The book was the most thorough examination of the results of efforts to give mayors control – or at least strong roles – in schools in dozens of cities across the United States. And there was something in it for pretty much everybody – supporters of mayoral control focused on conclusions about greater administrative effectiveness in such systems, critics pointed to conclusions that the impact on academic achievement had been generally small in most cities.

But Wong was in Milwaukee this week and, in a presentation to about 25 people at the Milwaukee Athletic Club, came down firmly on the side of mayoral control, including in Milwaukee. In his talk and in an interview following his talk, Wong said data that have come in since the book was written has been increasingly encouraging for mayoral control advocates.  He cited New York City as a good example of a place where mayoral control correlates with improving academic results overall and a shrinking gap in achievement between have and have-not students.

Wong said traditional systems, such as the one in Milwaukee, create fragmented decision-making, and that creates blockages to taking steps that improve academic outcomes.

“This is not a silver bullet,” he said about giving control over pivotal decisions to a mayor. “But these are the necessary conditions that would allow large, complex urban school districts to move away from the status quo.”

Mayoral control increases accountability by focusing it in the mayor’s office, while systems with multiple points of control, such as the current situation in Milwaukee, lead to playing “the blame game” and avoiding necessary steps. “If we keep doing the status quo, we know for sure it’s not going to improve much,” Wong said.

What about a proposal unveiled this week from several lawmakers and education organizations to give Milwaukee’s mayor a voice in major decisions about Milwaukee Public Schools while keeping most of the control in the hands of an elected School Board? “It will not work,” Wong said. “It continues the institutional fragmentation. It is an incremental arrangement . . . The incentives for governing remain the same.”

Wong said the concerns of critics, especially those in minority communities, need to be considered and whatever system prevails in Milwaukee needs to be one where people’s voices are heard. But that can be done effectively within a mayoral control system, he said, pointing to cities that use such steps as community boards to help make decisions about schools and to pick members of school boards.

With a governor who is a lame duck and a mayor who is running for governor , is this the best time for overhauling school governance in Milwaukee? “There is never a good time in urban school districts,” Wong said. “Nothing is easy.” But the results make it worth the struggle.

What about the fact that a choice needs to be made soon for a new superintendent of schools, given the pending retirement of William Andrekopoulos? All the more reason for the Legislature to approve mayoral control proposals, Wong said. “It has to happen fast,” he said. “They should make it effective Jan. 1.”

Wong, chair of the Education Department of Brown, was in Madison and Milwaukee for three days as a guest scholar of the Wisconsin Center for Education Research and the Robert M. LaFollette School of Public Affairs, both part of the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

How much is at stake? Included in the material was a list of how much each state could potentially receive. For Wisconsin, the figure was $150 million to $250 million.

It is unlikely Wisconsin actually will get that much. It appears there are some points where Wisconsin will score well (atmosphere for creating charter schools), and other points where Wisconsin will not do well (track record on closing achievement gaps, such as the one between white and black students).

Each state’s application will be judged by committees still being formed. The rubric assigns points to each of more than a dozen areas of interest, with a total of 430 possible points. Among the areas carrying high point potential: “Improving teacher and principal effectiveness based on performance,” 58 points; “turning around the lowest-achieving schools,” 40 points; and “ensuring successful conditions for high-performing charter schools and other innovative schools,” 40 points.

Make no mistake — this will be a competition. President Barack Obama made that point in his speech last week in Madison and Secretary of Education Arne Duncan underscored it in interviews accompanying the release of the final rules. Obama said this was much different than the usual federal program that makes sure everyone gets something. Duncan said there will be more losers than winners in the process. Furthermore, the final say on the grants lies with Duncan. Congress does not have to approve, which will reduce the interest in appeasing anybody (or everybody).

States have until mid-January to submit applications for the first of two rounds of awarding grants. That’s a big reason why Gov. Jim Doyle has been pushing for fast action by the Legislature on a range of proposals related to education. Some were approved last week, but the fate of others — the more controversial ones — remains to be seen. Still no word on whether there will be a special session of the Legislature in the next several weeks to consider ideas such as giving Milwaukee’s mayor the dominant power in governing Milwaukee Public Schools.

Is it required that Wisconsin approve mayoral control in Milwaukee to win Race to the Top money? There is nothing in the final rules that says you have to have mayoral control. But Duncan has a lot of latitude to make decisions on his judgment, and he is firmly partial to mayoral control. Doyle and Milwaukee Mayor Tom Barrett say that, as a practical matter, Duncan and the people who will score the grant applications will want to see approval of overhaul of MPS governance as a sign that Wisconsin is serious about change.

The concept of a constitutional right to counsel in certain civil cases is often referred to as “Civil Gideon,” after the Supreme Court decision that established the right to counsel in criminal cases, Gideon v. Wainwright. Critics charge that recognizing a civil version of the right established in Gideon will cause “waste” by increasing litigation. A recent Wall Street Journal law blog post quoted Ted Frank, for instance: “What is clear is that you will never have a simple eviction because every single one of them will be litigated. . . . The rest of the poor will be worse off because of that.”

I guess “waste” is in the eye of the beholder. As a student noted on another blog,

While I understand the drawback of added litigation, I’ve never found it to be particularly persuasive enough to override a law aimed at a greater level of fairness and justice. In most custody cases, an agreement is more likely reached when the party who can afford an attorney bullies the other party into signing something. As for eviction cases, I believe that at the end of a notice period, a landlord must file an eviction case with the court anyway to have the eviction legally recognized. Moreover, the American judicial system can be overwhelming, confusing and inevitably adversarial. While many civil parties successfully file suits pro se, I think it is fair to say that they often lack the knowledge and skills to successfully plead a case.

Indeed, it seems beyond dispute that pro se litigants are, on average, overwhelmingly disadvantaged by lack of representation.

For instance, the final report of the Access to Justice Committee of the Wisconsin State Bar in 2007 cited research establishing that unrepresented litigants were dramatically less successful in Equal Rights Division hearings on probable cause:

[T]he Equal Rights Division of the state Department of Workforce Development tracks outcomes in probable cause hearings and found that complainants with counsel are successful more than 42% of the time while complainants without are successful only 17% of the time. In a probable cause hearing, the ERD determines whether there is enough believable evidence of job discrimination to let the case move forward to a hearing on the merits. Judges in Rock County reported a similar disparity in outcomes in cases involving domestic abuse injunctions. Large numbers of abuse victims who are unrepresented give up before the case comes to a final hearing. Abuse victims who are represented regularly appear and most often prevail. Judge James Daley observed, “I doubt that this circumstance is the result of [a] chang[e of ] mind[] or that the abuse complained of in the petition stops.”

Likewise, statistics show that immigrants who are represented by counsel stand a greater chance of avoiding deportation, on average. Specifically, according to a report from Minnesota Advocates for Human Rights (reporting to the United Nations, on the United States’ compliance with its international obligations to protect civil and political rights), the Executive Office of Immigration Review’s own statistics for the years 2002 through 2006 demonstrate that

in cases involving represented, non-detained immigrants, 34 percent secured relief; but only 23 percent of unrepresented, non-detained immigrants received relief. Similarly, in cases involving represented detained immigrants, 24 percent secured relief as compared with only 15 percent of their unrepresented counterparts. More pronounced disparities appear in political asylum cases: 39 percent of represented, non-detained asylum seekers received political asylum compared with 14 percent of unrepresented, non-detained asylum seekers; 18 percent of represented, detained asylum seekers were granted asylum, compared to three percent of unrepresented detained asylum seekers. [footnotes and citations omitted, and emphasis added]

In other words, not only do represented immigrants have a better chance of avoiding deportation, that advantage is greatest in some of the most critical cases: aliens in detention and aliens seeking refuge from persecution.

Similar examples abound. The Brennan Center’s Civil Right to Justice web pages document, for instance, the “crisis in legal representation” arising out of the current foreclosure crisis. Wisconsin courts have seem a sharp uptick in foreclosure filings: last year was a record-setter for Wisconsin foreclosure actions, with more than 25,000 actions started, and this year (according to the Law School’s foreclosure mediation program web page) is on pace to pass that record.

Imagining our courts swamped with foreclosure actions suggests another potential benefit of civil Gideon: maybe access to counsel would improve not only fairness but also efficiency? Rather than promoting wasteful litigation, lawyers might help people present their claims more clearly and effectively. They might even convince some who lack a genuine defense to give up the legal fight. (In a similar vein, the National Coalition for a Civil Right to Counsel links to a number of different studies and reports tending to show economic and social benefits resulting from the provision of civil legal aid for the critical legal needs of those who can’t afford attorneys.)

Well, as so often seems to be the case, I have no tidy ending for this post. I just wanted to draw together in one spot various news items and blog posts that had recently caught my attention, at a moment when the question of fairness in critical legal proceedings seems to be on many minds. As always, I welcome your comments and criticisms.

All too often, we see and hear people trying to intimidate others-whether it involves politics, religion, driving habits, employment, sports, family or any other topic that creates conflict. Rather than civil and respectful discourse on tough topics, many routinely call each other derogatory names and describe the other as “evil,” “Hitler-like” “self-centered,” etc. We see physical violence and harassment occurring regularly in schools, places of employment and even on our highways. Finally, the language people use on talk shows or in e-mails, blogs, and even tweets often is designed to intimidate, ridicule and even destroy those with whom the speaker or writer disagree. I consider that this conduct to be an attempt at “adult bullying”…trying to “win” an argument by physically or verbally attacking others who in good faith see a situation or issue differently.

For the last four years, the Marquette Law School Restorative Justice Initiative (RJI) has held very successful annual conferences on topics involving victims and restorative justice, the international application of restorative justice and two conferences on creating safe streets through restorative justice. Last year when the planning committee for our 2009 (RJI) conference met, we decided to focus on restorative practices that address bullying because many schools were asking our assistance in creating approaches to address a serious problem of bullying in both elementary and high schools. On November 10, we will present our “Bullying in Schools–Teaching Respect and Compassion Through Restorative Practices” conference at the Marquette University Alumni Memorial Union. Not surprisingly we “sold out” all 350 seats at the conference. Students, parents, teachers and social workers continue to struggle with how to address instances of student bullying through physical and verbal abuse not to mention the terrible phenomenon of what is happening on the Internet including the sending of nude student pictures to others. Our conference is designed to help people learn of better ways to promote respectful and civil dialogue in our schools.

Dr. Brenda Morrison, our keynote speaker, describes bullying in the school context this way:

“The most frequently cited definition of bullying is the ‘repeated oppression, psychological or physical of a less powerful person by a more powerful person or group of persons’ (Rigby, 1996, p.15; see also Farrington, 1993; Olweus, 1993). Three critical points are important in this definition: Power: Children who bully acquire their power through various means: physical size and strength; status within a peer group; and recruitment within the peer group so as to exclude others. Frequency: Bullying is not a random act; it is characterized by its repetitive nature. Because it is repetitive, the children who are bullied not only have to survive the humiliation of the attack itself but live in constant fear of its re-occurrence. Intent to harm: While not always fully conscious to the child who bullies, causing physical and emotional harm is a deliberative act. It puts the child who is bullied in a position of oppression by the child who bullies.”

The RJI decided to offer both the academic community and the greater community an opportunity to learn more about bullying and how better to address the problem. The critical nature of the problem is accentuated by the fact that Mayor Tom Barrett, City of Milwaukee School Superintendent Andrew Andrekopoulos, and Milwaukee District Attorney John Chisholm will all play a role in the conference. We are fortunate to have the most prominent expert on the topic of restorative justice and bullying as our keynote speaker. Dr. Brenda Morrison, Co-Director of the Centre for Restorative Justice and Assistant Professor at Simon Fraser University, British Columbia. She will speak on “The Power Dynamics of Bullying” Negotiating the Socialand Emotional World of the School Community.” Following her talk, we will offer a panel discussion by four Milwaukee high school students who will talk about their respective experiences with bullying.

In the afternoon, we will offer a number of breakout sessions: “What is a Restorative Justice Circle?”, “A Discussion on the Legal Implications of Bullying” (presented by Milwaukee County District Attorney John Chisholm), “Cyberbullying and Social Interaction with Technology–How to Talk with Your Child,” (a discussion with educators from two high schools who have faced severe cases of sexual related internet bullying), “The Impact of Bullying on Learning,”  and “How MPS is Using Circles to Deal with Bullying” (with an actual demonstration of a circle with MPS students).

Finally at the end of the conference we will recognize eight “unsung Milwaukee urban heroes” who generously and regularly make a significant difference in the lives of children. Each recipient will receive our RJI Starfish Award and a financial award to use how they see fit. The winners are:

Sister Clara Atwater described as a “living saint” in our city. As founder of the nonprofit Gingerbread Land Inc. on the north side of Milwaukee and as a spiritual leader of True Love Church, she has taken in babies born to drug addicted mothers and become their stand-in mother showering them with love and guidance. Over the years, she has taken in and worked with 400 children. She has also taken in other foster children and homeless people and created a community garden which benefits the neighborhood. She is deeply loved in her community for her generosity and kindness.

Sister Jean Ellman S.S.D.N. has an incredible generous heart and is a tower of faith and stability in challenging neighborhoods. She has shared her gifts through the years as a teacher, principal and minister all in the Hispanic community. In 1996 Notre Dame Middle School (school for Latina youth) opened with Sister Jean’s help. She taught at the school and then became principal in 2008. She works to know each child and each child’s family personally. She observes families and she meets needs as she sees them: warm clothes, food, advice, spiritual guidance, encouragement—whatever will bless the family and empower students. In her service to others, she also models faith, wisdom, and compassion.

Charles Reese is the Program Director for the Milwaukee chapter of the I Have A Dream (IHAD) Program at the Clarke Street School. Charles works hand-in-hand with first and second graders to ensure they will continue from elementary school to college with financial assistance from IHAD. He offers year-round education assistance as well as support to overcome non-educational barriers. IHAD utilizes a holistic approach to address the need for increased educational opportunities for central city youth. He is persistent to see the ultimate goal of the program fulfilled: college education for the children with financial gaps funded by IHAD.

Raymond Rivera grew up in the Riverwest area watching many of his friends and family become heavily involved in gangs and drug activity. He however focused his energies into martial arts and sports which has allowed him to help many young people find a safe and healthy way to relieve stress. He currently works as the Youth Development Specialists for the United Community Center. He serves as a wonderful role model for young people. He also runs a faith-based drug and alcohol prevention program on the Southside called Life Changers.

Raymond Robakowski is a city of Milwaukee police officer, a loving husband and father and proud grandfather. For most of his career in law enforcement Ray’s views were traditional, but as the Community Liaison office at MPD District 5 he has grown to embrace community policing. He is an officer who interprets the law by the book, but has the ability to make it fit the culture of the community. Ray knows all the players in the neighborhoods: the gang-bangers, the business owners, scores of residents, the block clubs, community-based organizations, stakeholders, and leaders. He has been so successful in building these relationships that community residents will call Ray on his cell phone and share information with him or ask him for help. As a police officer, he has certainly witnessed the underside of humanity, but he is still able to approach the daily challenges of his profession with optimism and hope.

Jacqueline Spence is a full-time MPS teacher. She has gone above and beyond the work as a teacher by doing community work through the Running Rebels Organization. Through her work with this organization, she created a reading program that helps students read as well as confront some of their issues including bullying, violence and relationships. She has also developed literature to help parents navigate the sometimes confusing jargon surrounding the educational system. including definitions and explanations of acronyms. Her upbeat demeanor, diligent work and humility display that her goals are centered on the success of the children.

Bradley Thurman is married and the proud father of three boys. After graduating from UW-Oshkosh he served as a Milwaukee firefighter for sixteen years, rising to the rank of Lieutenant. In 1995 he started a second career as an entrepreneur and businessman. Bradley is well respected in the business community and is known to assist and collaborate with other local businesses, even competitors of his. For the past 25 years, he has been a staunch supporter and volunteer for the Becham/Stapleton Little League baseball program in Milwaukee. Bradley has served as a coach for many years, worked in fund development and now is the player agent and all-around handyman and good guy. He also has generously, without compensation, given our RJI Safe Streets north side coordinator, Ron Johnson, an office and meeting space for his work with the community.

Lori Vance founded Express Yourself Milwaukee (EYM), a nonprofit organization to help young people realize their inner talents and rise above their daily struggles through the power of art. Lori believes that every child, no matter the pain and adversity he or she faces each day, has endless potential to grow, transform and prosper and that art provides an outlet to these children for self-expression, self-identification and self- improvement. Each year Lori brings together about 700 students with lots of baggage—learning, behavioral, emotional, or psychological disadvantages, and home lives marred by violence, poverty, incarceration, and drug addiction. But once they arrive at EYM, Lori immerses her students in various artistic mediums, including music, drama, dance, visual, and performance art. With the help of guest artists, including performers from Stomp, Lori’s students work together towards a grand, culminating, end-of year performance.

(Editor’s note:  The photograph accompanying this post was found here.)

Debra Tuttle, chief mediator for the program, said during a panel discussion at a conference Friday on foreclosure issues in Wisconsin that from July 22, when the program began, through November 4, there were 278 requests for mediation, more than double the number that was anticipated.

Twenty cases have gone through the mediation process, with all but one resulting in the owner keeping the house, she said. More than twenty others have ended with agreement between the owner and lender without the mediation process. And 136 are awaiting mediation. 

Natalie C. Fleury, program coordinator for dispute resolution at the Law School, said a key to making mediation work was having everyone involved understand that that it is in their interest to work together to reach agreement. Lenders don’t actually want to take possession of homes and owners don’t want to give them up. “There are common interests here that mediation can help,” she said.

Cases are brought to the mediators through court referrals, and the mediators act as neutral parties. Marquette Law School is playing a central role in launching and staffing the mediation process.

The panel discussion was moderated by Daniel Idzikowski, the Law School’s Assistant Dean for Public Service. It was part of a conference at the Clarion Hotel & Conference Center, titled “Foreclosures in Wisconsin:  Responses and Resources for Living Beyond the Bubble.” The sponsors included the Law School, the Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago, the City of Milwaukee, the Wisconsin Housing and Economic Development Authority, the University of Wisconsin Extension, and the  U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development.

At the time we tried the case (1996), black candidates for judicial office had not done well in Milwaukee County. That has changed, but not because the plaintiffs prevailed. Judge Gordon ruled in our favor and the Seventh Circuit affirmed. I’d like to think that events — subsequent successes by black candidates on a county wide basis — have validated his judgment, but I may not be the best one to make that judgment.

Judge Gordon wasn’t — on the bench — a warm person.

He was demanding. He expected good lawyering and strove to deliver good judging. He was one of the first judges in the district to impose time limits on trial lawyers. Although he occasionally sliced that loaf a bit too thin, he was right in recognizing that a command to brevity concentrates the mind.

Yet he wasn’t unreasonable. It was not about his calendar and how delay made him look. It was not about how much more he knew than the lawyers before him. It was about doing justice in a way that people had a right to expect and about which we involved in the process could be proud.

I think he made the lawyers before him better. I think he made himself better. I know that, in the few instances when I appeared before him, he made me better.

R.I.P.

Cross posted at Shark and Shepherd.

Obama and Secretary of Education Arne Duncan, who will be with him, are firm supporters of many of the ideas being incorporated into the legislative package. Wisconsin clearly has to make changes such as these if it wants a decent chance at a share of the $5 billion in the Race to the Top money and other incentive funds Obama and Duncan will distribute over the next couple years.

It appears highly likely a special session of the Legislature will be called in November to consider the education proposals. The outcome is not clear.

There remains a lot of resistance, not only to mayoral takeover in Milwaukee but to proposals that might lead to a system for setting teacher salaries statewide that would include performance incentives. It was a big breakthrough for those seeking change when several key legislators, including Sen. Lena Taylor and State Reps. Pedro Colon and Jason Fields, came up with an alternative plan that was agreeable to Doyle. The three and several others joined Doyle in unveiling the plan last week.

But what’s a bigger card to play than bringing the president to town? There have been lots of presidential visits to Wisconsin in the last few decades, but all of them I can recall focused on either election campaigns or national issues such as the economy or health care. The White House is always very careful in picking times and places for visits and Obama’s trip to Madison now, specifically to talk about education, can only be seen as part of the campaign to push the legislators to join in supporting the reform package.

Which leads to two questions: How openly will Obama say that? Some supporters are concerned that he won’t be direct enough. And what will go on behind the scenes, where Obama is expected to meet with a variety of people, including those involved in the current education debate, out of the view of the news media and public?

That was a key theme of a conference Monday convened by Marquette Law School. “Milwaukee 2015: Water, Jobs, and the Way Forward” brought Wisconsin Gov. Jim Doyle, Milwaukee Mayor Tom Barrett, and business and academic leaders together before an audience of several hundred at the Alumni Memorial Union.

“My dream is, by 2015, when people think water, they think Milwaukee,” said Richard A. Meeusen, president and CEO of Badger Meter and co-chair of the Milwaukee 7 Water Council, a group of civic leaders focused on building  the metropolitan area as a hub for businesses related to water. 

Meeusen; Barry Grossman, an attorney at Foley & Lardner; and Barrett all spoke about Lake Lanier. The lake in northern Georgia is a main source of water for the Atlanta area. In July, a federal judge ruled against continued use of the lake to meet Atlanta’s water needs. Although that is far from the final word in a dispute that has built for years, the ruling makes it significantly more likely that industries in Atlanta will be facing shortages of water within several years.

Barrett said businesses there -– or in other places around the country where water shortages will become realities -– are going to ask, “’Where can I get water?’” His response: “Here we are.” He added, “Turn about is fair play,” and there would be poetic justice if Milwaukee got some businesses to move from Atlanta, given the way the Braves baseball team moved from Milwaukee to Atlanta in 1965. Meeusen said Milwaukee leaders should be contacting Atlanta business people and running ads in newspapers there promoting the availability of water in Wisconsin.

Meussen said, “We should be, in this city, trading water for jobs.” He said M-7 leaders had been asking government regulators if it is legal to offer companies free or reduced price water if they move to the Milwaukee area, and were told recently by the state Public Service Commission that it is.

Anselmo Teixeira, senior vice president of Siemens Water Technologies, said, “We truly have a great opportunity in our hands.” He said there is no established water technology hub in North America, and Milwaukee has some substantial advantages in seeking to become such a center – if the right things are done both by government, university, and business leaders.

Grossman, a member of M-7 Water Council board of directors, said, “We need to place a large bet, we need to place it quickly, if we’re going to establish leadership.”

In prepared remarks, Doyle said, “Wisconsin is in a unique position to be a world leader in the water industry. . . . Here in Wisconsin, we have a great story to tell and it is time for the world to hear.”  But in a panel discussion before Doyle arrived, Meeusen said emphatically that the state is not doing enough to put Milwaukee on track to be that water capital.

In welcoming people to the program, Law School Dean Joseph D. Kearney said the event was an example of the way the Law School can bring people together to work on major policy issues facing the Milwaukee area.  Mike Gousha, Distinguished Fellow in Law and Public Policy at the Law School, moderated the morning-long session.

On the one hand, given both the importance and the difficulty of turning MPS around, it would be nice to see more passion, more vision, and more tenacity from the person who proposes to lead the effort.  On the other hand – well, I am reminded of Woody Allen’s old quip that he would never want to belong to a club that would have him.  We might rightly suspect that any politician who wants responsibility for MPS does not really understand the magnitude of system’s difficulties.  Perhaps the Mayor’s reservations are evidence of the sort of good judgment that will be necessary for MPS’s next leader.

On Saturday, October 10, 2009, the Wisconsin Lincoln Bicentennial Commission will commemorate the Bicentennial of Abraham Lincoln’s birth as well as the 150^th anniversary of Lincoln’s speech at the Wisconsin State Fair in Milwaukee on September 30, 1859. The keynote speaker for the event will be Orville Vernon Burton, emeritus professor of history at the University of Illinois and Burroughs Distinguished Professor of Southern History and Culture at Coastal Carolina University.  His most recent book is The Age of Lincoln.  

The Program will be held in Memorial Hall at the Milwaukee War Memorial Center from 11 am to 12:30 pm.  Members of Wisconsin’s 1st Brigade Band will perform Civil War period music beginning at 10:30 am. 

A plaque commemorating President Lincoln’s 1859 address in Milwaukee will be presented for installation at the Lincoln statue in the Milwaukee War Memorial Center plaza.  Mayor Tom Barrett and County Executive Scott Walker will also make brief remarks.  

Although access to downtown will be somewhat limited by Al’s Run, which will close a number of downtown streets and exits,  the Commission has arranged routes with city officials and reserved parking in the O’Donnell Park parking structure at 910 E. Michigan Street.  For best results please follow the directions posted below:

For directions to O’Donnell Park go to http://warmemorialcenter.org/news/images/BicentenialParking.jpg.  

For printable dashboard sign, go to http://warmemorialcenter.org/news/images/BicentennialSign.jpg.
(Note:  Dashboard sign should be used to help you proceed through the street closures)

First, they visited the law firm of Gonzalez Saggio & Harlan LLP to meet with firm attorneys Hugo Rojas, Jeff Krill, Jean-Marie Feedham, and MULS graduate Natalia Minkel to learn about private law practice in Milwaukee and the nation as a whole.   The students were quite curious about the organizational structure of the associates and partners, and how they attract work.  Rojas explained that they rely mostly on word of mouth, pointing out that ethical guidelines limit aggressive forms of seeking new cases.  During the meeting, founding partner Jerry Gonzalez stopped by to greet the delegation and in particular mentioned the firm’s priority in assuring diversity among its attorneys, which only reflects the changing demographics of the country itself.

In the afternoon the students visited non-governmental agencies working with the Latino community in South Milwaukee. First, they visited Catholic Charities to learn about immigration work and the issues it raises, most notably the hardship faced by families that are often separated due to their immigrant status.   Attorney Barb Graham spoke of her tireless work to represent her clients, which frequently requires travelling to Chicago.  Afterwards, the students visited Centro Legal where Executive Director Heather Ramirez invited them to cookies and Alterra coffee.   The meeting featured staff lawyers Sam Levin and Jason Mishelow speaking about family law; and Mike Blater, criminal law. Board member Mike Balter also offered information about the organization, which offers legal services on a sliding scale.  The final stop was at Voces de la Frontera where the members of this association spoke of their grassroots movement to change policy in favor of immigrant and Latino populations, such as laws to allow for valid drivers licenses and fair wages.  They explained that their legal work (free clinics on Saturday) complement their activism to help stimulate broader policy change.

In the evening the Chilean delegation accepted the gracious invitation to attend the annual dinner of the MULS Hispanic Law Students Association which took place at Club Tres Hermanos  in South Milwaukee.  The festive event featured Mexican cuisine and conversation in both Spanish and English.  The Chileans sang songs along with the Mariachi band and demonstrated Chilean dances.  The occasion was a perfect ending to a full week of academic exploration.

In the afternoon, the students visited the Milwaukee Courthouse, and received a tour by Felony Court Coordinator Mary Jo Swider, including a stop to observe the intake court in action. Commissioner Julia E. Vosper came out to greet the group and give them a brief explanation of this first steps in the criminal justice process:  verifying the probable cause basis for the arrest, setting bail and scheduling a trial date. The students were stunned when one man was escorted into the courtroom handcuffed and wearing the orange prison garb. This condition did not seem to correspond to his crime for driving without a license.

Court Interpreter Coordinator Jackie Thachenkary then brought the Hurtado students to observe a felony trial, in which the defense attorney argued a motion to suppress the “fruits of the poisonous tree” based on the argument that the Spanish speaking defendant did not grasp the significance of the Miranda warning—which the arresting officer had recited quickly in English. After a very impassioned argument, Public Defender Alex Lockwood came out to greet the students during a break. He explained that this case was a particularly complex and challenging one given not only the language issues but also the mental competency of the defendant, who has been charged with homicide. The students were impressed with the patience of Judge Daniel L. Konkol, who had to ask the defendant numerous times if he wanted to testify and waive his constitutional right to remain silent.

Later, the students then visited a civil trial to get a view of a jury, which their own system does not use. The delegation’s visit to the intake, criminal trial, and civil trial courts at the Milwaukee County Courthouse served as a nice complement to the academic component offered earlier by MULS criminal law professors.

It is so rare that I actually get to write a post about traditional labor law that I usually jump at the chance.   Especially when the labor law concerns a local Milwaukee institution that most of us are aware of.

What you might not have know is that Hilton food and beverage employees are represented by a union.  Recently, the Starbucks located inside the Hilton became unionized as well. The question became whether the Starbucks employees could just join the Hilton union.

Even though the local regional director in Milwaukee ruled that such a combination was lawful, the National Labor Relations Board (in a 2-0 decision) reversed because (according to BNA) (subscription required):

Chairman Wilma B. Liebman and Member Peter C. Schaumber found that the baristas, who are employed by Milwaukee City Center LLC, have a separate identity from the bargaining unit and constitute a separate appropriate unit and that the two groups do not share an overwhelming community of interest.

The board emphasized the lack of interchange between Starbucks baristas and food/beverage employees in the bargaining unit and the absence of common supervision of the two groups.

Actually, not much controversy here. Just wanted the Marquette Faculty Law Blog readers to have a taste of what goes on in labor law once in a while.

Major League Baseball first came to Milwaukee in November of 1877 when the West End Club of Milwaukee was admitted to the two-year old National League. As a member of the professional League Alliance the previous season, the Milwaukee club had played at its own park at 34th and State, but once it was admitted to the National League—already accepted as the premier baseball league in the United States—its board of directors decided to build a new park closer to downtown.

The new park was constructed on a site on the opposite side of Clybourn from Eckstein Hall which had been used the previous year as the grounds for the Milwaukee Cricket Club. The park itself extended from 10th and Clybourn in a southwesterly direction to Clermont (12th) Street.

The new facility opened on May 14, 1878, with a seating capacity of approximately 4000. In its first home game Milwaukee, off to a slow start with a 1-5-1 record after games in Cincinnati and Indianapolis, knocked off the previously unbeaten Cincinnati Reds, 8-5. The next day’s Milwaukee Daily News carried a detailed account of the game including the following observations: “The weather was all that could be asked, and the crowd in attendance was large. The best classes of our people were represented, and many ladies graced the occasion by their presence. The home club appeared in splendid condition, and were clad in their gray uniform. The Cincinnati boys were exceptionally fine-looking, and made a very jaunty appearance in their white uniforms.”

In its second game, played on the 16th, the locals beat Cincinnati a second time, 12-8, and climbed out of last place for the first time that season. The team unfortunately lost its next three home games before defeating Indianapolis 10-7 on May 25 to close out its initial home stand with a 3-3 record.

Alas, the 1878 season turned out to be anything but a success for Milwaukee. After the May 25 victory, the team lost 37 of its next 48 games and never won more than two games in a row. It finished with a 15-45-1 record, good for last place in the six-team league. Even more disappointing was the team’s home attendance which declined as the season progressed, and as residents of the Cream City lost interest in their losing nine. Poor attendance let the team to reschedule a number of its home games in the parks of its opponent in July and August, and by the end of the season the club had played ten more games on the road than at home.

Although the team was able to fulfill its on the field commitments to the National League, it was clearly teetering toward bankruptcy when it completed play with a 4-3 home field victory over Providence on September 14. In December, the team was expelled from the National League for failing to meet its financial obligations, and in January of 1879, the park’s “grand stands, seats, fences, etc.” were sold at a sheriff’s sale to satisfy an unpaid judgment of $135.61. The park itself was used by amateur teams for the next several years before apparently being abandoned as new facilities became available in the city.

Milwaukee baseball historian Denis Pagot’s detailed account of Milwaukee’s first major league ballpark by can be found here.

Stampp’s 1956 work, The Peculiar Institution: Slavery in the Antebellum South, revolutionized the study of American negro slavery, once and for all dismissing suggestions that the institution was fundamentally benign or that African-Americans quietly acquiesced in their slave status.  No book did more to demolish the moonlight and magnolias view of antebellum southern history. 

His 1965 work, The Era of Reconstruction, 1865-1877, destroyed the myth that white Southerners were the primary “victims” of the Reconstruction years.  This work was among the first to link the Reconstruction period to the modern civil rights movement, which was very much underway during the time that Stampp wrote. 

Stampp was also the author of numerous other historical works, including And the War Came: The North and the Secession Crisis (1950) and America in 1857: A Nation on the Brink (1990).  Over the course of his long career, he won most of the major awards available to American historians.  He was also instrumental in the training of a generation of Southern and Civil War era historians whose own work built upon the insights of their mentor.  His former students include such historical luminaries as William Freehling, Leon Litwak, James Oakes, Joel Williamson, William Gienapp, John Sproat, Robert Starobin, Robert Abzug, and Reid Mitchell.

What is less well known is that Kenneth Stampp was a native of Milwaukee.  He was born in the Cream City on July 12, 1912, the son of Oscar Stampp, a naprapath (chiropractor), and Eleanor Schmidt Stampp, a homemaker.  While his parents were native-born Americans, his grandparents were all born in Germany or Switzerland, and Stampp grew up in a Protestant neighborhood on the north side of Milwaukee where German was spoken as frequently as English, at least until the onset of U. S. involvement in the First World War. 

Stampp attended Washington High School, from which he graduated in 1931 during the depths of the Great Depression.  He began college at Milwaukee State Teachers College (now UWM), but left abruptly in 1933 when one of his professors sought to discourage him from continuing to pursue his goal of becoming a high school history teacher.  (The professor thought that Stampp should pursue a career in elementary education.)

After withdrawing from Milwaukee State, Stampp’s German Methodist father suggested that he enroll in Marquette University instead.  As Stampp later recounted, “My father said, ‘Well, would you like to go to Marquette University?’ I said, ‘I’m not going to that Catholic institution.’ I have to tell you another thing: there was a lot of anti-Catholicism in my family because of their kind of Protestantism. My father had been very anti-Catholic, so I had no trouble saying, “Look, I’m not going to that Catholic college.” 

After briefly considering enrolling in Waukesha’s Carroll College, Stampp instead enrolled at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, from which he received his B.A. (1935), M.A. (1936), and Ph.D. (1942) degrees in history.  His first teaching positions were at the University of Arkansas and the University of Maryland.  He joined the faculty of the University of California in 1946 and remained there until his retirement in 1983, except for stints as a visiting professor at Harvard, Oxford, the University of London, and the University of Munich.

A full transcript of Stampp’s 1998 oral autobiography, which includes the story regarding his boyhood in Milwaukee and his decision not to attend Marquette University, can be found online here.

Here is a bit of the beginning of Tom Cannon’s remembrance:

Dad was probably destined to become a lawyer. By the time he was born in 1917, his father was already emerging as an iconic figure in the legal profession. Dad’s uncle, Ed Carey, was also a lawyer. And many of Dad’s numerous cousins became practicing attorneys as well. These included the Jenningses, Foleys, Tierneys, Gillicks, and Flemings — all well-known, multi-generational legal families in Milwaukee.

One of Dad’s earliest memories was sitting in a high-ceilinged courtroom in the ornate old Milwaukee County Courthouse on what is now Cathedral Square. His father was trying a case there against a cousin, Joe Tierney, Sr. As the sun streamed in through a bank of tall, stately windows, and crept toward the jurors’ faces, Dad watched his father walk over and slowly draw the shades. Perhaps it was that early moment that influenced him to become a lawyer.

Tom’s remarks are well worth the few minutes that it will take to read them — and to remember both Judge Cannon and others of our forbears who contributed much to society through the legal profession. You can find a link to them here.

I don’t expect that all of these cases will magically work out (and some are absolutely ripe for litigation).  At the same time, I am optimistic that this program can help people save their homes.  We will start mediating cases soon and will be tracking not only our immediate settlement rate, but whether people are in their homes six months, twelve months, and twenty-four months down the road.

At the same ceremony, the Eastern District presented its Judge Myron L. Gordon Lifetime Achievement Award to Foley & Lardner’s Thomas L. Shriner, Jr., an Indiana University law graduate and well-known Milwaukee litigator (and adjunct professor of law here at Marquette). The citation accompanying the award, written by Bill Mulligan, L’60, and Dean Joseph D. Kearney, concluded with the observation that Tom is “respected and admired for his prodigious knowledge of the law, great wit, smile, and willingness to help others.”  Congratulations as well to Tom.

The full citations can be found here concerning Michael and here concerning Tom.

The event was co-sponsored by the Greater Milwaukee Foundation, and came on the heels of a study that examined five other districts that had changed their governance.  The study was funded by the GMF and conducted by the Public Policy Forum.  We’ve posted a transcript of the event, which featured MPS Superintendent Bill Andrekopoulos, former Superintendent and Distinguished Professor of Education at Marquette University Howard Fuller, Metropolitan Milwaukee Association of Commerce President Tim Sheehy, Milwaukee School Board Director Jennifer Morales, State Representative Polly Williams, Milwaukee Teachers’ Education Association President Dennis Oulahan, and Milwaukee Common Council President Willie Hines.

You can always listen to the webcast of our event, but the evening had a revealing dynamic to it that makes for equally interesting reading.

As a long-time observer and graduate of MPS (in the interest of full disclosure, my father was also once the Superintendent here), I was particularly struck by the answers to two questions.  Is MPS, in its current form, sustainable?  And five years from now, will there have been a change in school governance in Milwaukee?  The answer to the first question was virtually unanimous.  No, it’s not sustainable.  But most of the panel also wasn’t convinced we’d see a change in governance anytime soon.  Several panelists said there is no silver bullet for fixing what ails MPS.  For those who advocate a mayoral takeover of the district or dividing MPS into smaller districts, the evening had to be a bit of a wakeup call.  It’s possible that a change in governance may come to MPS, but last week’s forum suggested that any new proposals will face a good deal of skepticism, if not outright opposition.