(From the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, September 12, 2009)
By ALAN J. BORSUK
Democrats sit on both sides of debates on mayoral control, performance pay
What does it mean to be a Democrat when it comes to education? Does it mean you stand for sticking pretty much to the way things are now, except for adding more money? Or does it mean calling for some big changes in the way things are done?
Those aren’t just philosophical questions. They point to one of the most interesting and significant things to watch as the political thunderstorms build over Milwaukee Public Schools, the state Capitol and the national education world.
In the debate over mayoral takeover of MPS, so far, it’s Gov. Jim Doyle and Mayor Tom Barrett against an array of Milwaukee political and community figures. Almost all of the people on both sides are Democrats.
Use of student performance data in evaluating teachers is almost sure to be a hot issue in the fall session of the Legislature. It’s a good bet Doyle will be on one side and the teachers unions on the other. Again, all Democrats.
The nationwide push for performance pay for teachers, for more charter schools, and for stiffer accountability – it’s President Barack Obama and Secretary of Education Arne Duncan doing the pushing, with resistance from the education establishment, especially teachers unions. And almost all of the cast are Democrats.
Those calling for sweeping changes against those aligned with the status quo is increasingly an intra-party fight.
Unions or heavy hitters?
History would say the unions will prevail. This is Democratic politics and, both nationally and in Wisconsin, the teachers’ organizations are major contributors and can marshal large numbers of supporters. In addition, the status quo has enormous strength in education – that’s true everywhere and even truer in Milwaukee.
But Obama, Duncan, Doyle, Barrett – these are the top elected officials in this nation, state and city. Are they not going to be able to carry the day, even among those in their own party?
A couple of years ago it seemed unlikely that an organization called Democrats for Education Reform would make much headway. Democratic Party positions were closely aligned with those of the National Education Association and, in Wisconsin, with the Wisconsin Education Association Council, the large teachers unions. Republicans were the ones (for better or worse) who took pride in No Child Left Behind and who supported changes such as performance pay.
But at the Democratic convention in Denver last year, Democrats for Education Reform made a surprisingly large splash with a forum on education needs. Its agenda has been aligned in large part with what Obama and Duncan are backing. The group’s executive director, Joe Williams, has been quoted widely in the news media and made appearances around the country. (I should disclose that Williams is a former Journal Sentinel reporter and he and I covered Milwaukee education together from about 1997 to 2000.)
The New York model
The reform group is now trying to build a base in Milwaukee. About 50 people, mostly involved in schools or education organizations, attended a luncheon Thursday at Turner Hall to kick off a series of sessions in coming months with visiting speakers.
Christopher Cerf, deputy chancellor of New York City schools, was the speaker. His message, as he described it in an interview afterward: “We are collectively presiding over a calamity.” He said that, within the status quo, “it is basically a big lie” to tell children growing up in poverty, especially minority children, that they have equal opportunities to succeed in America.
Urban schooling needs some fundamental reshaping, he said. He said New York is making progress in making meaningful changes – focusing relentlessly on clear and consistent definitions of success for schools; holding schools accountable, including grading each school on its progress; reforming hiring and assigning practices; and providing incentive payments for teachers.
“We’re not interested in being incrementalists,” Cerf said. That’s a thought that ought to resonate particularly in Milwaukee. Outside consultants and Superintendent William Andrekopoulos himself have criticized MPS leaders and staff for being too willing to accept small progress (if any) as adequate and being too complacent about the lack of major progress in educational outcomes.
(For that matter, there are also a lot of non-MPS schools, which is to say charter and voucher schools, that ought to reflect on whether the word “incrementalists” fits them and what they might do about it.)
Not all is well in New York, as Cerf freely admits. Just consider a story in the New Yorker magazine’s Aug. 31 issue describing the “rubber rooms” in the city where hundreds of teachers who are facing disciplinary proceedings or firings for incompetence report every day to perform no duties whatsoever (at full pay) until their cases are decided. Which can take years.
Mayoral control called key
Although Democrats for Education Reform hasn’t taken a stand on mayoral control of MPS, Cerf is emphatic that the changes he was endorsing couldn’t happen without mayoral control of the kind Michael Bloomberg has in New York. “We couldn’t have done anything without mayoral control,” he said.
“Change has casualties,” Cerf said. “It just does.” A mayor with backbone and with a broader agenda than a school board member can take the heat, he said.
Doyle and Barrett have not yet put forth a specific plan of what they want to see and have done relatively little to build support for the broader idea. In the meantime, opponents, starting with the School Board, have been actively and effectively mobilizing against the idea as undemocratic and a bad way to improve MPS.
If Doyle and Barrett are going to make headway, they are going to have to convince people, starting with those in the room at Turner Hall, that that they’re onto something, that they’ve got convincing levels of commitment to real change. That they are, in other words, Democrats for education reform.
On some level, everyone is in favor of education reform. Everyone wants things to get better.
But where does that lead?
The way Democrats wrestle with that question and who prevails in the next few months will show the destination, at least when it comes to Democrats.
Alan J. Borsuk is a longtime education reporter in Milwaukee. His pieces on education will run regularly in the Sunday Journal Sentinel. Borsuk can be reached at alanjborsuk@gmail.com.