failures, but only sees it as “…suffering from a power shortage when it comes to driving improvement and from too much tolerance in all sectors for poor outcomes…”
His solution is to “pull people together and to trigger a big commitment to quality…”
A conservative Wisconsin Policy Research Institute poll found very low public support for reform drive policies. Borsuk’s diagnosis, ” My reading of the poll: Low demand for excellence and lack of will power …”
Before we endorse Borsuk’s generalized call to unite to revitalize ed reform, let’s try to locate his own idea of reform on Anthony Cody’s handy guide:
http://blogs.edweek.org/teachers/living-in-dialogue/2013/01/the_education_reform_dichotomy.html
He does drop a few hints about what he wants to “pull people together” behind. He even has a list. For instance, “How are we going to drive a list of ambitious ideas such as teacher improvement and better third-grade reading results?”
He sees a bright spot, “as a business…Much better than a lot of people think, thanks to changes in things such as employee benefits…”
And he doesn’t want a crisis to be wasted, reminiscing, “…Wendy Kopp, the founder and head of Teach for America, said during a visit to Milwaukee that it took the calamity of Hurricane Katrina to open the way to do something about the abysmal state of education in New Orleans… “
That is why I offered a concrete alternative vision.
Yes, I saw your intention, and the vision you offer is a good one. I was worried people would misinterpret, and mistakenly look to Borsuk for that kind of leadership.
This paragraph is the pivot:
“In this article, Borsuk says that a new vision is needed to get beyond the stale and failed answers of the past. He is right.”
If people don’t click the link, how would they know he offers no such vision? Maybe you could even clarify that in the post. So, I pulled out some quotes.
I’m especially concerned about Borsuk’s excitement over an “ambitious idea” for “better third-grade reading results.”
Is it this idea?
Link is via Alexander Russo.
“Reformers” think that a mandate or a threat is all it takes to succeed.
Like NCLB: mandate 100% proficiency by 2014.
And why I encouraged you to do so- without clear plans, supported by REAL data, doubling down lets money flow in any and all directions. Thanks for excellent suggestions.
I agree with chemtchr that Borsuk’s thrall for arbitrary and inappropriate measures of success (mentioned here and frequently in the past) are reflected in “ambitious ideas” and test scores.
While I agree with your points, if we don’t get serious about holding those with the power to fix the problem truly accountable for the human disaster in MPS, the problem will never be fixed. That starts with DPI Superintendent Tony Evers, continues to MPS Superintendent Greg Thornton, includes Gov. Walker, the state legislature, and the MPS school board.
Phrases like “human disaster” are offensive and inaccurate, and they leave us, ultimately, talking about children like they are problems — not dynamic people deserving of the best and the most that our public dollars can provide.
My three children learn successfully and bilingually in Milwaukee Public Schools. They learn from licensed, experienced, accountable teaching professionals who have helped them realize remarkable academic and social accomplishments. In two languages, in a school where more than 80 percent of the children live at/below the poverty line.
I don’t disagree that achievement levels in urban districts across the U.S. must improve. Urban education and urban poverty are not uniquely “milwaukee” problems. As for accountability, I think the district is taking those responsibilities very seriously: http://www.publicpolicyforum.org/
Please do not call my children, or their teachers, “human disaster.”
I have three children who thrive and learn bilingually every day in Milwaukee Public Schools. Educated, experienced, licensed teachers have helped them achieve remarkable academic and social accomplishments in a school where more than 80 percent of the children live at or below the poverty level.
“Human disaster” is offensive and inaccurate, and it leaves us talking about our children like they are problems, and not dynamic learners who deserve the best and the most that our public dollars can provide them. A review of nationwide headlines makes it clear that urban poverty and urban education are not uniquely “Milwaukee” problems.
As for accountability in MPS administration, I know they’re taking that as seriously as they can without receiving much support from outside the city. http://www.publicpolicyforum.org/
Further fracturing our schools is no way to heal them. It is time for Milwaukee to come together as a community, share our best practices, function with transparency and do what is actually best for children and our schools. silosdo not have to be accountable to their use of public coffers the way the public schools do. Thaccountable to the student or the families the
way public schools are required to.
I have sat in many “city wide” education reform meetings in Milwaukee over the last 9 years… plenty of people call to action
I do not believe Alan is offering himself as the leader (he is welcome to correct me on that) except to continue his work to point out the issues and struggles of education in Milwaukee schools and to continuously sound the alarm for focused change and community cohesion.
Milwaukee has many “silos” built to protect each of the education systems outside of Milwaukee Public Schools. These silos systematically syphon students (who are the dollars) out of MPS with ease and the only proof they need that they are “better” than MPS is to say “we are not MPS.” These outside silos do not have to be accountable to their use of public coffers the way the public schools do. They do not need to be accountable to the student or the families the
way public schools are required to.
I have sat in many “city wide” education reform meetings in Milwaukee over the last 9 years… plenty of people called to action to work on behalf of all of the children. I become discouraged that the conversations are never about equalizing the field for all of the children… all “silos” entrusted with public dollars should be equally accountable to the use of the money & to educational outcomes.
Further fracturing our schools is no way to heal them. It is time for Milwaukee to come together as a community, share our best practices, function with transparency and do what is actually best for children & schools.
maybe put the schools in the hands of educators and get out of the way? Have we tried that in milwaukee?
Yes, Jim, we have tried that. There are 2 major problems with “getting out of the way.”
1) MPS is severely underfunded for the challenges it faces;
2) MPS does not hold itself accountable for its poor results; and
3) DPI does not hold MPS accountable for MPS’ poor results.
2 questions
poor results at doing what?
When was that tried?
MPS has some of the worst reading scores in the nation. It has one of the lowest graduation rates in the nation. It has one of the highest suspension rates in the nation. The district is in the hands of the educators and always has been, so that’s why I said it has been tried. You are right, that the legislature hasn’t gotten out of the way, and in fact, has compounded the problem as Diane pointed out, through creating the largest voucher program in the country and depleting MPS of both resources and non-disabled children.
Jim you ask an interesting question. There are several successful teacher run schools in MPS. To learn more about what teacher run schools across the country and in MPS take a look at the recently published book: Trusting Teachers with School Success: What Happens When Teachers Call the Shots.
Commenting from my phone sent one incomplete one… feel free to moderate the incomplete one off. Thank you.
As always, the public schools are expected to solve all of society’s problems, and now they are serving a population that is unwelcome in the charter and voucher programs. Perhaps part of the solution lies in providing wrap-around services that start even before kindergarten.
While you are right that wraparound services have proven themselves to be effective both in schools and in our communities, we also cannot just give schools a pass because kids come to them with challenging problems. That isn’t a new issue and there are better and worse ways to educate children who bring challenges to school. We need to make sure we’re only using the better ways.
So basically, you’re saying “no excuses”, right?
However, as Diane has pointed out, the “no excuses” people have tried their solutions and had no better success than the traditional MPS system. I don’t think Diane, or anyone else here, is saying “give the schools a pass.”
In fact, the message I got from Diane is let’s stop giving the reformers a pass. They tried something. It has failed miserably. Its side effects (intended or not) are detrimental. It’s time to pull the plug on the failed reform experiments and put our resources back into working together to do the best we can for the most students we can via the public system.
There is a big difference between “no excuses” and determining the challenges and addressing those challenges. I do believe that no schools should be excused from providing a quality education to all their students. That doesn’t mean they don’t need the resources and tools to meet those challenges. In my decade plus long class action against Milwaukee Public Schools, we settled the case and provided those tools to MPS through court order. Sadly, MPS appealed and got the 7th Circuit to overturn the settlement on a technicality.
With all due respect to those who disagree, I do not believe public schools have any obligation whatsoever to deal with behavioral issues, political correctness notwithstanding. The states should recognize that and offer an alternative much more controlled environment for those kids whose behavior is out of control at all age levels. Dealing with tantrums and an IQ of 140 is not possible by any human being as long as there are 24 other kids in the class.
Charter schools don’t deal with “tantrums” because they don’t have to.
The states provide zero alternatives for the generic public schools.
That is a crime to the 25 kids, the tantrum kid and the tax payers.
The consequence of your logic is that we just fill our prisons with children who learn how to be criminals. There is a direct correlation between not learning how to read, getting suspended from school, not graduating and ending up in prison. If you think that’s ok, then consider the possibility that you may be the victim of the criminal our schools failed to teach.
Read what I said. State must provide alternative. No public or private school teacher can deal with “tantrums”, 140 IQ’s and 24 other people.
States fail.
I read it. The problem however, is that the alternative is segregating “problem” kids. Putting all the “problem” kids together does not teach them how to become good citizens. They learn from each other how to become criminals. You are incorrect about schools being unable to handle tantrums. You would be amazed at how many schools succeed academically and suspend NO students. They TEACH good behavior. They ENGAGE students.
“Vouchers and charters had their chance. They failed.”
For an accurate picture, one needs to focus on individual schools of all types. Find the ones that are successful, regardless of type (including private), and then replicate and resource them whenever possible. Find the ones that are ineffective and make quick and significant interventions because are student are the priority. By the way, there are very successful charter schools and very successful schools that benefit from vouchers in the Milwaukee area. I’ve seen some of them firsthand. In instances where there are abuses and persistent failure, address them individually and swiftly. This applies to charters and neighborhood schools.
Parents can choose to pull their kids out of a “failing” charter school. What is their choice if we take away all of their options and they are in a failing neighborhood public school? Unless they have the money for private schools, they are stuck. Or, would we say that they should stay and work to change the school? Is that going to happen fast enough for their children to reap the benefits? If my kids are going to an ineffective doctor, I take them to a more effective one. I do not keep sending my kid to the ineffective doctor while working to change his/her practice. I can always do that later, but each parent must do what is in the best interest of his/her child right now.
Your vision, Diane, of what a good public school system should be is wonderful. I am puzzled where you think the money for it is going to come from, especially in view of your admission that the charters do no worse than the public schools. And after the disgraceful mob action in Wisconsin who would trust public school teachers to implement it? No, charters, vouchers, and virtual schools are with us to stay. Our only question is whether to keep spitting against the wind to try to reverse the “deformers” as you like to call them.
There is a 50/50 chance, in my view, that the Republicans may simply let the sequester happen unless President Obama will offer real spending cuts, and all of us know that he is utterly intransigent about that, having declared to Boehner during the cliff negotiations, “We don’t have a spending problem.” It is slowly, slowly, slowly getting through the thick skulls of the low information voters, and possibly even the self-interested voters, like teachers, who are still employed and who are not the totally corrupt Obama constituency people who are spending their ABT card cash in strip bars and porno shops, that the nation does have a spending problem and is continuing to borrow money from China to pay for that excessive spending. Nothing will happen in Milwaukee to return its schooling to the good old days where there was one city, one school system, and union monopoly control of education there. Privatization and competition is here to stay, and will be here to stay, even if, by some miracle, Republicans should be elected nationally and return the USA to fiscal sanity and solvency and low taxes.
You wrote: “the children need universal pre-kindergarten so that they arrive in school ready to learn. The children with high needs require small classes and extra attention. The public schools should provide a superb program in the arts for all children in every grade. They should have a rich curriculum–history, literature, foreign languages, the sciences, mathematics, and civics–for all children. Every student should have daily physical education. The schools should have the nurses, guidance counselors, social workers and librarians they need. Children should have after-school programs where they can learn new skills, strengthen their bodies, and get extra tutoring.”
Harlan, it’s precisely thick-skulled, low-information voters who think we have a spending problem. The best economists in the world have pointed this out repeatedly. Not that your silly, racist rant has anything to do with the issue being discussed in this blog post. I’ve said this before, but you’re not getting it. If you’ve come looking for a Democratic blog to troll on, you’ve come to the wrong place. Diane is just as critical of Democrats as she is of Republicans.
The charter and voucher schools get the cream of the crop and can’t outperform the MPS. That is doing worse than the MPS, Harlan. If you want to solve the crisis that MPS has become, you have to address the extreme racial and class segregation crisis that Milwaukee has become by implementing the wraparound services and rich educational experiences Diane is suggesting. That’s expensive, which is why charter and voucher schools will only take the easiest kids to educate.
You don’t seem to be interested in educational problems, but merely in saving money.
P.S.: As a WI public school teacher, I strongly opposed an unjust law that hindered my ability to raise my voice collectively with my union brothers and sisters to protect public schools, children, and yes, our jobs. As an American, I treasure my right to free speech. I am deeply offended that you found it necessary to characterize my peaceful exercise of that free speech as a “disgraceful mob action.”
The fact that you are insulted and offended merely substantiates my characterization of the typical public school political position. We are not disputing anyone’s right to free speech or to petition (peacefully of course). We are disputing whether public sector unions have funded legislators to get sweet heart over-priced employment contracts. That’s corruption. The resort to cries of “racist” makes the discussion of real problems and real remedies, of which defacto segregation may be one, degenerate into mere name calling.
You may be right about all your positions on public policy, but my question remains, where is the money to come from. We are not disputing the morality of serving the disadvantaged, but the reality of how to do it. What is moral seldom gets funded because its supporters posture sanctimoniously, as do you. You, I suspect, think you have a right to my money because of the virtue of your cause. You don’t have a “right” to my money. You have a right to try to get a legislature, perhaps peopled by those with whom I agree, to try to fund schools. You are not totally self-interested, I know that because I know teachers. But to dispute on the matter with the fanaticism of a priest doesn’t cut any ice with me, or even water, or even steam. Until you become reasonable and RECOGNIZE there IS a spending problem nationally, who can support you. I quote back to you your own futile and dismissive words.
“Harlan, it’s precisely thick-skulled, low-information voters who think we have a spending problem. The best economists in the world have pointed this out repeatedly. Not that your silly, racist rant has anything to do with the issue being discussed in this blog post.”
WHEN the sequester goes through (or perhaps I should say IF, since I fully expect that Boehner will be rolled once again by the wily Obama, but I hope not), millions will be cut from national education funding. I don’t know how much Wisconsin will lose, but it might lose something. We ALL want to see justice done, but when you and your compatriots throw “racist” at me just because I want to know who pays, you show that you haven’t thought the whole economics of education through. Charters, vouchers, and virtual schools are cheaper than a really good public school. Why are the states short of money? Economic down turn. Why was there an economic downturn? Liberals, in the interests of justice, cosmic justice, compelled banks to make loans to people who couldn’t pay the mortgage payments. Wall Street bundled those mortgages and sold them abroad. The payments stopped coming in, which any fool except a Democrat could have predicted, the securities became worthless, the banks failed. Until you Democrat teachers can make the true cause and effect connections about what happened in the past instead of substituting pious moralizing and wishes, you will not have credibility with the rest of the public. If you can’t show you can think yourself, how can you expect the poor customer citizens to imagine you can teach their children how to think? Naturally they will do the pragmatic thing, get their kids out of schools with teachers who can’t or won’t think and where kids with non-middle class attitudes spoil the classroom environment, and try to get them into private or quasi-private schools, i.e. charters and voucher funded religious schools.
Yes that too is a moral compromise. It is self interested, only. You can force integration in public facilities but not in private. It is not a question of race any more, that is race as color. It is purely a question of whether a classroom is an ok place to learn middle class skills. It doesn’t have to even be a “great” place to learn. Just an ok place will do. But every time parents try to get their kids educated enough to get a job, you holier than thou teachers yell “racism.” No one buys it any more. It isn’t true. No one objects to anyone on the basis of color. Everyone objects to anyone who can’t read, write, and calculate, and wants to work. So we assume you guys are just using racism as a way to bludgeon us out of our tax money.
Just because a teacher is in a public school does not make him or her a better person, a higher or more moral being, who gets to tell everyone else what to do, like a priest could 150 years ago. Public school teachers see themselves as a new priestly class, I suspect, to do mission work in the slums, and they see the state as the funder of their church. But like the old priesthood, moral teaching, and spiritual uplift, and civilizing education was always mixed with the claim to monopoly authority. No one buys it anymore. That’s all.
You’ve lost your position of monopoly over state support. You are not established church any more, but you keep screaming that you should be. Other denominations get to suck on the sow of government’s teats. To rail against these other schools, charter, voucher, and so forth is little different in my view than the Church of England objecting to Quakers being allowed to serve in government.
That’s my reaction to your otherwise, heartfelt and passionate defense of helping kids rise from poverty. You get nowhere by demonizing the other churches. You just make yourself sound immature and petulent.
Amen! Parents need as much help as their children nowadays. They were not built for the grueling schedule and time management they are forced into, and on top of that, they need to have higher levels of knowledge to navigate their children in the right direction – regardless of whether that child becomes a Nobel Prize winning scientist or a public service sector worker. It doesn’t matter. Making choices in and of itself is a task that needs strategic thinking and decision making skills. So how are we REALLY working with Parents?
The bottom line is that charters (and vouchers, as in Milwaukee) were supposed to deliver “breakthrough performance” on the cheap. (Yes, “breakthrough performance” is what the charter school lobbyists in Michigan promised the state legislature.) In Michigan, all it has accomplished is a more rapid de-funding of local public school districts which are also carrying a growing concentration of high-needs students. And tidy profits for private charter school management companies, which run some 80% of all charters in my state.
I imagine that Wisconsin is like Michigan in that we have been spending a decreasing share of our economic resources on public education over the last decade. All this talk about “throwing money” at the problem is just that, talk. In a period when the cost of health care has risen four or five times as fast as inflation, K-12 spending in my state has barely kept up with inflation, and has not kept up with the growth in our state’s economy despite the recession.
So when the resources available to community-governed public schools are shrinking, and the demands on them increasing, what outcome would you expect? It’s time for a change in direction – not just in Milwaukee, but everywhere.