Professor Kenneth K. Wong of Brown University and several associates put out a book two years ago titled “The Education Mayor: Improving America’s Schools,” which immediately became the book to read if you were interested in mayoral control of public schools. And Wong is probably the number one figure in academic research about how mayoral control works.

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.