(From WisPolitics, January 6, 2010)
By KAY NOLAN
Some members of the Senate’s Education Committee seemed resigned Tuesday to an impasse over legislation to give the mayor control of Milwaukee’s trouble school system after they heard hours of contentious testimony over the proposal to strip the elected board of key powers.
More than 300 people packed the MPS district office auditorium this morning with more 100 signed up to speak at the hearing, which began at 10 a.m. But three and a half hours later, only various public officials had addressed the committee and only about 100 remained in the audience by 2:30 p.m.
State Sen. Lena Taylor and state Rep. Pedro Colón, both of Milwaukee and co-authors of the mayoral control bill, said the MPS governing structure is broken and can’t be fixed.
“It’s not undemocratic to make a mayor elected by the people in charge of a school district,” said Taylor.
But opponents of the mayoral takeover argued it would create a top-down system of management and that the elected school board would become ineffective, with little or no authority. Many likened that situation to losing the right of citizens to vote altogether. Jerry Ann Hamilton, president of the Milwaukee chapter of the NAACP, cited the long-fought battle for voting rights among African-Americans in arguing against the bill.
“Paying a school board to do nothing goes against every Milwaukee value,” testified state Sen. Spencer Coggs, D-Milwaukee, who has proposed an alternative to give the mayor greater input on MPS while retaining the elected board.
A frustrated Sen. Robert Jauch, D-Poplar, asked Coggs: “We’ve heard two and a half hours of passionate advocacy for the children of Milwaukee … but there are insufficient votes for the mayoral takeover to pass. There are also insufficient votes for your bill. We’re at an impasse, and an impasse tends to lead to the status quo. What is it going to take to move us to a compromise?”
Sen. Alberta Darling, R-River Hills, agreed. “After listening for three hours, my conclusion is that there isn’t the will in this community and in this state to do what needs to be done.”
Today’s public hearing before the Senate Education Committee was designed to gather input on two proposals. Senate Bill 405 would give Milwaukee’s mayor the power to name the school superintendent and set the budget and tax levy, while Senate Bill 437 would give the state superintendent of Public Instruction greater power to enforce curriculum and other changes at failing schools statewide.
Gov. Jim Doyle has been pushing for action on the measures to augment Wisconsin’s chances of earning federal money under a $4 billion federal grant program that rewards districts for drastic reforms. The first of two grant application deadlines is Jan. 19.
“The status quo in Milwaukee Public Schools is unacceptable,” Doyle said in a statement today, reiterating his support for the MPS governance change. “Strong, consistent and accountable leadership is necessary to improve our children’s education. A new structure for MPS, with clear accountability and the authority to make changes in struggling schools, will benefit our children and demonstrate we are serious about improving education in Wisconsin.”
As they heard testimony from the likes of Milwaukee Mayor Tom Barrett, State Superintendent of Public Instruction Tony Evers and MPS board members, committee members from both parties indicated their belief that drastic changes are needed at MPS and that neither bill goes far enough to enact such change.
Barrett, who has pushed for the change along with Doyle, stressed that the once-plentiful blue-collar jobs in Milwaukee that required little formal education are gone forever.
“We either accept the fact that we are going to have more and more poverty or we are going to challenge ourselves as we have never been challenged before to raise our educational level,” Barrett said.
Barrett said mayoral control would eliminate the finger-pointing currently directed at the school board and others, and instead place accountability on one person.
“If the mayor says, ‘You will have my back,’ I think changes can be made in cooperation with the (teachers) union,” Barrett said.
Committee member Sen. Glenn Grothman, R-West Bend, grilled Barrett, a Dem candidate for governor, accusing him of talking about problems in general, but not specific solutions.
“Which (failed) policies would you like to see changed?” he asked Barrett.
The mayor responded by talking about wanting to help schools in the bottom quartile, to which Grothman persisted, “I’ve talked to people in Milwaukee schools and they feel the biggest problem is if you have a bad teacher or administrator, you can’t get rid of them. Would you support making it easier for the superintendent to dismiss bad teachers?”
Barrett, whose wife teaches at MPS, said, “I’d be willing to look at that, but I don’t want us to kick around the good teachers.”
Passions were high on both sides of the debate.
Many audience members carried signs or pins distributed in the hall by opposing coalitions. Education Reform Now, a local coalition affiliated with the national group Democrats for Education Reform, handed out signs saying “Say Yes to Mayoral Governance,” “MPS Needs Accountability Now” and “We need Hope & Change.”
Spokeswoman Katy Venskus complained that members of the Stop the Takeover Coalition were intimidating citizens who wanted mayoral control and had picketed the home of Sen. Taylor.
Larry Hoffman, a spokesman for Stop the Takeover Coalition, confirmed that members picketed and chanted at the homes of Taylor and Colon.
“Where else would we demonstrate?” he asked. “Throwing out the school board is a swipe against democracy.”
Audience members frequently shouted out or applauded remarks made in opposition to mayoral control, despite repeated requests to remain quiet.
MPS board president Michael Bonds was grilled by the education committee for 45 minutes. Bonds said the current board has made inroads in the district’s problems by closing around 20 schools and more effectively using resources.
But when he cited lack of state funding as a concern, Grothman said, “You guys get 23 percent more than we get. It offends me a little when I hear you say you have a money problem in Milwaukee.”
Senators also expressed skepticism that either bill could implement changes that clash with teachers union contracts, such as firing bad teachers or requiring more teacher training. State Superintendent of Public Instruction Tony Evers said he supports changes in failing school districts like Milwaukee, but that up to now, his position has mostly been limited to withholding funding. He spoke of encountering strong “push back” from MPS to corrective measures, and said the bill to give him new powers over failing schools would increase his power.
But Sen. Luther Olsen, R-Ripon, said, “I see a tepid bill here that doesn’t give you enough authority. Are we going to take this stuff seriously? If the union says no, we can’t do this. Shouldn’t we have a strong bill that says heads are going to roll?”
Although many citizens hoping to speak had left by early afternoon, a few got their chance. Francisco Urbina, who described himself as a Mexican immigrant and former MPS teacher, begged the lawmakers not to overlook the achievements of MPS. He called the mayoral takeover proposal too much of a rush and said it would undo the whole history of education in Wisconsin.
But Darryl Morin, state director of the League of Latin American Citizens, supported the mayoral control, saying the lack of accountability at MPS has harmed the civil rights of minority students who, he said are not getting a good education.