Milwaukee Public Schools – Page 15 – Marquette University Law School Faculty Blog

Will MPS Get Squeezed Extra Hard?

Post author:Alan J. Borsuk
Post published:February 14, 2011
Post category:Education & Law Labor & Employment Law Milwaukee Public Schools

We’re entering uncharted territory when it comes to school issues statewide. I think it was clear from pretty far back that Gov. Scott Walker and Republican leaders in the Legislature were going to push for state employees and for teachers across the state (who are not state employees, but the state can influence their job situations) to pay significant shares of their health insurance and pension payments. But I was caught off guard by the move to take away almost all the unions’ bargaining role, as Walker proposed last week.

This is going to be a tumultuous and momentous spring and summer when it comes to education issues statewide. I wonder what all will be different when it comes time to open schools in September.

Permit me to venture into one aspect of what lies ahead that I specifically wonder about:

Walker proposed that public employees pay 5.8% of their salaries toward their pensions and 12% of the cost of their health insurance coverage. While I wonder how that’s going to play out across the state, I especially wonder how it will play out in Milwaukee Public Schools.

WEAC and MTEA: This Is War (I Expect)

Post author:Alan J. Borsuk
Post published:February 9, 2011
Post category:Education & Law Milwaukee Public Schools

The decision by the state’s largest teachers organization, the Wisconsin Education Association Council (WEAC), to alter its stands on teacher evaluation and advocate breaking from the traditional method of paying teachers was not such a huge surprise for those who had been following statements from union leaders in recent months. The educational and political landscapes have changed, and the union wants to play a role in big decisions coming soon.

But the WEAC stand in favor of breaking up Milwaukee Public Schools into “smaller, more manageable districts” caught people (count me in) off guard. It’s just not something to which the union had shown previous inclination. And the Milwaukee Teachers’ Education Association, WEAC’s largest affiliate, strongly opposes such ideas.

There were clear indications in the way things happened this week that the gap between leaders of WEAC and the MTEA is now wide and sharp, and communication among them is not friendly.

And What Should We Do About Third-Graders’ Reading Proficiency?

Post author:Alan J. Borsuk
Post published:January 25, 2011
Post category:Milwaukee Public Schools

Gov. Scott Walker told school leaders from Wisconsin in a speech last week that he wants all children to read at grade level when they finish third grade. Conquering the basics of reading by that point is widely held by educators to be a key to long-term success for students. Walker used the phrases used by some educators, saying that, through third grade, children learn to read, but from fourth grade on, they read to learn. So a kid who isn’t reading well in later grades will be a kid who isn’t learning well. “I just think that’s imperative,” Walker said, to make proficient reading a benchmark for every child before fourth grade starts.

I agree with that. You agree with that. We all agree with that. So what do we do about it?

Walker didn’t spell out what kind of action he would put behind the idea.

Does he favor ending the practice called social promotion?