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From Our Blog
Is Milwaukee back on the reform radar?
January 19, 2012
By Katy Venskus, DFER Wisconsin State Director
There used to be a time when Milwaukee was considered one of the most active education reform cities in the country. The City's private school choice program, the oldest and largest in the country, was our ticket to fame (or infamy, depending on who you ask) through most of the 1990's. The choice program was supposed to be a game changer to public education. It was supposed to set off a chain reaction of innovation and competition that would not only improve the lives of children, but change the way we configured our education policy for the City of Milwaukee. In short, we were going to be the hotbed of the reform movement for decades to come.
Sadly, the game changing education movement we expected didn't come to pass. There is no doubt, however, that the existence of parent choice in Milwaukee has changed the lives of thousands of kids. The movement that created and protected the choice program fostered the development of two of the City's best charter schools and promoted a small sector of independent charters authorizers and schools. Unfortunately, aside from these developments there has been little large-scale reform in Milwaukee since the mid-1990's. Instead of a catalyst, the choice program became a scapegoat for both political parties and many status quo stakeholders. The failing public school district in Milwaukee has been allowed to sink deeper and deeper into the quicksand while union interests and their status quo Democrats blamed the choice program for all the public schools considerable ills. The GOP used the choice program as the be-all-end-all urban education solution, and was happy to let thoughtful public school policy and funding fall by the way side. The independent charter school community put their heads down and tried to stay out of the political fray - they served small pockets of kids very well, but without the ability or the will to take their model to scale. As a result, Milwaukee, not only fell behind, we fell off the map entirely.
Three years ago the notion of Teach For America, Lighthouse Academies, National Heritage Academy, Schools that Can and even DFER being active and committed to this community was, at best, unlikely. Now, Lighthouse and National Heritage have schools in Milwaukee, TFA is about to triple the size of its corps in Milwaukee and Schools That Can has partnered with the Metropolitan Milwaukee Association of Commerce and others on an ambitious plan to get 20,000 of Milwaukee's 120,000 school children in a high performing school by 2020. Most notably, Rocketship Education is poised to select Milwaukee as its first expansion city outside of California. As a Milwaukee Common Council charter school, they will bring their innovative and successful model to Milwaukee in 2013. Advocacy organizations like DFER and others have taken hold and continue to develop new allies in both parties committed to comprehensive reform. Reform minded candidates are being identified and trained to run for public office at all levels.
Moving Toward Quality
December 12, 2011
By Katy Venskus, DFER Wisconsin State Director
As one of the organizations on the front lines of the parent choice movement in Milwaukee, DFER has frequently found itself in the middle of a contentious debate among reformers as to whether or not quality choice was a more important objective than unregulated choice.
The Milwaukee Education Ecosytem is more diverse than most. Students in the City can attend traditional public schools, independent public charter schools or one of the more than 100 private schools that participate in the Milwaukee Parental Choice Program. Families who meet the income eligibility guidelines (currently a family at or below 300% of the federal poverty line) can send their kids to a private school of their choice using a $6,400 annual voucher from the state. Despite all those options, Milwaukee students are still at or near the bottom of the pack when it comes to achievement when compared to their peers in other urban districts. (See here.) Clearly, in Milwaukee, choice and quality have not always gone hand-in-hand.
For political and ideological reasons, DFER has always been camped out on the side of public policy that protects choice, but fosters quality as well. The existence of education options in the city has not in and of itself improved the overall quality of education for its students. However, without the existence of choice, the rise of high performing schools over the years, especially those serving predominantly low-income kids, probably would have been stifled. If St. Marcus Lutheran, Milwaukee College Prep School, Bruce Guadalupe, or the HOPE School - to name a few - had not been given the opportunity to serve so many kids so well, Milwaukee would not understand what education success looks like. We wouldn't know what our other schools were missing.
Thanks to choice, we know that it is possible to take poor, urban kids - many of them students of color - and get great results. Milwaukee understands that all students can and should learn in all schools, but we need to get the schools right.
Putting Lipstick on a Pig
November 15, 2011
Two Out of Three Ain't Bad...
November 7, 2011
1. Milwaukee cleared a path for Rocketship Education to land here in 2013. The Milwaukee Common Council voted 14-1 to approve the charter proposal submitted by Rocketship Education. Despite a school board/union attempt to derail the process at the last minute, the vast majority of the Council saw through the nonsense to the very real potential for change Rocketship schools offer Milwaukee students. This success marks the first time the broad education reform community has rolled up their sleeves, worked collaboratively, and proactively recruited a high caliber charter network to the city.
Education Reform - The Great Uniter?
September 29, 2011
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