Larry Miller is a member of the Milwaukee school district. Milwaukee has been a district subjected to the reform nostrums of choice for the past 25 years. It has a large charter sector and a large voucher sector. The shrinking public schools have a much larger proportion of students with disabilities than the other two sectors, which don’t want them. Despite the skimming practices of the two privatized sectors, neither the charter or voucher sectors outperform the public schools. Choice has not lifted all boats; in fact, it has shown no results other than to shrink the public schools. The city’s “independent” evaluator says that the voucher schools have a higher graduation rate, but that higher rate is accompanied by a 44% attrition rate.
Now the business community and other “reformers” in Milwaukee decided that having lots of charters and voucher schools is not enough. They want the whole district to be converted to a New Orleans-style charter district. Apparently no one told them that the majority of charter schools in the Recovery School District in New Orleans are rated D or F by the charter-friendly state. Or that the New Orleans district is ranked 65th out of 68 districts in the state in academic performance.
Milwaukee school board member Larry Miller here briefly reviews the nation’s four “recovery-style school districts”: the one in New Orleans, the Achievement School District in Tennessee, the Education Achievement Authority in Michigan, and the Opportunity Educational Institution in Virginia. The bottom line: parents lose representation and voice; staff are fired; academic achievement is stagnant.
Diane Ravitch's blog 
“Despite the skimming practices of the two privatized sectors, neither the charter or voucher sectors outperform the public schools.”
It’s amazing to me how resilient public schools are. Despite 15 years of state and federal leadership that either abandons them (Democrats) or actively works for their demise (Republicans) the people who work there keep on going and the ed reform priorities still can’t knock them out.
It is flat-out admirable that they keep plugging away no matter how many anvils politicians throw them. Someone should fund a study on THAT resilience and grit. How are public schools not only surviving in such a hostile climate, with ever-increasing challenges and less funding, but doing better than the schools that were slated to replace them?
I know it isn’t true in every state, but it seems to be true in WI, MI and OH. I’d donate to crowdfund that study, not that it will ever, ever be done 🙂
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Chiara – You are so right! The reformers will never understand because all they really care about is the $$$$! “REAL” teachers have a passion for their students & the content they teach – none of which can ever be measured or tested…
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I love the romantic notions around Catholic schools, too. I don’t know where they get it. From movies? From people who went to fancy Catholic schools?
In Ohio, Catholic schools are in no way intrinsically “better” than the public schools in a given area, and I imagine it’s the same in Wisconsin.
We have Catholic schools that are better than public schools, and Catholic schools that are worse than public schools. There’s nothing magical about “Catholic”. Catholic schools all have lay staff anyway now. The teachers here go from the Catholic school to the public school because the public school pays 15k more a year. They’re the same group of people.
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Chiara,
As one who went K12 through the Catholic schools in St. Louis (which has one of the largest percentage of Catholic schools in the nation) I agree that they are no more “special” than the community public schools other than they, much like charters, have a “selected” student population. I remember many times our books were used public school books, not to mention way past their prime nuns in grade school.
The home/family environment is byfar greater influence on one’s education than the school.
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Chiara & Duane –
We are on the same page. As a student K-12 (Catholic schools) and a Catholic school teacher for 8 years before I went “public”, I too can attest to the greatest differences are the financial situation of the students and the “selective” makeup of the student population. Irregardless, kids are kids no matter which school they attend – they all want to be successful & someone to care about them! (And, of course, the reformers don’t get that either!)
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Thoroughly agree with ” kids are kids no matter which school they attend – they all want to be successful & someone to care about them!”
TAGO!
and the fact that the edudeformers don’t realize that.
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Hey Larry, When you I started our new schools in the mid 1990’s in Milwaukee, we showed that innovation can and will happen, if allowed, within the public sector. I remember seeing your students learning in the neighborhood with video camera in hand, to find teachable moments wherever they were.
Those who do charters and others are simply shuffling the deck chairs on the Titanic, doing what Thomas Jefferson called raking a few geniuses from the rubbish. And throwing those who are perceived as rubbish into the streets. What we did was real innovation..
I am proud of public schools for serving all children taking on all comers, while others, as evidenced by their lack of service to those with special needs, rake the geniuses so they can look good.
Imagine how it could be if once again innovation was allowed within schools. Limited by the one size fits all mentality, and the testing fiasco, schools are forced to make winning in word games and math riddles the priority. What if schools, like yours and mine, once again could focus on learning rather than winning. What a concept
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And all schools served all kids!
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I don’t know if you-all have seen this but an ed reformer admitted that markets aren’t working in public ed in Ohio. 15 years later,Stanford noticed, after it became obvious to everyone who lives here.
As usual, the focus was 100% on charters and vouchers. I’m still waiting for someone in this state to remember we still have public schools, most of our public schools are not in “wealthy suburbs”, and ed reformers were supposed to IMPROVE them, not actively harm them.
http://10thperiod.blogspot.com/2014/12/stanford-credo-director-free-market.html?utm_content=buffer2c80c&utm_medium=social&utm_source=twitter.com&utm_campaign=buffer
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Milwaukee Public Schools is about to implode. I had the privilege to teach at an open concept, elementary school on the NW side of Milwaukee for thirteen years. I retired in 2011 to preserve my benefits. I didn’t want to, but felt I had no choice in the interests of self-preservation. Twelve years ago this school was a Blue Ribbon school with ample funding to provide specialists, intersession opportunities and a stable experienced staff. Today it has been turned into a K-8 school with few specialists and no resources for academic interventions. Each year, for the past four years, two to four more experienced teachers quit, transfer, or retire. A school that was designed to hold about 350 elementary students now has approximately 500 kindergarten through 8th grade students. I still try to occasionally volunteer at the school after my part time job in another district. A few days ago, when I stopped by, I did not feel safe. Middle school students were roaming the halls and barging into the office and refused to return to class. Apparently, this has been happening for several days–with fights breaking out and police being called. Needless to say, academic achievement has declined. Teacher morale is low. Rumor has it that honor rolls are no longer published by district order, so that lower achieving students will not be discouraged. No amount of unaccountable charter or choice or stringent teacher evaluation will fix this. I left the school in tears. The students are the ones who suffer.
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Thanks so much. I think it;s the big untold story of ed reform, what happens to the public schools that were working when this started? How are THEY doing? It’s never even mentioned. It’s as if the assumption was the public schools that were there had zero value.
It’s crazy to me. You don’t blow up a system with NO thought for the downside risk. Who does that? It’s incredibly irresponsible and reckless. There was never any guarantee that “choice” would end up as a net gain, system-wide. They’re just rolling the dice. If it doesn’t “work” they double down.
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Chiara: you have said this before and, when appropriate and relevant, say it again. Powerful points.
It is impossible to follow everyone everywhere all the time, but the “charters are the rising tide that lifts all public school boats” argument seems to have receded well into the background.
One of its replacements appeared on this blog very recently: those who want parents and communities to have the choice of well-resourced and well-supported local public schools are supposedly really demanding that choice be taken away from those parents that choose charters. I’m not saying it makes sense, but it comes right from the self-styled “education reform” playbook: appeal to the narrow interests of a few at the expense of the many; divide and conquer; portray the bully as the victim; deny such charter practices as the midyear dump and instead wail and whine that charters are being shortchanged of public monies; and so on.
Keep writing. I’ll keep reading.
😎
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I am genuinely baffled why there isn’t more demand for ed reformers to justify their policies by showing improvements in public schools.
By allowing them to focus exclusively on charter schools and vouchers, we’re giving them a complete pass on a huge piece of what they promised. They can’t just show the gradual progress that was happening before they took over, because that’s the “status quo” they deride and sneer at. They are supposed to be producing outcomes, and that’s a much bigger task than opening charter schools or expanding vouchers. If they fail on improving public schools, they fail. That’s the measure.
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You’re right. They need to cover the impact of the dismantling of public education.
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I am sorry that you have had to endure the dismantling of a successful urban public school. The fact that the city is willing to follow stupid with even more stupid is a testimony to their greed and lack of conscience. Those that support public schools should try to organize and get the attention of the local news. NBC in Miami recently did a story on the failure of charters there. Is the local NAACP supportive of public education? How about the parents of the students? Suffering in silence is not the answer when greedy people want to steam roller over children and their future.
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“NBC in Miami recently did a story on the failure of charters there.”
Right, but that story was about charter schools. What NBC in Miami DIDN’T do was a story about what happened to the public schools in Miami when Florida went crazy for ed reform.
You’d need a before/after picture of the PUBLIC schools under ed reform. That”s what is never covered.
I understand it as far as media: charter schools are newer, the general category is more interesting and certainly political and business leaders are madly in love with charter schools.
What I don’t understand is how public sector people, those who are HIRED and PAID to work for public schools ignore what happens to public schools under ed reform. It’s their job. They’re not doing their job.
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retired teacher: “follow stupid with even more stupid”—
TAGO!
And you end with “is a testimony to their greed and lack of conscience.”
TAGO!
It goes right along with their “care less followed by care even less than before.”
To riff off their foundational Marxist principles:
“So-called ‘education reform” is a parked taxi with the meter running.”
And where $tudent $ucce$$ is concerned, they will never abandon or turn their backs on Groucho…
😎
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Ready to copy and paste Tweet –
New Orleans
Tennessee
Michigan & Virginia
Closing Pub-Ed & opening corporate Charters is about profits
NOT children
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I live in a state where we have many charter schools. These charter schools are popping up in our state’s more affluent areas. They are an excellent example of businesses taking over the schools.
Both of our children attended a Charter School. See our son has a medical disabiltiy and this one particular Charter School had no idea of our son’s medical disabitly until after the psychoeducational testing was completed. It wasn’t until we sent a letter to the Charter School requesting an evaluation, did they move forward with an evaluation. There were indicators during psycholeducational testing of our son’s medical disability. We made all of this a matter of record in 6th grade for our son to get the classroom accommodations he really needed.
In 7th grade we had a horrible experience with the Head Master and then again in 8th grade (this year). It was so bad the Head Master had no idea of my son’s disability and in fact was negating his disability. We caught this Charter School in many situations whereby they had no answers to the punitiveness in which they were dealing with our son. We would ask why? Why is our son being suspended? They would say, “well we are investigating the case.” ” Your son can’t be in school during this investigation.” We would ask “what case?” If you are suspending him, what are you suspending him for at this time?” During this time, our son who was struggling to keep up already, was now missing school again “until their investigation was completed.”???
This last time before we withdrew out son from the Charter School, the administrators told us, if we left their school (withdrew our son) , they would not record our son’s suspension and not make it part of his record. Only if we left though.
We didn’t leave the school right away and not only did they make the suspension part of my son’s permanent record, they changed their minds on what they wanted to call their reasoning for their suspension (once the charter school found out we weren’t leaving). It was much worse. They said “we decided the case was much worse then last reported.” We asked again, “What case?, we met with you on a late Friday afternoon.” “What happened from then until Monday?” Except the fact we did not withdraw our son.
We made the decision to withdraw our son. It was not good for him or our daughter to be in that environment anymore. He is now at a school (which is a very good school) his very good friends are still at the Charter School. My son doesn’t understand why we pulled him. To make matters worse then they already are, this is the very first time my son has actually made and kept friends.
This Charter School operates like a business. They only want the BEST students. These are the students that make their brochures look very pretty and appealing.
My husband and I talked about it in the form (metaphorically) of “spreadsheets.” There is one spreadsheet for the students they will do EVERYTHING in the world to keep and then there is the “other” spreadsheet (the one my son was on).
Those kids are even made to feel less then the others.
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