I spoke last night to educators, parents, and some school board members in Milwaukee. I was sponsored by the Milwaukee Teachers Education Association. I am in awe of their courage. They keep on going despite the attacks by Governor Scott Walker, who boasted recently that if he could beat the unions, he could beat ISIS. I looked around for kindergarten teachers with Uzis or librarians with bazookas, but I didn’t see any.
This week Governor Walker plans to sign right-to-work legislation, the Golden Fleece of the far right. Can’t allow workers to have a voice in working conditions or collectively bargaining for higher wages, can we?
His budget is also a subject of heated discussion. He wants to cut $300 million from the University of Wisconsin system, one of the narion’s finest higher education systems. He wants to cut public education by $127 million, of which $12 million will come from Milwaukee’s beleaguered public schools.
According to this article, some campuses are planning to lay off 1/4 of their staff, and others will close entire departments, if the cuts are enacted.
Walker wants more vouchers, even though the last independent evaluation showed that voucher schools do not get better results than public schools, and many are abysmal failures. Walker wants more charters, even though the charters do not surpass public schools in test scores, and many are failing.
The reformers promised that choice and competition would save Milwaukee’s children, especially its African American children, from “failing public schools.” They said that competition would improve the public schools, because they would be compelled to compete for students.
After 25 years as the Petri dish of school choice, we now know that those promises were hollow. Milwaukee started participating in the urban district portion of the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP)–the federal testing program–in 2009. It is one of the lowest performing of the 21 districts tested, slightly ahead of Cleveland and Detroit. (Cleveland also has vouchers and charters, and Detroit has been the setting for an endless parade of failed reforms.) today, the black children of Milwaukee perform on the federal tests about the same as black children in the poorest states of the Deep South. Choice and competition splintered community support and divided the schools into three sectors, none of which succeeded.
So who will save the children now trapped in failing voucher schools and failing charter schools?
Walker wants to adopt Jeb Bush’s A-F school grading program, which sets schools up for closure. He wants to make it easier for the state to takeover public schools and privatize them.
He wants alternate licensure to allow anyone with a bachelor’s degree and “life experience” who can pass a test to be eligible to teach grades 6-12.
Teachers, parents, and the community are organizing to push back against Walker’s assault on public education and the teaching profession. There is a silver lining: his budget cuts will affect all parents and families in Wisconsin, including those who voted for him. He may discover that families–Republicans, Democrats, and independents–would rather have a good neighborhood school and a great and affordable university system than property tax relief.
We now know that “reform” is empty and deceptive rhetoric, an excuse for ignoring poverty and segregation, a distraction from the growing income inequality and wealth inequality in our society.
There must be many legislators on both sides of the aisle who graduated from Wisconsin’s public schools and its renowned state university. Will they let Walker cripple the state’s education system?
Diane Ravitch's blog 
That’s all very interesting Diane, but the Walton Family Foundation has decided their program for US public school students is wildly successful and they plan to expand it nationwide, with some minor tweaking.
Politicians are no more “running” this than I am. They “relinquished” their job duties and responsibilities to an unelected private foundation and a bunch of lobbyists. It was easier then doing their jobs.
http://skollworldforum.org/2015/03/15/three-school-reform-lessons/
Term limits and dark money are a major problem. Vern Riffe, Voinovich, and Jim Rhodes were no angels, but compromised and at least focused a little more on Ohio, not some PAC or outside interest.
I actually think Ohio is making progress. If you think about that only 2 years ago David Brennan wrote the charter law and this time we’re “reforming” charters with an actual public debate, it’s a real change.
We’re having a real debate on charters and a real debate on testing in this state. That’s unprecedented. It was as if it reached a tipping point and really started to move.
“Nothing changes until something changes”, right? 🙂
The shame of it is, Democrats refused to lead on any of it. Republicans will get credit for admitting the charter and testing schemes are broken, and at least making a public show of fixing them. Democrats were apparently too cowed or too “agnostic” to lead on public schools. They waited for Republicans to tell them what charter/testing reforms were permissible.
Yes, they will. Ohio’s Kasich (another ALEC marionette like Walker) grew up in a postal worker household, attended public schools and universities, and made a living in Congress and lobbying. Yet he, too, is virulently against teachers and education. The Midwest has collectively gone off the rails and votes against its own interest. The poorest regions in Ohio are red counties. Education is just not a priority anymore.
This is all happening in New Mexico right now!
So where is Democrats for Public Education- remember that group of “new” Dems who are supporting public ed? Walkers 2 elections haven’t been seriously challenged by the national Dems.
Could it be any clearer that both parties prefer doing education on the cheap? Privatization and cutting public services is their vision.
Project Listen at Carnegie Mellon has developed an automated reading tutor to teach literacy.
http://www.cs.cmu.edu/~listen/index.html
Is it any surprise Bill Gates is so interested in what makes a “great” teacher? He can data mine those characteristics, build a “tutor” on a computer interface, and sell them to the unwashed masses. Takes care of all that expensive human capital.
I wonder if Duncan/Obama backed Walker and Kasich and Snyder privatization/anti-labor agenda in return for the GOP governors supporting Common Core.
Obviously, I think that was a lousy trade and the GOP governors got the better part of that deal but maybe it doesn’t matter. It looks like Democrats may be increasingly irrelevant at the state level in nearly the entire Great Lakes region anyway. They’ve lost just about the whole thing. Maybe public school supporters would do better to try to influence Republicans in WI, OH, MI, IL and IN. Democrats in those states aren’t going to have a whole lot of influence anyway. It’s all GOP governors.
“I wonder if Duncan/Obama backed Walker and Kasich and Snyder privatization/anti-labor agenda in return for the GOP governors supporting Common Core.”
Interesting. I wouldn’t be surprised someone was bribed considering the CCSS clout with the financial big boys. In TN when the Jan. 2015 legislative session opened some of the most vehement, intractable, anti-CC reps had an overnight conversion.
This is so sad…. When I graduated from college, Wisconsin teachers were highly sought (particularly in the southern states!) – now Walker has done so much damage – the university education departments are registering low numbers of education majors…