Another serving of educational food for thought:

1)      Nobody seems to know where the current tumult around low performing schools is heading, but wherever it is, it looks like people will get there quickly. There is as much as $45 million in federal aid on the table to do something about schools in Wisconsin that are getting the weakest results. The state Department of Public Instruction put five schools in the most severe bracket, another seven in a second-from-the-bottom tier, and more than two dozen in a third group. All are in the Milwaukee Public Schools system. The federal Department of Education requires that the schools in at least the two lowest groups make major changes – start all over or get rid of much of the staff or similar steps. Now, as part of the process, MPS administrators have issued a request for proposals for professional firms to provide “transformation reform frameworks” for eight large high school buildings. School Board President Michael Bonds said Thursday that the Board had not approved the idea of getting bids for overhauling the schools and he does not know what will result. The eight schools are Vincent, Custer, Madison, Bradley Tech, Pulaski, Washington, Bay View, and South Division. You have a plan for what to do with those schools? Get moving. You’ve got until 2 p.m. April 12 to submit it to the MPS purchasing office.

2)      I really should set the record straight: Milwaukee Mayor Tom Barrett spoke out on the need for changes in the health insurance choices for MPS employees before I did. 

Barrett was at the Marquette Law School on March 4 for an “On the Issues” conversation with Distinguished Fellow Mike Gousha. Afterward, he told me he strongly hoped the MPS teachers union and the School Board would find a way to move many MPS employees to the lower priced of two insurance packages currently offered. At least on paper, that could be a big step to saving several hundred teachers jobs. I thought Barrett made good points and I decided to write my Sunday Journal Sentinel column on the subject. As I wrote the column that night, I decided to do something I initially was against doing: I brought up the situation of my own daughter, who is being treated for cancer under MPS insurance. I decided it was the most effective way to make a point I think is important. Indeed, the column got a lot of reaction. I included what Barrett had to say, but the column grew too long. As it ended up, the column ran on March 7, with Barrett’s comments running in the next day’s newspaper. People have told me that they saw how the mayor reacted to my column. The truth is the other way around – I reacted to what he said.

3)      Conrad Farner, the superintendent of Greenfield schools, has been outspoken about how financial pressures, primarily due to Wisconsin’s school funding formula, are taking a toll on the quality of education in his school district and in all others across the state. I described his views in a column in December in the Journal Sentinel. Now, the Greenfield Board of Education has announced it has approved a salary freeze for Farner and three other central office administrators. The four offered to go without raises. Their share of costs for health insurance and benefits is expected to increase for the coming year. While it has become common in much of the work world in the last couple years, going with no raise at all from year to year remains pretty rare in public school systems.