Archives for category: Wisconsin
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How to Reform Milwaukee’s Schools

By dianeravitch
January 7, 2013 //
31

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.

Categories Arts Education, Charter Schools, Privatization, Special Education, Vouchers, Wisconsin

Wisconsin Study: Report Cards Favor Advantaged, Publics Outperform Charters

By dianeravitch
December 10, 2012 //
5

A new study by Wisconsin Forward Institute finds that the state report cards reflect the economic advantage and disadvantage of students.

Schools that serve the poorest students get lowest grades.

Schools that serve the most advantaged students get highest grades.

The study also concluded that students in Wisconsin’s public schools out-perform students in Wisconsin charter schools.

 

Categories Accountability, Charter Schools, Wisconsin

Wisconsin Raises Standards, Voucher Schools and MPS Schools Plummet

By dianeravitch
November 5, 2012 //
12

Wisconsin decided to raise the passing mark on its tests, and the results were not pretty in Milwaukee.

90% of students in voucher schools were found not to be “proficient” in math or reading.

In the Milwaukee public schools, 85% were not proficient in reading and 80% were not proficient in math.

Governor Scott Walker has solved the problem for the voucher schools.

In his new legislation expanding the voucher program to more students, the schools will no longer be required to take the state tests.

Therefore, their proficiency rate will not be known or reported.

In the future, there will be no more comparing the results of voucher schools and public schools in Milwaukee.

Categories Accountability, Vouchers, Wisconsin

How to Join the EduBusiness

By dianeravitch
October 28, 2012 //
10

A reader writes from Wisconsin:

After our Act 10 passed in Wisconsin, a few of my colleagues and I looked into what it would take to take our game to the private sector and start a voucher school in our town. What we learned was that it would be perfectly legal for us to rent an abandoned storefront in our town and lure students in with the promise of free technology that they could keep, even after they left the school. We could collect our voucher money from the state after the third Friday in September, when the state establishes your enrollment. To keep costs low and profits high, we could use Khan Academy as our curriculum and hire uncertified aides to monitor the students (we had a few recent HS graduates in mind who we thought would make good bouncers). The hastily sketched out business plan had us earning far more than we would as public school teachers, based on our best estimates.

But the real beauty of the plan kicked in after the third Friday in September. Immediately after that, we would start “counseling” kids out and sending them back to the public school. We figure that by Thanksgiving or at the latest Christmas, we would have our enrollment down to zero, then we could fire the bouncers, break the lease, take the voucher money and run. All totally legitimate, as far as we could tell by reading the law.

Categories Privatization, Vouchers, Wisconsin

Who Needs Public Libraries?

By dianeravitch
October 15, 2012 //
6

What a quaint idea Andrew Carnegie had when he subsidized 2,500 free public libraries a century ago. He wanted knowledge to be free to the public.

Today, our reformers don’t believe in subsidizing anything other than for those at the very bottom (but not much). If you want a book, buy it. If you aren’t willing to pay for it, they assume, you don’t really need it. They have all the books they want, so why do we need public libraries?

A reader, David Eckstrom, writes about the library in his community:

I am on the board of trustees for my local public library. Our usage continues to grow every year at about 10%, but our funding (which comes from the county) has been flat for at least the 3 years I have been on the board.

I live in WI and our governor has made it a major part of his mission to cut funding to municipalities and to give them the “tools” they need to deal with the cuts (i.e. eliminate collective bargaining so the municipalities can make their employees pay for the cuts). However, we are finding that there is no way cutting the salaries and benefits of the few employees on our staff can possibly make up for the growing gap in funding caused by the increased usage. In fact, cutting the salaries of all employees to minimum wage with no benefits would not even make up the gap. When our county begins (probably next year) to pass the cuts on down to us, that funding gap will get even larger.

The only way we are continuing to survive now is by dipping into the reserves we have accumulated over the years from private donations. We project that money will last another 1.5 – 2 years and then we will have to start reducing services.

What do we eliminate first? The heavily used juvenile section? The heavily used public computers? The heavily used periodicals collection? The heavily used adult collection? The heavily used community outreach programs? There is evident need for everything we provide, but something is definitely going to have to go. It won’t affect people who can afford their own books, computers, periodicals and educational programs, so who the hell cares? Not our governor.

Categories Budget Cuts, Corporate Reformers, Wisconsin

What Is The Mind Trust?

By dianeravitch
September 19, 2012 //
11

When I first read that The Mind Trust had proposed a sweeping reorganization of the Indianapolis public schools, I assumed it was another reform scheme to dismantle and privatize public education.

But I didn’t want to jump to conclusions, so I held my tongue. I decided to wait and see.

Today I received an invitation from The Mind Trust to hear one of the nation’s leading voucher advocates and all doubt was dispelled.

When I saw that the event was co-sponsored by the anti-teacher, anti-public school group “Stand for Children,” as well as Education Reform Now (the Wall Street hedge fund managers’ front-group), no further question remained.

Something tells me that Howard Fuller, the speaker, won’t acknowledge that the children in voucher schools do no better than those in public schools. Nor will he admit that black children in Milwaukee schools, whether public, charter or voucher, have NAEP scores about the same as black children in Mississippi. That’s the result of 21 years of competition, with public dollars divided three ways.

Indiana, once so proud of its tradition of public schooling, is now the playground for privatization, for-profit charters, TFA, and entrepreneurs of all stripes.

Time for Hoosiers to wake up before the reformers sell off or give away the public sector.

Categories Black Alliance for Educational Options, Charter Schools, Corporate Reformers, Education Industry, Education Reform, For-Profit, Indiana, National Council on Teacher Quality (NCTQ), Privatization, Teach for America TFA, Vouchers, Wisconsin

Will President Obama Speak Out Against Act 10?

By dianeravitch
September 17, 2012 //
25

Four years ago, candidate Obama promised to break out his walking shoes and join the picket line if anyone threatened the collective bargaining rights of workers.

He forgot that promise when Governor Scott Walker stripped most public sector workers of their collective bargaining rights two years ago. He did not join the people who protested Act 10 in Madison.

And most people understand his unwillingness to inject himself into the Chicago teachers’ strike (which does not threaten collective bargaining rights).

But now he gets another chance in Wisconsin! A judge says the law is unconstitutional. President Obama taught constitutional law. What does he think? Is it fair to preserve the rights of firefighters and police, but not teachers and nurses?

What will President Obama do? This is not a battle between two allies.

Speak up, Mr. President, please.

Categories Obama, Unions, Wisconsin

Wisconsin Districts Drop For-Profit eVendors

By dianeravitch
September 2, 2012 //
5

This is good news. 

Some of the school districts in Wisconsin are canceling their contracts with for-profit vendors of online schooling.

Last year, four out of the state’s five biggest online schools were run by for-profit corporations.

This year, the number is down to two, because school officials concluded the vendors had a conflict of interest: Their first obligation is to their shareholders, not the students.

The districts will run the virtual schools without the for-profit corporations.

Categories For-Profit, On-Line Education, Wisconsin

Wisconsin Parent Needs Your Help

By dianeravitch
September 2, 2012 //
56

A parent in Wisconsin wrote to say that the new “reform” law in his state requires that kindergarten children be assessed 2-3 times a year. He wants to opt out his child. He contacted the Wisconsin Reading Coalition to ask for their advice, and this was the response he received. He wants to know what others, perhaps some who are experts in early childhood education, think about this issue:

Wisconsin Reading Coalition

The kindergarten screening is like a well-baby check: looking for pre-reading predictors of eventual reading failure like poor phonemic awareness. It gives schools an opportunity to intervene early and prevent the academic, personal, and social fallout from poor reading. Poor reading, of course, affects the individual child, but also holds back the entire class. The assessment that was chosen by DPI (we would have preferred Predictive Assessment of Reading, as it also checks for rapid naming and vocabulary) is PALS (Phonological Awareness Literacy Screening), developed in Virginia. PALS is very short and low-key, delivered by the classroom teacher, and similar to many kindergarten classroom activities. You can see a video of the assessment being given at https://pals.virginia.edu/tools-k.html
Categories Childhood, Pre-K, K, Education Reform, Testing, Wisconsin

Whither Wisconsin?

By dianeravitch
July 25, 2012 //
5

Wisconsin’s leaders seem determined to degrade public education in the state. An earlier post described the expectation that the schools will produce a docile workforce. This one shows the overall plan to turn the educational system so that it meets the needs not of children, but the needs of industry.

Categories Education Reform, Wisconsin
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